Suzuki GS1000gl bogging out when in gear and accelerating?

[muskywhisperr]

Hello,

I am having some problems with my bike here and have no idea what it is. Basically when it is neutral everything is fine, But when i put it in gear and start to accelerate the bike has no power and just completely falls on its face. It also kind of spits and sputters. It is a 1980 Suzuki GS1000GL and I thought it was something with the carbs so i sent them to crazypj and he got them all squared away so thats out. Any ideas?

 

[Sonreir]

Try a fresh battery and double-check your timing (provided the bike uses a Kettering system).

 

[muskywhisperr]

It very well could be the battery cuz I'm not sure how old it is and I have yet to ride this bike when it was actually running good. Thanks Sonreir I will try that out

 

[DesmoBro]

I had the same problem on my KZ and it was the timing advancer i'll show you some pics if you pop your side cover off and it looks anything like these you have found your problem....Basically some WD40 and moving it around fixes the problem

 

[muskywhisperr]

Okay so I am really green to this stuff . So the timing advancer is ahead of the clutch? If so I think I'm the first person to take the cover off cuz it's spotless, doesn't mean that it isn't sticking though. Can I run the bike with the cover off to see what it does? What should it do, Thanks much.

 

[Big R]

Suzuki's are notorious for um......."sub standard" electrical systems. Fresh battery, clean connections everywhere, test the stator & R/R, etc. It sounds like you are running on 3 cylinders though (maybe just 2?).

 

[DesmoBro]

Okay so I am really green to this stuff . So the timing advancer is ahead of the clutch? If so I think I'm the first person to take the cover off cuz it's spotless, doesn't mean that it isn't sticking though. Can I run the bike with the cover off to see what it does? What should it do, Thanks much.

My stator Cover Was really clean inside but on the opposite side it was the worst I had ever seen....But all these bikes are a little different not sure which side yours is on

 

[DesmoBro]

You can run the bike with the cover off...but on my KZ you can't see the advancer unless you take the plate in the picture off it's behind that and has 2 moving parts and the timing marks become misaligned if they don't get lubed occasionally causing it to rev only to 5,000 rpm or so and not go above that

 

[muskywhisperr]

Okay now I think we are onto something here desmo. Here is a pic of mine. It moves about an eighth of an inch in clockwise direction and the springs bring it back. However the what i assume are brushes are gone and flush with the two black plastic pieces in the pic so there is little to no contact being made. What are they called and where can i get them? Thanks for everyones help with this it is appreciated.

 

[muskywhisperr]

Sorry for the bad pic but you get the idea. Should I spray it down with some WD? Also it's mainly doggy on the bottom end and once you hit a certain rpm it hooks up and happy times are had. ;D

 

[muskywhisperr]

Here is a better pic and please deal with me here but the contact point inside the black plastic piece is flush with the outside of the black plastic piece so there is not really any contact at all.

 

[DesmoBro]

Those look Fine what you want to check is behind that Plate the plastic units are mounted on..... That's your problem i'm assuming the timing marks aren't lined up which is the case with mine I actually got mine working but now it works really intermittently so I may need to re-check the timing....The Timing Advancer (you can see it behind the plate see the little springs) I'll have to get a picture of it tomorrow when I Fix it again

 

[crazypj]

Did you check wiring?

 

[muskywhisperr]

I have not gotten around to picking up a voltohmeter yet but maybe tomorrow. I did pull apart all connections that i could see and cleaned them up with some baking soda and water which did seem to improve its perfomance alittle. Over the past couple days i put about 160 miles on it and it really did pep up quite a bit. Now when i start it though its blowing lots of oil smoke until it warms up. It is still doggy on the bottom end and when holding or maintaining a consistant speed it will start to slow down periodically and then have to give some gas to bring her back up to speed. Here's a pic of what I'm guessing is the timing advancer but have no idea what I'm looking for.

 

[crazypj]

That's the advancer.
When you turn center, do the bob-weights move all the way to the stopsand return all the way to center?

 

[muskywhisperr]

Yes they do. I also noticed that the turn signals come on but dont flash which from some research could mean not enough voltage. I'll go and get a voltohmeter this morning and check voltage at the coils.

 

[muskywhisperr]

Went and got a volt ohm meter and I do have 12 volts to the coils. Not sure on the output or really how to test it. I am assuming you unplug all four spark plug wires and red probe into the cap, black to ground and hit the start button?

 

[muskywhisperr]

I pulled the exhaust off of the right side of the motor cuz there is a popping noise that has always existed on the right side since i got it. Here is what i found and it doesnt look good. The number three cylinder valve is covered in white corrosion as is the inside of the exhaust on the #3. The number 4 has the standard black residue you would expect in by the valve and inside the exhaust. So I am guessing the number three isn't firing?

 

[Big R]

Hmmmm. White residue? I've never seen anything that extreme before.

Millin, are you a member on the GSResources? I really think you need to go over the ENTIRE bike. Let's face it, the maintenance had probably been neglected for 20+ years. But check out this link - tons of GS specific info:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

 

[muskywhisperr]

I am not a member nor have heard of it but will look into that big rich. Yeah today i check compression which was a good, checked for spark which i had and made sure that the valve were moving properly which they were. I didn't think this would be the problem but on the third cylinder is a broken off bolt where you tighten down the exhaust flange with that ring to the motor so there is only one bolt there and once i put it back together there was a noticeable exhaust leak right there. Could it be as simple as getting that broken bolt out of there and putting a new one in not that that is going to be easy.