1989 dt 55 misbehaving

[suzukidave]

Hi folks, I had trouble with this thing dying earlier in the summer which turned out to be a kill switch problem (after it started with the kill switch off I suspected a problem and found the kill switch wiring was disintegrated. I fixed that, (I think)but now I have other fish to fry.<br /><br />Now it will randomly bog down when running on plane either bogging and surging, or sputtering. When this happens the idle sounds very quiet and kind of gurgly (like one cylinder perhaps) and then it will surge, sputter and catch and fade a few times before returning back up to full throttle. Working the throttle in and out tends to clear the problem faster. The problem is intermittant and it seems it is sometimes but not always triggered by waves. It started while on vacation so I had to endure it for over a week with no repair options. It can happen every two minutes for half an hour and then not recur for a day.<br /><br />I suspected this was a carb blockage problem and was going to take it apart this week. Then during the last two days of my vacation it started becoming incredibly hard to start when cold, either not firing or idling very rough and stalling. After trying new plugs (old ones looked normal) and many tries I managed to get it going with the choke open and about half throttle. It would take 2 or 3 minutes of running like this before it would not stall. After that it continued to idle roughly.<br /><br />Does this sound related to the other problem or something else? The bulb stays hard and I have strong blue spark. The fuel pump is fine.<br /><br />It's a 1989 dt55 2 cylinder

 

[jim dozier]

Re: 1989 dt 55 misbehaving

Sounds like you may have sediment or crud in your carb bowls that is getting stirred up in rough water and intermittently clogging the carb jets. There is a drain screw/bolt on the starboard bottom side of each carb bowl. Loosen (you don't need to remove) the bolt and drain the carb bowl onto a clean white rag and check for dirt or sediment. If you are really really lucky you might be able to remove the offending sedimetns by draining but you probably would need to remove and dismantle and clean the carb correctly.