Hi all,

Been having some trouble starting the old GS lately. So basically, around 2 days ago I decided to replace the hoses from the petcock to the tank as they were quite small and a pain in the ass to fit on and off. Anyway, quite stupidly, and in a rush to get to work, I installed the hoses without clamps hoping I could sort out the clamps the next day. Everything felt fairly secure and ready, so I started her up and rode to work with no issues or leaks whatsoever.

As I out of work, I start her up with choke where it reached around 3k revs before slowly beginning to drop and eventually die out altogether. Go to start her again, using some throttle now which wasnt needed first time round. This is when I notice a massive puddle from under the engine leaking out of the reserve hose. It is worth mentioning that I was almost out of fuel so I was running it on reserve. After securing both hoses as much as possible with a pair of zip ties, the leaks stopped however the bike refused to start again due to what I thought was nearly all of the reserve gas emptying out as well.

So, I bought a 5l container of petrol at the local gas station, went to fill the bike up and when going to start, the same thing happened, except this time the puddle of fuel had come out of another hose which seems to come directly from the carbs and I am assuming this is the carb drain hose? Anyway, I managed to get the bike idling at around 1.4k revs and the leak eventually stopped completely after 2-3 mins. My problem now is the throttle response seems a bit off and when I go to start the bike with my normal procedure: (Full choke, ignition), it wont start unless I give a little bit of throttle and as soon as I let off the throttle it dies out. If  I start it normally without choke, it only starts with a little bit of throttle and will warm up with the choke on around half way but anymore and it will shut off. I played around with the idle mixture screw between all attempts to get her started as well so quite likely messed something up there as well. Even when Idling at 1.4 it doesnt feel quite right and am lost on where to go next.

Would really appreciate anyone with experience on this kind of thing to give me their opinion.

Also, another question I had meant to ask is that my oil warning light will come on with the engine off as it should. When I crank the engine, the light dims out by around 50% and then when I shift to first it disappears completely and it will not come on again unless in neutral(dimmed out ) or with the bike on but engine not running where it is bright. I have been riding like this for 2 months now with no problems and would have asked sooner but didn't realise that it should shut off completely with the engine starting and not once its in gear.

Quote from: santeria13 on February 09, 2017, 06:35:32 PM
Hi all,

Been having some trouble starting the old GS lately. So basically, around 2 days ago I decided to replace the hoses from the petcock to the tank as they were quite small and a pain in the ass to fit on and off. Anyway, quite stupidly, and in a rush to get to work, I installed the hoses without clamps hoping I could sort out the clamps the next day. Everything felt fairly secure and ready, so I started her up and rode to work with no issues or leaks whatsoever.

As I out of work, I start her up with choke where it reached around 3k revs before slowly beginning to drop and eventually die out altogether. Go to start her again, using some throttle now which wasnt needed first time round. This is when I notice a massive puddle from under the engine leaking out of the reserve hose. It is worth mentioning that I was almost out of fuel so I was running it on reserve. After securing both hoses as much as possible with a pair of zip ties, the leaks stopped however the bike refused to start again due to what I thought was nearly all of the reserve gas emptying out as well.

So, I bought a 5l container of petrol at the local gas station, went to fill the bike up and when going to start, the same thing happened, except this time the puddle of fuel had come out of another hose which seems to come directly from the carbs and I am assuming this is the carb drain hose? Anyway, I managed to get the bike idling at around 1.4k revs and the leak eventually stopped completely after 2-3 mins. My problem now is the throttle response seems a bit off and when I go to start the bike with my normal procedure: (Full choke, ignition), it wont start unless I give a little bit of throttle and as soon as I let off the throttle it dies out. If  I start it normally without choke, it only starts with a little bit of throttle and will warm up with the choke on around half way but anymore and it will shut off. I played around with the idle mixture screw between all attempts to get her started as well so quite likely messed something up there as well. Even when Idling at 1.4 it doesnt feel quite right and am lost on where to go next.

Would really appreciate anyone with experience on this kind of thing to give me their opinion.

Also, another question I had meant to ask is that my oil warning light will come on with the engine off as it should. When I crank the engine, the light dims out by around 50% and then when I shift to first it disappears completely and it will not come on again unless in neutral(dimmed out ) or with the bike on but engine not running where it is bright. I have been riding like this for 2 months now with no problems and would have asked sooner but didn't realise that it should shut off completely with the engine starting and not once its in gear.

for the carb thing, yeah there's like a vent hose/over flow hose, on the top of the carbs, connected by a black plastic T connector, if the carbs get flooded, it will come out from there.

okay now you're only suppose to leave the frame petcock on PRIME for 15 to 20 seconds, then set to on or reserve.

a thing that can cause your issues inside the carbs is the float needle is either stuck or worn. lucky enough their easy to replace.



Now for the oil issue, are you on a later model, with the oil cooler? [oil radiator on the front of the frame]?

I would check for grounding/connection issues if your wiring looks cobbled together. sounds sorta like its getting external power from somewhere.. and not that there is anything wrong with the oil pressure itself.

Thanks for the reply!

It's strange because I didn't set it to prime at all in all of the process however I assume that I may have flooded the carbs through my numerous start attempts?

I took the bike for a little ride today, hoping to adjust the idle mixture screw once the bike was warmed up because trying to do it cold was a bit of a hit and miss.

Got it to warm up and idle at around 1.6k. Any lower and it just keeps dropping off until it's dead. Then, once riding, it is VERY boggy in the low revs, despite the engine being fully warm. It sputters about alot and the exhaust seems extra loud , popping even on acceleration. Once i hit about 5k revs the engine immediately sounds and feels back to normal but below that on any gear it feels very sputtery and all over the place, even nearly throwing me off on a couple of sharp bends. Another thing is that the revs seem to fall much slower than before when i give some throttle on idle. It also immediately dies on full choke and I now have to ease
the choke to full for it to not die where before I just started with full choke and the button and a little bit of throttle if very cold.

Lastly, as I went to shut her off, I noticed white smoke coming from the exhaust and have taken a video of this as well. I know white steam is normal during warm up but it should not be coming out the exhaust after the bike has been ridden.

My GS500 is indeed a later model with the oil cooler. Would that have anything to do with it?

Attached are three videos of what I am currently experiencing

Sounds to me like tight valves.

Makes me wonder how it ran before you changed the fuel hoses.

It ran perfectly fine before which is what i find so confusing

Quote from: mr72 on February 10, 2017, 01:41:40 PM
Sounds to me like tight valves.

Yeah, that's exactly what mine did before I discoverednmy exhaust shim clearance was almost zero: lost power, hanging idle, and smoke/steam from muffler.

the only reason i mentioned the oil cooler was because sometimes if they aren't "primed" the oil pressure light will come on.. but this only happens if you have run low on oil, and topped off, and air got trapped, or if there's somehow water in there... but that doesn't sound like your issue.

check wiring.. look for anything funky.