anybody know anything about Suzuki's? Looking for help

[hawkdad]

My son purchased his first moto this summer:

1980 Suzuki GS 550...

the starter motor was giving him trouble.. of course.. he's off to college.. so Dad works on his bike.. I pulled the carbs (4 Mikuni's) to get them out of the way, then pulled the starter motor, buffed up the communtator.. and put it all back together...

So.. starter works great... but... it won't start...

based on the old fashioned method of pulling the plug and holding it next to the engine (my old Honda 750 Clymer manual troubleshoot)... it's getting spark... so.. is it getting gas.. ???

Tonite I'm going to pull the bowl off of number 1 carb and see if it's getting gas...

I haven't worked with carbs in so long.....

Yeah yeah.. btw.. he wants my '03 R when I'm done with it.. (what he doesn't know is... I'm never going to be done with it.. he he... )

So.. just wanting to know if anybody out there.. has a few.. "oh.. and don't forget about...."....

Thanks

[owldaddy]

Lets see if I can remember back when I had my 78 GS750. Turn on the key, pull up the choke, make sure the kill switch is in the start position, and don't forget to turn on the fuel at the petcock. 1980 was about the time Suzuki installed a vacuum valve in the petcock, but before that you had to do it manually. I don't remember what year they went with the vacuum valve now.

[hawkdad]

that sounds right... I wonder if it's just I don't have the fuel line installed far enough onto the valve in order for the vaccum to take affect... I'll give it a shot...

Thanks.

[iowabeakster]

Sorry if this is too late, just saw the post.

Before you pull the carb apart.... here's the Shade tree method of checking out level of gas in the carb's float bowls...

There should be a drain tube coming out of the bottom of the float bowl. Put a 18 inch (or whatever) piece of clear rubber tubing on the drain spigot and zip tie the clear tubing next to the carbs (in a U shape... the open end of tubing pointed upwards). To be safe, make sure the open end of the tube is high enough to reach the level of gas in the gas tank. Then open up the float bowl drain screw, the level of gas in the bowl will be shown in the tubing (should be right to the top of the bowl). That'll tell you whether the carb is getting gas... and whether floats and valve are closing when there is the appropriate level of gas in the bowl. If the carb isn't getting gas you obviously won't get any draining out of the drain. If the gas level in the clear tubing rises up over the bowl (to the level of gas in the gas tank), the bowl will need to be opened up and the float and valve need to be checked out/replaced.

Another good thing is that you will see if you have water... and you will drain it out of the bowls.