Losing power and gurgling

dwelby101

I went for a spin from galway to carlow during the weekend and the bike was running perfect, not a bit wrong with it, so I parked it up outside for the night, was a mild enough night, no frost or anything and when I started it up and took off for galway the next day it was running horribly. It was running really rich as if the choke was on, smelt really strong as if the air/fuel mixture was all messed up. I though if i got a few miles in it would work itself out but nothing, it was still the same when I got beck to Galway. on full throttle there were no problems but in 1/4 to 1/2 throttle it was gurgling and felt like it really wasn't getting the power that it should have. I've had the carbs cleaned a few months ago so they shouldn't be too bad, I checked that all cylinders were firing, they are. I have no idea what is up with it and I'm confused how it came on so suddenly. any ideas out there?

serious3

water in the fuel, bit of muck dragged thru... carbs off for a clean again methinks!

CJhaughey

While you are at it fit a pleated paper filter so any more crap doesn't ruin your day.
Check the fuel tap, some of them have small bowls to collect water and crap.

dwelby101

I've just noticed that the exhaust pipe connection from the splitter to the muffler is loose and looks like the previous owner tried 'sealing' the gaps with a putty like substance that has since cracked, would a loose connection so close to the engine and before the muffler cause these symptoms? I'm guessing this is where the strong smell of unburnt fuel is coming from

EDIT:

I should note that the exhaust is a viper 4 into 1 and what i mean by the 'splitter' is the connection point where the 4 meet and a single pipe extents to the muffler.

dwelby101

I know the thread is getting old but i'm going to post an update anyway... So I decided that the exhaust was the problem (since I was completely clueless and it was about the only think I had the confidence to tackle myself) so I took off the pipes, got a wirebrush and cleaned off all of the old pipe glue and soot and rust, put it back on with some new pipe glue and a new butterfly clip then tightened everything up... not a single f*&$ing difference... so eventually I brought it to the garage, turned out that cylinder 1 wasnt firing all of the time, checked the spark plug and it was black as the ace of spades!! I also noticed that there was a bit of petrol coming from the carb that was feeding cylinder 1 but we decided to just replace the spark plug and see if it would help. It did help, for about 80km then it reverted back to only 3 cylinders firing again.

So my completely ignorant opinion is that the carb that feeds cylinder 1 has a problem with the float and is flooding the cylinder... this would explain the black spark plug and the strong smell of unburnt fuel plus the petrol leak coming from the carb itself.

I would love to try my hand at cleaning the carbs myself but I can't find a manual or even an exploded view for the particular set of carbs, the bike is a 95 Suzuki GSX 400 Impulse, if anybody has any info on this bike or the carbs for it I would love to hear it as I havn't been able to find anything on this bike at all, it's as if it doesn't even exist.

bitburger

either a float issue or just very unbalanced.

dwelby101

bitburger wrote: »

either a float issue or just very unbalanced.

yeah I'm thinking float issue as it came on suddenly without warning, if it was a balancing issue i reckon it would have been a gradual thing

Wossack

dwelby101 wrote: »

I know the thread is getting old but i'm going to post an update anyway... So I decided that the exhaust was the problem (since I was completely clueless and it was about the only think I had the confidence to tackle myself) so I took off the pipes, got a wirebrush and cleaned off all of the old pipe glue and soot and rust, put it back on with some new pipe glue and a new butterfly clip then tightened everything up... not a single f*&$ing difference...

lol :pac:

try and find out if the carbs are used in other bikes (typically are), and see if those bikes have a haynes / tech manual etc

dwelby101

Wossack wrote: »

lol :pac:

try and find out if the carbs are used in other bikes (typically are), and see if those bikes have a haynes / tech manual etc

yep, a bit of a dope move with the pipes, sure they're a bit more stable now anyway, so not a complete waste of time

the thing with the carbs I have is that I dont know how to identify what ones they are, they are mikuni corp and look like BST31SS or BTS34SS but the throttle stop screw on mine doesn't bend out to the side of the bike like those two, it just drops down between carb 2 & 3

Wossack

Im not much use Im afraid - I'd suggest checking out 400greybike.com, and seeing if theres anything there? Tis a good resource, and hopefully be someone there with same bike if you wanna pose same q there too

CJhaughey

I remember the GSX400X Impulse, it has a red/orange lattice piece that holds the headlight assembly no?
They are based on the GSXR400 engine and should be very similar for Carbs if not the same.
They were Japanese and Aus/NZ models, not sure if they were ever sold in Europe.