1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

Half ya luck! Or is it you're just well organised? haha

I've got to get the half moons and things yet anyway, so just another part to be ordered. At least I can skip that step for now and come back to it later...

 

[Guest]

Just ordered my parts... mixed success.

Half moons and clamps for the intake boots are available and ordered.

Choke assembly gaskets and the pilot air screw spring are discontinued and unavailable, so I've put a query through to the expensive NOS guy in Adelaide, fingers crossed.

 

[Suzuki_Don]

Just ordered my parts... mixed success.

Half moons and clamps for the intake boots are available and ordered.

Choke assembly gaskets and the pilot air screw spring are discontinued and unavailable, so I've put a query through to the expensive NOS guy in Adelaide, fingers crossed.

Pete, I've got some pilot air screw springs if you don't do any good with your S.A supplier. They are off BS carbs so should be the same size as yours I would think.

 

[landshark]

I am also about to order some parts from the states, i gotta pay for the shipping anyway, so if they have your parts, and you dont take up Dons offer let me know.

 

[Guest]

Pete, I've got some pilot air screw springs if you don't do any good with your S.A supplier. They are off BS carbs so should be the same size as yours I would think.

Cheers for the offer Don, but Suziparts came through. Again not cheap, but he has the spring and the two choke assembly gaskets on their way to me.

A side note here is I had to go back to the '79 parts fiche to find the spring part number because the US versions after '79 have them sealed up for emmissions laws.

I am also about to order some parts from the states, i gotta pay for the shipping anyway, so if they have your parts, and you dont take up Dons offer let me know.

Mate thanks for the offer. Got them on the way from Suziparts today as above. Mind you, I still couldn't have gotten the spring easily as it's listed as discontinued on the Alpha Sports fiche as well, although the gaskets are still available.

I would've gotten these bits from the US except this is one of those rare cases where postage would've made it much dearer than buying locally...

 

[Guest]

Received a call from the dealer today my half moons and inlet boot clamps are in ready for me to pick up on Saturday. Hopefully my choke assembly gaskets and pilot air screw spring will here tomorrow or Friday too. Then I just need to locate some appropriate spark plug caps after I work out what I need.

So, back into it again tonight with more carb work.

Started off with the choke assemblies (everything here is a pic of the left carb, and I did the same with the right).

All cleaned up:



And assembled:



Test fitted:



I removed it then as I don't have the new gaskets just yet. You'll also notice I'm using the crappy old philips heads as I haven't located stainless ones locally yet. If I have time tomorrow I'll try a local place and see if they can post them because they don't open on the weekend and the local auto stores have none of the correct sizes on the shelf.

So, diaphragm assembly cleaned up and in:



And diaphragm cover on:



I'm undecided what to do with the cover at the moment. The float chambers cleaned up enough in the carb cleaner to make me happy but the diaphragm covers didn't go in and they're a bit grungy on top. I still may leave them but for the moment they're fine as is. I'll have to pull the carbs again to rejet once I get the pods and exhaust sorted anyway.

Needle jet in, just sprayed a little WD on it to make it easier to get in:



Needle valve assembly got a clean then went in (didn't go in the carb dip due to the plastic screen):



And floats in:



New gaskets ready to roll after checking the float height:



And this is where I got a little lost. The only thing I really had handy to measure float height is a measuring tape which is not exactly ideal, but should get me at least roughly in the area I need to be. If I measure correctly though, it shows about 18 - 19mm whereas it should be between 21.4mm to 23.4mm for a 450 according to the Clymer. I guess this means the float height has been way out for years.



I'll get a piece of stiff cardboard or something cut to about 22mm (middle of the range) and use that to set them accurately. In the meantime I'll do some searching as I'm sure someone not too long ago was asking about float heights on a 450.

 

[Guest]

So, last little bit for the night.

One crappy looking oil filter cover:



New filter and O ring ready to go:



Spring cleand up and installed:



And filter and filter cover installed:



I discovered tonight that there have never been washers under the oil filter cover nuts, so I managed to scrounge up three slightly different ones that fit and used them.

That's where it sits for now, time to go searching for float height...

 

[Guest]

Rightio, that was a productive search. Looks like I'm measuring in the wrong spot, and a stiff piece of cardboard cut to the right height should be a suitable measuring tool for the right spot.

I'll get onto that next time and I should be able to put the float chambers on.

 

[landshark]

Pete,
I got all the stainless hardware for my carbs from a local fastener shop for $10 and that is for a bank of four.
I have found that prices vary drastically from shop to shop though, there is another near me that would have charged about $50. It is really worth looking around for a good local supplier because you are going to need a lot of them by the end of it!

 

[Guest]

Cool, cheers for that. There's one real handy at Enogerra just down the road but not open on the weekend. My house mate has another at Brendale near his work which is where my helicoils have come from.

I'll give the Enogerra guys a call this morning if I have time as they may be able to courier or post them to me. Not ideal but at least I can get them...

 

[Guest]

Apparently I have some stainless bolts on the way for the carbs.

The place at Enoggera doesn't want retail business as they only open Monday to Friday and won't take phone orders.

Rang a place at Brendale and they took my order over the phone and will courier them out to my work.

They didn't have the M4 12mm in stock but they hope to have them in tomorrow, so I might get them tomorrow otherwise probably Monday or Tuesday I would imagine.

Cost should be about $14 plus the courier.

 

[r00ster_c0gburn]

great thread with good info... cant wait to see the finished bike... especially after reading 58 pages...lol
cant wait to tear into mine... keep us posted

jeston

 

[Guest]

Cheers Jeston, I can't wait to see the finished product either!

It's turned into a little bit of a monster thread, but nothing like some others on here such as Flaming Chainsaws' 450L thread...

 

[Guest]

Rightio, float chamber time. I'm confused again.

So, after thinking I had the measuring location for the float height right, I proceeded to make myself a measuring tool tonight.

22mm long piece of stiff cardboard:



Measuring:



Bugger. Now if my measuring position is right, and the range is 21.4mm to 23.4mm, that means I'm about 2mm too high. Wasn't happy with the guess work though...

So, new measuring tool:



Measure again:



So definitely looks about 24mm which is not to far away from being within range. I haven't adjusted the float height yet, will do that next time when I'll hopefully have the shiny new allen bolts to put the float chambers on with.

Next up, back to the electrics. And bugger again.

I measure 12.6 volts from the car battery across the terminals, and the same from the bike ground to where I hooked the positive jumper lead to the battery lead on the bike.

However, I can't do anything to get spark, and I'm positive the left spark plug cap is ok and should give me spark.

Took the signal generator cover back off to see if flicking a screw driver past the signal generator coils would generate a spark but no go.



For sh!ts and giggles I put the left controls on tonight to see if I could eliminate a few more disconnected wires:



And lo and behold I discovered that when I turn my lights on, my speedo actually lights up:



But I need to do the tacho bulb as it stays out:



So, I started measuring around the place at various spots where I should be seeing 12 volts, but I see about 10.6 instead. Bugger. That's a lot of voltage drop across the loom and I'm guessing it's probably enough of a drop to prevent spark too, so I need to sort that before even thinking about whether things like the igniter are working ok.

Time to keep searching around here to work out the best way to eliminate voltage drop, although I know the coil relay mod is one way to help the coils, but it's the rest of the loom that concerns me at the moment.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and do the custom simplified harness? Hmmm... more delays on that first start... bugger.

 

[Leigh]

Cheers Jeston, I can't wait to see the finished product either!

Yeah! Hurry up, will ya?
Jeez!

Actually, I should shut up. That joke I made a couple of months ago about yours being on the road before mine might be coming true..

I'm going to pull my tank back off this weekend. It's a start... again.

 

[Guest]

Yeah! Hurry up, will ya?
Jeez!

Actually, I should shut up. That joke I made a couple of months ago about yours being on the road before mine might be coming true..

I'm going to pull my tank back off this weekend. It's a start... again.

Yeah yeah yeah

I still think you'll definitely be there first... not gonna get far with only 10 odd volts! In the past I've found it very hard to start a combustion engine with no spark... I don't think that's changed in recent times... :-\\\

When I get that sorted it might be full steam ahead though...

Starting again 'ey? Man I still don't recall seeing those "finished" pic's you were going to take... but I'm keen to see what you do this time

 

[Guest]

Only a very short time tonight as I need to get up early in the morning to make it to the Suzuki dealer in time so we can do a bunch of other stuff afterwards.

My shiny new stainless allen bolts showed up at work today:



Replaced the two diaphragm cover screws I already have in with them (anti seize in use of course) and now I really have to do something at some point about the covers, they look horrible next to those new bolts:



Unfortunately they sent me 20mm M5's instead of the 16mm M5's I ordered, but the trouble to sort that out is not worth it and I can live with a few extra mm's poking out as they won't interfere with anything. I realise I could hacksaw them to length, but I've got so many other more important things to worry about...

Like my float height!

I am completely confused.

Bent the tang on the left carb tonight to try to get closer to 22mm, got it to 24mm, and the floats are getting quite close to the carb body. If I compress the needle spring, they contact the carb body. That just doesn't seem right... I'll pop a thread in the carby forum shortly as I can't seem to find a suitable procedure anywhere that highlights exactly where to measure.



So, I then started a bit of electrical troubleshooting. As per a suggestion on another thread by Steve, I actually noted down voltages. I was initially just going to measure away happily until I found the problem, but if I did that I think I would've missed something...



Not sure how well you'll be able to see, and the schematic is slightly incorrect in that the fuse on the 450 is before the ignition switch (and there's only one).

So, battery giving 12.63 volts with ignition off, and 12.00 with ignition on.

Leaving the ignition on, the other side of the main fuse gives 11.40.

11.40 still on the input to the ignition switch, so connections etc. on the way through seem to be ok, but only 11.14 on the way out, so the ignition is dropping a little voltage.

I also checked the kill switch which is not in that schematic, and the output of that has 11.13 with it in run, but 12.18 with it in stop.

When I go back to the battery, fuse, and ignition, they all jump up to the 12.18 or higher with the kill switch off.

So, first two things for me to visit are the kill switch and ignition switch and give both a thorough going over with contact cleaner and maybe even some sand paper or something if they're a bit corroded.

Now, the other night I was only seeing 10.6 or so volts at the coils, so after I get these sorted out there's probably going to be something else that's dropping voltage, but I'll get these sorted first then start from the beginning.

I really feel like I accomplished something there

 

[Leigh]

but I'm keen to see what you do this time

Just going to finish off, polish up, redo a few bits I'm not so happy with.

Electrics eh? The Black Art.
Good luck with finding your lost volts..
Have you checked under the bench in the shed? They may have rolled under there.

 

[Guest]

Just going to finish off, polish up, redo a few bits I'm not so happy with.

Electrics eh? The Black Art.
Good luck with finding your lost volts..
Have you checked under the bench in the shed? They may have rolled under there.

Oh so no cafe decision yet then? I'm sure that won't be far away

Believe it or not I'm quite comfortable with electrics, but I'm short on patience when it comes to sitting there measuring for voltage 20 times...

In the shed 'ey? Well I haven't looked there!

 

[Guest]

Well, got all my parts except the spark plug caps today, and I guessed the wrong part number for the pilot air screw spring

I used one from about a 77 or 79 and the diameter of the spring is too big.

Unfortunately, none of the online parts fiches I can find show this spring, and I had to go back to find one but it don't fit. I'm assuming this is because of the emmissions laws that came into effect to prevent that screw being adjusted.

I just went through all the rags again but still no sign of the spring, but the house mate moved them again on Thursday, so if it happened to be there then, it ain't now... I really need to look in the daytime with some decent light.

Anyways, I can at least now get the carbs fully assembled (that pilot air screw can go in later) and get the valve cover on at last.

Once I sort that spring and the electrics/spark issue, I can give it that first start finally...