TOPIC:

O.K. After getting my electrical issues under a collar for now,"knock on wood", I have ran about everything you can run through my carbs from carb and choke cleaner to gas treatment, except Old Milwaukee Light and they still can't cough up any phlem. It's been a couple of months or so and I have ran about six to ten gallons of gas through it, replaced the plugs, and changed the oil. It's my first ever motorcycle and I love it really I do. I am seriously thinking of removing my carbs and cleaning maybe even more. How long is long enough to realize they aren't going to get any better? I am a completely new rider but I can do my own maintenance if I have to. My no. 1 and no. 4 carbs are the main problems. When it is cold it has to be started with choke and ran for a minute or two until it hits it's rythym. This bike while I have owned it had a sputter in these carbs spitting and having a sucking sound. Sometimes when I start it I can hold my hand over no. 4 and it seems to get to running better. Sometimes it spits out gas.
While buying this bike for miniscule amounts of money, friends who downright lied to me, and the cat and dog chase for the title I have had to go through everyone seems to think I got this bike well worth my money x5. Now the previous owner cut the airbox off with a sawzall to get to the carbs and in the process cut everything into... wires and all. All the hoses were gone and anything associated with the airbox was gone. Gringo helped me out with a filter issue and I put it to rest for the time being. I have alot of work to do but not a whole lot if you know what I mean. I have my ebay manual I bought and the fog ain't as thick as it was. I am going to put fuel filters on most definately.There are many tests to do but an 82 Kawi needs some love.

Have you run any 44k thru it?

www.bgprod.com/products/fuelair.html

A lot of people I know say that it is the only fuel treatment that actually seems to work.

Post edited by: ScottZ, at: 2006/09/06 23:17

Crazyhorse,

Something about your comments triggered a thought for me. You say that the problem is on #1 & 4. Those two cylinders share the same coil and ignition pickup. You may have a weak ignition rather than a carb problem. Check your voltage to each of the coils. If it is less than 12v, you should consider doing the coil relay upgrade that wiredgeorge has written about. It will cost you a total of about $5, and will eliminate the weak spark problem. Of course, you should check all the ignition wiring connections while you are at it. Sometimes it is not the forest, it is a different tree.
/

apeman wrote:

Crazyhorse,

Something about your comments triggered a thought for me. You say that the problem is on #1 & 4. Those two cylinders share the same coil and ignition pickup. You may have a weak ignition rather than a carb problem. Check your voltage to each of the coils. If it is less than 12v, you should consider doing the coil relay upgrade that wiredgeorge has written about. It will cost you a total of about $5, and will eliminate the weak spark problem. Of course, you should check all the ignition wiring connections while you are at it. Sometimes it is not the forest, it is a different tree.
/

Do you have a link to that write up?

www.wgcarbs.com/59021.html

I didn't get to check the voltage on the coil, but as I was looking I noticed that the no 3 pipe was not that hot like the others. After a little idling I threw water on each of them and it bounced off all but the no. 3. Could and should plug wires be replaced with new ones? I'm going to test the coil when I borrow a voltage meter.

Thanks fish;)

Your welcome.

Well don't go jumping around like crazy, that's how things never get solved.. just confused.

You were talking about your problem being 1&4 (which may have just been a guess) but now you are thinking it's 3 that's giving you a problem (and a cold exhaust pipe is a good indication).

I think there may be more than one simple answer.

I would pull all the plugs out and lay them on the cylinder head so they are grounded, and crank the engine as though you were going to start it. It helps to do this is a shady or darkened garage, because you want to see if the spark plugs are sparking. They should all have fat purple/blue sparks. If only one of them doesn't spark like the others (say, #3) then swap the one that's not working with one that is and see if the problem moves or if it stays. If it moves, the plug is bad. If it doesn't and it's only one, it's probably the wire. If 1&4 or 2&3 are poor together, its probably the coil.

Most 550's are 'cold-natured' and take a minute or two to warm up. Even if you get everything else right, that might still be the case so don't worry about that too much. However I think there some other things at play here.

If you are running the bike with no filters at all, that is a problem right there. Not so much that there is no filter (although you should have one) but having a modified/removed airbox, pods, velocity stacks, whatever- usually requires jetting changes to run properly.