The Chronicles of Suzy- 82 GS850GL

[ratdude]

Carb Work

As I stated before I am not gonna go into too much detail , just the highlights.

Question:

Dear Uncle Rat,
Some ham fisted cretin smushed my fuel screens , and I am afraid to un smush them with a sharp pointy stick , what should I do ?



Answer:

You need the super fuel screen un-smusher tool ! ( ok its a bent welding rod )



Dingy fuel bowls ? Buff those puppies !



Only needed a couple parts to straighten these things out .



Re-assembly time !



Just to show they went back together



Bottom side



Later

Rat

[ratdude]

Assembly and the test start

Well now that the carbs are cleaned up I put them on back on the motor .

New intake boots from Suzuki
Stainless fasteners and new O-rings from http://www.cycleorings.com/

A couple pics

Lookin' Sad ( waiting for re-assembly )



Ahhh the beauty of new boots and stainless fasteners



home again



The result ,
Hooked up the gas , no leaks , starts fine , even idles pretty good considering there is no airbox yet . Sounds ready to go but I have a few things to address before I can road test the bike .

Rat

[ratdude]

The Oil Leak

One of Suzy's problems was a oil leak from the front of the motor , the tach drive to be exact .

Forum member terrylee suggested it was a easy fix ( it was , cheap too )

Sure enough BikeCliff's Website had a guide made up to walk me through it .

A few pics

Unacceptable ( 15 minutes of run time )



The Culprit ( been leaking a while by the looks of it )



Inner tach drive seal might have a tiny bit of wear ( new seal is on the left )



New inner and outer tach drive seal solved the problem

Later
Rat

[ratdude]

The Sweatsock Air filter ( and the fix )

Now that Suzy starts and runs I had to get some sort of Air Fliter on there .

She came with the stock airbox , which is missing the end caps and was removed by the previous owner .

The air filter that was in there has to be seen to be believed .

The sweatsock air filter !



Yet Another shot of this fine piece of engineering



Pretty sure there is supposed to be a gasket here



The result of all this air filtration



Fixing the air filter ( my version of the Mr. Roostabunny Airbox sealing repair )

My weapon choice , foam tape used to seal truck caps to pickup beds ( its solvent resistant , and I had some )



All trimmed up



Probably not as good as the sweat socks but it will have to do



After scubbing all the gook out of that airbox , I reassembled , reinstalled on Suzy and another piece of the puzzle is done !

Rat

[Nessism]

Nice work on those carbs. Thanks for sharing.

I'd go after the valves now since it's a pretty fair bet some will be overly tight. Sadly, many people neglect this critical bit of maintenance which is a real shame since the valve train on these GS bikes is so stable and reliable.

[ratdude]

The test ride , and more carnage

Well as I stated in my last post , Suzy started , ran and idled but had yet to be ridden ( by me ) . I changed the oil , the old stuff smelled of varnished gas , not a good sign . Put on my lovely airbox . Aired up the tires and front forks ( yup we will be needing fork seals before this is through ) and off we go ...

30 miles later I got enough info to figure out whats next .

All in all engine was pretty good ran real well , carb work payed off big time , especially since I have yet to hook up the gauges and actually tune the darn things .

Clutch engages and dis-engages , smooth is NOT in its vocabulary however

Electrically got more work to do , charging system is functional
Amazingly the suzuki self cancelling turn signals are still working
Neutral light MIA
Low beam lighting MIA
Instrument lighting on tach only
Fuel gauge works !
Front brake light switch dead
that idiotic gear indicator still works ( do they ever die ? )

The exaust has seen better days , the crossover pipe is shot , and while it sounds really cool at low speeds , it sounds like crap at speed .

more work to do , no pics for this one

Rat

[Guest]

Looks like you have a good plan of action. One step at a time. When get your bike squared away you will have something to be proud of. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you have done the work yourself.

[ratdude]

Exhaust , how I hate ye

As I mentioned before the exhaust crossover on suzy was shot , I decided to do the bypass thing for it . No problem I thought, all I got to do is get those two center exhaust headers off ............

~~RIGHT~~

like I had a chance in hell of if being that simple .....

I soaked the bolts in PB blaster , I did a couple with the acetone ATF blend , I have torches and I know how to use em' .

The result , 4 of the 8 bolts snapped like twigs .

Oh the clever adjectives I learned to express my Joy !

I really considered parting suzy out , I really wasn't to happy at this point

But I am stubborn I guess so I started the wonderful process of pulling the motor just to try and drill these puppies out

I HAVE been here before , I owned Honda's and VW's.

Pics are sketchy , I was really up in the air at this point.

Motor out ( dang that went fast ! )



28 years of grungy



Outside , waiting for a bath



Drilled , tapped , and waiting on a long bath in gunk



Waiting to go back home ( NOW is the perfect time to check the valves )



Later
Rat

[ratdude]

Exhaust , how I hate ye Part 2

Just some pics of putting the engine back into the frame

Rat

Engine back into the frame



If can only remember how these wires went ?



Obligatory burnt stator connector shot ( did EVERY single GS850 do this ? )



thats better

[ratdude]

Yup , I was warned

Well I wasted 20 bucks on this thing .

My petcock had a leaky diaphragm in it ( which explained how that #2 cylinder idled when the carb had a clogged idle circut initially )

Yes I got me a rebuild kit , NOPE it didnt work ( in fact the petcock just stayed on from that point )

Now I think I only read in these forums about a hundred times to replace , not rebuild the petcock .

~~YOU GUYS TOLD ME SO~~

lol

And at about one in the morning , when you are going to install your spiffy NEW petcock AND you realize it doesn't come with the sealing washers for the bolts AND you didn't think to order any .

You can make a leak free subsitute by fabbing new washers from the side of a plastic oil container , just punch the center hole , cut the outside with a pair of scissors . wala , new washers

Ask me how I know .....

Rat

[Dogma]

Haha that ought to do it for now. I used a chunk out of the airbox boots I had just replaced. It was just hard enough and just soft enough to get the job done. I have a pack of the washers now (they seem to come in a bag of ten or so), so I can replace the washers on the float bowl drain screws, the secondary drive oil level check screw, etc.

[ratdude]

Fun with the wire wheel

OK I am alright with patina ( I am called rat after all ) , I know people pay big bucks for it , but Suzy is a bit excessive in this department .

You too can remove excess patina on bolts and such with a wire wheel just keep a light touch so as not to destroy the chrome entirely .

Obviously I would avoid this on anything you would really want to be shiny as the wheel will scratch the hell out of fenders and such .

Very poor shot of the footpeg bracket with the WAY expensive Scratchmaster 1000 in the background .

Yes I cleaned the oxidation off , NO you dont get to see , I forgot to take pics . ( the cast part not the shiny part , that was done with the Buffmaster 1000 ( Noooo you cant afford it ))




See ? excess " patina " ( backside of shifter )



much better



trust me the bolt on the right was just as crappy when I started



Later
Rat

[ratdude]

The airbox part 2

OK after much research , I have decided that the L model airbox was built by elves in the magic forest . Therefore not only are the pieces damn expensive they are kind of scarce . ( I have been missing the endcovers and seals from the start )

But through the miracle of Ebay I was able to score a standard airbox, semi-complete for a standard model from Canada

I don't know if this has ever come up so I will interject my own comments

YES
You CAN put a standard G model airbox on a L model Frame
You CAN use the airbox boots from the L airbox on the G airbox

NO
You CANNOT use the air filter frame from the L airbox in your G airbox
You will forever be cursed with a mis-match from the curve of the G airbox covers and your L model side covers

But it Will work

As an interesting side note the allen screws for the vacuum ports on a trashed set of engine intake boots make a nice upgrade for the airbox cover retention screws ( if I only had some of those .. )

Comparison shot , L model left , G model right
and yes the duct tape is MINE ( DOH )



See ? it fits !


Almost spiffy



The cursed mis-match (but WAYYY better than duct tape)
PS there's that darn footrest bracket I never took a pic of



Later
Rat

[Dogma]

The airbox you have installed is from an 80-81, maybe 79 too. It's not a G vs L thing.

[duper850]

Now this is a thread!!