1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

Wow, it's been 10 days since I last got something done... just can't seem to get time on her so far this year, and riding's becoming difficult as well dammit. Only ride this week was to work and back on Friday, didn't get out at all this weekend. We're doing spring cleaning in January and it took most of last weekend and almost all this weekend and we're still not done... sheesh. So much old crap to go... but anyway enough whinging.

I put the knee pad I'm part way through up against the tank first up to see how it would look:



It's not astonishing but it's ok. I think with a clean up once it's finished it'll look a bit better, but I think the neoprene is not as black as true rubber...

Anyway, I got the outline on the left hand knee pad which I hadn't started yet:



Carved out the lines and the guts of the letters with the V gouge but haven't cut the letters in fully yet:



And this is the pair, with the "G" on the right knee pad the only letter fully cut in:



And then I cut in the "S" on the right knee pad:



And a close up to see how much of a clean up of the grooves inside the letters is required:



I'll keep persevering and see what happens. I need to work out what to do for lines across it yet. I'm thinking V gouge at about a 30 degree angle from rear to front at this stage... will give it some thought as I go along.

I had one little slip tonight too and sliced out a bit of rubber at the bottom of the "G" on the left knee pad. What got sliced is still hanging on by a little thread so I'm hoping I can glue it down somehow otherwise it'll look quite crappy... well crappier anyway

Oh, and I have managed to get something done recently. We picked up an old cupboard initially for my wife, but she ended up finding one better suited to her needs so we decided this one would be perfect for my bike gear.

We gave it a good sand back and three coats of stain and I also gave the handles a good cut, buff, and polish like I did the crankcase covers etc. and I think it came up well. A nice place to store my gear now



And I also pulled the little area down in the corner of the workbench tonight where I did the caliper spray painting and had the bench grinder with the polishing wheels.

Part of the "spring cleaning" resulted in a spare cupboard from the laundry and some wire storage racks and things becoming spare, so they can go in the garage which will be handy. And the "spring clean" is going to include the garage and garden shed, so I can finally get organised in there! A bit late for the 450 rebuild of course but will be very helpful with the Cucciolo and the Yammie YB100 if I ever get around to it...

 

[oldrookie]

I like the cupboard storage for your gear, Pete. Been thinking I'd like something of the sort in the garage for my gear, but that would require cleaning it up a bit. May actually have to throw stuff away. (Shudder)

 

[Guest]

I like the cupboard storage for your gear, Pete. Been thinking I'd like something of the sort in the garage for my gear, but that would require cleaning it up a bit. May actually have to throw stuff away. (Shudder)

Yeah it's going to prove very handy. There's room in there for more yet like winter gloves and a neck warmer, and if I can ever get my wife on the back there'll be room enough for another helmet, jacket, boots etc. as well. Can't get it in the garage but it's in the study which is next to the garage... that'll do just fine for this little black duck

 

[Charlie G]

Pete,

That cupboard looks pretty first cabin. I use a rusty nail and shelf in the garage. You've out classed me by a mile. Looks great.

cg

 

[Guest]

Pete,

That cupboard looks pretty first cabin. I use a rusty nail and shelf in the garage. You've out classed me by a mile. Looks great.

cg

Haha thanks Charlie, I would've been happy with it as it was but initially it was going to end up upstairs with my wife's stuff in it so we cleaned it up... glad we did now because we're doing the study up as well and it will be nice in there once we get some proper book shelves in stained the same colour as the cupboard.

 

[Guest]

Got in the garage again tonight but didn't touch the knee pads. I decided to get into a tidy as I was feeling very cramped with all the crap around the place and I really want to get the garage sorted so figured I give it a good start.

Firstly the most important thing of all... sorting out the tunes! I've had the little stereo consuming valuable real estate on the work bench so I decided the speakers can go on the wall and the stereo can sit on top of the drawers:



I also have a nearly clean white board finally and I also stuck up an A3 print out of my wiring diagram.

The workbench still looks like a disorganised mess (which it is to a certain extent) but I've put heaps of tools away, thrown out a bunch of crap, and got heaps more workbench space reclaimed for use.



The peg board up on the left there is now empty and will be moving to a far better location on the right wall which is just out of view. Where it is is useless as you can't reach about half of it there, and those saws will be moving too.

And on another note altogether, I got a reply from the local Dynojet distributor today that they think the stage 3 kit for my bike is still available, so now I'm waiting to see if it is available and if so how many limbs I need to donate for it... I don't think it will be cheap given I've seen them for around 77 Euro and $US85... on some sites in the Netherlands...

 

[oohsam]

Good work Pete.
Still havent got the carbs running right?
Not sure if you need a dynojet. I managed to get mine going very well without it.

I basically went 140 main jet (115 was the stock) and moved the needle position clip down one clip (thus raising the needle).

The vacum adjustment was the most important thing there, and obviously the mixture screws on idle.
It now starts up first crank every time. Sometimes it needs choke, but other times it does not even need to be choked.
I find that full choke is too much anyway, i have to sort of 1/4 or 1/2 choke it.

Why dont go on the dyno jet website and look at what they advise for ur bike, and just get one size up main jet from there.
The pilot stays the same (as it only controls idle and small throttle).

They had 138 for my main so i went 140, 142.5 was too rich and a bit gluggy but 140 was perfect.

Only other thing u need is some dedicated time, thats the hardest thing I think!

 

[Guest]

Good work Pete.
Still havent got the carbs running right?
Not sure if you need a dynojet. I managed to get mine going very well without it.

I basically went 140 main jet (115 was the stock) and moved the needle position clip down one clip (thus raising the needle).

The vacum adjustment was the most important thing there, and obviously the mixture screws on idle.
It now starts up first crank every time. Sometimes it needs choke, but other times it does not even need to be choked.
I find that full choke is too much anyway, i have to sort of 1/4 or 1/2 choke it.

Why dont go on the dyno jet website and look at what they advise for ur bike, and just get one size up main jet from there.
The pilot stays the same (as it only controls idle and small throttle).

They had 138 for my main so i went 140, 142.5 was too rich and a bit gluggy but 140 was perfect.

Only other thing u need is some dedicated time, thats the hardest thing I think!

I'm pretty sure my needles are just wrong for my setup. Idle is good, but cracking the throttle open bogs it down, so it's too rich, but as soon as I really open her up she's good to go. That says to me the taper on the needles is all wrong (which I expected). I've still yet to prove it with the Colortune though.

At this stage it really depends on the cost of the kit whether it's worthwhile or not. If it's less than about $150 then it's going to be worth it. Needles will be trial and error and at $13.50 each and mains being $8.50 each it won't take many combinations to make the Dynojet kit worthwhile.

The other thing with the Dynojet kit is they supply a drill bit to open up the air hole in the slide as well.

I think the big benefit with the kit is that they've done some testing and worked out that the items they supply will work together, and that in itself is very helpful...

At the moment it comes down to price... and yes, as you say time is the big issue!

 

[landshark]

Be careful with the drill bit that dyno jet supply, it could have just been the one that i had, but it wasnt very good quality and it snapped off in one of the slides. The first one i drilled actually. I have plenty of bits and it wasnt an uncommon size, so i just used one that i already had, it was much better.

 

[Guest]

Be careful with the drill bit that dyno jet supply, it could have just been the one that i had, but it wasnt very good quality and it snapped off in one of the slides. The first one i drilled actually. I have plenty of bits and it wasnt an uncommon size, so i just used one that i already had, it was much better.

Bugger, thanks for the heads up mate! If it happens I'll keep an eye on that for sure.

I'll start without drilling the slides though I think and see how that goes... don't want to make such a permanent change unless it's necessary, although I do realise they know what they're doing when they say to drill it

You reckon you'll make it on the 5th?

 

[Guest]

Back in the garage again tonight but again just working on the garage itself. Moved the peg board and mounted the cupboard up above it which was real fun by myself but at least I got it done

Now I can start thinking about organising stuff and what I'm going to do with all the clear bench space that's now available... I think continuing with my "optional extras" could be the way to go there

I'm also thinking of how to convince the Mrs we need a double car port attached to the front of the garage... that way her Festiva can have some shelter and the house mate's ute can go out there and we can just leave the Peugeot in the garage and move it to the other side. That would give me a whole car space to park the bike in, not to mention having room to start on the Cucciolo and bring the YB100 back to do something with it as well... and of course the house mate is murmuring about getting a bike again for the first time in who knows how many years... probably 20+ I'd say... time to start plotting :twistedevil:

 

[GateKeeper]

"Build it, they will come...."

 

[Guest]

"Build it, they will come...."

Hahaha true... looks like about $1700+ for an install yourself carport 5.5 metres square which is what we need...

 

[landshark]

Cant see me making the 5th at this stage, going OS on the 21st and got a lot of work to do before then. But you never know??

 

[Guest]

Cant see me making the 5th at this stage, going OS on the 21st and got a lot of work to do before then. But you never know??

Aaaah well, see what happens, would be nice if you can but if you can't, you can't

I take it that means your business is steaming along? That's great news!

 

[Guest]

Well I gotta say I was less than impressed this morning when I rolled her out to ride into work... first ride since I rode to work last Friday.

I knew the valve cover gasket had weeped a bit but thought I had it sorted when I nipped all the valve cover bolts tight, however...



That's all accumulated, I didn't wipe any off after nipping the bolts up so it looks a bit worse than it is, but it's still frustrating.

This is with the Athena valve cover gasket in there that just never seemed to seal up well right from the word go. I thought it had sorted itself out but as you can see it hasn't.

I have a new genuine valve cover gasket on the way from Boulevard Suzuki (I actually have 2 coming because they're so cheap) so I can swap it when I do the 1000km service.

However, I'm absolutely stoked at what the wet blasting does for the surface... a little bit of degreaser sprayed on a rag (not on the head itself) and this was about 30 seconds worth of a quick wipe over:



So when I give her a bath she should clean up quite nicely indeed

I'm also getting closer with the workbench and garage sorting. Got the cupboard and peg board up as well as some brackets moved around so there's somewhere suitable for the saws, screwdrivers, hammers, and what not.

Still a huge mess while I get it all organised but everything will have a place finally...



Then we just need to spend some $$$ and get the electrician in to get a couple of flouros above the work bench and a couple over the car spaces... then of course convince the Mrs we need a double car port... I can dream ok? Haha

 

[oohsam]

I tried to buy stuff form boulevard suzuki, but I cant because I cant put in australian address, is this one for the US address??

 

[Guest]

I tried to buy stuff form boulevard suzuki, but I cant because I cant put in australian address, is this one for the US address??

The online system doesn't work for international orders, you gotta email them and they'll send a Paypal money request through to you. It makes it a little awkward but it means their shipping prices are accurate instead of over inflated...

 

[oohsam]

Nice! thanks will do that.

Ur a champ.

 

[Guest]

Nice! thanks will do that.

Ur a champ.

I have my moments :lol: