Fork swappin'

[Anonymous]

A friend from another board told me this is the place for GS info.

I have a 77 GS550 that was backed into and left to die by some very very very inconsiderate person. The only damage, and quiet honestly i don't know how much damage there really is was done to the front end. After some tugging and pulling I was able to realign the handle bars and the front tire (?). The forks dumped all of their oil the day of the hit and run so I'm not sure just yet if I just need to replace all the seals and check for other internal damage or buy a new set of forks....

therein lies my question.


I ran across a set of GS550 forks but the bike was an 85. I have an old suzuki manual and the book covers all the bikes from 77 to 86, so I assuemed since they blanketed the manual that maybe the two forks could be interchangeable.

So does anyone know if this is possible or should I just get the idea out of my mind.

I appreciate any suggestions and I know I'll be hitting this board now that I've found it.

GS77 AKA TIMMAY

[HiSPL]

Hi, and welcome to the Resources.
I don't have specific info on your swap, but, Suzuki seemed to believe that a headstock was just a place to hold two sets of bearings apart. Very little has changed over the years concerning front end geometry. chances are it will fit. So will GSXR, Katana, SV650, TL-R/S, And so on and so forth.....
Good Luck,
-Tim

[Anonymous]

Re: Fork swappin'

If the oil is on the outside chances are the seals need to replaced. I had the same thing happen and tried to get away without changing them but realized that it was a BAD idea when the front end started sinking on the expressway. Talk about a squirrely ride.

A friend from another board told me this is the place for GS info.

I have a 77 GS550 that was backed into and left to die by some very very very inconsiderate person. The only damage, and quiet honestly i don't know how much damage there really is was done to the front end. After some tugging and pulling I was able to realign the handle bars and the front tire (?). The forks dumped all of their oil the day of the hit and run so I'm not sure just yet if I just need to replace all the seals and check for other internal damage or buy a new set of forks....

therein lies my question.


I ran across a set of GS550 forks but the bike was an 85. I have an old suzuki manual and the book covers all the bikes from 77 to 86, so I assuemed since they blanketed the manual that maybe the two forks could be interchangeable.

So does anyone know if this is possible or should I just get the idea out of my mind.

I appreciate any suggestions and I know I'll be hitting this board now that I've found it.

GS77 AKA TIMMAY

[Anonymous]

A fork swap may not be possible in this case because of the steering head bearings.
A '77 model's steering head stem is 27mm in diameter while I would be fairly certain that the '85 model's is 30mm. Outer diameters for the lower bearings also changed in that period.
Suzuki changed over the steering head bearing sizes about 1978-79. Upper bearings remained the same (I think 25mm internal/47mm external diameters from memory) but the lowers were enlarged.

I found this out AFTER buying a lovely set of GS1100G forks for my 1978 GS750E. Subsequently fitted them to my GS1000.

[Anonymous]

what forks fit?

You could try measuring the outside dia. of your existing steering head bearings,the inside dia. from the forks you want to use, and seeing if the local bearing supply store can fix you up with something. I've heard about (but never actually seen) guys use this to fit later model GSXR forks to older GS's. Anyone else ever try this? Pete.