Upper Fork Bushing 82 GS850G

[carusoat]

Hey Everyone,

I recently had a guy vapor-blast a few parts for me including my outer fork tubes. Unfortunately it looks like he sprayed inside the tube without putting anything in there and scuffed up the upper fork bushings (metal slides?) so I'm pretty sure I need to replace them. I dove pretty deep into some very old threads and I think I found a few people with the same issue but didn't find any part numbers. The issue is none of the parts diagrams have these upper fork bushings on them. My forks are definitely 37mm which narrows it down. I found that the 82 1100E has the same size fork diameter and the the diagram includes the "metal slide" which appears to be the same as my upper bushing. I don't have all the anti dive and other things going on with those forks though.

My question is....is the part I'm looking for in fact that metal slide part number 51167-01D00? I know it's not listed for my bike but it's definitely in there. See the pic.

20200515_101506.jpg
Thanks, I hope someone has encountered this. Also any suggestions for how to get them out would be appreciated. I'm sure that's going to be fun.

[Burque73]

If I'm not mistaken, the part you see there is called a piston #51121-49200 in this schematic

https://alpha-sports.com/suzuki_parts.htm?q=suzuki-parts

Hmm, the link didn't go to the right spot. If you look up the 850G/ front fork, you'll see it though.

[carusoat]

Unfortunately that is the lower piston which is on the outside of the inner fork tube. That I have. The part I'm looking for is inside of the fork outer tube. I do have both lower pistons in addition to these upper ones.

[Burque73]

I thought for sure it was #2 here. #8 looks tapered on the end though. I wish I was able to get mine disassembled to that point to confidently help you. Someday I'll tear mine down and service thm properly.

[carusoat]

Yeah this is why it's been driving me crazy. Here's a pic of the bottom of my inner fork tube which has a bushing on the end.

20200515_124825.jpg
I think this is the piston #2 from the parts diagram. But you can clearly see there is another bushing in the outer tube housing from my other picture. (the upper bushing) which is not in the diagram.

If you look at the 82 1100 E diagram it has a washer and "metal slide" under the fork seal. This seems to be the setup I have minus all the other crap at the bottom of the fork tube. (anti-dive, etc).

[carusoat]

Here's the 82 1100E diagram

[bwringer]

If you rummage around Race Tech's website, you'll find that they sell fork bushings in various sizes. They make finding added info difficult, though.

So for the 80-82 1100E:

https://www.racetech.com/ProductSearch/12/Suzuki/GS1100E/1980-82

The bushing at the top would be the "outer" bushing. Scroll down and click "Outer Fork Bushings". Click the link in the popup and you'll get an Excel file containing actual freakin' dimensions... FINALLY!

Race Tech specs FMBO 37122 P, which would be 37mm (ID) x 12 (height) x 2 (thickness). For the 1982 GS1100E, Suzuki's original part number was 51167-49500, which has been superceded to 51167-01D00

Race Tech also offers FMBO 37152 P, which is the same except it's 15mm high.


So if you can get some good measurements from yours, this might give you a starting point for obtaining replacements from Race Tech ($50/pair!!!!), or cross-referencing to a Suzuki part (<$20/pair).

[carusoat]

Man, thank you bwringer. You have no idea how many times you've helped me over the years.

I'll post my technique for getting the bushings out if it works in case someone else comes across this issue. Then I'll be able to measure them and check dimensions. I'll post back with the results as well.