Taking care of everything in one shot.....

[Reddog170]

I am not tearing the entire bike apart, just almost. I do intend on doing a cafe racer project with her, but with a twist. Right now I am just wanting to get her running, and running right. I have found the previous owners have done just to many little things to patch it up for me to be comfortable hitting the road without going through everything first.
She is a 1981 GS1000GL. Someone has put a V&H 4 into 1 exhaust on and removed the guts from the pipe, I have already replaced that. I found O-Rings around the engine side of the carbs, no idea why. I found wiring held together with duck tape and several other little things. I made the decision the pull the engine, repair the wiring corectly and clean her up real well.
Time for some questions. DO I need to pull the rear wheel and shaft before pulling the engine or can I just disconnect the shaft from the engine? I HATE RTV or any other type of gasket sealler (where does the extra on the inside go when you squeeze the two halves together) so can I put the valve cover together with a dry gasket on this? I found out on my Dodge that in some cases you have put some sealer on the gasket. And last question is simple, is it safe to powerwash the engine?
Thank You all for your help, Shaun

[Dogma]

Find out where all the openings are before power washing, and stay away from them. With the exception of the head gasket, everything is paper gaskets. OS don't put high pressure right on any joint.

The cam cover gasket goes on dry or with grease smeared on (to facilitate removal at the next valve check). Or with non-hardening gasket dressing, if you like.

The engine will separate from the drive shaft and come out with the swing arm installed. It's a heavy lump though. Are you sure you need to get it out? It comes out the right side. Some people don't figure that out. Consult a service manual for the procedure. They're cheap, or even a free download.

You're definitely on the right path, getting her reliable before taking on cosmetic mods, especially permanent mods that involve cutting the frame. So many bikes die on the wrong path...

[Reddog170]

Well as I suspected someone has been in the cam area as well. At least I believe so. I have clearances that go from to small to measure to .20mm. Maybe this is normal, I just do not see such a wide range as being normal wear. Much work to do and more to come. Shaun

[Dogma]

Well as I suspected someone has been in the cam area as well. At least I believe so. I have clearances that go from to small to measure to .20mm. Maybe this is normal, I just do not see such a wide range as being normal wear. Much work to do and more to come. Shaun

Some people swap in shims with intentionally oversize clearance to increase the number of miles until the new shim needs to be swapped out. 0.2mm is extreme, but it's better than no clearance at all. So yeah, you're not the first one in there adjusting clearances. And that's a good thing! At least some PO had the initiative to get in there and do some maintenance.

[Reddog170]

Intake boot nightmares..... I thought when I replaced the o-rings a po had put around the base of the carbs I was replacing the intake o-rings, until I found a picture on here. I have been trying to remove the intake boots. I got one off and two other screws out. The rest have cost me several hours of frustrated work, several impact bits and still will not budge. I have tried heating them up with penetrating oil to no avail. Three were stripped before I started. So I am hoping someone here has an idea that has not come to my mind, otherwise I am breaking out the drill and ez outs. Thank you, Shaun

[boingk]

Best penetrating methods I know are heating and then quenching with wax - cheap white candles work fine. Wax penetrates the hot threads and helps you undo it.

Otherwise use 50/50 mix of kerosene and ATF. Best antiseize known to man.

- boingk

Edit: if the heads are stripped try making them into a regular blade style by dremmeling or sawing a slit in the head.

[Steve]

Otherwise use 50/50 mix of kerosene and ATF. Best antiseize known to man.

I have also heard similar claims about a 50/50 mix of Acetone and ATF.

.

[G.S.Joe]

Intake boot nightmares..... I thought when I replaced the o-rings a po had put around the base of the carbs I was replacing the intake o-rings, until I found a picture on here. I have been trying to remove the intake boots. I got one off and two other screws out. The rest have cost me several hours of frustrated work, several impact bits and still will not budge. I have tried heating them up with penetrating oil to no avail. Three were stripped before I started. So I am hoping someone here has an idea that has not come to my mind, otherwise I am breaking out the drill and ez outs. Thank you, Shaun

I had the same issue and ended up turning some female phillips heads into mush. Soaked them in PB Blaster every morning before work for a week, then with some patience went at them with needle-nosed Vice-Grips. Came off with a little fuss. The ones I hadn't mushed I borrowed a MANUAL impact driver for (I didn't know manual ones existed, much better for this application) and had them off with no fuss. You can do a lot with just the small amount of room you have to swing the hammer. You really only need to get one screw off, then tap the boot carefully to pivot it and loosen the other bolt.


FIRST PLUG UP YOUR INTAKE THOUGH! I used balls of paper to keep debris out of the motor.

If you don't have luck with the stripped ones I would cut a new slot to get a flat-head bit in there with the impact driver.