Help me fix up my 81 Suzuki GS 550

[Donuts]

So late last year I bought my first bike ever from a friend who didn't have enough storage for it. It's a 81 Suzuki GS 550. I consider myself somewhat handy but I'm far from being a mechanic. Long story short the bike will not start. I have a brand new battery, new spark plugs, fresh fuel and i cleaned the carbs. So, I guess the question I have for all of you is... Where do I start? How do I diagnose the issue?

[jaffa90]

Does it have a spark or two when kicking it over?
Have you tried easy start spray into the air intake with filter removed?

[Bhud]

Wow! Awesome choice for a project. Lovely bike.

The bike does not start - that might be better for you than not, depending on how long it's been standing. The rings on a completely seized ancient engine with no oil in it, with a fresh starter motor and battery full of juice might not be the better for your efforts...

Start right at the beginning, assume nothing and take nothing for granted. Does the engine turn over or is it seized? Check that it turns over at the crank first. Try an ordinary extension bar and socket, and turn the engine by hand. If you encounter any resistance that requires you to tense a muscle, just stop. Then, at least, you'll know the condition of the animal a bit better.

If it has new oil in it and will turn over by hand, I would try a basic compression test with a gauge. Just my method - I'm perhaps on the cautious side. But I would fully strip that engine down anyway - wouldn't try to just get it working without knowing the condition of the major parts, measuring the bores, etc. It's from 1981, so assume nothing about it.

[Donuts]

[Donuts]

[Bhud]

[A100man]

These 80s four strokes will run forever as long as they've never been run dry of oil..
Key elements IMO are fuel system and valve clearances. Even if you have cleaned the carbs properly (not as easy as you might think), chances are there's still shit in the tank so you should also set about cleaning that thoroughly and treat it with some rust removing acid. If compression test shows good I wouldn't bother with a full strip unless you're planning along trip anywhere, which I doubt.

Testing for spark is also crucial of course but generally ignition is not so susceptible to long standing as fuelling, Depending on how valve clearances are set on this model screw/locknut or bucket/shim might mean they've never been touched so be prepared to get you hands dirty there too.

And if you do get it started what next? Got your test ? No idea how you do that these days but I know it's a whole lot more complicated than riding around town in figure of eight while the bloke peeks at you through the bushes circa 1981 -style.
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Now: A100, GT250A, XJ598, FZ750

Then: Fizz, RS200, KL250, XJ550, Laverda Alpina, XJ600, FZS600

[Teflon-Mike]

Well, you have fallen for the first trip-trap..... there's a HECK of a lot more to a 'motor'-bike than just a motor, and old rule.... before you try 'go'... make sure you can STOP!

BRAKES tend to be rather more important than an engine for that, and on an old deralict almost as old as I be, and I ant no spring-chicken.... there's a HECK of a lot of stuff I would be paying attension to, before how to start the engine became particularly significant.

And if this is your first bike?

What you going to do with it?

Being able to RIDE the thing, tends to beg a lot more than the bike working.... and working back-wards, the bike should be insured, and it should be taxed, and that begs an MOT, which begs a working bike, but before ALL, it begs a motorbike licence.... And a GS550 is no learner-legal...... At some point, to be able to ride this thing, legally, you will have to do tests, and get a licence, and probably a full fat Ride-What-you-like 'A' class one, that begs a DAS course to get...

A-N-D..... OTMH the GS550 probably isn't eligible to take either the RWYL 'A' licence tests on, as it's not powerful enough, whilst its likely still too powerful to take A2 tests on, and its certainly to big to take A1 or ride on L's.

Now...

I wasn't old enough to get a licence when I started my first 'project', and in fact had probably done one or two of them, when I was given an RD250 for my 15th birthday and told "You can fix it up for when you are 16" by uncle who should have known better, and that 16 year olds hadn't been allowed anything bigger than a moped for a decade and a half, and even 17+ 'learners' had been limited to a 125 for half a decade! B-U-T.... I could, legally 'test-ride' the thing up and down nearly half a mile of farm drive-way.... but even THAT would be a little contentious these days under the latest Road-Traffic-Act, that demand licence, tax and insurance on 'any' publicly accessible area, even your own drive....

But more... being able to ride, and having a little bit of experience of how a bike aught to behave, is rather 'useful' when it comes to working out whether something a bike does, is something it should do, or a fault or 'feature' of which, old bikes have many!

A-N-D, get used to it, its just the tip of the ice-berg in this kind of project, But... no longer is it merely just 'How do I make this bike run?' the problems have multiplied to, "How do I make this bike Road Legal?", with "How do I make myself, road-legal?" chucked in the mix, with '"The problem' expanding just from looking for sparks, to checking tyres, and rust on the handle-bars....


Hmmmmm.........

Oh-Kay.... PERSONALLY, I wouldn't get all that exited by an old GS550. They were a bit of a dinosaur before their first MOT was due. I think that the GS550 was launched co-incident with the GS1000, and the GS750, in 1977, after the 'flop' of the RE5 'Wankel', and as such were Suzuki's real first big-four-stroke. They were rendered a bit pase, by 1980, with the arival of the 16valve GSX's, and utterly obsolete by the arrival of the first water-cooled 600's around '84. In the mid-80's then they were just another 'old' bike with not a lot going for them, apart from that reputation for apparent cockroach indestructibility.... which only went so far as the engine! A-N-D, as the budget option in that era, they were frequently bodged half to death by impoverished riders, on a shoe string budget, saving up for a Gixxer or a Ninja, or a shaft drive GS850 or something.

IME, an awful lot ended up as hard-tail choppers, and almost all were perennial projects, prone to rust on the pretty bits, as well as the more critical bits like the swing arm and swing arm mountings.... which was what lead to so many ending up in full custom hard-tail frames.... but still.

IF this was my project... with that little nugget recalled... my FIRST point of poking would not be at the engine, but at the frame. If the swing arm shot, and or the swing-arm picots on the way.... trying to 'fix' it could be a road to no-where as the welder blew out more holes than it fixed.

If it was an early example, it aught to have steel-rimmed spoked wheels. These were often ditched by owners in early life for later cast wheels, as later offerings. This would be my next bug-bear.

Spokes steel wheels rot from the inside. cleanin the rust off the chrome on the outside does little or nothing to suggest they are 'good', and having a laced wheel rebuilt, will likely cost the thick end of £200 a wheel.... so before we start, that's potentially £400 on the bill, half or a third what one of these might fetch in decent standard condition..... that don't leave a lot of wriggle room or margin for any other problems encountered along the way... top candidate being the exhaust.

If you want to bring it back to brochure, or anything even close to show standard, then it has to have OE 'style; twin-pipes at the very least. Most rotted out early in life and were replaced by often cheap after market 4-into-ones... rough reckoner, a pair of chrome 'replica' silencers, and a four-branch to fit them on, will probably set you back in the order of £250... and that margin and wiggle room has just taken another very big dent.

Sod the engine right now... even if it could be persueded to run... on a non stock enhaust, probably with non-stock carbs or jets, and likely an exhaust full of rust... you have little to no chance of making it run 'right'.

Tyres? Well, there's another £200's worth, it is bound to need before it will pass an MOT. What about brake pads? What about the brake calipers? What about.... and so it goes on...

B-U-T.... just off the top.... we have identified around £7-800 worth of bits it LIKELY will need, before we start spinning spanners, buying batteries or looking at swatches in the paint-shop, and looking for elastoplast when we have skinned knuckles trying to get the spark-plugs out!

ER5 any-one?

They are critasized for being boring as feck.... BUT, after blood-sweat and tears of mirth from the bank-manager... boring can look very attractive!

And you can pick up a taxed tested ready to ride away ER5 for maybe £500.... which IF all you want to do is go ride... is a LOT of biking for the money!

Chasing this old clunker.... well, IF the objective is a show-standard concourse eligible 'classic'.... then every nut bolt washer and detail LIKE wire wheels or the correct year alloys HAS to be in the mix... and I can tell you STRAIGHT off.... even if you did make it into a show-winning concourse machine.... it would cost you more in parts alone than any-one would ever likely offer you in cold hard cash.

Nah! Just want something 'different'! I gonna rat it, maybe bob it.... And we are into yet another world of delusion...

Yup, improvised rapiers and judicious chucking away of non-essentials, and bodging it together and through an MOT with 'available' parts, like that headlamp off a Lexmoto your mate was going to chuck away....... by the time its got to MOT, that ER5 is STILL looking 'good' in the cost-analysis... and, it dont give you back-ache to ride either.....

SO! The very first thing that you NEED... aint a spark. Its a PLAN.

IS this going to go concourse? Is this going to go survival-special? Is this going to go... where? WHAT do you want to make of it?

A-N-D how much money do you have to do that with, and how much is it REALISTICALLY going to cost?

Remember, a half decent pair of new tyres for it are likely to be around £200; add a battery, £25, add brake pads, add four spark-plugs, add an oil filter, and its all starting to tot up.... and probably the reason the thing WAS left in a garage for the best part of 20 years....

NOW... I do a project like this approximately one a year. Thanks to err-nibs wanting to 'do' a 125 Super-Dream, that's what most of them are; I have interjected a few others in the history over the last eight or nine years, cos, well frankly... I get pizzed off with faffing with little Super-Dreams! BUT... there were seven complete bikes, and three or four other incomplete ones, that have gone into the pile of 'ready-spares'.. three have made it through an MOT... so far! Three more 'might' if I ever pull my finger out and finish them! One, actually I started cos my daughter got all enthusiastic and started to pull it to bits and paint stuff, is sat there pretty much 'done' waiting just to be put back-together when I have painted the panels... BUT... WITH the tools, with the experience, with the know-how and a HUGE pile of parts to pillage... The odds of making a full, working bike, out of a derelict, AT BEST, are around 50/50. Like I said, seven complete bikes, plus 3-4 incomplete ones, so far I have assembles just THREE out of ten, that have managed to get an MOT.. I might eek another three out of that, and 'just' beat the odds by a fraction. A-N-D NONE of them, including the other non Super-Dream projects have made me money!!! On bag, they have all COST me money, and more than I could have gone and paid for a working, ready to ride, T&T'd bike for... whether that be a Lexmoto 125 for one of the kids, or an ER5 for err-nibs, or f'k'it! A brand new Hnda CRF250 for me to pootle onm the green-lanes!

It REALLY does make me wonder what all the blood-stains on the patio were for, really....

Oh! Yeah! that first ride elation, of "It WORKS! It BLUDY WORKS!!!! I did dat!!!

See, I have to remind myself!!!! Its an incredible rush... but short lived.... its usually worn off by the time I get home, and the second ride is "Do I have to? Err... I think I'll take the car!"

For a mechanical masocist like me, its better than coke... but its also more expensive! Believe me!

SO... back to top.... why are you faffing wit the engine looking for a spark? There's far more and far bigger fish to fry in this ere notion... A-N-D... from where you are starting? A deralict and wanting to hear put-put noises, dreaming of the wind in your hair come summer? Lol!

The initial enthusiasm quickly palls, and MOST projects end up shoved in the back of the shed to rot for another decade or two as soon as that wears off, which it does quickly when put-put noises don't happen in an afternoon. and the bits bill starts stretching.....

I could tell you how to test the sparks...... b-u-t.... right here and now I dont think that would be doing you any favours, just encouraging your delusions.....

Tip Tip: go squirt some oil down the spark plug holes; get on-line and order a Haynes manual... that will tell you how to check for sparks, as well as many many other things and save so many dumm questions later.... whilst you are there... check the listings for a pair of tyres, a battery, a set of spark-plugs, an oil filter, a set of brake pads, an air-filter, the normal 'service spares' then a set of carbuetettor diagphrams, a new throttle cable, and just out of curiosity, the price of a pair of handle-bar lever blades, a new pair of handle-bar grips, a seat cover, and just have a look to see if you can even get a set of original factory or reproduction decals / badges for it, and check out the price of a POR15 tank treatment.

Give you a clue; They are about £50 a pop, and put a plastic/paint lining on the petrol tank, IF you follow instructions to the letter. Every one of the dozen of so 'projects' I have done in the last decade or so, has started there, 'cos.... its a damn site less 'faff' to treat the tank before you chuck expensive paint and decals at it, and find the holes when petrol pizzes out, and or the lines clog with silt and you try sorting carburation issues and cleaning and re-cleaning carbs, and hoping not to tear an old perished diagphram in one!

WHEN you have done that..... if you aren't suffering a heart attack from the tip-of-the-iceberg likely bill you will be racking up, and wondering if its worth it... a-n-d indulge in the delusion of convincing yourself it IS worth having a crack at some-how....

Well, you will have a Haynes... and you wont have to ask so many dumm questions.... it will have the answers in it....

But think LONG and hard... do you want a bike? Do you really want THIS bike, and trying to salvage a derelict? IS that really the best way to achieve what you really want?

IF you are daft, like I am, it CAN be a great way to keep you out from under foot, and waste a 'bit' less money, maybe than going down the pub to do the gallon every night, 'just'! How much is a pint these days? 2.50? err, that makes it £20 a gallon... £100 a week beer bill? Yeah, a project bike 'might' just come in cheaper....

BUT, that Moment of Truth and first ride elation? Its a LOT of beer and more than a little cocaine, for a the very very small rush you might get for it!

And STILL how to test sparks are one of the last things you need worry about, and very fact you have to ask how to test them, shows just how low on the learning curve you are starting....

Best of luck.... you gonna NEED it!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[garth]

If anyone needs any proof that Ted talks absolute bollocks, it's in black and white right there. £2.50 a pint.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[bikenut]

bikes and cars and any engine for that matter, stuff will stick when the are stored for a length of time.

The stuff that can stick are VALVES ( open usually ) clutches and brakes, as well as anything that moves and has not for some time.

The time needed for stuff to stick depends on storage conditions, and, if stuff has been moved regularly. If stuff is moved regularly ( and lubed, even as a preventative measure like "winterisation" ) they tend not to stick.

If a valve is stuck, open usually, and you come along with a new battery and just whizz the engine over willy nilly, then expect your "new" purchase to rapidly turn into SCRAP, thats SCRAP, ie so much damage the bike is now SCRAP, or only good for breaking ( you have just broken it!!!! ).

Any rebirth should be slow and gentle and methodical. Do your research and lube stuff like the cylinder bores, and if you can get to them easily, valves.

Most bike engine have "inclined" valves, and when stuck and hit by a piston, ( or an opening valve ) BEND, and can even break themselves as well as the guides, a DISASTER!!!!!!

see cmsnl for your bike.
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nuts about bikes

[bikenut]

https://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/suzuki-gs550e-1981-x-e01-e02-e04-e18-e21-e22-e24-e25-e26-e30-e34-cylinder-head_mediumsue0126fig-2_b849.jpg

https://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/suzuki-gs550e-1981-x-e01-e02-e04-e18-e21-e22-e24-e25-e26-e30-e34-cam-shaft-valve_mediumsue0126fig-9_7de1.jpg

https://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/suzuki-gs550e-1981-x-e01-e02-e04-e18-e21-e22-e24-e25-e26-e30-e34-cylinder-head-cover_mediumsue0126fig-1_0f28.jpg

this may be your bike but look at your exact bikes exploded views.

It may be possible for the engine to run safely ( apart from the mess ) with the cam cover off, FIND OUT!!!

If the cam cover off does not effect cam timing then turn engine over BY HAND with the plugs out and watch that all valves open and close all ok. ANY "clunk" or solid feeling, with virtually no torque applied, means something is not right, and further rotation will DAMAGE STUFF.

If the engine turn over with the plugs out freely ( remember there will be some resistance due to valve springs etc ) , you can whizz away on the starter, but check for oil flow to the head.

THIS IS STEP ONE.

step 2 is check for ign. Even a finger up one plug cap can be "informative", but red neon plug caps ( i need to buy shares in the company that makes these little beauties!! ) are a good inexpensive method of checking for HT, and HT loss.

Step 3 is fuel......come back when you are ready to add fuel, but once the engine is running ( NO REVS ONLY IDLE SPEED ON OILY PETROL AND A TEST TANK OF ! LITRE ) check the charging system!!

remember brakes and the clutch will probabl;y be stuck/ in need of tlc BEFORE YOU RIDE THE BIKE ANYWHERE.....see similar threads and do your research!!!!!
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nuts about bikes

[bikenut]

https://images.cmsnl.com/img/partslists/suzuki-gs550l-1981-x-e01-e02-e04-e21-e22-e24-e25-e26-e34-e39-cam-chain_bigsue0125fig-10_39cc.gif

in this view the top run of the cam chain is straight but has a guide, meaning it would be ok to turn the engine over with the cam cover off, and, probably ok ish to run the engine with the cam cover off at idle, but that run of chain may tend to "whip"........so dont.

It would be safe to turn the engine over to check and see valve operation and clearance checking.
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nuts about bikes

[Teflon-Mike]

[Bhud]

The bike's obviously been bought as a restoration project to keep him busy, and not as as a way of dipping his toes into riding motorbikes, otherwise it would make no sense to buy a nonrunner from 1981. I figure it's like buying a nonrunning petrol lawnmower at a car boot sale. Don't need a garden to have a bit of fun pulling it apart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWnZ2OdJzi8

[Pete.]

The GS550 was points ignition so I would start with checking the points and condensers first.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good