i have 1983 1st gen gsl. Me and a friend have been trying to get it up and running but we keep running into the same problem. It'll crank, run, and then cut off after about 10 seconds. it doesnt really make sense. sometimes it'll just spin when holding the key and pumping the gas, when other times itll crank right up. I have a good spark, we've just cleaned the floats and the chamber for the floats, and cleaned the fuel lines in the carb. we've noticed that the secondary jets fill their bowls, but sometimes not the primary's. even after cleaning them.

could this be the result of the old and rusted fuel pump? or am i missing something? like we've had it running where it would stay running with my foot on the pedal, and we had it going for 5 minutes straight till we tried to let it idle multiple times one day. it'd die after we took out foot off the gas, but that is probably because we have to adjust the idle screw. but now it wont do it again.

 

Could be the pump, but unless you took about 3 hours to clean the Carb, it is still dirty.

The stock Nikki carb is very complex inside.

 

yeah,we only took the top off to get to the floats, and cleaned them for about 30 minutes. haha. but what else should i look into in diagnosing it?

 

You need to rebuild the Carb, the local auto parts can get the rebuild kits quick.

It is got to be the carb

If you want to see if it will run longer, use starter fluid as the fuel, just keep spaying it in there as it is running

 

it does run longer when i use starter fluid or even carb cleaner as fuel. so its gotta be the carb for sure?

 

Yep

 

alright. im not too sure about rebuilding it, but im gonna pick up a kit tomorrow and try. hopefully its not hard. while im at it, im gonna get rid of all the unnecessary emissions stuff on it too.