1980 GS1000S Reluctant Rebuild

[Kiwi Canuck]

Look what else I've been up to

It's not just all fun around here, needed to get the lawns mowed and my compost heap was filled up and starting to get overwhelmed by so much grass at this time of the year so while down in the US I picked up a new deflector kit for the JD X300R.
It's a rear bagger so it needs this special kit to mow without the bag on.

Works pretty well, but the grass would look better if I mowed it before it gets too long.





OK that's enough real work for the day back to the rebuild.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Got a bit more work done, here's a shot of the front wheel and fender installed, the front fender looks awesome in the photo but she's not so good in person.



Here is a shot of the rear wheel installed, nice to have the ability to roll her around, rather than drag or lift her, I will now remove the center stand and clean it up and either paint or powder coat it.



With the new wheel bearings installed and no brake pad to cause drag the wheels spin beautifully.

Hey look my Channel Lock adjustable torque wrench matches the paint colour of my bike, just kidding

[Kiwi Canuck]

Dave -- Great progress on the rebuild. I have some NOS decals but with gold letters -- these are period correct for the GS1000ST (not SN) but only the "SUZUKI" decal is for the GS750/1000. The "DOHC" decals are too small and were incorrectly sent to me as a matching pair. They may fit GS550/450 etc.




I will be posting some pics soon on my project -- you definitely have a head start! How is the seat rebuild going?

Opps missed responding to this,
Mike, Too bad about the size of the smaller ones, where did you get such a haul?
Are you intending to use the ones that fit and see if you can get the right sized ones for the ignition points cover?
I wonder if the gold lettering would polish down to silver as I think they are made from Aluminum. (unless you like the gold better)

Cheers,

[Kiwi Canuck]

I'll have a look through the shed but I'm sure I have one that would work if it's being painted. They're all chrome of course though but I'm sure I've got a couple that the chrome is crappy but they are solid and straight, at least I think I do. I'll try and look tonight after work and let you know.

Rob, That would be awesome if you have one, and crappy chrome would be OK as it's all coming off anyway.

Cheers,

I'll have a look through the shed but I'm sure I have one that would work if it's being painted. They're all chrome of course though but I'm sure I've got a couple that the chrome is crappy but they are solid and straight, at least I think I do. I'll try and look tonight after work and let you know.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Got the forks back and installed, everything went in very smoothly.

I cleaned up and fitted the front fender just to see how it looks, it's a bit bent as I suspected, and I will need to get the split in the front repaired, which will mean having to have it re-painted as well.



Now that I look closer I can see what happened with the split fender and the bent forks.
I suspect the PO rear ended a car or more likely another bike and the fender got scuffed on the rear tire and bent it down causing it to split and deform, as the fender is clearly not sitting straight and has a few bulges were there shouldn't be any.
Might be a tough one to get straight as the brace under the fender is also slightly deformed.
If I can find a used straight one, I could have it painted and still be able to keep the original one to fix up as a spare to go with my spare set of plastics.

Anyone have a spare front fender available that will fit a GS1000?

Thanks,

[Charlie G]

That's good news!

[Kiwi Canuck]

Forks are straightened

I talked to Wally this afternoon and he was able to straighten the forks, the bend was just below the bottom triple clamp (as they usually are) so he didn't need to disassemble the forks, good news as he only charged me $35.00 total.

What a great guy to have in my neighborhood.

I'll pick them up tomorrow and be back ontrack getting the bike back together.

[John Kat]

Is there any way to check the frame for alignment before I reinstall the forks and wheels ?

I will check the wheel alignment once I get the forks sorted out, if the wheels align does that mean the frame is straight?

Thanks,

I suppose it could be done by inserting a tube through the fork bearings and determining where it touches the ground?
The way I discovered by how much the frame was bent consisted in shining a laser light from eitheir side of the rear wheel and then noting where the beam touches the ground on eitheir side of the front wheel.
It's a remake of the string method but far easier to perform and less prone to errors.
Will this garantee that your frame is straight?
Not 100% in my view but at least it tells you that your wheels are in line at zero load

[Kiwi Canuck]

If your fork tubes were bent, there is a chance(?) that the frame is no longer aligned correctly
I had the case with my GS 1000 ST where my front wheel was offset by 1 cm
Sorry to maybe add this to your bad news list...

Is there any way to check the frame for alignment before I reinstall the forks and wheels ?

I will check the wheel alignment once I get the forks sorted out, if the wheels align does that mean the frame is straight?

Thanks,

[John Kat]

If your fork tubes were bent, there is a chance(?) that the frame is no longer aligned correctly
I had the case with my GS 1000 ST where my front wheel was offset by 1 cm
Sorry to maybe add this to your bad news list...

[Charlie G]

Let me know if you need them. These forks came off a bike I bought for AZR and Sandy last year. They took home what they needed and I just can't bear to take the leftovers to the bone yard. Lets hope the surprises are over.

cg

That's what happened to me . The more I looked , the more I found .
The trick is to fix them properly as you go and then you'll have no problems later .
It's all worth the effort .
Mine starts first time , every time and has done so for six years now .
In some ways it was good mine was such a piece of $hit , I got to know it intimately and I knew it was put together goodly .

Hang in there .

Cheers , Simon .

[Kiwi Canuck]

Your not having any luck are you? I have a set of upper forks off a 78 1000. If they will work you can have them for shipping.

cg

Charlie, if it wasn't for Bad Luck, I'd have no Luck at all on this one.

Thank you for the kind offer, I'm taking them into Wally Routledge (our local motorcycle alchemist) in the morning and hopefully he can take care of them, if not, I'll PM you with my info.

Yes, quite enough surprises on this bike.
I have bought many used bikes in my life (and quite a few new ones as well)and most of them met expectations, if there were any issues they were easy to take care of.

Unfortunately with this bike I had fairly high expectations and I was very disappointed with the way the PO has been since I disclosed the issues to him, all he wants to do is defended how good the bike was, even when I have sent him pictures and called him on the amount of damage and mangled parts, he just can't get his head around the fact that I was expecting a bike in better condition. What a d*ckficult person.

I hate suing people, but this clown needs to be taught a lesson that it's not OK to rip people off by being dishonest. If I go to the trouble I may also file fraud charges against him as well. (he is a Financial advisor in Montreal so hopefully he likes his reputation)

I sold the 4 into 1 Kerker that came off it to Glenn (Eddie 21) and it was so bad he couldn't salvage it, so I gave him back the $50 he paid me for it.

When you look at the photo of the bike you can see the 4 into 1 Kerker looks OK but in fact it was pretty much beyond repair, same story with many other items on the bike.

Even though there was a lot wrong with the bike, I'm happy that it's going to be put right eventually and I'll have a nice bike when I'm done. (that's what I'm telling myself anyway)

[Charlie G]

Your not having any luck are you? I have a set of upper forks off a 78 1000e. If they will work you can have them for shipping.
I checked the part numbers and there the same #51110-49001.
cg