Suzuki 2 Strokes

Evening All,

Just picked up a 1974 GT380. Did the usual clean-up before starting. Went through the carbs and installed new 80 mains, stock pilots and new float bowl gaskets. I cleaned the carbs to surgical clean (or as close as possible). Changed the oils, brand new fully charged battery, new plugs, fresh gas, fuel lines and fuel filter, etc...

I rebuilt the petcock and as ALWAYS with these old bike-it still leaks--more on that to follow.

So the bike came alive on the first kick! Smoked quite a bit. It ran on idle and all the way through the rev range but did end up cutting out and then not re-starting. Here is what I found.

1) The left cylinder did not appear to be firing (or at least not for long). The exhaust header (right at the exhaust exit) never got more than warm. I confirmed good spark at that cylinder and it is getting gas ( i loosened the float bowl drain screw and fuel did spill out). Any ideas?

2) The middle carb began pouring fuel out of the bottom vent tube. I'm guessing either a stuck needle or a float issue. (I did set the float on all three carbs per one of the manuals I found on this site)--any other thoughts here?

It smoked quite a bit, to the point where my garage was quite hazy. I know its a 2-stroke but I'm just not sure if that was due to initial start up or another issue--I guess I'll have a better idea once its running properly.

I was planning on ordering a petcock adapter plate and going to a new style (non-vacuum) petcock. Something that won't leak--anyone have any experience going that route?

All in all the bike is in beautiful shape. 5,000 original miles, yellow-gold paint in great shape, original exhaust with 8/10 chrome and ZERO holes, rust or pits anywhere, no tears in the seat--I got very lucky on this one (and only paid $150.00 for it--BUT no title....so I'll deal with that down the road). I plan to keep this one bone stock and enjoy riding it around town.

Thanks!

-Mike

That sounds like a really sweet deal, $150 is peanuts! Good luck with her

Taking the questions one at a time:

1) The left cylinder problem is probably crud in the pilot jet, or possibly it flooded a little. Hard to say until you can actually run it on the road, but at least it fires. Could also be a plug cap problem, worth changing those too as they cost nothing.

2) The middle carb pouring fuel out of the bottom vent tube will be a stuck needle or a float problem -- could just be a bit of dirt too.

It smoked quite a bit: they all do that, sir, especially when starting from stone cold and running on choke . It will need to run fairly hard on the road to clear the residual oil from the cases, pipes etc.

Never tried an alternative petcock, but someone else may have.

if you switch to a manual petcock, remember to cap the vacuum port on the carb. Otherwise you will have a massive air leak.