My thoughts on starting older 450s

[cal_tony]

As I had mentioned in earlier posts I have 3 2004 450s. None of them start worth a damn. I chalk that up to the EFI system. I've often though of carberating at least one of them so so they would start easy.

I have been able to kick start them on occasion but, than again most of the kick start problems can be traced back to the EFI as well as to too short of a kickstart lever length.

My DRZ with the same head can always be kick started even with just a pair of flip flops on in one or 2 kicks.Again probably has to do with the DRZ carb.

Anyway, I did want to give some helpful advice that I use to start my GGs.

First off the owners manual gave me some thoughts. They mention right away that on cold days you should use the choke lever to open up the throttle just a bit. Well, after reading that I spent some time looking at the picture in the manual and my bike. No such lever existed on the bike. Another thing that the manual mentioned was starting the bike immediately after turning on the key to avoid draining th battery. Seemed stupid to me as turning the key with the lights off didn't seem to take that much juice
Again, these suggestions did give me food for thought. I had already replaced the failing key switches with rocker switches. So I thought...why not just hold down the start switch than flip the ignition switch.

Well, that made quite a difference. It started immediately[ within 1 second]
Now that was different. No more dieseling[engine speeds up while cranking but just doesn't seem to want to start]. I've heard numerous riders here mention that problem.

Next thing I thought of was since the manual mentioned a choke lever to slightly open the throttle, I thought I would make a little Z bracket out of sheet metal to slightly open the throttle on cold mornings. To my amazement that also worked. [One end of the Z placed in the unused screw hole in the throttle bracket the other end was placed against the throttle so it would open up the throttle about 1/8"]

Anyway, these of the things that I've done to make my bikes easier to start.

Finally, I've been toying with the thought of attaching a de-comp lever to the head much like the DRZ has. The GG has the hole in the head for connecting the device and the DRZ stuff will work[Same head, same valves]

Just, another thought.

Tony

 

[luzt]

As I had mentioned in earlier posts I have 3 2004 450s. None of them start worth a damn. I chalk that up to the EFI system. I've often though of carberating at least one of them so so they would start easy.

I have been able to kick start them on occasion but, than again most of the kick start problems can be traced back to the EFI as well as to too short of a kickstart lever length.

My DRZ with the same head can always be kick started even with just a pair of flip flops on in one or 2 kicks.Again probably has to do with the DRZ carb.

Anyway, I did want to give some helpful advice that I use to start my GGs.

First off the owners manual gave me some thoughts. They mention right away that on cold days you should use the choke lever to open up the throttle just a bit. Well, after reading that I spent some time looking at the picture in the manual and my bike. No such lever existed on the bike. Another thing that the manual mentioned was starting the bike immediately after turning on the key to avoid draining th battery. Seemed stupid to me as turning the key with the lights off didn't seem to take that much juice
Again, these suggestions did give me food for thought. I had already replaced the failing key switches with rocker switches. So I thought...why not just hold down the start switch than flip the ignition switch.

Well, that made quite a difference. It started immediately[ within 1 second]
Now that was different. No more dieseling[engine speeds up while cranking but just doesn't seem to want to start]. I've heard numerous riders here mention that problem.

Next thing I thought of was since the manual mentioned a choke lever to slightly open the throttle, I thought I would make a little Z bracket out of sheet metal to slightly open the throttle on cold mornings. To my amazement that also worked. [One end of the Z placed in the unused screw hole in the throttle bracket the other end was placed against the throttle so it would open up the throttle about 1/8"]

Anyway, these of the things that I've done to make my bikes easier to start.

Finally, I've been toying with the thought of attaching a de-comp lever to the head much like the DRZ has. The GG has the hole in the head for connecting the device and the DRZ stuff will work[Same head, same valves]

Just, another thought.

Tony

I really wounder why they write a manual and include features that does not exist. Any how I've been having major (!) starting problems and I've gotten to the point where I'm thinking about setting it on fire, hopefully this will work (holding in the start button and then turning the ignition key).

 

[cal_tony]

My thought was that maybe the manual writer knew more about the bike than what was eventually mfg for sale.

Maybe, the prototypes did have chokes and de-comp levers. The holes are there for the lever setup on the head and the DRZ lever setup can be orderded from Suzuki and used on the GG.


One thing that I forgot to mention in my original post is that all 3 of my 450s once started and run for awhile are good for the rest of the day. They always start immediately. I thought it was possible that the computer just didn't do a good job enriching the mixture when the engine was cold.

Another thing worth mentioning is that cracking the throttle on start is not a good idea. If the engine 'kicks back' it could destroy the Sprauge clutch.

Tony

 

[luzt]

I just installed a new battery and tried your trick, no luck.
You can hear it "wanting to start", like everyone else.

Hooking the darn thing to my car with jumper cables did the trick. You can hear the starting engine turn with almost twice the speed when hooked up.


How the hell am I going to get this thing started on its own!?

 

[twowheels]

I just installed a new battery and tried your trick, no luck.
You can hear it "wanting to start", like everyone else.

Hooking the darn thing to my car with jumper cables did the trick. You can hear the starting engine turn with almost twice the speed when hooked up.


How the hell am I going to get this thing started on its own!?

Really big hill ... if it doesn't start by the bottom let it roll into the pond

 

[luzt]

Really big hill ... if it doesn't start by the bottom let it roll into the pond

Pond, brick wall, pool of burning oil...

 

[wakeymatt]

I also have found out that mine will start everytime from a car battery with the engine running, yeah thats right it won't start even with a car battery unless you have the engine running

I guess these things are just beyond a joke thats for sure but i'm sure I can find a solution dam it, or perhaps die trying !