1982 GS1100gl project

[craz1]

Beatiful Honda four! Ha, ha, when I buff I take my buffer out to the middle of my lawn, wear coveralls and headsock and let it fly. It's just too hard to clean up the mess when doing it inside.

Yes I know what you mean. Even though I have a dedicated room I still wear a full painters hood with mask. After 4 hours of buffing I still come out pretty dirty

 

[craz1]

As I continue to correct all the issues, I decided to turn my attention to the wire harness. The PO surly made a mess of it so it will take some work to correct all the cut and spliced wires. Some people should not be allowed to have any tools. This guy was supposed to be a 20 year airline mechanic but looking at how he maintained this bike makes me wonder. All the connectors were very brittle/corroded. I decided to replace them all with new spades female and male. To make thing worse I found several things wrong on the wire schematic (in the factory manual) which had me chasing my tail for a bit.

 

[craz1]

Disassembled the brakes and found that the pistons had some major pits in the pistons. had to order new pistons. Blasted the calipers and mounts and painted with high temp gloss.


Also got the side cover emblems painted

 

[craz1]

The bike came with a Dyna 2000 ignition which was mounted poorly in a hard to get to spot to read the dials and observe the led indicator for timing. I got my laser cutter programed and cut out a new plate for mounting, ya right. How bout some tin snips / drill / and hammer to straighten it back out. Any way I mounted it between the battery and electric panel where I can get to everything. He had an huge automotive regulator/rectifier in that area which was also badly mounted. I went back to a stock regulator which is mounted under the battery box. There are better units out there but at a cost. I decided to pick up a good used one for the fraction of the cost.

 

[craz1]

Finally got the harness done and partially in. At least the headlight shell wiring is done

 

[craz1]

Now that I have 98% of the wiring done I can start to replace all the seals in the lower unit and get that in the frame. I like to install a relay to power my ignition rather than relying on the kill switch for power, the relay gives me full battery power through the relay. The kill switch operates the relay. On this bike I have the relay mounter behind the air box with just enough room. I normally wire in a separate 10amp fuse using a mini spade fuse but the GS has an auxiliary fuse already on the fuse box. With a little thought you can get the wiring nice and clean. I use a 5 pin relay in case I have a major issue and the relay fails or the kill switch fails. Pins 87A and 30 are normally closed. I supply a jumper from 87a and 87 which gives me power from the battery, so if there is a problem I just connect the jumper (the two white connectors to the right of the fuse box) and i'm good to go. You don't even have to have your key on. This bike has a Dyna 2000 which has been wired in.






Only thing left to wire is the reg/rect and the ignition pick-ups for the Dyna 2000. It's interesting that Suzuki only wires two legs of the alternator directly into the rectifier and the third leg goes all the way to a connector which uses a jumper to bring it all the way back to the rectifier. On my factory drawing this was wrong and that third leg was being fed directly into the 12vdc system. I will be bypassing this connector and all 3 legs of the alternator will go directly into the rectifier/regulator.

 

[craz1]

So there are several seals that seal the transmission from the drive gears which run in gear lube. You don't want these to leak so to replace the seal I needed to make a tool to compress the large spring on the counter shaft.


I cobbled some parts together for a spring compressor. a 12mm bolt with a 6mm hole drilled through, a 6mm bolt which screws into the shaft, some pipe which is notched, an old stem bearing race (I keep a a lot of my old bearings and races as drivers of the new bearings),a driver which fits into the race perfectly and also has a 12mm hole, a couple of nuts, the right is secured to the bolt with red locktite the left nut is used to compress the spring, a large washer which is tac welded to the pipe.




Make sure you have about 3/8 inch to compensate for the expanded spring once you remove the collets and release spring pressure.

 

[craz1]

Got some of the engine work done and also mounted the brakes so I can order brake lines. I had the discs resurfaced also

 

[habsdoc]

If you have access to a lathe with a tail stock, you can set the counter shaft up in the chuck and use the tail stock to get that spring unloaded. Works very good, easy and safe too. Your work is very good and is nice to see craftsmanship being used to keep these bikes going.

 

[craz1]

I wish I had a lathe, milling machine, a friend of mine does. The tool was easy to make in an hour or so.

 

[craz1]

Well I turned my attention to then rear drive. The drive looked a little rusty and was lacking grease. The gear on the final drive had some rounded splines so the search was on for a good replacement. I was lucky to find two good hubs close to me which I could physically check. I had been watching them on Ebay and to my surprise they had been marked down 65% so I went this morning to check them out. Both looked good so mI bought them both for a total of $15.00. There were a few on Ebay for $25 but its hard to view the splines. Most were going around $65 and up. This final drive was used on a lot of model for many years so there is a good selection out there. These drives need to be lubricated often to prevent wear. I didn't help that this bike saw a lot of dirt roads in Texas. So with the way the drive looked I thought I should pull the wheel drive off and take a good look at it. Glad I did, have a look. Got a new one coming for $127 + 38 for frt from Israel of all places. I have ordered from them before when I was looking for some parts for my 2002 GSXR1000. It was the cheapest price out there.

Here is what I bought for $15.


Here is the driven gear on the wheel. Almost to failure point. Po's you have to love them, NOT

 

[craz1]

Well I am back working on the GS after taking some time to do a little riding in Arizona and working on the other project in my shop, a Z1900. I got the last of the seals for the engine so I managed to seal the cases today. I have been using Loctite 518 for the cases and have been very happy with the results.

 

[craz1]

I also got one of the $7.50 rear end polished. Im waiting on my cylinders which are on there way from APE. Since I could not find any next size overbore pistons I ended up going with the Wisco 1134 kit which is 2mm over stock.

 

[craz1]

While waiting for my rear cam chain adjuster from the UK I thought I would install the lower end so I could install the swing arm and rear wheel.

 

[craz1]

Its been a few weeks. I was busy finishing my 75 Z1900. I also did a 4700 mile ride to Alabama-Tennesee. Right before I left I did receive my rear guide.




The guide is made from virgin PTFE I believe. I didn't want to put the old and cracking stock one back in and the OEM units were no wear to be found. I did put a request in to CMSNL to inform me if they were to receive stock on the OEM guide. So 3 weeks after getting the aftermarket guide I get an email from CMSNL that they have a n OEM unit in stock. I purchased that also just in case this aftermarket one does not hold up. So I got the guide in and installed the pistons.



I like using these Honda ring compressors. This set is for A Honda CB450 which is in the range for pistons for my Z1 bikes. However they were just a tad small for the Wisco Pistons I am using for the 1100. So I had the idea to open them up a bit and it worked. I tweaked them just enough so they fit the larger pistons nicely. Once the pistons were installed I need to find TDC so I could time the Dyna 2000 unit that came with the bike. It did not have any of the stock system. I used a dial indicator while turning the crank to find TDC. I doubled checked this by finding where the piston was at .010 before TDC and after TDC and used my Calipers to check those marks from TDC. I would normally use a degree wheel and positive stop but it would have been hard to set up. Im satisfied It will be close enough for this stock engine. I installed the head and cams and rechecked everything. So on to the new Delkevic exhaust. With the seat, exhaust, and different handlebars the bike looks nothing like the stock GS1100GL. I have a bit of electrical to do and a few odds and ends before my paint work is done. Hopefully I can pick up the paint by the end of June.

 

[craz1]

First look at some of the paint

 

[craz1]

I have completed the wiring for the bike with the addition of a new regulator/rectifier unit. Also got the cables sorted. I am using handlebars from a Yamaha XJ550 so I had to figure out which cables I could run. The std GS1100GL cables would one to long so I tried cables for the GS1100E which worked fine. I got the engine full of fluids and had a scare after filling the gear case cavity on the engine. This engine has a separate cavity for the output shaft gears and uses 90 wt gear oil. I filled with the recommended amount and as I was filling the main engine with 10w-40 I noticed a small puddle of gear oil beneath the engine. WTF , my first thought was a seal (which are all new ). Went over to the left side of the engine and traced the oil to a small 6mm threaded hole with the word fill to this level. I completely forgot about that hole. Put a 6mm bolt with a copper washer and called it good. I also got the carbs and airbox mounted. The new rear brake line has also been mounted and ready to fill and bleed the front and rear brakes. Next step was the valve clearance. Since I don't have the stock ignition (dyna 2000) I needed to put the trans in 5th gear and turn the engine with the rear wheel worked great. Of course I need a few shims I did not have so they are on the way. I will be picking up the paint one the 12th of June . I hope to have the bike ready to fire as soon as I get the proper shims in. Getting close.

 

[craz1]

Got the brakes bleed and just got back from the painter. decided to see how the new paint will look. Was going to time the Dyna 2000 but I forgot to order plug wires.

 

[Guest]

I love this thread. I am seriously blown away by your skill and attention to detail craz1! Beautiful work. I can't wait to see more!

 

[craz1]

Here is something I forgot to mention. My fuel sender unit was leaking so I figured a repair. First off the sender was not working properly. I needed to clean the wiper which varies the ohms as the float raises. The wire to the float is just staked and had worked loose. I took a brass bolt and soldered on the wire. To seal the assembly I used nylon shoulder bearing which sits on the outside of the sender mount. The shoulder was cut down to the thickness of the mount and is the same diameter as the mount hole. On the other side I used a viton o-ring and nylon washer to make a seal. The bolt passes through the shoulder bearing which keeps things from grounding out.