GSX-R 600 starting procedure

My son just got a '97 GSX-R 600 but it came without an owner's manual,
so we don't know how to get it fuel for starting.

My son says the guy who sold it to him said the gas in the tank was
bad, so he had it running for a short while by spraying starter fluid
into the intakes. We drained the old fuel and put fresh fuel in the
tank and reconnected the fuel line and the vacuum line to the correct
places, but it's still not getting fuel. Since this has a
vacuum-actuated fuel shutoff, I expected there to be a petcock with
pri-on-res so we could prime the carburetors before trying to start
it, but there isn't any such thing.

What do we need to do to get the carbies primed?

Thanx,

-Don

 

You can disconnect the fuel hose from the petcock and squirt gasoline
down into the float bowls from a plastic squeeze bottle. If you want to
quickly clean out the idle jets, which are probably plugged, you can
mix the gasoline about 4 to 1 with Berryman's B-12 Chemtool Choke and
Carburetor Cleaner.

You can buy B-12 in aerosol form or in liquid form. It's less than
$3.00 for a 15-ounce can of
B-12 at Walmart.

You should get into the habit of running 3 or 4 ounces of B-12 through
a full tank of gasoline a few times a year to keep the carbs cleaned
out. It's a blend of xylene, acetone, and methyl alcohol and it
dissolves hydrocarbon gum and varnish quickly without harming rubber or
plastic parts inside the carbs.

One thing that you need to know about constant vacuum carbs: they do
not have a real choke.

There is NO choke plate. There is a bypass passage that sucks gasoline
right out of the float bowls when you move the "choke" lever to the ON
position.

(If you have the rubber boots between the air box and the carbs removed
in order to spray ether in the carbs, you can hand choke the carbs.
But, who wants to do that all the time?)

Since your engine generates very little vacuum when your're cranking
with the starter, trying to "help" the engine by opening the throttle
works against you. You get even less vacuum.
The starting enrichener cannot suck gas out of the float bowl.

So, the best bet is to leave the throttle handle alone. Just push the
button, and if the idle jets are clean and the idle RPM is set
correctly, the engine should start and fast idle without touching the
throttle twist grip.

 

You were spot on, Mark. What fooled me was that the bike wouldn't run
at all. In my (previous) experience, carbs that needed cleaning ran
poorly, but would at least start.

That wasn't an option in this case; the fuel system was so full of goo
that fuel wouldn't even flow to the bowls when I put up an IV bag of
gasoline for it to draw from.

The carbs are now off, disassembled, de-gooed, and awaiting
reassembly.

Thanx for some good advice. (We probably would have figured that out
anyway, but it's always good to have another opinion or two . . . .)

-Don