"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
08/17/2018 at 13:12 • Filed to: Two wheels...eh?
3
27|
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
08/17/2018 at 13:12 • Filed to: Two wheels...eh? | 3
| 27 |
Last night I learned that I love big displacement vintage bikes. I was supposed to see a Honda VF500F Interceptor and that Ninja 500R today. Sensing that I got cold feet, the owner of the Suzuki GS850G dropped the price to “screw it” money.
I took a look at it and the bike is fantastic. Not a speck of rust on the frame (it’s even still glossy), no wheel pitting, and while the paint looks crappy, the body panels are free of rust and damage. Best part is that the darn thing started quicker than my Buell. By all accounts, it was perfect.
It’s porky (my is it heavy) but my god is it fast. This freaking thing is out of this world. And it’s comfortable. I rode it 100 miles last night and had the time of my life. It’ll cruise at 80 mph and you’ll feel like you’re on a couch while doing it. As a bonus, everyone does double takes while I’m on it. And with it in that good condition? Some paint and if I ever get bored of it I can make an easy profit.
My dream bike stable changed from “All the Buells!” to “all the old big bikes!”
Until this morning...
Using muscle memory, I accidentally set the petcock to Reserve (I wasn’t aware of this). I made it 1 mile before the bike stopped being able to exceed 6k rpm...crap. I turned around and tried to get back home.
A t 1.8 miles it straight up died. I looked down and discovered I had the bike set to Reserve. Oops.
I turned the petcock to “on” then tried to set off. It would only start with a flick of the throttle and the most RPM it could achieve is 1.5k and if you let off the throttle it immediately dies. Well, considering I was in the middle of a road without a shoulder, that was good enough to limp me to an area that was safe.
I then thought maybe the fuel gauge sucked so I wheeled it to a station and filled up. No vice, it occasionally would go to 5k and immediately die. All the while there was a little bit of gray/white smoke coming out of the exhaust.
What the heck? Did I flood the engine or something? I’ve read that if you never use the Reserve that there could be water/debris in it, is there any accuracy to that?
I walked it home and took the Buell to work. Hopefully it wakes up when I get home.
CalzoneGolem
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:17 |
|
Nothing turns heads like a girl on a bike.
jimz
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:19 |
|
‘member how I said an old bike like that will have problems with gaskets and seals? The seals inside the petcock break down with age, and moving it around can cause them to start falling apart and plug stuff up.
upside is they’re usually just a bunch of O-rings and should be easy to find. but if it got into the carbs those might need a cleaning too.
random001
> CalzoneGolem
08/17/2018 at 13:19 |
|
A girl in a naked jeep wrangler is a close second, though....
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:21 |
|
Just wait until you discover the joy of full fairings and TURBO bikes!
I used to own one of these turbocharged monsters. It was a total dog below 4 ,000, but was a hoot once the turbo kicked in! Unfortunately, the suspension wasn’t great and the brakes were terrible and a liter-bike made the same horsepower without as much complexity and only a little more weight. But hey, T URBO!!!!
|
Mercedes Streeter
> jimz
08/17/2018 at 13:24 |
|
Just my luck that the petcock seals would fail in less than 24 hours of owning it. lol If I get this thing working though, holy crap it’ll be the best $500 I ever spend.
|
CalzoneGolem
> random001
08/17/2018 at 13:25 |
|
I had to carefully read this sentence a couple times.
|
random001
> CalzoneGolem
08/17/2018 at 13:27 |
|
I had to carefully type it a couple times, so you’re in good company...
Textured Soy Protein
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:30 |
|
Dat VF tho
|
Mercedes Streeter
> TheRealBicycleBuck
08/17/2018 at 13:31 |
|
Shhhhh...stop. You’re talking to someone who actively makes bad motoring decisions . lol
|
jimz
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:33 |
|
I was slightly off, that’s a vacuum petcock (only flows fuel with the engine running) so it has a diaphragm too. $25 for a rebuild kit.
https://www.z1enterprises.com/petcock-kit-suzuki-2.html
DipodomysDeserti
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:33 |
|
If the bike died while set to reserve than you probably completely ran out of fuel. There are two tubes connected to the petcock which sit in the tank. Moving the petcock to reserve just switches it to the shorter tube. If you ran it out while on reserve there’s a good chance you sucked bits of rust into the carbs. Give then a good cleaning (air compressor in all the jets) and you should be good to go. Also pull the petcock to make sure everything in the tank looks good.
|
DipodomysDeserti
> jimz
08/17/2018 at 13:35 |
|
Petcocks are pretty good at letting you know their gaskets are worn by pouring fuel all over the place. Just had to replace a cheapo non Japanese petcock on my CL450. Thing was only a few years old.
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:38 |
|
Good chance you sucked some stuff into the carbs from running it that low. Happens in my CX500. Order a couple cans of carb cleaner and a rebuild kit and go to town. Easy weekend job and you’ll know the bike is set. Buy a new petcock or a rebuild kit for your current one as well, and run some acetone through the tank to flush it out and see what kind of crud comes out with the last few dribbles.
Michael
> DipodomysDeserti
08/17/2018 at 13:52 |
|
This is most likely the culprit - all the nastiness at the bottom of the tank is now in the fuel lines and must be cleared out before fuel flow will be restored
|
Mercedes Streeter
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2018 at 13:56 |
|
I didn’t even run it low (I accidentally switched to reserve). It was just under half when I set out this morning. If Skychismo is correct then in switching to the reserve I probably sucked up some crap that was sitting in the bottom of the tank that the regular tube didn’t pick up.
Heh. Well guess I’m about to learn about how to work on a 4 cylinder bad boy really quickly!
|
DipodomysDeserti
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:58 |
|
You need to really get your retro big bike on:
|
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 13:59 |
|
yeah, four banger are always fun to clean carbs in. If it were my CX500 I could just take the bowls off the two carbs and spray carb cleaner up through the needles and jets and whatnot without even removing the carbs, lol.
|
Mercedes Streeter
> DipodomysDeserti
08/17/2018 at 13:59 |
|
Weird thing is that I was at half tank . However what you’re saying makes sense. If the PO never used the reserve and there’s some sediment/rust/whatever at the bottom of the tank, then that’ll explain why it was running like a champ until this morning.
|
CalzoneGolem
> random001
08/17/2018 at 14:01 |
|
Careful ling ...
|
DipodomysDeserti
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 14:06 |
|
The reserve tube usually has a filter on the end of it. If it died while on the reserve tube, the filter is probably clogged and sucked rust into the carbs. That or the filter is missing and the tube is filled with rust which got sucked in. If that’s the case Inwould just get a new (Japanese made) petcock, as they can be hard to clean out and usually will end up leaking anyways. You can fond them for $30. The jets have very small passages and can be clogged by even the most minute specs of rust.
|
Mercedes Streeter
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2018 at 14:07 |
|
I think I can do the same with this one. It’ll be tight as heck, but the Mikuni carbs on this seem to have enough clearance for me to remove the bowls without physically removing the carbs.
Pickup_man
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 14:49 |
|
Yes, but that VF...... the VF750 Interceptor is hands down my favorite bike ever, I’ve never ridden one, but something about them just does it for me.
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 15:44 |
|
Holy shit. I just looked up specs for that thing. It's heavier than my Sportster was!
|
Mercedes Streeter
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
08/17/2018 at 16:39 |
|
600+ pounds of Japanese pride! Seriously, the frame on this thing is so thick and everything on it is gloriously chunky.
itranthelasttimeiparkedit
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 17:41 |
|
Yep this. crap at the bottom of the tank
BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 18:03 |
|
Is there an inline fuel filter between the petcock and the carburetors?
If not, there should be, for just this sort of reason.
As others have mentioned, a fuel petcock is like a double straw in the fuel tank... long straw and short straw, both with a little screen over the outflow.
The long straw sticks up into the tank an inch or more above the bottom, where fuel slosh won’t run it dry longer than the fuel bowls on the carbs can handle.
When the fuel drops below, the bike leans out, stumbles, and you know it is time to switch to reserve and find a fuel station.
Fill up, back onto “ON” position of the fuel petcock, and proceed again.
The reserve is the short straw... almost flush with the bottom of the tank, to get you as far as you need to go to find fuel... but the bottom of the tank is were the sludge and dirt, and rust, and crud is... which can clog the petcock, and if not screened, can clog the carbs.
Easiest fix: while the fuel is drained, or after you drain the refilled fuel, remove the petcock, and thoroughly clean it, back flush all the gunk out with carb cleaner, etc... and try and use some a bit of clean gas, seafoam cleaner, etc... to slosh and flush the gunk out of the tank, if possible, until the gas coming out is pretty much as clear as what you put in.
If the tank is rusty inside, from being empty for years, and subject to water condensation (dew, humidity changes, etc...), then the tank may need to be flushed substantially, stabilized, and epoxy coated on the inside, to make the tank inert and clean again.
This is why it is better to store a vehicle with either a full tan k of stabilized fuel (water has no more tank volume to occupy, the stabilizer will bind with any water mingling in the fuel), or with an empty, but completely sealed off tank stored in a dry location not subject to cold-surface condensation or humidity.
If the fuel lines had a fuel filter... replace it. If not, add one, and perhaps new ethanol-stabilized lines (although I would still put NON-ethanol in an old bike with old carbs... alcohol can seriously deteriorate carburetor and intake rubber or gasket materials, unless you are SURE the whole engine intake system has been refitted with ethanol-safe parts, and the carbs tuned to run on E10 or greater gasoline.
If no fuel filter, and the fuel lines appeared dirty... time to clean the carburetors... which is a whole other process.
bob and john
> Mercedes Streeter
08/17/2018 at 21:53 |
|
yea, you got like 30 years of shit in the carbs. GG
have fun pulling it apart and getting gas EVERYWHERE. I still have gas in places I didnt even know I had.