1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Guest]

Ok, first off... brace yourself for a fugly headlight pic:



The very thin chrome plating came off when I bashed the dent in to clear the ignition switch and it has now nicely corroded... I really need to stick some primer on that or something to stop it rusting.

Anyway, that's the test fit of the bottom part of the bracket and as you can see it fits just fine, although I haven't bent it yet so the gauge doesn't sit at 45 degrees like it will.

Then I held the top piece on to get a rough idea of how it will go and it seems like it will be fine once I bend the sides down:



Here's the bottom bracket finished as far as basic shape goes, and all I need to do with it is finish smoothing it off, drill the holes where I'll mount the voltage indicator and gear position indicator and the mounting holes for the top part. Oh, and paint it:



And then I also got the cutout made for the gear position indicator face to slot through:



Not too far off now once I get the sides bent down and mounting holes cut, although I haven't received the voltage monitor as yet.

 

[Englishman]

Thanks Mark, so what sort of material did you get? Is it something fancy like carbon fibre?

Err no. I have something called HDPE...... Hope to have some pics on my thread over the Easter weekend.

Mark

 

[Guest]

Err no. I have something called HDPE...... Hope to have some pics on my thread over the Easter weekend.

Mark

Google tells me that's High Density Polyethylene... whatever that is when it's at home

Be interesting to see what that is, how you work it, and how well it does the job.

 

[Guest]

Got the bottom bracket bent tonight and the top part bent to form the box as well:



So it should end up looking something like this:



Next up will be getting the mounts sorted so I can test fit it all.

No sign of the voltage meter yet but it's a bit early, so will organise that once it gets here. Plenty to do in the meantime...

 

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
Your thread has slipped almost to the bottom of the page. You been a bit under the weather, mate?
Niels

 

[Guest]

Pete,
Your thread has slipped almost to the bottom of the page. You been a bit under the weather, mate?
Niels

Haha nah just no real progress to report... got a couple of holes drilled last night to locate the gear position indicator for mounting but that's it.

I'm onto the fiddly bits now which is getting all the mounting posts and holes done and I need to be patient to get them right so I don't have to start all over again.

Still waiting for the voltage monitor to arrive too...

I also caught up with HIGHSIDE yesterday who's up from Melbourne on holidays as he has a use for my old bikini fairing. Managed to strap it to the back of the bike and take it into work for him.

Nice bloke, got some good stuff on the go by the sounds, and he sure got a good score with his GS! Ya lucked out on that one David, well done

 

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
Busy here as well. Car repairs, plumbing repairs etc. By the way, if memory serves me correctly, you said that at 100 posts one became a senior member. If that's correct, start looking for a guest named "vikingrider" when I hit 99.
Niels

 

[Guest]

Pete,
Busy here as well. Car repairs, plumbing repairs etc. By the way, if memory serves me correctly, you said that at 100 posts one became a senior member. If that's correct, start looking for a guest named "vikingrider" when I hit 99.
Niels

Man I hate working on cars... and if I was to do plumbing I think we'd all be in trouble! Hahaha

Actually it was someone else who said that but I think they're right... I'll look out for ya' vikingrider... hahaha

 

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
I sweated 4 copper joints on my shower blender valve last night; And none of them leaks. There is a God!
Niels

 

[Guest]

Pete,
I sweated 4 copper joints on my shower blender valve last night; And none of them leaks. There is a God!
Niels

Nicely done! I'd end up with more leaks than I started with...

 

[Guest]

Ok, I've managed a bit more progress over the last few nights and bits of time here and there, and it's at the point where it's basically all there and just needs a tidy up and smoothing etc.

I'm still waiting for the voltage monitor to arrive and that's the bit that's gonna kill progress very soon until it gets here.

So, mock up of how it should look with the gear position indicator:



Cut the mounting posts to size:



I filed them down smooth and to the exact right length after the photo.

All mounting holes drilled:



Test assembly:



I'm not using the cap head bolts in the final version, I'm waiting on some button heads to arrive instead. They were out of stock at the time but I needed to get something to test with and cap heads were all they had.

And mock up mount on the bike, and I have to turn the Acewell upside down while it's still mounted on the old bracket:



And I got the perspex cut basically to shape and here's the test fit with it as well:



Getting very close now...

 

[ndaugbjerg]

Pete,
I turned my laptop upside down and looked at your instrument cluster; That turned out great. I think I'm going to start with the OEM speedo and tach on an alum. panel. I took them out of the plastic tub and noticed the mtg. screws are awfully small. If I can open the insts. I'll drill out the holes and use larger mtg. screws. Have you or anyone tried opening the cases? I assume you are using the OEM gear indicator. Did you fab a box for that or is some of the orig. useable? Stay busy; It's very inspirational!
Niels

 

[Guest]

Pete,
I turned my laptop upside down and looked at your instrument cluster; That turned out great. I think I'm going to start with the OEM speedo and tach on an alum. panel. I took them out of the plastic tub and noticed the mtg. screws are awfully small. If I can open the insts. I'll drill out the holes and use larger mtg. screws. Have you or anyone tried opening the cases? I assume you are using the OEM gear indicator. Did you fab a box for that or is some of the orig. useable? Stay busy; It's very inspirational!
Niels

Hahah I'm glad you could translate your monitor to view it the right way up Niels

I've had my instruments apart to attempt to clean and lube them and it's possible but you have to have lots of patience which I typically am lacking.

I have an album of pic's from the process here:

http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/tt26/starpoint73/GS450/Instrument Cleaning/

I'm not sure I'd drill the mounting points out as the plastic was quite brittle when I was working on it, so I think you'd risk breaking the housing.

Also, when removing the trip meter reset knob, I seem to recall mine was threaded on, not a push fit, so unscrew it and don't force it off.

I'm using the OEM gear position indicator and yes this whole dash/Acewell bracket is being made specifically so I can use that and so I can mount a voltage monitor as well.

This is as far as I can go for the moment until the voltage monitor arrives:

So far I'm pretty happy how it's turning out, but the housing needs to be painted black yet.

 

[Good Times]

Nice work there Pete!

 

[Englishman]

Wow, that's looking nice Pete.

Mark

 

[Redneck]

Damn Pete this bike has turned out to be "Fabrilicious". Love all the little fabricated modifications. You do good work sir.

Paul

 

[Guest]

Nice work there Pete!

Wow, that's looking nice Pete.

Mark

Damn Pete this bike has turned out to be "Fabrilicious". Love all the little fabricated modifications. You do good work sir.

Paul

Thanks guys!! You'll most likely enjoy tonight's update too

Paul... fabrilicious? Love it! hahaha... and thanks for the compliment, I'm trying to do the bike justice so I want things to turn out well.

Oh, and it's also been nominated for Bike of the Month over on DTT as well which is quite awesome. I don't think I've got a single chance of actually winning given the calibre of the other bikes (including Big Rich's awesome GR650 cafe) but it's real nice to be nominated and it's like winning for me...

Anyway, on to tonight's work...

 

[Guest]

Ok, so the button head stainless bolts and the voltage monitor arrived today.



So I gave the voltage monitor a little run on my test setup with variable voltage and it all worked like it should, and I tried with the link installed and it will definitely double as a battery monitor as well. Nice, very happy with that!

Andre I hope you're watching because your idea of the switch is going ahead:



That's just a momentary push button mounted underneath to keep it away from the weather as I couldn't find a small enough weatherproof one.

Basically, holding that in while I turn the key on will put it in battery monitor mode instead of voltage monitor mode. Simple.

So, given I have the perspex cover over the dash, I needed to recess the monitor under the perspex, so I made a little bracket to mount it to the lower part of the dash. I need to adjust it a bit as you'll see later on:



And the final mock up:



And some quick final testing:



If you look closely you'll see the LED for the voltage monitor is a little too far left and low for the hole, which is what I alluded to in the earlier comment about needing to adjust the bracket. Should be easy.

And a quick couple of videos, first in over voltage condition:



And in under voltage condition:



So, once I adjust the bracket for the monitor, it's out with the JB weld finally to seal up the gaps and do a general tidy of some marks and things, then it'll be sand, clean, etch primer, then paint.

Can't wait for it to be done!

 

[Guest]

I got the mount for the voltage monitor aligned properly with the hole tonight and sanded the bottom bracket down to start preparing for the etch primer:



The mount looks a bit twisted and ugly now but it does the trick nicely.

I also got the JB Weld done to fill the gaps between the bent down sides and also to fill a couple of low spots:





I'll let that cure overnight and hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able to sand it back and maybe even get the etch primer done depending on the weather. They're predicting a possible shower or two so it may or may not be good painting weather.

I also made the most of having two multimeters at my disposal and compared the voltage at the battery with the voltage on the switched output from the ignition switch.

I'm dropping less than 0.3v through the ignition switch, so I should be safe to use that as the source for the voltage monitor. It's not perfect by any means but should do the trick.

 

[Guest]

Got it in etch primer tonight!

Firstly though, I was thinking about the voltage monitor and how I wasn't real happy about it being out by the 0.3v I'm losing through the ignition switch, so I ducked out and picked up a horn relay today so I can have it measuring direct from the battery via the line running to the clock in the Acewell.



Tonight I got the cover all sanded back ready for primer:



Set up the drop sheet out the back and got them hung up and cleaned up with some wax and grease remover:



Then got two coats of etch primer on:



I think I got some runs because I was trying to get into the fiddly bits around the voltage monitor mount, so I expect I'll need to do a little bit of light sanding before spraying the black on.

So, while they started to cure, I had some thoughts on how to wire things up in the dash. I need to get switched 12v to the voltage monitor and the gear position sensor, and I need to connect the momentary switch to the voltage monitor so I can flip it over to battery monitor mode.

The relay mentioned earlier will sort out the switched 12v issue, but I needed some terminals to plug onto the provided pins on the voltage monitor that puts it into battery monitor mode.

So, I ripped my computer case off and found some unused terminals in there, so I cut them off to use for this:



I took the plastic enclosures off as I'll heat shrink them once I've got them connected to the switch, and here's where they connect to the voltage monitor:



Then I threaded the voltage monitor wires down through the gear position sensor sheathing to give me an easy way of getting it down to the end of the Acewell harness:



And, finally, here's the wiring diagram for it all:



If all goes to plan I should be able to spray the black tomorrow night which means it should be right to mount up maybe Sunday night, can't wait!