Project My 96 Suzuki Across

Hello there internet!
So this past weekend i found myself purchasing a bike. as the title suggests its a suzuki across.

picked it up off of gumtree for what i consider a very good price (it was under $500) but it does need a little work.
it was advertised as having a flat battery and an idle issue. i was skeptical but went and had a look anyway.
when i picked it up the fairings were all over the place (to access the battery i guess?) nothing was bolted on. the bike wouldnt idle, and the rego had expired. but i bought it anyway

i got it home and looked it over more thoroughly. it turned out the battery was fine, and the terminals were just so badly corroded that it wasnt making a connection. cleaned them and it worked fine. started it up and tried to diagnose the idle issue. idle set screw. simple fix.
but that hasnt solved everything. the bike runs very rich and the previous owner has wrecked the carbs at some stage. he has tried to rebuild it by the looks and lost the screws, so he replaced them will self tapping wood screws (side note, im looking for a replacement set of carbs. internals dont really matter i just need decent carb bodies with all the screws. if you have a pair and willing to sell, please pm me.)

so leaning out the carbs will be hard (not that i actually know how to do this).
next major issue was the oil. the oil was severely over filled, and it was as black as the ace of spades. and honestly had the viscosity of water. perhaps running rich has led to fuel mixing with the oil? anyway fresh oil in it now and see how it looks after its first ride.

chucked in a new set of plugs while i was at it. the old ones looked pretty gross:


after the oil change i went through my tool box and found a bunch of random screws to hold the fairings on while i wait for an ebay universal bolt kit to arrive.

after that gave it a wash, and here is the result:




any tips or tricks you guys might have to help me get this thing back on the road would be greatly appreciated.

 

One last thing before i go to bed.
My local parts shops don't have listings for bike bits, making parts hard to get.
if anyone could give me part numbers for ryco/k&n (or any other regularly stocked brand) air and oil filters, that would be an amazing help.

 

Thanks mate, will check them out

 

Ebay has plenty of oil filters, but the only air filter listed on there is over 40 bucks. Not keen to pay close to that.
I found a filter for a 250 bandit that looks similar for ten bucks. Might be able to make it fit. Will post results

 

Awesome
Thanks mate.

 

update:
tried to work out the cause of running so rich today. what is alarming me is there seems to be un-burnt fuel coming out of the exhaust...
im not really sure what could cause this?
it definitely isnt water or oil as it evaporates rather quickly.

pulled the carbies apart to check the slide holders and the needle clip position.
the slide holders all seem fine and in usable order. one has a slight wiggle to it but nothing major. i will replace them all later on.
the clips are in position 2, so only one spot left to lean it out.
i re set the pilot screws to factory and ran the bike a little. im going to do a compression test when my kit arrives next week.
until then should i move the clips up to lean it more or is there something else happening here?

EDIT: maybe a stuck float or something? would that cause it to run rich?

 

I'm new to all this so wouldn't know a bad one if I saw it probably.
I think I'm going to pull the carbies down completely tomorrow and have a good look at them. Found the carb section in the manual so I'll check everything over and give it a good clean and hope that fixes it.
Otherwise I'll have to pay someone to go over it.

 

That sounds like it could be it.
I'll update when Ive got it all pulled apart

 

Currently have the carbs apart.
The needle looks fine to me. Trying to find a set of callipers to verify float height, looks way out.

 

Cant get a picture measuring cos I don't have enough hands. But float plate wasn't touching the needle at all. Bent it and brought height up to spec as best I can. Here's hoping.

 

I'd call it firm. definitely hard but there seemed to be a little give in there. ill see how it goes once back together.