'90 Katana 600 won't start???

Hi there everyone, first things first; I'm new to this website/forum so if this post isn't in the right place I'm sorry, please don't flame me. Well, onto my question. I just bought a 1990 Suzuki gsx600f Katana and it just won't start. I can get the starter motor to engage and spin the engine but it won't fire. I can smell gas fumes coming out of the tailpipe so I know it is getting fuel. I took the magneto cover off of the engine and there is a fair amount of oil in there, is there not supposed to be oil in there? Any ideas on possible electrical problems that I sould look into? Any information you can give me is much appreciated, thanks.

--Don--

[Louis]

My brother in law and a similar problem the other day. Apparently, his battery had enough charge to spin the motor but not enough left to make the spark. His alternator wasn't stable under certain RPM's so it didn't always recharge the battery.

I've also been told that you can boost a motorbike with a car. But, since I do not own a motorcycle yet myself, I haven't verified this. Check with your local mechanic. A phone call can't hurt.

Sounds rather like a coil problem to me. If the battery had enough juice to spin the starter, it would certainly have enough to create a spark. In reality, a bike will generally 'bump start' with very little battery life left.

Thanks for the fast responses. Is there some sort of test that I can perform with a multimeter to check the voltage coming from the sparkplug wires and if so, what do you think would be a good voltage and what would be a bad voltage to look for that would indicate that it was bad coils instead of just a bad connection? Thanks.

--Don--

You don't need a meter to check for a spark. Just unscrew the spark plug, attach the spark plug cable to the plug and the lay the plug on the engine (make sure the plug connects to the iron the engine). Then engage the startmotor. If you see the plug sparking, well...you have a spark
Maybe new plugs would help, too.

[Jonathan]

Agree with Dr. Lo on that one. Make sure everything is dry.

Thanks Dr. Lo, although I already tried that and saw no spark but I thought that there could possibly be a little voltage going through the wires but not enough to allow a spark to span the gap of the plug and that was why I asked about using a multimeter, sorry I didn't clarify that.

Well since I have more time to write now, I'll give you all a little more information on this bike. I just picked it up from a place located in Minnesota called Sport Wheels. This bike was acquired by them from an insurance company but they couldn't tell me why it wouldn't start. I figured it was most likely either the starter switch itself or the selonoid which was a problem I had with my Yamaha xs11 and it was an easy fix. Also, the bike looks like it has been sitting outside for a while. After getting the Suzuki home and taking the panels off, I discovered that someone had wired in a switch to connect the positive terminal of the battery to the starter motor and the OEM starter button is nonfunctional. Now, I don't know if when they wired in the starter motor switch they accidently bypassed something in the ignition system or if there is something else wrong with it. I do know that up by the head tube there is a yellow wire with white stripe with a connector on it that doesn't have anything to plug into and there is a green wire and brown wire that have been cut but I don't see anything for them to go to either. There is also a green wire(I believe) next to the fuse box on the tail of the bike with a connector on it as well but like the previous wires, it has nowhere to go. I have yet to find the starter selonoid so if someone knows where it is please let me know where to look, I know on my Yamaha it is right next to the fuse box and blinker selonoid on the side of the bike and is easily accessible. I'm still not sure about all the oil in the magneto compartment and it may not be triggering the coils to fire because of an oil barrier between the magneto and the point on the crankshaft. How likely would it be that both of the coils are bad? It would be nice to have a wiring diagram for this bike if anyone has one until I can buy a service manual for it. Thanks again for your help.

--Don--

whats with the oil hay my fugged dr250 has the same thing and it wont start is the oil suppost to be in there?

I got my bike back from Motoprimo last week and they got it running even though there was oil in there. It ended up being that it was missing the starter selonoid. It doesn't quite run properly though and I have to keep it choked all the way or it won't keep a constant rpm; I think this is due to the carbs being varnished and need some basic cleaning so I poured Sea Foam in the gas tank to temporarily help the problem until I have time to disassemble the carbs and do a thorough cleaning. So in answer to your question I believe that it is designed to have some oil in the magnito side but it may be different for two-stroke engines(I believe that's what the dr250 is, but please correct me if I'm wrong). Later.

--Don--

Truspeed, the yellow/white wire under the tank is not connected. It is for a gauge illumination dimmer but the dimmer switch is not there, at least on my '95.. disregard it.

I have a wiring diagram for your bike. Send me an email at sgoodman2@nc.rr.com and I'll reply with an attachment

Hey guys I am having a problem pulling out my spark plugs. They are way down in a cavity and no socket seems to fit. Does it take a special tool?? any thoughts? thanks -allen

[MrFahrenheit]

Hi, all
Im posting since i saw a similar problem on the forum - my Katana doesnt want to start. Early this Oct i got injured and parked my for 2 months. Now with my cast off, i tried to start my Katana 600, but it didnt. I checked the battery - it was dead. I charged it, but the motor wouldnt start. It engages, but doesnt fire. Mind my bike was running perfectly before i got injured, so now its hard to explain why its not starting. I tried running-start but still no luck. Any ideas what can possibly be wrong?
I have a 99 Katana 600
Thanks alot
Sam

[weegaz22]

Originally Posted by MrFahrenheit

Hi, all
Im posting since i saw a similar problem on the forum - my Katana doesnt want to start. Early this Oct i got injured and parked my for 2 months. Now with my cast off, i tried to start my Katana 600, but it didnt. I checked the battery - it was dead. I charged it, but the motor wouldnt start. It engages, but doesnt fire. Mind my bike was running perfectly before i got injured, so now its hard to explain why its not starting. I tried running-start but still no luck. Any ideas what can possibly be wrong?
I have a 99 Katana 600
Thanks alot
Sam

carbs will need cleaned out, fuel doesnt stay stable, turns to varish and blocks up the jets in the carbs, carbs will need stripped and cleaned probably, and put fresh fuel in the tank

other things to check would be the battery, as it went flat, if its a gel type battery getting these charged from full discharge is impossible, try another battery, or use a booster battery

also i know this may seem like a no-brainer but have you opened the fuel tap?

[MrFahrenheit]

Thanks weegaz
Yeah I think my fuel tap is on, since my katana only has three settings: PRI, RES, and ON. Stripping and cleaning carbs - how time consuming is that? Is that possible to do myself or a mechanic is needed? i really hope its not a very serious problem with long term consequences. What do you estimate the fixing cost to be?
Thanks for gettig back
sam

Sorry for the delayed response but I've completely forgotten about this thread; just found it again while doing a search on google for something else

MrFahrenheit -- It is pretty easy to clean your own carbs as long as you have basic mechanical skills. I've done it to several bikes now and although I didn't have a carb cleaning manual or anything like that they all turned out fine, but in hindsight I would recomend something like that to a novice trying to do this because it would make things easier and you can check the manual if you end up scratching your a** and asking yourself "Where does this piece/jet go???". First thing you will want to order is a gasket set for each carb in that "stack". I say this because like my xs11 which has four carbs attached to each other I had to order four gasket kits, one for each individual carb, or like in the Dennis Kirk catalog the "kit" is for all the carbs(I would call the company first to ask what they include in the kit); this is no longer a problem for me though, I made my own custom FI system for it . Another thing you will want is a big enough container to submerge the carbs in overnight. The first set of carbs I rebuilt in an oil pan that you can get from Sears for around $10-15, the next couple carbs I rebuilt in a sealable tupperware container from Target just to stop foreign objects in my shop from getting into it; around $15. When I started to rebuild my carbs I let them soak in fuel in the container described above overnight to loosen everything up; at this point I would recomend soaking them in something more like Seafoam or Carb Cleaner because it would probably work better. Then just start disassembling the carbs.

WARNING!! since you have four carbs you probably need to keep the #1 and #4 carb parts separate from the #2 and #3 because sometimes the jetting is different between the inside two carbs and the outside two; you may only need to do this though if you have individual K&N air filters on every carb which has always been my experience; you tend to run the inner two cylinders(#2 and #3) leaner than the outer two because they don't get quite as much air as the outer two (#1 and #4).

Once disassembled look at every jet and look for deposits inside of them and either discard the bad ones and get new ones or find a good way of cleaning all the holes out. I've always just replaced all the bad jets to save time, but that time saved will end up costing you more $$$. At this point I want to clarify that by saying bad jets I do not mean that they can not be cleaned and work like new, they can, unless they have bad threads which is a no no with carbs. ************** When taking out the jets and any other screws use a properly sized tool to do it with, I found this out the hard way; I used a screw driver that was smaller than what I should have used and I stripped the head on a jet. To fix something like this you have to drill out the jet and retap the threads inside the carb; are real pain if you ask me and I would leave something like that to a more experienced mechanic(ie. shop) if that does happen to you for some reason.

Ok so say your still with me and you have cleaned/replaced all "bad" jets all that is left is to reinstall everything on your carbs, this is where the book would come in handy so you know where to put the jets and how hard to tighten them(not very). So put everything back together using your new gaskets because we don't want anything leaking now do we, and put them back on your bike and fire it up. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't fire right up as from what I've heard many first timers don't always succeed at doing this but if you take your time and don't try to rush it I think it will work out for you. Let me know how it works for you if you decide to do it yourself, and if anyone else has anything else to add to my description that may help out please feel free to do so. If you have any questions feel free to email me at: don@weblocator.com because I don't know when the next time will be that I come across this thread. Later, and good luck.

--Don--

[Ginger Ninja]

Originally Posted by MrFahrenheit

Thanks weegaz
Yeah I think my fuel tap is on, since my katana only has three settings: PRI, RES, and ON. Stripping and cleaning carbs - how time consuming is that? Is that possible to do myself or a mechanic is needed? i really hope its not a very serious problem with long term consequences. What do you estimate the fixing cost to be?
Thanks for gettig back
sam

Mr Fahrenheit
Howzit...I am a newbie , and checking out the forums,you seem to be the closest to maybe answering me.My problem is that I just got a GSX600F and I need to Winterize it,so I won't be using it for 4 or 5 months.The Gas tap only has RES;ON; and PRI.So how do I drain the Carbs so that the gas does not stay in there? I have put a stabilizer in there already and run it through the system.I don't want starting problems in the spring. My first time on a site like this , so forgive me if I am posting in the wrong direction.

[Ginger Ninja]

Originally Posted by Truspeed

Sorry for the delayed response but I've completely forgotten about this thread; just found it again while doing a search on google for something else

MrFahrenheit -- It is pretty easy to clean your own carbs as long as you have basic mechanical skills. I've done it to several bikes now and although I didn't have a carb cleaning manual or anything like that they all turned out fine, but in hindsight I would recomend something like that to a novice trying to do this because it would make things easier and you can check the manual if you end up scratching your a** and asking yourself "Where does this piece/jet go???". First thing you will want to order is a gasket set for each carb in that "stack". I say this because like my xs11 which has four carbs attached to each other I had to order four gasket kits, one for each individual carb, or like in the Dennis Kirk catalog the "kit" is for all the carbs(I would call the company first to ask what they include in the kit); this is no longer a problem for me though, I made my own custom FI system for it . Another thing you will want is a big enough container to submerge the carbs in overnight. The first set of carbs I rebuilt in an oil pan that you can get from Sears for around $10-15, the next couple carbs I rebuilt in a sealable tupperware container from Target just to stop foreign objects in my shop from getting into it; around $15. When I started to rebuild my carbs I let them soak in fuel in the container described above overnight to loosen everything up; at this point I would recomend soaking them in something more like Seafoam or Carb Cleaner because it would probably work better. Then just start disassembling the carbs.

WARNING!! since you have four carbs you probably need to keep the #1 and #4 carb parts separate from the #2 and #3 because sometimes the jetting is different between the inside two carbs and the outside two; you may only need to do this though if you have individual K&N air filters on every carb which has always been my experience; you tend to run the inner two cylinders(#2 and #3) leaner than the outer two because they don't get quite as much air as the outer two (#1 and #4).

Once disassembled look at every jet and look for deposits inside of them and either discard the bad ones and get new ones or find a good way of cleaning all the holes out. I've always just replaced all the bad jets to save time, but that time saved will end up costing you more $$$. At this point I want to clarify that by saying bad jets I do not mean that they can not be cleaned and work like new, they can, unless they have bad threads which is a no no with carbs. ************** When taking out the jets and any other screws use a properly sized tool to do it with, I found this out the hard way; I used a screw driver that was smaller than what I should have used and I stripped the head on a jet. To fix something like this you have to drill out the jet and retap the threads inside the carb; are real pain if you ask me and I would leave something like that to a more experienced mechanic(ie. shop) if that does happen to you for some reason.

Ok so say your still with me and you have cleaned/replaced all "bad" jets all that is left is to reinstall everything on your carbs, this is where the book would come in handy so you know where to put the jets and how hard to tighten them(not very). So put everything back together using your new gaskets because we don't want anything leaking now do we, and put them back on your bike and fire it up. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't fire right up as from what I've heard many first timers don't always succeed at doing this but if you take your time and don't try to rush it I think it will work out for you. Let me know how it works for you if you decide to do it yourself, and if anyone else has anything else to add to my description that may help out please feel free to do so. If you have any questions feel free to email me at: don@weblocator.com because I don't know when the next time will be that I come across this thread. Later, and good luck.

--Don--

Truspeed
Howzit...I am a newbie , and checking out the forums,you seem to be the closest to maybe answering me.My problem is that I just got a GSX600F and I need to Winterize it,so I won't be using it for 4 or 5 months.The Gas tap only has RES;ON; and PRI.So how do I drain the Carbs so that the gas does not stay in there? I have put a stabilizer in there already and run it through the system.I don't want starting problems in the spring. My first time on a site like this , so forgive me if I am posting in the wrong direction.