New GS 550 owner in the UK

[Samxboy]

Hello,
Purchased my GS550 N last week and already into the project refresh. I think I was quite lucky in that the bike is largely original with some 12k miles. Still has the original Bridgestone front tyre made in Japan....rock hard. It appears to have stopped being ridden in early 80's according to the NY inspection sticker. Someone had taken off the stator cover, maybe to replace it? but upon reassembly had gotten the intermediate gears reversed so no cranking. the Oil had slowly leaked out the points corroded so no spark and that's it. I picked it up pretty cheap with original exhausts as well. Unusual colour and guess what no left hand side panel...where do these things go?
Stripping down the carbs first and OMG, they're so fiddly and the 40 years of corrosion internally doesn't help. Sourcing new O rings and cleaning out the ports is a nightmare. Will need to soda blast the bodies as they turned an awful black, grey colour in the wash.... Hopefully get it running next week....

[steve murdoch]

Welcome to the site, Sam.
Cosmetically the bike looks great.
Talk to site member Nessism about o-rings.

https://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/member/1969-nessism

[rphillips]

NY inspection sticker... Is there another NY besides New York, Looooong way between Waterlooville and New York. Not that it matters, just wondering..... Oh yeah, Welcome, and nice looking bike.

[Samxboy]

NY inspection sticker... Is there another NY besides New York, Looooong way between Waterlooville and New York. Not that it matters, just wondering..... Oh yeah, Welcome, and nice looking bike.

It was only recently imported to the UK. Been a US bike since new. I live partly in the US so will be trying to track down parts when I'm next back there...Seems like they had pretty high sales volumes ...

[Nessism]

Lots of good info here...https://gsarchive.bwringer.com/

Look for the VM carb rebuild guide.

VM's have zinc bodies, which turn dark very easily when trying to clean them. They will even turn dark in an ultrasonic, from the heat. They are a pain in that regard.

I have O-ring kits, and ship to the UK.

[Samxboy]

Thanks. Any thoughts on how to reverse or correct the darkening? Was thinking of soda blasting?

[Redman]

Hello,
Purchased my GS550 N last week and already into the project refresh. .
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Welcome.

Nice intro post.