1981 GS450E Rebuild

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
This painting discussion reminded me of something I've been curious about for a long time. When you get runs, do they go up or down?
Niels

[Guest]

Pete,
This painting discussion reminded me of something I've been curious about for a long time. When you get runs, do they go up or down?
Niels

Gravity works the same down here, but the centrifugal force of the earth spinning is higher and they go left...

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
I'm more confused than ever! Is that your left or mine?
Niels

[Guest]

Pete,
I'm more confused than ever! Is that your left or mine?
Niels

Hahahaha my left

Oh, and I thought you'd be viking rider by now?

[Guest]

Ok, three hours in the garage last night yielded an installed and wired in new dash

Got it fully assembled with the nyloc nuts and relay on the back:



Next I spliced in a wire from the ignition switch to turn the relay on and off with the ignition:



I got all the crimp terminals on the wiring and hooked up to the relay ready for installation:



You can see the momentary push button switch in the bottom right corner there which will allow me to switch over to battery monitor mode while the ignition is on.

And got it all bolted up and wired in. Excuse the filthy fly screen, she's in desperate need of a spit and polish but haven't had time for weeks and they reckon it's gonna be raining again this week...



Test ride today to work and back, and man it's nice to have that gear position indicator back!

So far so good...

[Guest]

I'm also sick of seeing this:



A little bit of blow-by dripping from the breather filter up under the tank results in a big mess on my new battery box cover... so I'm going to make a catch tank out of some PVC pipe I have laying around, and I still have plenty of 12mm hose too:



So far, I've worked out it will go here:



I'll have the filter on the right end where I'm holding it so it's on the high side with the bike on the side stand, then I'll have a drain tap on the left side and the breather hose will go in the left side also.

Marked out where I will put the fittings and got the pilot holes drilled and those two half pieces you see there are getting glued inside so I have a thicker layer of PVC to mount the fittings in:



Then I got the second layer of PVC in with some glue (if you look close you can just see the pilot holes are now stopping at the second layer):



Then I got a little disc of the PVC to mark out the circles I'll cut out of some of the scrap acrylic perspex for the ends so they can double as viewing windows for the level:

[ndaugbjerg]

The mad scientist hits another home run!
Niels

[Mr Rogers]

That is so cool pete! you make me want to get the lights in my dash board running again!

The only problem is that i love being in third at night and having no idea what speed i'm going!

Ok, three hours in the garage last night yielded an installed and wired in new dash

Got it fully assembled with the nyloc nuts and relay on the back:



Next I spliced in a wire from the ignition switch to turn the relay on and off with the ignition:



I got all the crimp terminals on the wiring and hooked up to the relay ready for installation:



You can see the momentary push button switch in the bottom right corner there which will allow me to switch over to battery monitor mode while the ignition is on.

And got it all bolted up and wired in. Excuse the filthy fly screen, she's in desperate need of a spit and polish but haven't had time for weeks and they reckon it's gonna be raining again this week...



Test ride today to work and back, and man it's nice to have that gear position indicator back!

So far so good...

[Guest]

The mad scientist hits another home run!
Niels

Haha cheers Niels!

That is so cool pete! you make me want to get the lights in my dash board running again!

The only problem is that i love being in third at night and having no idea what speed i'm going!

Hahahahahahah at least you now have an answer to the "Do you know how fast you were going?" question

[Guest]

Got the round pieces of perspex cut out this avo and the inlet side of the tap cut off to allow me to flush mount it to the PVC pipe, otherwise the hose tail wouldn't allow the oil to drain if it still poked up into the pipe:



Got the holes for the fittings drilled and also the hole for the tap, and it's a bit hard to see but I filed the area around it flat to give a nice surface for the glue to bond the tap to:



Got the fittings screwed in, and they're a nice tight fit with that second layer of PVC inside:



And the tap is glued on and I've just wrapped masking tape around to hold it firmly and let it bond fully overnight:



I sanded the areas around all the holes so I just need to give the rest a quick sand and clean, mask the fittings and tap off, then it's time for the black plastic paint.

Once that's done, I can get the perspex end caps glued in and mount it up ready to go.

[Good Times]

Pretty slick idea there Pete. Can't wait to see it finished up.

[Guest]

Pretty slick idea there Pete. Can't wait to see it finished up.

Thanks mate, me neither! I really want to clean up the oil on the battery cover and not see it come back...

After this, there's the rear carry rack, and then the 450 will be 100% complete, done, and dusted... then I can just ride and service her

[Guest]

Got it all sanded down, cleaned up, masked, and hung up for paint:



Then four coats of this:



I also got the perspex end caps filed down so they should slot in the ends nicely so they can be glued in place.

Gotta wait 24 hours for the paint, then the end caps can go on.

I won't mount it up yet, I'll wait until after she's had a big bath which I should get done on Saturday, and that way I can make sure there's a difference and no oil ending up on the battery cover.

[Guest]

Here it is:



The paint should be dry tonight but it still felt a touch sticky to me so I just took it easy with it while I got the end caps glued in.

I did have one issue though which was the tap coming off when turning it on and off... bugger! Not sure if the glue is the right stuff as I have no idea what the tap is made out of.

For now I've stuck it back on again and added a couple of cable ties for support, so hopefully that's enough otherwise I have to find something else to glue it with.

Anyway, here it is with the end caps on, and the glue unfortunately has run a bit on one side, but I'll still be able to see the level:



I should be washing the bike on Saturday, so I hope to be able to mount this after doing that so the next time I start her after the bath I won't have blow by landing on the battery cover again...

[Guest]

There was something not right with the paint on the breather catch tank.

It was still a tad sticky to the touch this morning (well after the required 24 hours) and there were a few bubbly looking bits, so I decided to sort it out.

Gave it a quick sand with 400 grit paper tonight and got two light coats of paint over it.

After the 10 minute touch dry time, it already looked better than before, so that should sort it out I hope.

While I was rinsing it after the sanding, I let some water run in and it seemed to be water tight, and the tap allowed the water to drain, so hopefully it will both look and function ok.