Joe G's 1100 project

[Higgibaby]

Thats such a shame!! Sorry to see your problem here! When I started work on my restoration, this looked like it happened to my bike with the previous owner...im still trying to get the oil off myself! I hope you fix that seal soon and it all works out.

[ShadowFocus603]

Dang Joe. Sorry to hear about your misfortune with the bike. Glad to see some positive progress is being made. Hang in there buddy.

[Joe Garfield]

It is a shame that people let things like this happen, but I am grateful to have such a cool bike and to be the one doing the rescue. The biggest challenges for me are prioritizing and staying focused on a small number of projects at once. These recent findings are a good reminder that I need to focus on getting the bike to run and ride right before concentrating on smaller details.

I bought my first house 2 years ago this month - it was a foreclosure and I have been doing the major renovations mostly by myself. It was only recently that I have been able to make time and space in the garage to start wrenching on things, so right now I am deeply enjoying the opportunity to use it.

[Joe Garfield]

These came in the mail yesterday I was a little surprised to see the difference in length, but I quickly realized how soft the old springs by how much I could squeeze them down before getting any substantial resistance. The new springs are 1.0 kg/mm (56 lb/in) and feel (by hand) like I would imagine a new suspension component should feel like, as opposed to the old springs which feel like a piece of Skyline spaghetti I don't know if the old springs are stock or replacements - they are not constant rate springs but they were too soft for my liking.

[Joe Garfield]

Well, I am starting to find some time to get working on the bike again. I've got a lot of house projects going on, and lately my truck was needing way too many repairs and consuming all of my free time. I just bought a brand new truck so that should be the end of that.

I got my steering stem components out on the bench last night and had a tough time getting the races out of the frame (lower) and off the stem itself. I used a little heat on the steering stem, though I didn't get the race red hot, but either way it didn't come off. That was with a 20oz hammer and some nail punches. Today I will try a 4lb hammer and a cold chisel.

The lower race in the frame is tough to access. One idea for a tool was to use a long socket extension, but I am open to better ideas that don't cost a lot of money. I did post a new thread on this topic - I don't have a lot of free time and thought that would get me the most amount of replies in the shortest amount of time.

This past January I started working with some new budget tools given to me by a friend. As such, my focus has been shifted largely to getting out of debt and not buying lots of new parts or other toys for my bike. 'Luckily' I bought most of that crap before then I will buy what I need but I also want to make due with what I have wherever it makes sense. So this is going to be a repair/overhaul thread rather than the restoration it was turning into. That will happen some day, but not until a few more debts are paid off.

[londonboards]

This is what I did:

My GS Blog Frame Prep









Greetings

[Joe Garfield]

So, this poor bike sat in my garage untouched for way too long. I have a few too many projects going on due to buying a foreclosure in much worse shape than the bike, LOL. After making some good progress on my home, I'm back to working on the bike:

I've got new steering bearings installed - I may have been over-thinking the lower race (I over-think everything) as I didn't like how it seated, but with things relatively reassembled, the front wheel turns very smoothly with no perceivable play. I've looked at a skeleton of a bike in my garage for over a year, so now walking in and seeing something with a front end that resembles a motorcycle is exciting!

With the front end apart, I installed the new Sonic springs (100lb, 15wt oil). I didn't go all the way to the seals as there were no signs of leakage and all the boots and seals looked to be in almost new condition. My focus right now is just to get the bike running reliably, and I want to break up the full refurbishment into separate smaller projects. The point being that I know I'll disassemble the front end again at some point and can address the fork seals at that time. Doing only the front end is not a huge project, but trying to rebuild and clean up an entire bike is a bit much

The front calipers have new seals, but I forgot to order a dust boot so that project is on hold. I did blast and repaint the calipers while they were apart, but unfortunately I started rushing as it was getting dark and starting to rain, so we'll see how the paint holds up.

Putting together the front end meant starting to route the electrical. I can't help but to think about the Capital One commercials: "What's behind your headlight?!" LOL. Geez! I've got a few loose ends in there that I need to find the mating ends to - which is where I'm starting today. I'd have to look again but I think there's a double brown bullet connector that I can't find the ends to, and also the B/W leads from the turn signals (there was another single B/W set of connectors?) I have to look again and will take pics if I get stuck. I started following the rest of the electrical system around, and with the help of the manuals and diagrams believe I was able to figure everything out. I got hung up on the R/R wiring which had been butchered by a PO, but once I found that W/G connects to W/R, I remembered something about recommended changes, and came to the conclusion that all that gets bypassed with a new R/R (which has 3 yellow wires going straight to the magneto, and a red wire to the ignition circuit). As it sits, the stock magneto leads (W/G, W/Bl, Y) were spliced and cut near the bottom of the tank, and the R/R leads (W/R, W/Bl, Y) have aftermarket connectors and are hanging loose along the upper frame under the seat. I believe both of these sets of wires can remain disconnected...?

I can't thank the members of this forum enough - from BikeCliff and BWringer (for manuals and diagrams) to Steve (for priceless help and camaraderie) and everyone else. Working on these classic bikes is a lot of fun, and it's amazing what we can do with a little maintenance and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I found this site last night which is incredibly inspiring - I think I ended up with the coolest bike there is! (Thanks to a visit with Steve for showing me the 1000G - I was dangerously close to buying another L! ) http://www.bikesrestored.com/10424/suzuki-gs1100g-1982/

An image from the above link for inspiration, since this post is next to worthless w/o pics:
1100g Inspiration2.jpg

[Joe Garfield]

A little summary of where I'm at:
I heard there was a rally coming up about 2 weeks prior, so I scrambled to get the bike roadworthy in that time. I fell a little short but didn't want that to stop me from going, so I rented a trailer and packed my bike and parts:





Mine is the one nearest the camera.

Just as the bike was ready for a test ride, the starter went out. I was able to bump it and go for a ride, and now have a loaner starter in there while I wait for parts to rebuild mine.

So I had my first ride at the rally with Redman (who was generous enough to change plans leaving the rally to make sure I got a ride in), and I was on the bike to and from work yesterday (8 miles to work, 25 to get home ) It was such an awesome evening for a ride, and I'm really happy to be back on 2 wheels. This bike was the right choice and I love it. The engine is an animal! I LOVE the power band - this bike can cruise around quietly all day in 5th gear, or launch me out of my seat in 3rd. It starts easily and idles perfectly, and just about everything on the bike is working. There are a few remaining near-term needs:

*The forks are not parallel - I don't know what happened but that was the point of buying a new (used) set of clamps. I'll try to see if I can loosen things up and adjust it out, but I have the feeling I'll end up taking the forks out again and checking these clamps more closely. I thought it was just the top one that was bent so I'll have to see what the bottom one looks like.

*Starter needs a rebuild kit.
*Carbs need a sync - this was done when the bike was running on 2 cylinders, but should be done again. There is a little popping when I slow down in gear, I'm not sure if the carb sync will help or not. There's also some vibration in the bars which I believe could be related.
*Rear brake froze yesterday - I haven't taken it apart yet, so that apparently needs to be done.
*New cables and upper brake hose to work with lower bars.
*Seat cover
*Repair or replace right side mirror

I'm finding out that it's really hard for me to stop fixing things. My goal is to get to a point where I can be comfortable in whatever condition it's in and save further projects for when I have some down time.