1980 Suzuki GS850G first every rebuild! (need help haha)

[Nessism]

I've got a good sized bag of shims, and a couple of shim tools. If you can get the valve cover loose before hand we adjust the valves easily enough. The hardest part of the job is cleaning off the old gasket if it's stuck.

[andrewmac805]

Thanks Ed! I'll try get on it first thing 2moro morning!

Do we need the bike running to test the charging circuit tho?

Guess I'll go buy some gasket material from an autoparts store so that I can use the gasket fabrication tutorial on the BikeCliff website! I'll try have the gasket ready so it'll be quick to reinstall after the valve adjustment.

[andrewmac805]

A big thank you to Ed for helping me last weekend!

We got my front tire changed out so it's actually safe to ride!

And we got the valve adjustment started. A few of the clearances were a little tight but luckily Ed had some spares. Had to order a couple 2.30 shims and they just arrived yesterday, so got them installed today, so my clearances should be good for a while now!

I used the tutorial to make my own gasket. Prob be the last time I do that haha! Took me a good few hours trying to trace out the shape and cut it! I'll just spend the extra money and buy a pre-made one haha!

Tomorrow I will try tackle the charging circuit! Fingers crossed it's the R/R and it'll just be an easy swap out! I think I just jinxed myself!

Just get the bike running and check the AC coming out of the stator yeah? If it reads around 65V I should be good on the stator and I'll have to switch out the r/r.

My morgan carbtool also arrived this week, so now my valves are adjusted I can sync my carbs!

[andrewmac805]

OK! I tested the stator. It just stays around 12-13V when I check across all the stator wires at 4000 RPM

Poop need a new stator then. Does anyone know about these stators? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stator-Suzuk...#ht_5245wt_952
I am tempted to buy it cause it is $20 cheaper than the other ones and it comes with the little rubber plug!

Rode the bike round the block anyway since it was running. Ed fixed the handle bar turning idle up problem! I had no play in my throttle! So any tension caused it to idle up! The new front tire is great! Can turn into the corners much better! However she bogs down real bad when you try get off the line. Guess I need to sync the carbs soon.

[Nessism]

Hi Andrew,

You checked the stator using the AC setting on your meter right? Assuming yes, stator time for sure.

Not sure about that stator. Makes me nervous. I recommend a Rick's, only they are about $130 so easy for me to say.

[andrewmac805]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I checked it on AC! You have me doubting myself now haha!

O man! That Rick's stator is $140! You're killing me!

I think I'll cheap out a little, and get the RM Stator, $112.90 from their website.

[andrewmac805]

Ok so I have been putting along fixes things here and there!

I got my new valve shims in, so all the clearances are good!

Got Ed's help again and installed the new stator and R/R. So my bike now has a working charging circuit! woohoo!

Also had Ed's help to sync the carbs with the Morgan carbtune tool, it was actually pretty damn well tuned! So that was great!

Ordered a petcock rebuild kit. USELESS!!! It leaks now when it didn't leak before!!! So am swapping the old gaskets back in to try stop that happening.

Finally fixed the turn signals! Which is what I've been waiting for so that I can sit my motorcycle test! I had bought the little cheap aftermarket turn signals. So they weren't drawing enough current to make the original signal flasher to work. Bought a replacement tridon 552 2 prong one and that got the job done!

I was so excited I decided to take a ride up to Palos Verdes as my maiden voyage out of the neighbourhood!

Here's where all my work came undone

I could smell a bit of burning oil, but that's typical for my bike since I had done a valve shim adjustment and spilled oil everywhere and thought nothing of it. Was hoping to burn it all off.

After riding 10 miles to a friends house I stopped and found oil dripping off the bike onto the ground :'( A little puddle formed. SO moved it onto the street off their driveway haha!

I let the bike cool down and then rode back home. The bike started making weird noises, but it could've been the speedo cable or tach cable as they fall out sometimes and the needles were bouncing kinda funny. Or it could've been the sound of my engine dying as it could be running out of oil

So I get home and look around and see oil puddling in these areas ( I took the exhaust off to see the leaks better):

saw it bubbling here:


Wet round here and slightly dripping off here:


You can see all the fins are wet from oil towards the front of the bike:


Oil here where the spark plug for cylinder 3 is:


And randomly oil on top of the valve cover above cylinder 3:


The oil also seemed to be spraying out here onto the frame and dripping down underneath to cause a puddle under the frame:


And finally I thought it must be low on oil and I must not be able to even see any in the sight glass. So I poured, and I poured and I poured and kept checking. After 1 gal of diesel motor oil, it still looked like this!!


So either it's completely full?! Or it's completely empty?!?!!

I have no idea and am super bummed! 1 step forward 8 steps back :'(

I was reading about another guy having an oil leak after doing a valve adjustment. He thought it could've been caused by the bits of old gasket that got scrapped off and fell inside and clogged the oil filter, thus not letting oil circulate and blowing out a gasket.

I know I shouldn't have ridden my bike the 10miles back once I noticed the leak. But my friend wasn't home and had no way of getting the bike back.

Any help and wisdom will be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

HELP MEEEEEEEEEE

[Nessism]

Andrew,

Don't panic. Drink a beer and breath deep.

Your oil is overfilled. You need to drain some off. If you catch it in a clean container you can save it for next time. When checking the oil you need to have a cold engine, and the bike on the center stand.

The oil mess is most likely from the valve cover. Did you make your own valve cover gasket or purchase one? I'd pull the valve cover off and make sure all the old gasket is removed, and get an OE gasket if you cut your own.

Take care.

[andrewmac805]

Haha thanks Ed.

I took those pictures a couple hours after I had ridden it, and it was on the centre stand.

Ok sounds like a good first start for my problems haha! I did buy a valve gasket as a spare, cause I did not ever want to cut my own again haha!

O yeah and a few of the bolts on the valve cover weren't snugged all the way down, so I guess it makes sense that it was coming out there. I bloody hope that's what's wrong!

[andrewmac805]

Update!

It's been a while since I've done anything to the bike! So long infact that TheGSResources kicked me off for not logging in for so long!!!

But a massive thanks to Ed, Mr Nessism, for helping me over a year and a half ago.

Over a year and a half ago I got everything running pretty well on the bike then decided to pursue my quest to have a cafe racer!

I started to pull a perfectly well running bike apart!



Then I tried to prep and paint. Very very very tedious with wire wool!



Very sore fingers after that!!!!

Now all prettily masked up for paint!



I used Duplicolor Engine enamel gloss black. Looks good!



Now I wanted to paint some other parts, etc, etc and started putting it off and life got in the way as it does. So fast forward a year and a half!!!! I get my second wind as my friend at work just bought a Honda CB350F!

I decide to put the wheels back on so I can at least move it out the garage. I bought a new toy too so I wire wheeled off the faded dull paint on the rotors, looks pretty good to me!



Got the wheels and brakes back on then swapped the bars out for some super sports (I just put the old seat cover over the rusty seat pan so you can't see it haha)



I didn't really like the look, the super sports were originally for my Honda CB750F anyway. So I swapped them for the classic clubmans!



Think it looks much better! Then I went wire wheel mad! With a brass wheel I polished up the forks!



And then this weekend I started to fix the rear end. Tidy it up more and then took it for a spin! Got it stated after sitting for a year and a half, with a little encouragement from some ether! Changed the oil, adjusted the idle, and the clutch (was far too tight! Would slip if I went over 4000rpm. Once the oil lubed the clutch up again I slacked it wayyy off and it's a lot better now. Still a very sluggish compared to the CB750f). I cut off the rear bars of the frame and trimmed down the plastic mudguard. I re mounted the whole rear section of mudguard to the holes already drilled slightly further forward on the frame. Think it turned out very nice!



The compressor died over the weekend so can't polish up all the covers. But that's next on my list as well as fabricating up a new seat!!!!

Thanks for looking!

[andrewmac805]

I'm looking to upgrade my front brake lever and master cylinder. I have an old one off a 79 GS1000 just now cause my one was cracked.

I want to get some stainless steel braided lines for the front brakes but the old gs1000 brake lever is so long I don't have clearance to put the two lines directly off the lever to each caliper instead of using the splitter.

I found a post about lever swap outs and pull ratios and different model swaps (a gsx-r lever set up or some kawasaki), but I didn't bookmark it and I can't find it again! It was posted by Salty_Monk in response to someone. I was searching his kawaski front caliper upgrade and found the lever swap out too.

I'm hoping the new master cylinder will give the brakes a little more power too. Cause it friggin' stinks at stopping! I did take the front calipers apart and clean them and polish the pistons. But it just has no stopping power!

So... what brake lever can I buy that would work? Thank you!