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It was a cold and long winter this year!
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Not properly. It opens enough to put something in the small under seat compartment if necessary. But then the whole rack comes off in a few minutes if necessary so I thought this is acceptable.
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Measured the valve clearances. Manual says they should be between 0.03-0.08mm. They were all under the 0.03mm which is the smallest gauge on my set. However 7/8 of the tappets could be rotated by hand, so they had at least some clearance. One tappet needed some effort to rotate, so it's touching a bit.
My shed had only warmed up to something around +5 C, and the motor could have been pretty close to 0 C. I suppose this will have an effect on the clearances. Can it have such big effect? Will have to warm up the shed properly and re-measure.
My shed had only warmed up to something around +5 C, and the motor could have been pretty close to 0 C. I suppose this will have an effect on the clearances. Can it have such big effect? Will have to warm up the shed properly and re-measure.
The engine should be cold as it not ridden for at best since the day before. If they were all under .03 than please verify and replace as needed
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Did a lot of hunting for valve shims! I visited 2 different Suzuki dealers and also raided the dismantled engine of my GS450. Finally all valves have clearance in the spec.
In the process I believe I found the main source of oil leak. The half moon rubber seals at camshaft ends were obviously leaking and PO had tried fixing the issue with some silicone sealant. With new seals all around that should be now fixed.
In the process I believe I found the main source of oil leak. The half moon rubber seals at camshaft ends were obviously leaking and PO had tried fixing the issue with some silicone sealant. With new seals all around that should be now fixed.
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Installed a new fuel petcock, battery and air filter. After that it was time to take her for a spin for the first time in about 6 months!
The bike ran ok, no issues although I'm worried the lack of valve clearances might have burned the sealing surfaces. While the engine was warm I measured the cylinder pressures. Manual says they should be 9-12 bars and service level is 7bar. Mine were all between 6-6.5bar
Still, they were evenly bad, so I want to believe that the engine is "just" really worn out and nothing catastrophic has happened with the valves. This will have to do this summer, time for some major engine overhaul next winter...
The bike ran ok, no issues although I'm worried the lack of valve clearances might have burned the sealing surfaces. While the engine was warm I measured the cylinder pressures. Manual says they should be 9-12 bars and service level is 7bar. Mine were all between 6-6.5bar
Still, they were evenly bad, so I want to believe that the engine is "just" really worn out and nothing catastrophic has happened with the valves. This will have to do this summer, time for some major engine overhaul next winter...
It may get better with some use, if the rings are a bit sticky.Installed a new fuel petcock, battery and air filter. After that it was time to take her for a spin for the first time in about 6 months!
View attachment 62724
The bike ran ok, no issues although I'm worried the lack of valve clearances might have burned the sealing surfaces. While the engine was warm I measured the cylinder pressures. Manual says they should be 9-12 bars and service level is 7bar. Mine were all between 6-6.5bar
Still, they were evenly bad, so I want to believe that the engine is "just" really worn out and nothing catastrophic has happened with the valves. This will have to do this summer, time for some major engine overhaul next winter...
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Long pause on the updates, but there has been progress! Started taking the side bags apart. They are full of cracks and scratches. Both sides have one of the aluminium bands broken etc. They are assembled with aluminium rivets, so it was a job of drilling the rivet heads off and punching the rest off.
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Fixed the cracks with glass fiber and ground down the bits where there was a misalignment between the bag halves. It was my first try on glass fiber fixing but it came out ok.
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Cut a piece off an aluminium sheet and made replacements for the broken bands on both bags. Cleaned and polished the old and new bands to make them match.
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The bags hang on rubber bushing which were in a very bad condition and not optimally shaped in my opinion. I designed new bushings on SolidWorks and also designed molds for casting new ones. My friend printed the molds for me and cast samples out of mold silicone. The material is quite soft, I'll have to find something less soft sometime, but these will do for now.
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Did some eBay shopping: Stainless steel truss-head screws with phillips head (to match the screws on the engine), suitably sized latch locks, Suzuki badges. Then took the rear cowl from the bike to a paint shop for mixing me some paint. Painted and assembled everything. The painting went horribly wrong, but at least now I'm not so stressed over any scratches or dents they will get 
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Mounted the bags on the bike with the self-made mounting rack. Finally! This has been the biggest job on it so far and came out fine. It's not perfect but at least I will not see another bike on the road with a setup like this
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I've had a vague idea of adding a possibility to charge my phone and headlamp etc. on the road but haven't really designed it until now. I picked up a 12V twin USB outlet and a rocker switch. It was a tight fit but I managed to fit them onto the plastic thing under the seat. They are connected directly to the battery terminals, but I added a fuse to protect the system.
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The headlight on the bike is apparently some kind of aftermarket thing with a chrome cup. The glass is wobbly and feels like it might fall off at any moment. I opened it up and found out the mechanism is wrong in many ways. Parts are missing from the adjustment system which makes it wobbly and so on. Inside there was a bare ring connector which is live when the lights are on! I guess the headlight cup isn't a very good ground since there have been no sparks so far... I insulated the ring connector and added pieces of fuel hose around the rim of the light to stop the wobbling...
This is a great thread on ingenuity and garage engineering. I love what you are doing there.
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Thanks for the comment!
Recently I noticed that the front tyre is slowly losing air. I found the leak from the stem of the valve and took the wheel to a shop for fixing. Turns out it has an inner tube although the wheel claims to be suitable for tubeless. Oh well, didn't want to risk it, and bought a new inner tube.
All in all, I am declaring the bike ready for the trip after an oil change. All kinds of family stuff and the stupid Covid have changed the master plan so that it will be one week starting at end of August. Limited inside the borders of Finland, or at maximum a short visit to Norway if the border is open at that time.
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Ok, a few more things. It’s getting chilly and my hands tend to freeze, so I continue my adventures with suspicious electronic equipments and installed the cheapest heated grips available from the nearby store. The controller is quite bulky but in a way it fits the surrounding 80’s controls Ok.
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Late at night before the trip, I checked all oil levels. Turns out the gearbox oil looks like hot chocolate. That stuff must be decades old. I?m glad I checked, there?s fresh oil now. Washed the bike and now it?s as ready as it will be.
