I was looking for a 1978 to 1980 GS550 E or C that had a bad motor. I have a parts bike that has a 2,300 mile motor that turns out runs really well as it should.What I found was a 1982 550L that the previous owner thought it had a bad head gasket? He got it on trade two months before and couldn't get her started.I put it on my lift and found out it had great compression and spark. Pulled the carbs and they were very dirty. While waiting for carb kits I pulled the valve cover and found out that just like the carbs no one had ever been in there. 7 out of 8 shims needed to be changed. I ordered my shims from the shim exchange and while waiting I ordered a new rear tire the front was almost new as was the battery as the previous owner had just put one in. Also ordered new Daytona Handle bars and a valve shim tool. The carb kits came and I put them back together. The shims came and I put them in ( found out that the zip tie worked better than my new shim tool! ) I put my carbs on my carb holder on the bench to check and make sure all of the needles and seats were sealing and found out Carb #1 was overflowing! Why didn't I check this out while I was waiting for shims?? I made 4 plugs for the bottom drain hole in my carbs with some copper nipples on them and set the floats accordingly, slid them back on the bike ( slid is not exactly how they went on! LOL ) I used new CalTec boots and new cycle o-rings and boot screws. Put my temporary fuel tank on and click boom she is a runner! I did have to adjust my Idle screws out a turn to get her to idle without stalling. Come next spring I can do more fine tuning as I am not ready to ride in zero degree weather with 8 inches of snow on the ground here. I still have things to do, but was happy to hear the bike run.
As you can tell I was excited to see some progress I have had this bike on my table for 6 weeks and really wasn't in a big hurry to finish my winter project yet, even though I have bought another project bike. This L model shows just over 20,000 miles and wasn't hurt so I feel real lucky. I bought the bike for $ 250.00 and now have around $ 600.00 into it in total, I will keep looking for a bike to put my spare motor in!
Has any one put different bars on an L model? The cables were long as well as the brake line. I used my Parts bike clutch cable and it pulls a little stiff due I think to binding where it goes through the triple clamps. I am going to find some bars with a taller rise and would like to find some C or L model bars with more rise. I have added a bar riser and it helps some.
As you can tell I was excited to see some progress I have had this bike on my table for 6 weeks and really wasn't in a big hurry to finish my winter project yet, even though I have bought another project bike. This L model shows just over 20,000 miles and wasn't hurt so I feel real lucky. I bought the bike for $ 250.00 and now have around $ 600.00 into it in total, I will keep looking for a bike to put my spare motor in!
Has any one put different bars on an L model? The cables were long as well as the brake line. I used my Parts bike clutch cable and it pulls a little stiff due I think to binding where it goes through the triple clamps. I am going to find some bars with a taller rise and would like to find some C or L model bars with more rise. I have added a bar riser and it helps some.
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