Its Alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stinger1133]

I got some fresh gas and oil and got it started. Runs like crap. I noticed the fuel cock under the tank leaks pretty bad if I move it from Prime to On. The bike idles and seems to take forever to get revved up even after 15 minutes to warm up. Also has "0" power. I got on it and tried to just run it into back into the garage and it would just stall out when it started to move. Does the petcock on the tank have to be at the On position for the carbs to get the right amount of fuel or does it matter ? Just curious. Well, i am off to get me a seal kit for the petcock now. I will post more as I go along.

[stinger1133]

Well playing around with the carbs I found that all the adjustment needles were turned out 2 1/2 turns. It was dumping fuel like crazy. Readjusted back to factory settings but have to wait till toorrow to try . Hopefully that has fixed most of the problem.

[fregado]

on prime it bypasses the vaccume valve on the petcock allowing it to dump straight into the carbs. After fighting the petcock on my 74L I bought the inline valve adaptor kit from partsnmore, now i have to watch my milage so i don't run out of gas, but it has been working so much better.

[stinger1133]

I might need that. I adjusted the floats but now it seems to be dumping fuel in the cylinders again. Do you by chance have the part number of the valve you bought so I can get one and try it ?

[Coyote]

You might have to replace your float needles. Also, when adjusting your float height, make sure the little spring on the needle is not compressed. If it is, tilt he carb slightly. The tang on the float should touch it but not compress it. I took an old float needle, flushed it out with thinner and put a drop of super glue around the little plunger. I use this to set my float height. When I get it spot on, I remove the float and drop the 'real' one in place.
As for your petcock misery, here is a link for your replacement. You will need the universal petcock and the 44mm adapter plate. On the left hand side of the page, click fitting / universal

http://www.partsnmore.com/parts/suzuki/gt550/?filters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[fitting]=universal

[stinger1133]

I will purchase the petcock this weekend for sure. Thank you for the info . When I readjusted the floats, my plunger didn't have a spring in it. I thought it was kind of weird. I checked the manual and it didn't show anything either. Basically it is held in by the tang on the float. That is all that keeps it from falling out of the hole. I have the BS carbs. I noticed on the VM carbs there is a retainer on them that holds the plunger in place.

I did get my regulator today from Oregon Motorcycle. I will be installing it tomorrow. After I get all this done, I hope it will start. The cylinders seem to keep getting flooded with fuel and it will not start. I believe that petcock on the tank is what is giving me fits. I remember someone on here told me that the oem petcock has been known to flood the engine and that replacing it with a new on/off style that Coyote is describing is the best fix for this. I am itching so bad to ride this bike that it drives me crazy. I just want everything right before I do get to ride it though.

[Coyote]

Sounds like something is radically wrong with your float needles. You need to replace them. This needle is from a BS carb. The spring loaded plunger should have a little over 1/16" travel.

[stinger1133]

I see now. that plunger spring is there. I noticed that the timing is off. the bike is only trying to run on one cylinder. I have spark on all though. I am beginning to think there is a wiring issue on the points now. My clymer book doesnt tell you what color wire to where. I have a black with yellow stripe, white and solid black. It seems to be wired right but the clymer book shows it to be different. Not sure though. Can maybe anyone tell me what color wire goes to which cylinder ?

[fregado]

the partsnmore number is #20-0103 thats for the 46mm plate, then your hardware store will have the 1/4" nipple, the nipple they sell don't fit, thats also where i bought the inline valve, lowes $9 for line and valve. sounds like you have a great project going. if you are only fireing on 1 but have spark to all three you are either fuel starved in the other 2 or need to adjust your timing, you might try straight lining some mixed gas into the throats of the two that arn't fireing, that should tell you if it is a fuel or timing problem.

[Coyote]

black with yellow stripe -- left
white -- center
black -- right

[stinger1133]

I checked them and it seems that they are in the right spot. I have figured out that the engine is not getting enough fuel. I have reset the floats to stock setup and still no change. Seems that there just is not enough fuel to the motor. All the internal parts in the carbs are new and all passages are clear. I have cleaned them like crazy with B12 and air. A friend of mine says to raise the floats up a hair more.

[Madbuffalo]

Stinger, Looks like you have a very nice orignial buffalo, with some obvious issues you're working through. Here's my 2 cents:

I have figured out that the engine is not getting enough fuel. A friend of mine says to raise the floats up a hair more.

I would not raise the float from stock. The factory set it there for a reason and you might only cause a new problem by changing it. How did you find out 2 cylinders are starved for gas? You could check the spark plugs. If they're dry you aren't getting gas. Like Fregado said you could also try putting your own fuel in as a test. I prefer starting fluid but don't use too much and definately don't use it more than once or twice consecutively since it can be harmfull. With the BS carbs you need to crack the throttle wide open AND manually lift the slide with your finger. Then spray through each of the two carbs toward the motor and , again, don't use much.

Also as a rule of thumb it's good to work on fixing one problem at a time if you can help it. From your other threads it sounds like you've been looking into replacing the harness, fitting a newtronics ignition, and replacing the petcock. Have you done any of these? These could all be potential culprits now.

As an alternative to not enough gas you mentioned you thought the petcock might be flooding the engine? Mine was doing this about a year ago and it did cause the bike to run very badly until the flooded gas blew out the pipes and it will visibly (blow) out. Temporarily I fitted an inline fuel shutoff between the petcock and carb until I could get to the cause of the problem. It was a way to be sure the carbs weren't getting gas when the bike was off and allowed me to isolate the real problem (which was the flooding in my case). Then I worked on the petcock issue afterwards.

What was the recent history of the bike? Did it sit for a while? Did someone restore it, never figure out the problem, and give up? These could help you isolate the problem. If it sat for several years it could clogged carbs. If the problem happened during the restoration it could be timing or jetting.

Keep us updated and good luck.
Josh

[stinger1133]

Well, I started it up and get nothing but heavy smoke and chugging. When you try to give it gas it revs up then stalls out. Im burning more oil than gas. I had a shop tech from work help me figure this out. The center cylinder is burning clean with very little smoke coming out of it and the left an right seem to poor smoke out. He pulled the carbs and went through them and said that all passages were clear and seem to be ok. Floats and jets are all new. The bike sat for a few years. The guy I got it from had someone else working on it for him and totally messed up alot of stuff. The alternator brushes were in wrong and the little plastic washer that went on the ground to the alternator was on the other screw that held the brush holder in place. He said that is why my regulator burned up. After fixing that and installing a new regulator. all works great now. I figured faulty wiring when the original reg fried. I never did replace the wiring since we have found that problem. I have read some of the other post about my question on the ignition and there was mention of the newtronics system and new coils made the bike run better with less engine vibration. Sounded good to me to try it out and also update to a newer system with hasle free maintenance down the road. Like they say, points ignition can leave you down on the side of the road.

[Madbuffalo]

Well, I started it up and get nothing but heavy smoke and chugging. The center cylinder is burning clean with very little smoke coming out of it and the left an right seem to poor smoke out.
I wouldn't necessarily point to excessive smoking as the cause of the problem. It often catches people off guard how much these old bikes can smoke, especially if they've been sitting for a while. The spark plugs will tell you for sure.

The bike sat for a few years. The guy I got it from had someone else working on it for him and totally messed up alot of stuff. The alternator brushes were in wrong and the little plastic washer that went on the ground to the alternator was on the other screw that held the brush holder in place.
I bought an old RD200 a while back with EXACTLY the same problem. It cost me 2 regulators and a wiring harness before I realized the PO had connected the alternator wrong.

- What do your spark plugs look like (dry, wet, black with oil)? This is a test best done with new plugs in.

- With the plugs out, are you able to check cylinder compression? If you don't have a tester the next best thing is to put your thumb over the plug hole and turn the motor over. The compression should push your thumb off the hole.

- Does the bike idle well (1,200-1,500rpm's), then die when you rev it up? (This would point to running out of gas).

[stinger1133]

The bike has good compression. My friend did a compression test and said it was in accordance to the manuals specs. It does idle well at 1000 to 1200 rpms but when I give it gas, it revs to about 3500 rpms then falls off and almost dies out with excessive smoke. The spark plugs are almost a shade of root beer brown. I had a new set in it and after doing some tinkering, they fouled so I got a spark plug sand blaster from work and cleaned them to new finish and regapped them and tried it again. When you let it idle for about 30 seconds then give it gas it starts to run okay to about 2000rpm then as it climbs a bit higher to 3000 to 3500 rpms thats when it stalls out.