1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

I thought about that... then thought... what if it slips? Hmmmm... do I want that sort of tragedy? Toes I don't care, big gouges in the cases? Not good!

Plus, house mate already had a bench grinder so I just got the wheels

 

[Leigh]

That's handy.
I was just googling prices then.
$100-$250 on average.
The top end priced one had the sander/linisher attachment.

I see a Christmas present from the kids coming up I think.


In the meantime, I have a roller door lock to replace (damned kids) and a bike to get to.

 

[SVSooke]

I'll come and help as son as you esend the ticket

 

[Guest]

That's handy.
I was just googling prices then.
$100-$250 on average.
The top end priced one had the sander/linisher attachment.

I see a Christmas present from the kids coming up I think.


In the meantime, I have a roller door lock to replace (damned kids) and a bike to get to.

Now that sounds like a plan! My cats are useless, they can't even clean their own litter trays let alone buy me a present!

I'll come and help as son as you esend the ticket

Bugger, I knew there'd be a catch! Pity I don't work for the airline any more hey? Actually, I'm glad I don't, but that's a whole other story...

 

[Leigh]

It's ok, Pete, my kids don't change their litter trays either.

 

[Guest]

It's ok, Pete, my kids don't change their litter trays either.

Should I be concerned or relieved by that? Oh wait, you said kids... :-\\\

Anyways, got a little cleaning started tonight. No progress on the alternator rotor as the outlaw visit went as expected yesterday (horribly).

So, thought I'd best start on the valves as they'll need to go in real soon once I get the cylinders and head back.

This is the state of the left inlet valve before cleaning:



After a reasonable amount of wire brushing and kero soaking:



Cleaned up not so badly, although I'll give it some more. Not sure if I should be concerned about the tiny bit of pitting on the top of that pic though. It's certainly only a very small area, but I'm just not sure how much can be tolerated without causing grief. They ain't gonna be cheap to replace that's for sure!

Here's the right exhaust valve after some more of the same treatment:



It's currently soaking in the kero til tomorrow night coz that crud doesn't wanna budge with the wire brush, and I'm not game to start scraping at it yet.

The left inlet valve is also having a soak. Hopefully overnight will loosen most of that and it'll come off with the wire brush.

So, thought the next logical step would be... the sprocket cover? Yeah, real logical... anyways.

Needs a good clean:



Inspection plate off, bit feral in there too:

 

[Guest]

And after a significant amount of time brushing kero all over it, scraping great chunks of crud out, and wiping down, it's still feral. Needs to go into the marine clean when I get some daytime time to work on it:



And I discovered that someone's been in here before:



See those self tappers? They were holding the clutch release in. The part number is 03111-06168, which leads me to believe they should be 6mm thread, 16mm long screws, not self tapping screws. I'm guessing the threads are probably ruined now, so I'll have to stick with those horrid things.

On a positive note, it looks like the inspection plate counter sunk screws are prime candidates for the counter sunk stainless allen head bolts I couldn't find a home for.

I'll get back into those valves again tomorrow night, I'm really keen not to replace them if I can avoid it.

And hopefully I get the cylinders and head back on Tuesday

 

[Nessism]

Hey Pete,
Project is looking good. Keep up the good work.

After you get the head back make sure to scrub it in soap and water really well. Make sure there isn't any blast media is the oil galley passages. The cam feed ports are hard to access so pay particular attention there. Also, consider having those valves faced. I did that on my last rebuild and the guy only charged me a few bucks each valve and they looked like new afterwords. Well worth it. If you go this way ask him to face the back side too so the valve shim sizes won't change.

Good luck and keep going...

 

[Guest]

Hey Pete,
Project is looking good. Keep up the good work.

After you get the head back make sure to scrub it in soap and water really well. Make sure there isn't any blast media is the oil galley passages. The cam feed ports are hard to access so pay particular attention there. Also, consider having those valves faced. I did that on my last rebuild and the guy only charged me a few bucks each valve and they looked like new afterwords. Well worth it. If you go this way ask him to face the back side too so the valve shim sizes won't change.

Good luck and keep going...

Cheers Ed, the guy who did the blasting has asked me to give everything a thorough once over to make sure all passages are clear and all media is gone. He also put some lanolin on the cylinder bores and somewhere else I can't remember now. It was either the camshaft bearing journals or the valve seats.

I'll be doubly sure to give it a good once over though before starting things like honing.

Thanks for the tip on valve facing. I've heard the term before but that's about it. The trick will be finding someone local, although I could probably ring my dealer and ask if they know someone who does (I doubt they'd do it in house). Do you know if I need to clean the valves up before getting this done? I would imagine the answer would be yes, but just in case it will save me some wire brush scrubbing

And yeah, I'm gonna keep going for sure. I'm now heading into tedious territory (cleaning and polishing case covers) and scary territory (for me anyway; the head), so I'm looking forward to it. I just need to get some daytime hours soon to get into the cleaning and polishing properly.

 

[Guest]

One other thing... I've been Googling around and everywhere I see "don't grind the valves" because you'll interfere with the thin coating on them.

Can I safely assume the point of the facing is to clean the face up and put that thin coating back on again? Or is the "don't grind" thing just paranoia or something? Even the Clymer manual says don't grind.

Of course, if I do go down the path of replacing them, it's going to be $US139.00 from Boulevard Suzuki and three weeks of waiting, and then I imagine I will definitely need to do shim adjustments, whereas with the existing ones, if the clearances were ok before I disassembled, then they should still be ok (I will check of course).

 

[Leigh]

Go, Pete, go..
You are making some huge progress.
You have a month, I figure, as I've hit a bit of a financial wall over Christmas.

 

[Guest]

Oh no, my Yang has hit trouble!

I'm still hitting a wall with my valves at the moment.

I'm on a training course at work until Wednesday avo, so no chance to ring around looking for someone to do valve facing.

I shot a few emails off today, two of which went to places who don't do it, and one went to Albion Motorcycles who are apparently pretty damn good at it (was recommended by one of the others). Unfortunately, it seems they're not so good at replying to emails, although to be fair the implication that went with the recommendation is that they are quite busy, so perhaps I should just learn some patience.

Anyways, if I don't get a reply by the morning tea break tomorrow I'll try to give them a call.

Knowing my luck they will do them, but not until after Christmas.

Anyways... I did struggle along a little more tonight...

 

[Guest]

First up, got home and there's a package...



That contains...





I only took a few pic's coz the lighting in the garage is really lame and he also very kindly left them all wrapped up in shrink wrap to keep them nice and protected from greasy finger prints etc. which was really nice.

I'm absolutely stoked by how they turned out, they are immaculate and I'd be surprised if they were that good from the factory!

Now I'm absolutely desperate to get these valves sorted, get a hone, and start in on getting the cylinders and head on... I really need to learn some patience...

Anyways, I gave the valves a bit more of a go tonight.

The left inlet actually came up really well:



That's not pitting on the second pic, it's just the "N", bad lighting, and bad photography.

I didn't even bother taking any pic's of the exhaust valves, they're still soaking.

They are caked in carbon and some sort of solid brown residue, which I'm guessing is still carbon deposits.

So, rather than giving up I persevered on to something that will still be useful quite soon, the cam chain tensioner.

Needs somewhat of a clean up:



Continued...

 

[Guest]

Gave it a good scrubbing with kero and the body cleaned up really well, much better than I thought it would:



All the bits look pretty good, even including the O ring which is a bit of a shock:



So, engine oil on the lock screw, some moly lube on the tensioner shaft, and back together she goes:



Now that looks so much better and while it's nothing compared to the cylinders and head, it at least won't be insulting them too badly by being bolted to the back of the cylinders.

Next time, back to the valves again I guess unless I get a hold of someone tomorrow who can clean them and face them for me...

 

[Charlie G]

Pete,

I had the nut which holds the knerled knob on the cam chain tensionor come off and the chain jumped time. Make sure there is a lock washer or something to insure that dosen't happen. The tensionor is real easy to rebuild, by the way.

cg

 

[Suzuki_Don]

Pete,

I had the nut which holds the knerled knob on the cam chain tensionor come off and the chain jumped time. Make sure there is a lock washer or something to insure that dosen't happen. The tensionor is real easy to rebuild, by the way.

PETE I'll back up Charlie, I lost the lock nut and the knurled nut/handle of my tensioner as well. Take my tip use Red Loctite on the lock nut.

 

[Suzuki_Don]

BTW a wire wheel at high speed is a good way of removing the carbon from exhaust valves. If that doesn't work then use the back side of a hacksaw blade to scrape the carbon off or at least break it up so the wire wheel can do the rest. At times when this stuff has been really tough I have used the teeth side of the blade and gently pulled it across the valve to remove/break up the carbon. Remember those exhaust valves are one tough mutha. They're made from tough stuff, will not mark easily.

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

Cheers for the tips Charlie and Don.

You know I didn't even end up touching the knurled knob or lock nut? Got so carried away with how clean I was getting it I didn't even think about it.

I'd completely forgotten about Bwringer's excellent camchain tensioner rebuild info, so I'm going to have to review that now and try to get some seals possibly, but I'll know for sure when i get the rest of it dismantled.

Don, thanks for the wire wheel tip, I have a wire wheel to go on the bench grinder I can give that a whirl with.

However, it's looking more and more like I'm pretty much done until next year. No way I'm going to get any time this weekend between "life" and work... have to work 1am Sunday morning for a couple of hours... yay.

I didn't hear back from Albion Motorcycles today about the valve facing and I didn't get a chance to call during breaks on the course either, so maybe tomorrow, we'll see.

Also didn't get down in the garage tonight, so the exhaust valves are still soaking.

So, looks like the only time I'm going to get is still at night, which means no noise, but of course I need to make noise with the wire wheel and I need to make noise to try to get the alternator rotor off, and I also need to make noise to get the case covers polished up, so all in all not much chance of getting any of that done at all I'm afraid.

Oh well, just one more delay... I should be used to them by now...

I would imagine I can at least get the valves out of the kero and clean them up as best I can though.

 

[landshark]

Hi Pete,
Have you tried to call classic bike tune down here on the coast?
If it helps, and if they do the facing, i will be in Brisi tomorrow and could probably grab the valves for you and drop them off.

 

[Guest]

Hi Pete,
Have you tried to call classic bike tune down here on the coast?
If it helps, and if they do the facing, i will be in Brisi tomorrow and could probably grab the valves for you and drop them off.

Mate that's another awesome offer of assistance! I shot them an email this morning but they really recommend I drop in and talk to a mechanic about it.

As it turns out, I got onto Northside Cylinder Head Specialists at Geebung and they're open this Saturday and should be able to do them while I wait for somewhere around $20, so I'm gonna do that.

Albion Motorcycles could do them tomorrow for me, but I've got no way of getting there, then he closes up from Friday until mid January.

So, as long as I get to Geebung Saturday morning I should be all set with valves ready to go which would be awesome.

Thanks again for the offer, that's why I love this forum, so many helpful people on here who are willing to go out of their way. I hope I can return that to someone at some point...