Fuel Pump Fix

First topic message reminder :

After 4 days trying to fix my ruining problems of no power, top speed of 10 kph OR 110 kph and no acceleration. I traced the fault to the fuel pump assembly. Sometimes it would work, other times it wouldn't. Pressure was either good or poor. It looked like a dodgy fuel pump which Suzuki want $700. If i had taken it to a dealer they would have replaced the assembly which would have fixed the problem but cost me $1000.

I'm unemployed at the moment so that was out of the question. I doubt VERY much I'm the only person to have this problem in the past
or future.

Photos and instructions following

did you remove the regulator? the books say no but I did to clean and get pic. plugs look pristine

Another satisfied customer here, though it took me a couple of attempts to get it properly clean as my original teabag was in bad shape and it’s had sucked crap through the pump and into the screen. Was choking at 3500rpm to start with, first clean improved that to 6500, now it revs freely to the redline.

Has anyone added an inline fuel filter after the pump ?
I've just replaced the pump and regulator. Found the dealer has removed the internal filter screen so there's only the tea bag filter doing anything.
Now my fuel gauge isn't working. Yes I plugged it back in.
Sometimes buying a mint looking bike that's sat for years ends up being a bag of headaches.

Hi,
putting an inline one in could be difficult, would need GOOD fittings and HP hose.
36psi pressure (I know old school) in the line after the pump.
Did dealer give reason for removing the screen? ?
It would send all the fine bits into injectors
Correction 43 psi

Bad move by the dealer. The screen is a troublesome design for sure but it can be cleaned effectively and at minimal cost as multiple people here can attest.
The biggest problem seems to be that it’s something of an undocumented issue so people pull their hair out trying to find the problem.

Pinched from gixxer forum from 2008.

I've said this many times before: the strainer beneath the pump is there to keep rocks, dead mice, and severed fingers from entering the pump. The real filtration is done by the main filter, which sits above and alongside the pump motor. It includes the pressure regulator and the parts fiche refers to the filter/regulator assembly as a regulator. Chapter 5 of the service manual calls it a fuel filter cartridge. It's god-awful expensive.

GSX1100G wrote:Hi,
putting an inline one in could be difficult, would need GOOD fittings and HP hose.
36psi pressure (I know old school) in the line after the pump.
Did dealer give reason for removing the screen? ?
It would send all the fine bits into injectors
Correction 43 psi

It could be done if you can find the room, because that would be the only restriction. 
Cars have high pressure inline filters so if the room is available there is nothing stopping a filter being fitted between the tank and the injectors

Correct, the filter that gets clogged with a varnish type substance is a tiny little mesh hidden inside the fuel pump assembly.  



The tea bag filter (item 3) main job is to ensure larger contaminates do not pass into the electric fuel pump (item 2)  itself.  The hi pressure filter that gets clogged is item 7.

When you pull the fuel pump assembly apart it is the white plastic item that sits above the actual fuel pump motor.



The easiest way to clean this if you get caught on the road and are a long way from home is the get a piece of heavy gauge wire and make a small hard brush out of it.



I'd suggest that if your local fuel is a bit dodgy or you are getting persistent starvation problems that you invest in a small ultrasonic parts cleaner and take the time to pull apart the fuel pump and give this part a clean.  It's a pretty simple job, after a nasty bout of fuel surging/high on a trip through Vic and NSW and getting rev hesitation a number of times, I was able to have the pump out of the tank and being cleaned in 15 minutes.

It's a pity that Suzuki does not list this as a regular maintenance item.  I can just imagine he number of perfectly functional fuel pumps that have been turfed out in the dealers workshop bin for the sake of not diagnosing the issue correctly. I think a pump assemble is over $300 now, 30 minutes with a 10mm socket wrench and bit of wire is a cheap alternative.

barry_mcki wrote: I can just imagine he number of perfectly functional fuel pumps that have been turfed out in the dealers workshop bin for the sake of not diagnosing the issue correctly. I think a pump assemble is over $300 now, 30 minutes with a 10mm socket wrench and bit of wire is a cheap alternative.

It's a sad reflection of what "repairing" has become in he past 40 years.

When I did my apprenticeship we rebuilt most things, Starter Motors, Alternators/Generators, Water Pumps, Wheel Cylinders, Air Brake Actuators, we even relined our own riveted brake shoe. Basically if something was broken it was stripped and evaluated, if it could be rebuilt, it was rebuilt, now it's just bolt on, bolt off.

Sadly now it's just a throw away society, no wonder our waste issues are so bad

Chook wrote:

barry_mcki wrote: I can just imagine he number of perfectly functional fuel pumps that have been turfed out in the dealers workshop bin for the sake of not diagnosing the issue correctly. I think a pump assemble is over $300 now, 30 minutes with a 10mm socket wrench and bit of wire is a cheap alternative.

It's a sad reflection of what "repairing" has become in he past 40 years.

When I did my apprenticeship we rebuilt most things, Starter Motors, Alternators/Generators, Water Pumps, Wheel Cylinders, Air Brake Actuators, we even relined our own riveted brake shoe. Basically if something was broken it was stripped and evaluated, if it could be rebuilt, it was rebuilt, now it's just bolt on, bolt off.

Sadly now it's just a throw away society, no wonder our waste issues are so bad

The term is technician now days not mechanic- I plug the computer in and if it can't find an already programmed fault,  then there is nothing wrong . 
New parts come with warranty by manufacturer, rebuilt by the person doing it. New parts have good profit margin as well.  
In my apprenticeship we stripped/ rewound/rebuilt electrical motors etc. 
With the price of stuff being driven down, the disposable society has arisen.
My local dealers service guy, a young one at that, has loved going old school working on my G's and knows about fuel pump problems and says I cannot tell advise you to do it but can tell where to look.

GSX1100G wrote:The term is technician now days not mechanic- I plug the computer in and if it can't find an already programmed fault,  then there is nothing wrong . 
New parts come with warranty by manufacturer, rebuilt by the person doing it. New parts have good profit margin as well.  
In my apprenticeship we stripped/ rewound/rebuilt electrical motors etc. 
With the price of stuff being driven down, the disposable society has arisen.

Yeh, I get all of that, it's still sad and very wasteful IMHO, not to mention the skills being lost, it was well and truly starting to happen when I was still on the tools in the mid 90's, it has gotten progressively worse since then.

Interesting you mention rewinds, that was the only thing we outsourced when doing electrical component rebuilds.

I now work with a couple of late 30's/mid 40's former mechanics/technicians. One was dealer trained and worked in a variety of dealers after he was qualified, fantastic at diagnosing electrical/electronic issues, struggles with most other things, the other, trained and stayed with the same independent family owned garage until he took a different career path like myself, he's ok with the electrical/electronic side but very good with the old school way of repairing components, that reflects the old school mechanic that trained him.

As for me now, I can remember going from a maintenance and repair background to an inspection and compliance area, one of the senior inspectors training me said you'll look back in 10 years time and the technology will have gotten away from you and you'll be lost. He was 100& right, I still so the "mechanical" and "lube" maintenance and repairs to my 2 cars, motorbike, trailer and mower/whipper snipper etc but anything requiring electronic diagnosis, I have some idea but take it to my mates workshop.

If I ever went back into a workshop environment I would have a lot to offer, particularly with heavy vehicle inspection but my on the tools I would be somewhat limited now, electronic diesel engines were still very new when I stopped, I did service a few but nothing had "gone wrong" with them at the point I changed careers

Ain’t that the truth. Had a similar issue with an AC compressor in my Subaru recently. After 160K or so the clutch in the compressor wears and won’t engage properly when warm. This can be easily fixed by removing a couple of shims but standard dealer practice is just to replace the whole thing- exacerbated by the fact that due to a lack of anti-seize in the original assembly the clutch housing is often seized on and can’t be removed. What should be a job that could be done with an hours labour and no parts becomes a complete replacement plus a regas, costing well upwards of $1000 with genuine dealer parts. I bought a compressor off AliExpress and got a local AC mechanic to install and regas it, and managed to get away with a $600 bill, but that was still $500 more than it should’ve cost.

Does anyone have a spare fuel sender and pump assembly?
Look like I'm up for a new sender as the connector has corroded and the mesh screen has been dug out by the dealer I bought the bike from. Pure genius.

Chook wrote:
It's a sad reflection of what "repairing" has become in he past 40 years.

When I did my apprenticeship we rebuilt most things, Starter Motors, Alternators/Generators, Water Pumps, Wheel Cylinders, Air Brake Actuators, we even relined our own riveted brake shoe. Basically if something was broken it was stripped and evaluated, if it could be rebuilt, it was rebuilt, now it's just bolt on, bolt off.

Sadly now it's just a throw away society, no wonder our waste issues are so bad

I know exactly what you mean! Having been, and still am, a DIESEL MECHANIC not technician for 47 years I've seen this change as well. However in my line of business, fixing tractors etc, I still rebuild a lot of components through either necessity (parts no longer available) or cost. Farmers have always been tight with their money! Getting a machine going with only what you have with you in the van or what you can find around the property your on, can be immensely satisfying. (bush mechanicing at it's best)

I've found that electonics in modern diesels & 4wd's etc. not bewildering but a challenge. I still enjoy learning about new technology in machinery whether it's a bike, car or tractor. I guess that's why I'm still in the trade.

As for being a mechanic not a technician, I've always thought a technician is a person who tries to diagnose a problem while a mechanic is the one who fixes the problem.

kelpie wrote:
As for being a mechanic not a technician, I've always thought a technician is a person who tries to diagnose a problem while a mechanic is the one who fixes the problem.

Spot on!!

Did mine again last night for (hopefully) the final time. I’d originally done it last year and the bike was running fine, but The bike was parked up for the best part of 4 months while I was in the USA. On returning it had got water and rust in the fuel and it fouled the teabag badly. I cleaned out the pump assembly and put new gas in, but the problem still started to resurface, due to there being rust around the bottom of the tank and on the back of the plate where the fuel pump assembly mounts. A fresh tank of had already accumulated enough crap to start to block the new teabag. So I pulled everything apart again and this time washed the tank out with water then dropped a litre of chemtech rust-off diluted at 1:1 into it and left it for half an hour, which dissolved all the internal rust. Then washed it out thoroughly, rinsed it out with metho, drained and left the residual metho to evaporate for a bit then refilled with fresh fuel. Revs past redline now again and hopefully won’t foul again.