81 GS550T Full Rebuild...In Ohio

[pete]

Bugger Scott! At least it's one spot that doesn't have to be oil tight and if all else fails you could actually leave it like that...

Smooth the welds off and a coat of paint and you'll never know though

[cowboyup3371]

Well, fingers crossed that this will work out for me - my friend had it fixed for free today. A friend of his tig welded the piece back in place and he took his grinder to clean it up. We'll have to repaint it and I'll go and test the cover against it but I'm hopeful things will be okay.

[chuck hahn]

Its a really tight fit and what you need to do is REMOVE the paint on the faces of the frame where the mounts match up to it. otherwise its gonna be tight and a biitch to get into the cradle.

[cowboyup3371]

More Ups and Downs

I am just loving the way this project is going as I've had more ups and downs with it than a roller coaster ride at your favorite park .

First, I picked up my seat from the upholsterer this morning. Although this isn't a great picture right now (edited out a couple of things), the seat came out looking very nice and I'm looking forward to seeing it in place.



Then, I picked up new mounting bolts and my friend and I proceeded to put the engine in place so I could mount it. Unfortunately, the rear of the engine didn't seat properly into the mounting ears so we decided to use my rubber mallet to "coax" it down. It definitely started to move down until this happened:



My friend hit it in the right spot that the edge of the crankcase near the top rear sprocket cover bolt hole busted off. We started calling around to shops that TIG weld and he's going to stop into one of them on Monday morning. Hopefully they'll be able to fix it well enough that I won't have an issue. Otherwise, i'm not sure if I'll need to find a new engine or what.

Hindsight being what it is, we should have taken the dremel to the rear mounts as it looks like there's too much powdercoat on them to let the engine seat properly. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

[cowboyup3371]

Frame

The frame is finally closer to being in one piece tonight as I received my new swingarm bearings yesterday. Installing them tonight went fairly well and it didn't take long to put the swingarm back on the frame. We didn't install the engine tonight as I'd left the bolts at the house but that should be done tomorrow or Thursday night at the latest. Then once I receive the remaining o-rings I should be able to start putting the engine back together.

Painting frame brackets:



Swingarm, side stand, and center stand on:



Frame right side up - I'll remove the foam after I get the engine in place:



Clocks are repainted and put back together. I'll put them into the bracket after my friend talks to his sister about doing some vinyl work on the center console. What I don't have pictured right now is that we smoked the plastic covering where the lights are but it's not so dark I can't see the lights. I think it looks nice with my flashlight as a test light but won't know for sure until I get everything reconnected.



It's slowly coming together but I still have a long time before I'm riding again and am hoping I can by the 4th of July.

[cowboyup3371]

Received a replacement speedometer bracket from Chef but discovered it wouldn't work for me. The speedometer and tachometer fit perfectly but the center console wouldn't fit (too small) and I never thought to check it before hand. So I trimmed my old one down where both clocks didn't fit and then started cleaning things up. I'll repaint the bracket tomorrow and some other small things until I can get the new swingarm bearings either Monday or Tuesday.

If anyone wants a bracket for a L model bike, please let me know. I'll let it go for the same total I paid for it.

[cowboyup3371]

One Step Forward....Three Steps Back

Valves are finished and buckets installed. Fricking took me 2 1/2 hours to do with 2 of that being the stupid exhaust valves. Finally learned the trick though and my intake valves were done pretty quick. It's not really that hard if you can coordinate fingers and tools around moving parts (keepers).

Then tried to install the swingarm and busted one of the needle bearings as I tried to force the spacers in - something I didn't have issues when I dry-fit tested them two months ago. So, I removed both bearings and will have to re-order them, probably from G&S this time instead of the local bearing shop. Found out too the powdercoater fouled up one of the threads on my centerstand mounts so I'll have to pick up a tap tomorrow to clean it up.

I'm not as far along as I'd envisioned myself to be and tomorrow's the last day of my leave. But at least I'm going places now and should be okay by June to start riding.

[pete]

Excellent Scott, and yeah I hear ya'... I was a bit nervous putting mine in at that stage as well...

[cowboyup3371]

Whew, rings are fixed and I didn't break any. (These always make me nervous whether car or bike). Now on to finishing my valves.

[cowboyup3371]

Oops

I went back through my service manual tonight and discovered I failed to verify if the letter (T) is up or not on each piston ring when I installed them yesterday. Looks like I'll be backing up tomorrow and redoing them...

I've used this in the past, seemed to work well:

http://www.permatex.com/products/product-categories/lubricants/specialty-lubricants/permatex--ultra-slick--engine-assembly-lube-detail

Assembly lube stays in place longer than regular oil and is supposed to be better for break-in. I'd use assembly lube if you have it on hand, otherwise clean motor oil.

[cowboyup3371]

Thanks guys; Dale, spoke with Steve last night and he said he just uses oil on his valves.

Johnny and Pete, thank you for your concerns. This is a follow-up surgery from her tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy last year that resulted after we found other problems following her twisted bowel surgery in 2011. Essentially, she has had problems speaking clearly and the ENT doctors now believe she has a larger hole between her mouth/nose than she should have. Today's appointment is to scope her nasal passages and determine if she needs surgery to create a new "flap".

[Dogma]

Check with your shafty-riding friends. We all keep some moly paste handy for lubing rear splines at tire change time. I don't remember paying too much for mine. A few bucks at an auto parts store, once I found it.

I sometimes hear mention of assembly lube, which may serve the same purpose: lubrication and protection from rust until the engine can circulate its own oil.

[pete]

Excellent Scott, glad to see you've been able to get some progress!

I used moly lube on mine and went and bought it specifically, but as Johnny said clean engine oil is good too... the idea is just to have some sort of lubrication there for the very first turn over of the motor.

I think the difference between the moly lube and the engine oil is that the lube is thicker and won't run and drip off between the time you apply it and the time you turn the engine over for the first time.

Hope that makes sense... and hope your daughter is ok.