what did you wrench on today??

[trevor]

Looks fantastic! I know what you are saying about the rear rack....pita

[Baatfam]

Finally got the paint complete on the 1100E. I painted the tank and front fender about a year ago and just now got it back together after painting the rear cowl and side covers.

That rear rack is a PITA to install. You need 4 hands, tiny little fingers and a blessing from the pope to get it all lined up! Anyone that has installed one knows!

Looking good, Ron!

[rphillips]

Yep, everything looks great... One of the very, very few GS1100E's I've ever seen with a rack.

[johnod]

Looks very nice

[alke46]

Looking good, must be ready to sell.

[storm 64]

Looks great Ron. If you do think you might want to sell it. Give me first dibs, seriously.
I have a 82 but I chopped it into a dragbike when I was a crazy young man...
Now that I'm a crazy older man I'd like another.

[1978GS750E]

Looks great Ron. If you do think you might want to sell it. Give me first dibs, seriously.
I have a 82 but I chopped it into a dragbike when I was a crazy young man...
Now that I'm a crazy older man I'd like another.

Sorry Norm, this one's a keeper! I've sold two recently and I'm down to only 2 old Suzuki's now. Of course, winter is on the way and there has to be one needing rescued out there somewhere!

Now, if you're interested in a '79 GS850 we can talk!

[scratch]

My old fuse box was leaking some serious juice, outputs (from 10.4v to 11.8 measured on the output side, lowest at ignition fuse) and went to rebuild it to discover brittle fuse holders and a pile of solder & grime that shouldn't have been there... could have cobbled it back together but, my parts bin turned up a universal 4 blade box and decided to wire it and test it out... I'll need to clean up the wires and fab a better mount plate (this is just mounted to a fit piece of 3/8" ply cut & wedged into the old bracket to test it out) but, the trial really changed a lot of things for the better... all the lights got brighter etc. Coil volts were borderline before, I'll have the tank off later in the week to check how they are now but, for under $10 and some bench time with the soldering iron, it made a hella difference. (yes, I need a 12v blade fuse... yes, there are still a lot of other connections to clean... )

[Big Block]

Almost finished my Thousand. It's been a fighter the last couple of weeks but that's okay. finish1.jpg

[Big Block]

I just have to restuff the seat and touchup the grounds and I think it's ready to roll in the spring. finish2.jpg

[trevor]

I just have to restuff the seat and touchup the grounds and I think it's ready to roll in the spring. finish2.jpg

She's a beauty!!!!

[Big Block]

Getting to be chilly to ride, more of air cooled weather than the modern bike so doing a valve set on the GS1250EF. 10lbs of stuff in a 5lb bag as it were. I'm just breaking for lunch, I have it torn down and just need to check clearances now. Maybe have to order a shim or two, hopefully not. And it's done. It had a very slight tick at first start but it would go away right away so I thought they'd be fine and they all are in middle to loose end of spec. So that was a good day, took about 6 hours, going slow. valve set.jpg

[Big Block]

Finally fixed the last thing on the list for my 1000. I've been putting it off but it was a fast fix. Checked the relay, ohmed the cables then pulled out the starter to check the brushes starter joy.jpg and clean the armature. Usually I'm bad at soldering but I nailed this one well. Happy to have the bike all ready for spring now. Now it's 16c outside too so I think I'll take the 1100 out for a rip to celebrate.

[Shin-Ken 1074]

Had planned to go for a ride last weekend on the Kat however, one slow wind on the starter motor and the battery was dead so no ride Saturday. Put the battery on slow charge for a couple of days and all seemed OK and went for a ride to a mates place. I was telling him about the flat battery and he offered to test the charging output with a multi-meter. Fired up the Kat, meter on and zero charge from the system, only showing battery volts and they were down to 11.9, yikes! HHmmmm, the stator and reg/rec are the original ones fitted from the factory 43 years and 210,000 km ago so our thoughts were the stator was on the Fritz. Not using the headlight would give me enough power to get home, so I thought. Key in and turn, hit the button and nothing, no click at the starter relay and no starter motor action.

From running to nothing, great!

Pushed the scooter into the garage and we started checking things, kill switch to "Run", fuse box, ignition (key) connection to the harness, right switchblock connections, removed the starter button from the switchblock and cleaned copper contacts on the starter button and circuit board, tested the kill switch contacts and reassembled the switchblock. Key on, hit the button, nothing.

Used the meter to check the harness from the ignition through to the starter relay, all good. Put power to the starter motor and it spun up no problem there. Put direct power to the starter relay and it clicked away just fine. Now we were running out of ideas so rang a mate for some advice. Told him what we had done and still no start. He suggested we check the electric panel earth where the reg/rec earth wire is connected to the panel. Bingo, bad earth. To ensure a good quality earth he suggested we install an earth wire from the reg/rec earth wire to a solid part of the frame. Selected one of the airbox mounting bolts and sanded off the paint as well as sanding the electric panel Reg/rec earth mount.

Fitted the new earth wire, reconnected the battery, hit the button and she fired up! With it running we checked the battery volts and then checked charging volts. The system is now providing 13.60 volts. The bad earth had taken the charging system off line over the last few days causing the flat battery and then the same earth point for the starter relay on the electrics panel decided to pack it in so no circuit for the starter relay - no engine start.

So after a couple of hours tinkering she is back together and running well. Will take her out for a longer run on Thursday and then check the battery and charging system again. So far so good.



No start 1 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr


No start 2 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr


No start 3 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr


No start 4 by Max Mutarn, on Flickro start 4 by Max Mutarn, on Flickr

[steve murdoch]

Nice group effort in tracking down the problem.
Any thoughts on what would have caused this "ground" to go bad?