General Maintanence Questions for 81 GS550L

[Levi]

Hi all,

I just purchased a 1981 gs550L, but it didn't come with a manual. I want to know how to keep this baby running smoothly. Here are a few questions, I would greatly appreciate any advice you folks could give me.

1. Where should I look to get a manual?

2. How do you change the oil? How do you check the oil level? What oil do you all recomend? How often should I change the oil?

3. Where is the air filter, and how can that be changed?

4. My high-beam bulb is out, how do I replace this and where should I look for parts?

5. Any other routine maintanence that should be done that I may be overlooking?

That's all I can think of for now, if anyone has answers to any of these questions and would like to help a new gs owner out, well let me thank you in advance.

Hope you all have a great riding season!

[semerm]

Nice Bike-
You can get a Chlymer manual on ebay for this bike. That will help you with many of the questions as well as maintence how to's.

I have a 850, so mine may be different but on mine (and also my wife's Kawi) you put the bike on the center stand and on the right side of the motor (bottom) you may see a glass piece where there is a H and L (I think). H is for high and l is for low and this is your oil level.
I will leave the other answers to the manual or other people's posts as I do not have a 550 and the info can be different.
For type of oil, there are many opinions out here. I stick with regular oil (not synthetic) designed for motorcycles.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the bike.

[jimcor]

That is one nice 550L. I like the seat. Is that vinyl or is that genuine leather?

You can check with JC Whitney for the Clymer manual as another option. Also there is a website that specializes in instruction manuals try a Google.

Oil capacity for the 81 550L is: With filter change 2.7 US quarts. WithOUT filter 2.5 US quarts. After overhaul 2.9 US quarts.

The oil filter I use is the Fram CH-6000. Comes with gasket $4.00 from Advance Auto Parts. Same filter fits all GS550 engines.

Owners manual calls for 10W40 oil. I use a name brand automotive non-synthetic oil, usually whatever is on sale, and I change it every 1000 miles or so. Yes, I can do an oil only change for about $3. I change the filter every other time, or so. This works for me. My odometer proves it. You will get second opinions, however.

When changing your oil remember, your oil plug is just a plug. So take it easy on it, don't strip it by over tightening. Plenty tales of woe from strong guys on this forum. Same goes with the 3 10mm nuts that hold the filter cover on, on the front of the engine. Take it easy don't overtighten anything.

Lift the seat, air cleaner is in the box with the hoses on top. 2 screws holds the cover in place. Another screw holds the filter frame in place. Clean the filter foam in Dawn dishwashing detergent. That's a $14 piece of foam so take it easy. If it's deteriorated, see if your local auto parts store sells UNI air filter foam. Cut a piece to fit the framework. If not your Suzuki dealer will luv to sell you the $14 job.

Your headlight bulb is another part that can be sourced from the local auto parts store. Don't touch the glass on the new bulb. Skin oils cause hot spots on hologen bulbs and cause failure.

[bwringer]

http://repairmanuals.com

[cberkeley]

Here's a tip: Go to http://www.alpha-sports.com/suzuki_parts.htm and download all the microfische exploded views and parts lists for your particular bike. Convert them to Adobe pdf files and burn them to a CD (you may have to resort to copy/paste into Microsoft Word, and distill to pdf format, like I did to make it happen). Well worth the effort though and it's a wonderful reference. I consult mine first, then I look at the Clymer Manual.
Just $0.02 worthfrom this old fart:-D
Great looking ride BTW!

[kalessin]

By the way, there should be two screws in roughly the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock positions on the trim ring on the headlight. Remove the two screws, lift the bottom of the ring forward and up, and you can get to the back of the headlight reflector where the bulb sits.

[Levi]

Wow! Thanks everyone for your posts, they are very helpful indeed! I just ordered a manual and am planning to do an oil change when it gets here. I will probably have more questions when I tear into it, lucky for me I found this forum.

By the way, I believe the seat is vinyl. It has quite a nice flame stitching design. The previous owner told me that he paid $300 to have it done, then he told me never to tell his wife how much he spent on it.

Thanks again!

[Levi]

Oil leak remedy...

I am looking at my bike this morning after putting on about 60 miles yesterday, I notice that my oil is on the low marker, before my trip it was in the middle of the oil gage. I look under the bike and notice there is definitly signs of a leak. How does one go about finding where an oil leak is coming from? It doesn't look all that difficult to take off the oil pan and replace the gasket, that would be my guess and it doesn't seem like it would be all that expensive either. Is this a simple project or is there a whole world of "could go wrongs" when you pop off the oil pan? Also, do any of you know what size the oil plug is?

Thanks