1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Cheers Rich! Gotta check the carb balance and compression first too... I suspect the left cylinder's compression was just a touch down as that was the one weeping the oil, so my recent balancing may actually have them out of whack now.

No problem buddy.

Good luck with the test ride!

[pete]

Cheers Trax! Make sure you learn my lesson on Athena gaskets too, have been replacing the head gasket on mine this weekend because I used one... should be degreasing and test riding today, oil everywhere!

And cheers Rich, beat me to it!

Here's the thread Pete started for his carbs / jetting:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=207055

I have it saved in my subscriptions. Tons of great info!

Wow pete you have done some really nice work on your bike, Love the exhaust and custom dash man.

can you point me to the part where you do your jets on here? 100 pages is a quite a bit to sort through.


I only hope my project turns out half as good as yours has.

[pete]

Mate good stuff, glad to hear you got it sorted! And definitely well worth replacing those seals... the last thing you want is to go to all that trouble only to find out you have to do it again because you have an oil leak...

As for me, my tacho drive is removed and a blanking plate is there instead as I have the Acewell gauge which gets RPM from one of the coils.

Ooops...didn't mean to quote your message in my reply.

Hey mate, I don't recall having any issues like that but it was quite some time ago now...

To get the tacho drive out, you need to remove the screw (#26) holding the tacho drive sleeve (#22) to the head, which will allow you to remove the sleeve and then the tacho drive. Very worthwhile so you can replace the oil seal in there.



As for the issue of jumping out of time, what you can do (aside from installing the tensioner) is simply use the hand not torquing the cam caps down to hold the timing chain down in the centre between the camshafts. You should be able to put enough pressure on it for it not to jump.

I still don't recall having to do that but again I may be wrong...

I guess the other question is are you 100% sure you have it all timed and lined up right?

Thanks Pete. I'm not sure why I had so much trouble here, but I got a mechanic friend of mine to come over and lend me a hand. We were able to finally pop the tach gear out, but it wasn't causing the issue. Being the cam lobe for the left exhaust camshaft was pushing down on the shim to open the valve, it kept causing the camshaft to jump counter clock wise and out of time. After about 3 tries with him, we were able to get it with me holding the camshaft and chain to keep it from jumping. What a PITA...but it's finally done! I suppose I probably should replace the tach gear seals since it's out. Didn't really want to, but I have to wait for some other parts anyway, so I guess I'll add them to the order.

[pete]

Hey mate, I don't recall having any issues like that but it was quite some time ago now...

To get the tacho drive out, you need to remove the screw (#26) holding the tacho drive sleeve (#22) to the head, which will allow you to remove the sleeve and then the tacho drive. Very worthwhile so you can replace the oil seal in there.



As for the issue of jumping out of time, what you can do (aside from installing the tensioner) is simply use the hand not torquing the cam caps down to hold the timing chain down in the centre between the camshafts. You should be able to put enough pressure on it for it not to jump.

I still don't recall having to do that but again I may be wrong...

I guess the other question is are you 100% sure you have it all timed and lined up right?

Well, after a miserable week so far for weather and progress, I finally got back into the garage tonight.

So, first up, I oiled up the inlet shims and then managed to loosen off the camshaft bearing caps and oil the exhaust shims without screwing up the timing of the exhaust camshaft and also still allowing the tacho drive to remain sync'd up with the camshaft.

Next up, double check the timing I did earlier this week:



Looks pretty good to me! And Charlie, once again thanks for the link to your thread, that does really confirm that this is ok.

So, one inlet camshaft:



Cleaned up:



And moly lubed ready to go in:



Bit hard to tell but bearing journals and shims oiled up ready to go:



Inlet camshaft in:



And sorted with the arrow on the 18th pin of the cam chain from the number 2 arrow on the exhaust camshaft:



Continued...

I'm doing some work to my GS450 TX as well. After having my camshafts out, I'm trying to put them back in, and get them in time. My first attempt went perfect, but I turned the crank just a little to make sure the tachometer gear was fitting ok with the exhaust camshaft, and of course, it jumped out of time since I didn't have the tensioner back in yet. The only thing I haven't done by the service manual is remove the tachometer gear, because I couldn't get it out, and the manual is unclear as to HOW to do it. So, I have attempted 3 more times to line up the exhaust camshaft properly, set the intake camshaft with the arrow (mine also doesn't have a #3 on it) on the 18th pin, and tighten down and torque the bearing holders. Each time, since my first time, the exhaust camshaft keeps 'jumping' out of time as I'm tightening the thing down. Did you run into this problem at all???

[pete]

Cheers Wally, I like that! I've contemplated making hard panniers for mine before but I honestly can't be bothered... however I like how he's integrated solar panels in each one, that's very handy!

Hey Pete, stumbled across this and it reminded me of your bike!

[pete]

I must be stupid, I can't find your rebuild thread. I have a 1983 450L I'm trying to get to start, only backfires after turning over, have spark,compression and fuel. I want to check timing and the clymers manual I have isn't helping. thought maybe your rebuild thread might help me. How do I find it?

Hey mate, this is my rebuild thread

It's quite long so you will have to go back many pages to find where I do the camshafts.

As far as I know there's only one Clymer manual for these and I have a soft copy in PDF format downloaded from BassCliff's site.

Start at page 54 in there and refer to the diagrams etc. and on page 56 they talk about installation which includes how to time them correctly.

Given you have a 450, remember on page 57 and 58 you want 18 cam chain pins, not 20.

In my rebuild thread here, head to page 45 and you want posts #450 onwards... that seems to be where I timed my camshafts. It was quite a while ago... January last year.

I must be stupid, I can't find your rebuild thread. I have a 1983 450L I'm trying to get to start, only backfires after turning over, have spark,compression and fuel. I want to check timing and the clymers manual I have isn't helping. thought maybe your rebuild thread might help me. How do I find it?

[pete]

Cheers Red! Yep, a fair bit of effort in there for sure... it's a bit hard at the moment waiting for it to come back from getting the exhaust repaired though.

It's been over 2 weeks without it now and I'm getting a little jittery... should have it back later this week