Motorcycle Repair: Bike dies when I put it in gear, clutch plates, batery


Question
The bike is a 1990 suzuki GSX600F. It runs in nuetral, but as soon as I put it in gear it dies.  I'm not sure if it is a cluth problem or something else.  I did run a new wire from the batery to the ignition because I had no power to the ignition, so I was wondering if the bike might have some kind of antitheft mechanism.

Answer
Mark,

will the bike keep running
if you get it rolling and put
it in gear?
If so, the clutch may be locked
up. The clutch plates sometimes get stuck
together from corrosion or wear.

If it still stalls out, I suspect
it might be the clutch switch,
you can test that with a multimeter.
It just goes on or off.

There may also be a side stand
switch which kills the engine
when the stand is down.

Does the bike rev up okay when in
neutral? If not the carbs or
fuel system may be plugged up.

See if all the pipes are getting hot
to make sure it is running on all
cylinders. Don't burn yourself though.