1983 GS750ES Fuel Line/air box horrors

[Suzukian]

I don't think a more difficult fuel line to replace exists than the one on this bike. It was virtually impossible to get the dry rotted stub that was in place out ( the fuel line was only 4 years old) and at the time, I had the carbs off (a different horror story). Getting the new fuel line on without taking the carbs off was a night mare.

Forget about trying to get the clip on it. It's so buried, I had to stop, as my back blew out on me. So the bike is sitting there, and I don't think I can get the clip on. I am going to try and buy one of those long special needle nose pliers where only the tip opens, then I may be able to do it. I have an extremely long needle nose pliers, but it's just too tight in there. As hard as that tube is on the nipple, as it is only gravity fed, I may just ride it the way it is. That tube will take a lot of force to remove, nothing the fuel system could produce. I would feel much better slipping that clamp into place.

I've had this bike since new. The carb to air box boots are still very pliable, but what a horrible design. I need the 3/4's of an inch pushing the air box back gave, but trying to get them back on, well, I had to walk away from it. I think aggravation was getting the best of me. Having a bad back doesn't help either.

 

[Suzukian]

Just ordered a set of double joined Needle Nose pliers that should be able to reach in there. It's one of the few tools I don't have. I was going to buy one a couple of years ago, but didn't think I'd need it. After reading really high prices, I found one on EBAY for $20 bucks with free shipping. If it works once, it will have been worth the money.

Something else that happened is the valve cover bolts on those bikes go into really soft aluminum, and strip very easily, even if you just breath on the driver, inevitably, they strip. I usually fix them as they strip, inserting a Heli-Coil, and it has always worked out good. You cannot replace these cam shaft caps as, first, they aren't available, and they are line bored, so even if you found one, the odds of it working with your bike are slim.

I had to build up the area using "Alum-Aloy", The first try did not grab at all. I really cleaned and filed as much as I could, but this time, I put the Helicoil, with the screw, in the hole. I heated it with "Map" gas, and filled it the broken area, and let cool at the ambient temperature. The "Alum-Aloy" will not stick to steel. It held!! I was really worried I'd have to machine a new piece, press it into the hole, the cam is only maybe 0.200" of an inch from the bottom of the hole. I could make the repair piece. I may go this route in the Winter to make a better finished fix, but this torqued very well and is holding the cover down.

These holes by Suzuki should have been form threaded, not cut with conventional taps. That would have made \for a much stronger thread. Frankly, they should have put steel insets. I know of people who have tossed these bikes, never being to seal them. Unfortunately, I learned of this afterwards. I would have helped them, or picked up a bike cheap.

 

[Brendan W]

I get that fuel hose clamp thing. Modern hoses like the see through alcohol resist are light years ahead of the rubber things from the 80s and you wonder if that little clip is doing anything useful or is in fact making the seal worse?
I've walked away from the airbox as well, just before I was about to pick up a hammer or go pod shopping
Never had any trouble with the cover screws and I wouldn't put a torque spanner anywhere near them. I can guess that some people try to stop leaks by over tightening. That gasket is good for a single use, two maybe if it comes off clean and hasn't got deep indentations in it from the first time.

 

[Nessism]

Are you using the real deal Suzuki fuel line? It's soft and flexible, easy to install, and a hose clamp is not needed.

 

[rphillips]

Was always skeptical of those little wire clamp (clips) doing anything anyway. If they go on pretty easy, I put them on. If not, I just don't fool with them. Never had one leak.

 

[Suzukian]

I've got it all back together. I had to walk away from it. I didn't bother with the clamp, that hose is on there so tight, and it's gravity fed, so I'm not going to worry about it. The big problem was that the cover screws had all the threads just come out with the screws. Suzuki uses such a soft aluminum. I have heli-coiled all of them without incident, but the last one to go actually broke half way down while tapping.

I removed the cover, since these things are line bored, you have to fix what you have. I had managed to tap the hole when the cracks appeared. I removed the car, put the heli-coil in, then filled the sides with "Alum-Aloy", and built it up till it looked strong enough. A little grinding to make it look better, and it torque down really well. It's a shoulder bolt, and once it bottoms out, you don't need much for to hold it in place. The cover floats between the bolts and the head.

It holds for a few years, it's around 2 millimeters thick, it's designed to be reused. It starts to weep in 5 years, then it's time to put a new one in. I have 2 left, as I got a good deal on 5 of them from a shop that was closing down. They cost around $35 bucks a piece now, yikes, but they are reusable, and Yamabond # 4 on the top of the gasket assures a good seal. Not a very good design as far as I'm concerned, but I have had the bike for 40 years now, and this is the only thing that has ever happened to it.. It owes me nothing. It's all good, and I anticipate going for a ride tomorrow.


In a worse case scenario, I would have drilled the hole to just above the plain bearing, and made an aluminum plug to pres in, and braze in with some Alum-Aloy, making the thread, and Heli-Coil the piece before I would put it back in. In a worse case scenario, it would just have taken me a little bit more time, but it's all good and happy now.

 

[Suzukian]

I made the dumb a$$ed mistake of not paying attention of the vacuum hose connection and had a major brain fart. I hooked it up to the vent hose. Of course, the bike only ran on prime. I took off the tank to see what was going on and realized what I had done. I'm slipping!

 

[rphillips]

You did what??? They vacuum line is waaay too small to fit on either of the vent nipples, ain't it??

 

[Suzukian]

On my bike, they are the same size. They all take the same size hose. I had just replaced the hoses, which is when I had the Brain fart.

 

[Suzukian]

Turns out the float bowl drains threads weren't up to snuff, so I ended up having to pull the carbs to Heli-Coil all four of them. This allowed me to attach a proper hose clamp to the fuel line. On these Suzuki bikes there is a wide spring steel band of the intake manifolds that holds the shape of them to help seal the air box.

If you remove those 4 pieces, the air box to carb intake tubes come right out, and the carbs pull back, down and out the right side of the bike. Putting them on is the reverse. It ended taking me two hours to do the complete job. I am not the fastest worker, my back and neck are killing me right now, but at least it's back together.

I purchased some cheap LED signal lights, and some 6 ohm 45Watt sand Resistors to try and make them work. I found a LED Signal Flasher that's supposed to be plug and play. If that works, I'll save the resistors for some other project.

 

[rphillips]

Folks everywhere are going LED, it's the "in" thing these days. It'd be great for many folks to know, if there is a plug and play flasher. re wiring and splicing isn't a big deal, but nothing easier than Plug and Play... Thanks, and Be sure to keep us updated.

 

[Suzukian]

It should be here in a couple of days. I'm not too confident, but who knows?

 

[Suzukian]

I got the LED Flasher Unit in today. I've attached the necessary connections and will try it later today. The spade pins did not line up, so I had to make adapter wires. It has a wire for ground, which the fuse box has two screws for. We have a heat wave, and I ave trouble with regulating heat since I broke my neck. I hope this stupid thing works. Those sand block Resistors you mount on the signal lights aren't cheap. O'Reily's had two nice ones at $16.96, mounted in extruded aluminum cases, they looked like at least 50 Watt Resistors. I purchased those. I am wondering if the relay doesn't work, and I mount the Resistors in series on the old flasher unit to the supply side, if the voltage drop would be enough to make the coil hot enough to bend the spring steel Bar,and have the points inside open and close to make it flash. The cover comes off easily, so it will be something I can watch.

One another note, The Avon front tire I had on it started holding air. A week went by, and it started getting soft again. I filled it up again, and it held for two days, but got soft again. The tire is 4 years old. I didn't ride as much as I wanted to last year. I don't know if that had a negative effect on the tire. Since I just got a deal on a new 16" Battleax from Dennis Kirk, I decided to mount it. I have it at the dealership, and I should be getting it back later today. The service manager noted how the tire looked like it was just popped out of the mold. The production date was from 2022. He said whoever stored it, stored it right, as it really is very soft and new looking, even has that oily new rubber feel to it.

I'll get that back later today also. I used to do my own tires, but for $75 bucks, they mount and balance them. Much easier on my back.

 

[unfocused]

I got the LED Flasher Unit in today. I've attached the necessary connections and will try it later today. The spade pins did not line up, so I had to make adapter wires. It has a wire for ground, which the fuse box has two screws for. We have a heat wave, and I ave trouble with regulating heat since I broke my neck. I hope this stupid thing works. Those sand block Resistors you mount on the signal lights aren't cheap. O'Reily's had two nice ones at $16.96, mounted in extruded aluminum cases, they looked like at least 50 Watt Resistors. I purchased those. I am wondering if the relay doesn't work, and I mount the Resistors in series on the old flasher unit to the supply side, if the voltage drop would be enough to make the coil hot enough to bend the spring steel Bar,and have the points inside open and close to make it flash. The cover comes off easily, so it will be something I can watch.

One another note, The Avon front tire I had on it started holding air. A week went by, and it started getting soft again. I filled it up again, and it held for two days, but got soft again. The tire is 4 years old. I didn't ride as much as I wanted to last year. I don't know if that had a negative effect on the tire. Since I just got a deal on a new 16" Battleax from Dennis Kirk, I decided to mount it. I have it at the dealership, and I should be getting it back later today. The service manager noted how the tire looked like it was just popped out of the mold. The production date was from 2022. He said whoever stored it, stored it right, as it really is very soft and new looking, even has that oily new rubber feel to it.

I'll get that back later today also. I used to do my own tires, but for $75 bucks, they mount and balance them. Much easier on my back.

Those resistors wire in like this... You actually connect the signal wire to the resistor and then the other wire to the positive wire at the "tail light" This causes resistance and flashing. A lot of Jeep owners switching to LED's must do this. I have before. However, they will get hot.

Fuel line - get silicon hose - goes on pretty easy - taking it off - lol no...

 

[Suzukian]

I have those kind of resistors. I also just got in a Universal LED Flasher that has two leads and one goes to ground. I took off the cover, there's a chip, capacitors, resistors), etc, so something is going on in there. I will try this Universal Flasher first. If it doesn't work, then I will try mounting the Sand Block Resistor directly to the Hot side of the Stock Flasher unit. Electronically speaking, when you turn on the signal light, everything happens at the flashing unit. Doing the controlled short at the Signal Light isn't any different than doing it at the Flashing unit. I may have to run 2 in series, but that would be it. I'll let you know how it works out.

If you look at a schematic of this you see that where you attach the resistor doesn't matter as long as it makes the voltage drop to trigger the Flasher. The flasher is nothing more than a thing piece of flat spring steel with a coils wrapped around it, and points on one end, the coil gets hot when you turn on the signal light, bends, and disconnects the points, which causes it too cool, the touch the points again, making the light flash, the cycle repeats itself till you turn off the source current. We'll see.