puzzling motorcycle issues..

[OtisBlkR1]

My friend recently purchased a 1991 Suzuki Katana 600.

He states: well, i think i got a good deal, its got 25,000 on it and second gear doesnt work. It starts and idles fine but when running down the road it feels like its getting to much fuel (loading up) and its averaging 25 mpg at to and from work highway speeds.. He observed a few "burned wires" through the fairing on the left side.

he then says: after a few days of this it acts like, and may be just running on two cylenders..


I decided to post this to see who thinks what.

 

[Robenstein]

Well sounds like someone may have had their hands in the carbs and messed things up. I have a GS550 Suzuki that only ran on two cylinders....the carb jets on two were just gunked up.

But it sounds like unless he paid a couple hundred bucks for it, it may be a bum deal. The no second gear thing is really a bummer. The rest can be fixed and patched up. Easy to tell if its missing on two cylinders as those header pipes will be cold. Id clean and sync the carbs, patch the wires, and put new plugs in it. The transmission issue may require a teardown I am afraid.

 

[ABerns]

Yeah. Could be flooding - stuck float or something? Rebuilding the carbs would help.

The second gear thing, yes, will require a teardown. Usually caused by a bent shift fork.

 

[OtisBlkR1]

yeah, i told him somebody was most likely doing second gear wheelies and most likely jacked it up (second gear).

I will pass along your tips and opinions to him.

OH, he paid $750.00 for the bike.

 

[Spazdog]

Quote:
Well sounds like someone may have had their hands in the carbs and messed things up.


That would be my first guess too.

It was probably left sitting for some time and gunked up the carbs. Then perhaps some ham-fisted individual pulled the tops of the carbs and pinched a vacuum piston diaphragm or two. If it's not leaking fuel then at least they didn't mess up the float levels too bad.

I agree. Second gear is a bummer. My GSF400 Bandit was ridden hard with bigger bikes and It still had a good second gear at 40,000. Same thing with my GSX-R750 that is very similar engine to the GSX600 Katana. Somebody beat that thing relentlessly.

 

[Vstrom]

Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1


OH, he paid $750.00 for the bike.


OUCH! IMO that was way too much for a bike with internal tranny issues. That is not a trivial repair in hours of labor and depending on whats wrong could be big $$ in parts too..

I've had 2 Suzuki road bikes, never had issues with either...my user name might be clue to what the current one is

The first was an SV650 and I rode the tar out of that thing running off and leaving many high dollar bikes in the mountain twisties. Still ride hard on the VStrom 1k but I've slowed a little in my older (and wiser) years.

 

[Hermann]

Suzuki's of that era are bulletproof. Surely has been beaten on.

 

[Robenstein]

Originally Posted By: Hermann
Suzuki's of that era are bulletproof. Surely has been beaten on.


Only big issues they had were the charging system back in the 80's and 90's.


And yeah 750 bucks was wayyyyy too much to pay. For my missing GS550 I paid 250 bucks. It had new tires and brakes on it too.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Had 3 different Suzies in the mid to late 80's.

My fav was an 850L shaftie, what a great scooter.

They were stone reliable and hard to kill. My 750 was all modded up and ran very strongly, none of them ever gave me any issues.