1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

No probs at all Charlie, although they're definitely not in the same league as what FC has in his guide, which is on BassCliff's site by the way:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/gs450_carb_cleaning_guide.pdf

Enjoy

As to what the amber crap is, your guess is as good as mine! Another present from the PO is what I'm thinking at the moment to match up with the unlabelled shim...

 

[Charlie G]

No probs at all Charlie, although they're definitely not in the same league as what FC has in his guide, which is on BassCliff's site by the way:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/cbsaunders/gs/gs450_carb_cleaning_guide.pdf

Enjoy

As to what the amber crap is, your guess is as good as mine! Another present from the PO is what I'm thinking at the moment to match up with the unlabelled shim...

Thanks for the link Pete. FC did a nice job on the tutorial. I'll have to tell him so.

cg

 

[Guest]

He did indeed! The only thing I noticed was that on his choke lever assembly, you'll see the two screws are reversed as opposed to where they should be, which I verified on the fiche.

They should be like this with the philips on the pivot and the flat head on the slider:



I must PM FC now actually and let him know in case he put them back together the same way...

 

[Guest]

Rightio... carbs are completely disassembled ready for cleaning and I just filled out the online quote form for a 2.35mm and 2.40mm shim as I didn't get a chance to do that today. If it's express post like last time, they'll be here on Wednesday.

So, after a night soaking with the WD, time to get the needle jets out.

Right:



Left:



I was able to get a good firm grip with a large pair of pliers and gently twist them left and right and gradually pull them free. The large pliers allowed me lots of purchase on lots of surface area on the needle jet with less chance of slipping off and potentially damaging them.

I found the easiest way to get the overflow hoses off was to wiggle a flat blade in between the carb housing and the end of the hose and use a twisting action to push it off. They both came off no dramas like this:



So that's that, everything's off that comes off to clean the carbies, so the left one looks like this:

 

[Guest]

And the right one looks like this:





Both aren't as bad as I thought they'd be inside, however I know that there will be old gummed up fuel in those pasages that will defy every attempt to run the bike smoothly without a proper clean.

I still have no idea what that grunge is on the intake side, but since I took the airbox boots off last night, it's really dried out now and nowhere near as sticky.

I'm hoping to get time on Saturday to do the clean, but I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Next up, I finally have the chance to start breaking into the excellent Robert Barr's O ring kit!

I'm still impressed by the effort he has put into this. He not only has tips on how to install and not lose the little O rings, but he also has a reminder in with the stainless bolts to use anti seize.



So, one pair of feral intake boots for the head:



Left one cleaned up, and the broken brittle supposed O ring that was there which snapped like a twig during removal:

 

[Guest]

And both cleaned up with nice new supple O rings ready to roll:



Installed with anti seize on the stainless allen bolts and I have just sat the intake port screws in so I don't lose them:



So there she sits.

Once I finish the valves, the valve cover and valve cover breather can go on, so I'd probably best clean up the gasket surfaces on them next and get the oil separators back in.

I can give the end caps a once over with mothers and screw them on also.

I should also be able to get the breather cover onto the valve cover too.

One other electrical thing I need to do aside from make sure the harness is useable for test firing is to test the starter motor before installing it.

Other than that, it's just carb cleaning and assembly and painting the oil filter cover before I can give it it's first kick over.

I can't wait

 

[SVSooke]

Sweet,you really are moving along.

 

[Guest]

At the moment, I'm just trying to get one bit at a time done as I get time at night. It's a little frustrating that I can't get the carbs cleaned like that though, there'll be too much noise running the air compressor.

Overall though, I'm real happy with the progress so far... I do see yours is moving along slowly too though, and I still say yours will be done way ahead of mine

 

[SVSooke]

Might help if I went out and did some work on it instead of cruising GSR

 

[Guest]

Might help if I went out and did some work on it instead of cruising GSR

Errrr... yeah, that will definitely help move it along

 

[Guest]

A little further along tonight.

Firstly, the frustrating news is that I won't get to cleaning the carbs this Saturday.

Given Valentine's is a Monday night and next weekend is a bad weekend for celebrating it, this weekend will be our time for Valentine's, so no carbs.

I'm actually not complaining as we should hopefully have a nice relaxing weekend, and I should be able to get at them next weekend.

The good news is my shims should be on there way overnight again so I should have them tomorrow.

Now back to the bike...

Grabbed the starter motor and gave it a run with jumper leads directly from the car battery tonight and it spins. It sparked quite a bit with the crappy connection with the jumper lead as it's an old set with the insulation missing off the handles, so I couldn't get a good firm connection, but good enough to show me it still spins.

Here it is in all its grungy glory:



And cleaned up with the old nearly brittle O ring on the right and the new supple one on the left:



O ring went on, a bit of engine oil on the pinion, and sat it in place:



For the observant who have been following this thread, you will notice a serious lack of a cam chain tensioner, which was actually there before... turns out the starter motor can't squeeze in under the cam chain tensioner. I can assure you some choice expletives were uttered as I removed the tensioner...

Starter motor mounted:



I seem to have misplaced the lead that runs from the starter to the solenoid at the moment, even though the harness and electrics were all put together, so I wasn't able to bolt that to the post and put the cover on tonight.

Cam chain tensioner back where it belongs, and I also repeated the timing checks and the anti clockwise rotation of the knurled knob and crankshaft to ensure it still operates correctly:



Next up, cleaned up the gasket surfaces on the valve cover and breather cover:



Oil separators back in:



New gasket in place:



Breather cover sat on top:

 

[Guest]

And bolted down with shiny new stainless allen bolts with anti seize on the threads:



Underneath, will need to give the gasket surface a once over with metho before mounting it, but it's pretty much ready:



And sitting on the head:



So next time should hopefully see the valve adjustments complete (as long as I don't need any more shims!!!) and hopefully I can get the end caps on, the rubber half moons in, and maybe even get the valve cover on properly.

If there's more time than that, then onto the harness, coils, and electrics and try to find that misplaced wire for the starter to solenoid connection so I can get the starter motor cover on.

Stay tuned...

 

[Guest]

I just had a good look at the diagram for my 450, and the lead from the starter to the solenoid is black.

I could've sworn it was red, but I took it out years ago, so I'm probably remembering wrong.

I did see a fat black lead there while looking for what I thought was the starter lead last night, so looks like I haven't misplaced it after all

 

[scottychop]

It's black on mine Pete!

 

[Guest]

Cheers for that Scott, I'll get a closer look next time I'm working on it (hopefully tonight) and should hopefully get the starter cover on too.

 

[landshark]

Pete,
Do you find that most of the colours on your diagram match up?
None of the wires on my bike match the colour of the wiring diagram i downloaded from bikecliffs site.
Just wondering, thats all.

 

[Guest]

That's actually a good question at the moment, as the only one I've looked for so far has been the starter solenoid to starter lead, and it is indeed black as the diagram says.

As I clean up the loom and check it out, I'll let you know if it's accurate or not.

I suspect the RR won't be as it was replaced with a GSX250 one (according to the writing on it) before I bought it.

 

[Guest]

A little more tonight, but when I say a little, I mean a little.

Shims didn't turn up today and it looks like he's charged me less for postage, so he may not have express posted this time. No big deal there, just have to wait an extra day or two.

So, first things first I dug out the starter to starter solenoid lead and the starter cover:



I'm obviously doing something wrong when polishing the starter cover. This is the second time I've had it shined up only for it to go rusty in no time at all.

I really want it to shine and I don't want to paint it matte black like the cases.

I'm thinking I need to put the Mothers over it after a good buff and polish as I expect the polishing compound on the bench grinder is not actually protecting the finish at all which would explain it.

Anyways, lead bolted to the starter:



Next up, pulled out the end caps for the valve cover. They are polished up but have gotten dusty sitting around, so I will give them a once over once I've got the valves done and valve cover back on properly:



Screwed onto the valve cover and I used thread locker on the screws so they don't vibrate out while the engine's running:



And how it will look once on properly:



Then I pulled out the half moons for the head to get cleaned up and put back in:



But, while cleaning the old gasket crud and sealant off them, I discovered two are busted:



Not easy to see, but both have splits that I'm assuming the sealant used to keep together to prevent oil leaks.

So, I'm now developing a bit of a list of parts I need to get including four new half moons, two choke assembly gaskets for the carbs, and my stripped front engine mount bolt.

 

[Guest]

Anyone have any idea if my you beaut Threebond sealant will be good for putting the new half moons on? It's 1211:



Hopefully the shims rock up tomorrow and hopefully I get time to finish the valve adjustments off which would be real nice.

I can then pull the harness and coils and things out and start cleaning and testing electrical stuff which should be hours of fun.

 

[hillsy]

Yep - that stuff will do the job. Just go sparingly so you don't have any blobs form (and eventually break off) inside the cam cover.