1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

So John pointed out the other day that my temporary fuel tank is not ideal (and I must agree) as it needs to have the first bit of fuel syphoned into the float bowls, so figured I'd fix that tonight so I can rule that out as any restriction on fuel delivery.

You can see the fuel hose exits right up towards the top of the container and it extends down inside to the bottom of the tank, so fuel needs to get sucked up a few inches of pipe before being able to go back down into the carbs:



So that's now moved to the bottom and the grommet is a tight fit in the hole and the hose is a tight fit in the grommet, so hopefully I won't get any leaks:



I'll probably need to shorten the hose to join the carb hose, but it should now be a straight gravity feed:



I then figured I'd double check the float heights given I now have a factory manual and the carbs were out on the bench. I set them initially based on the Clymer, and I'm now glad I checked because the Clymer is wrong for the '81 onwards.



Left pic is the 1980, right is the 1981 addendum in the manual, 22.4mm for 1980, 26.6mm for 1981, so time to adjust the floats again.

Once again did my cardboard measurer trick:



And yeah, way too low:



Apologies for the blur but the batteries in the camera started carking it here so I didn't get to take a better one of it adjusted correctly:



Naturally I repeated for the other carb as well.

In addition to that, I got onto the jet guy today and my jets should be in an express post bag on their way to me, so they should arrive tomorrow or Friday, meaning I apparently will get a chance to have a go at it again on Saturday.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Well that makes sence... I have heard more horror stories about Clymers manuals inaccuracies, DANG!

 

[Guest]

Well that makes sence... I have heard more horror stories about Clymers manuals inaccuracies, DANG!

The Haynes is the one that's really caught me so far and the Clymer hasn't been too bad. I think it's simply that they're still using the 1980 spec's and didn't clarify different spec's for different years... and that's not real flash either actually...

 

[oldrookie]

Clymer's had me doing the clutch adjustment exactly backwards with its "tighten until heavy resistance is felt" line a few weeks ago.

GS board members got me straightened out quickly enough.

Hang in there with the build, Pete. It is going to be a great ride when you button it up.

 

[Guest]

Clymer's had me doing the clutch adjustment exactly backwards with its "tighten until heavy resistance is felt" line a few weeks ago.

GS board members got me straightened out quickly enough.

Hang in there with the build, Pete. It is going to be a great ride when you button it up.

Yes I remember that thread! I'll be using Ed's advice once I get to adjusting my clutch too, very worthwhile.

I certainly hope it will be a great ride! At least it should ride well on those springs and shocks, but the way my time's going at the moment it'll just have to roll down hills.

I got barely enough time in the garage to put some fuel in the modified temporary tank to make sure it doesn't leak before I got called back out again.

The new jets arrived too so I only got about 30 seconds to compare with the old ones, and that brief glance says they should screw straight in at least.

I managed to get back down after about 20 minutes to see there was no leaks from the relocated hose on the temporary tank but that's all I got done.

At this stage Saturday is not looking good after all that either, which seems to be pretty typical now. If that's a no go then I'll just take another day off work or something because I won't be able to rely on next Saturday either at this rate.

So frustrated right now but I'll get there...

 

[Guest]

Looks like last night was a mis-communication, meaning tomorrow should still be bike day... yay!

Got the carbs back together tonight and I'm starting with the stock pilots again for the moment in case it was float height or something.

I also condensed my white board down and did me a list of stuff tomorrow that I can do as starting her up won't take all day.



I also just realised I'm missing disc brake and disc pads off the list...

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Now that's a good idea with the white board!!!
I even got one of those around here somewhere.

 

[Guest]

Yeah when we moved in here it was screwed to the wall in the study so when we painted the study recently I pulled it down and moved it to the garage above the work bench and has come in handy many times since. Great to scribble measurements down while you're working on something... like a fork brace for instance...

I try to keep my to do list up to date as well and it's awesome to see it shrink...

 

[Guest]

So I need a new R/R :dancing: :lol:

Why am I dancing and laughing at the though of a new R/R?

Easy...





Sorry to "star" in my own video again but I can't rev it remotely, and yes that's a hanging idle you hear which is why I fiddle with the idle knob. I was also setting AC volts on the multimeter to check out the stator.

Definitely too lean and I really do suspect my intake boots are leaking a little air, so doubly glad I have some new ones on the way.

These are the plugs after, left and right as shown:



I'm actually kicking myself a bit because of three reasons...

Firstly, after intending to set my mixture screws at two turns out, I forgot to touch them at all which means they ran at 1 turn out, so I'm not sure how much that contributed to the lean running.

Secondly, I only just realised today that after having the advance unit in and out so much recently I still haven't actually taken the time to degrease and lube it correctly, and a couple of times today it looked to me like it was sticking a bit in the advanced position, so I need to do that.

Thirdly, I didn't do anything with the mixture screws while it was running to try to see if there was enough adjustment to make the mixture good or if I still need larger pilots.

While I gave it some rev's a couple of times to check the stator and R/R out, it spent the vast majority of that time running with the throttle closed, so the readings on the plugs will definitely be the pilot circuit.

I got the rev's up somewhere near 5000 and I saw 72v AC on the multimeter on all three phases of the stator, so the stator is good.

Unfortunately, I saw 12.5v DC on the multimeter from the R/R until somewhere around the 2500 - 3000 RPM mark where it dropped to about 12.3v DC, so the R/R is definitely toast. I'm 100% sure I have it grounded well, so I'm pretty confident it's the R/R itself with the problem.

So, let me get back to the beginning of the day...

With the modified temporary fuel tank, hanging off the left 'bar was no longer an option because the fuel hose hangs down below the carbs, so fortunately there is a hook in one of the garage rafters so I was able to shorten the fuel hose and hang it off there:



I let it run for a good 15 minutes with the fan straight on it to get a good heat cycle into it, and then I dumped the oil and filter. I was lucky enough to only lose one of the oil filter cover washers in there (easily replaced).



Then, while letting that drain, I finished shaping the front guard:

 

[Guest]

I also started sanding the fork brace/guard mount with some 800 grit wet/dry paper in an effort to start on the brushed looked and it didn't see to end up too bad, and the guard itself looks heaps better with some proper shape to the bits I cut off:



Then I put the sump plug back in and grabbed out the new oil filter which actually comes with two new O rings which I put aside given the existing one's only had a 15 minute run to its name:



And popped her back in with the cover on:



And just in case I get the urge to do something stupid:

 

[Guest]

Then I revisited the tail piece and finished sanding it back and getting all the scrappy little bits of fibre glass off so it's ready now to putty:



And finally just a couple of random higher res. shots with the good digital camera to finish off the day:



So, this week I can recheck the valves and check the head torque again.

My intake boots should be here this week some time so they can go in.

I can also shoot back to Scott from Dynatek that it does actually work well, and give him some measurements of where the indent would need to go for the oil pressure switch screw and the measurements of the spacer.

Right now I'm really happy with that result, even though I'm still kicking myself for not trying the mixture screws out. Oh well, that will have to wait for another day.

The good thing right now is that this load is off my mind and I can start looking at finishing things off. I really need to look at taking a week off work before too much longer to get the paint done, and I need to start looking harder for a tyre source because I'm having zero luck on that front so far...

 

[Guest]

Neglected to mention I got an email from Boulevard today saying my fuel tap has arrived from back order and has been shipped to me

 

[cowboyup3371]

Like I said in the other thread...congratulations on it running. :dancing:You'll be riding in no time.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

That is Great news! and good job on the "Note To Self". That looks like something I would do, I even leave myself voice mails and txt messages

I envy how much progress you've made recently, Hope you have better weather than I did to paint. Took a week off work and it rained more than 1/2 of it.

Again, CONGRATS!

 

[Guest]

Like I said in the other thread...congratulations on it running. :dancing:You'll be riding in no time.

Cheers Scott, I certainly hope so!

At least I won't have to roll it down the hill to get motion once the rest is done

That is Great news! and good job on the "Note To Self". That looks like something I would do, I even leave myself voice mails and txt messages

I envy how much progress you've made recently, Hope you have better weather than I did to paint. Took a week off work and it rained more than 1/2 of it.

Again, CONGRATS!

It certainly is! And yeah it's a pity I didn't put on my white board to check the mixture screws... I rubbed off a bunch of stuff to check but didn't write them up there, so that's a job for next time now.

And yeah, weather really sucks sometimes! I'll take your half a week of rain and raise you rust in the tank... that's what happened to my initial week off to paint... that and complete indecision on a paint job...

Was going to say you at least have your paint now, so once you get some time you should be good to go

 

[Guest]

Just noticed that this thread has now got almost as many replies as the "What did you wrench on today" thread and actually has more views

I really need to get her done, that's quite embarrassing...

 

[Guest]

Well I got in tonight and took some measurements for Scott at Dynatek so I could update him on the success from yesterday.

While I was doing that, I realised my initial measurement of the spacer John made was wrong, and it's still a little too large when compared with the one Dynatek makes already. This could explain why the advance seemed to stick a couple of times yesterday, so I'll need to get the sandpaper out again and rub it back a little further. It's not much out, 0.126" instead of 0.125", but maybe it's just enough...

Either way, I did clean the advance mechanism up while I had it all out for measuring so I could lube it and put it back together properly too.

All cleaned up:



Lubed with a bit of engine oil and reassembled:



And back where it belongs:



Then I decided I'd have a closer look at the front guard and see why it's such a drama with the tacho cable.

As it turns out, I'm going to have to drop the guard 25mm.

The fork travel is 140mm, but I currently only have 120mm before it hits the trim on the lower triple clamp:



The mount for the brake line actually protrudes down below that a little, but I believe I can invert that and solve the problem that way, so if I drop it 25mm it gives 145mm of clearance:



And the guard should still to the job and should still look right as well:



Either way, it's gotta drop. I really don't want the guard/brace impacting the lower triple clamp before the forks bottom out...

The parcel from Boulevard should also be here tomorrow or Tuesday, it apparently cleared customs here in Aus. on Friday, but it takes 2 days for that to get updated on the USPS tracking info...

I'm also starting to think about the seat and whether I'm going to pay someone to make up the padding and cover or if I'm going to attempt it myself.

I should be able to get suitable foam from this lot:

www.dymanfoams.com.au

But the cover is what has me concerned. I can't sew to save my life and I'm assuming you need to do things like make the foam a little larger than the cover so the cover stretches on and compresses the foam a bit.

Any thoughts out there?

Tyres are becoming a drama too. Admittedly I haven't picked up the 'phone yet and talked to anyone, but none of the Brissie shops with an online presence seem to stock Shinko, and that's the only brand I know of with suitable 18" dual sports...

 

[Flyboy]

Shame Pete, that front guard is giving you dramas, don't know what idiot suggested it be lifted to suit the style, and I thought you were smarter than listening to the ramblings of a twit who knows bugger all about motorcycles.

 

[Guest]

Shame Pete, that front guard is giving you dramas, don't know what idiot suggested it be lifted to suit the style, and I thought you were smarter than listening to the ramblings of a twit who knows bugger all about motorcycles.

Hahahaha nah it's all good Stan, I made that choice

It should still suit just fine once it's a bit lower, and should still look at least 10 times better than the stock one... not to mention it won't be hitting the header any time soon...

 

[Guest]

Popped the valve cover tonight for the valve clearance check:



Looking pretty good inside:



Left exhaust no change, right exhaust dropped from 0.06 to 0.05mm, left inlet I couldn't measure but the bucket rotates so one size should be enough, and the right inlet actually increased from 0.05 to 0.06mm. So all in spec. except the left inlet which I need to go from a 2.55 down to a 2.50.

Shot an email off to Precision Shims tonight so hopefully they can let me know a price tomorrow so I can pay and get it maybe on Wednesday.

I'm using Steve's very handy spreadsheet for tracking these too.



While the cover's off I re-torqued the eight head nuts as well so they should be good to. I've got to run around all the other bolts to check they're all snug too yet.

No parcel yet either, maybe tomorrow...