80 gs550e project

[Track06]

I salute you, sir! I'm 100% for indoor motorcycle work, storage, even riding (Animal House).

About your big tank of gas..as I recall from my days as a 19 year old hospital loading dock raider, green was oxygen, blue was...he, he, nitrous.

Haha thanks, I'm a wood worker and i don't trust any work surfaces in the shop to be clean enough to work on, plus it was nice to sit down and work. As for the gas, it's definitely not nitrous, these cylinders are many colors at the gas company, it's actually filled with Argon, co2 75/25 mix.

 

[Nessism]

Did someone media blast that head? If so, did you make sure the blind oil passages in the head have been properly cleaned? I say this from experience because a LOT of grit can get down into those passages and they are NOT easy to clean out. You need to force degreaser down the passages because any oil remaining in the passages will retain the grit. And the passages are plugged on the ends so you can't flow cleaner or rinse water through the passages easily.

 

[Track06]

What a fight I had last night after doing the valves i decided to get the head on set the timing and check the valves...
1st "attempt..." I'm honestly embarrassed to say i didn't even think of the timing, i just put the cams in and bolted out all up.... Then realized Sh17, that was stupid.
2nd attempt.. Lined everything up, bolted it down, went to check the valves, and realised i forgot to put on the chain tensioner on the side of the motor... It was now almost 4am so i went to bed frustrated at myself.
Now here we are 9am trying to get some work done before i had to go to work.
3rd attempt, finally think i got it all done correctly and started checking valves to see what shims I need to get, if any.

 

[Track06]

Did someone media blast that head? If so, did you make sure the blind oil passages in the head have been properly cleaned? I say this from experience because a LOT of grit can get down into those passages and they are NOT easy to clean out. You need to force degreaser down the passages because any oil remaining in the passages will retain the grit. And the passages are plugged on the ends so you can't flow cleaner or rinse water through the passages easily.

No i just scrubbed and degreased it by hand.. the pics make it look way cleaner than it actually is.

 

[Track06]

Ok, so the past few nights and mornings whenever i had the time I've been messing with my valve shims. They were all out of spec, but did some swapping around and got most of them in a good spot. Here are my notes

So on both the ex and intake sides the 1st valve seems to be sticking... If i just use the shim tool on them they seem to "pop" and then seat into the right position.... What could be causing this?
Remember I'm very new to all of this, I'm not exactly sure what valve is what number.... So the chart reads like you are looking at the valves, like you are doing the timing... 1 is closest to you. Anyway I've ordered the shims and now i wait. I think I'm going to go ahead and get the motor into the frame tonight. Next up is finishing the paint job on the tank, then proceede to install my stage 3 dynojet kit. Getting close!!!!

 

[Track06]

So i cheated a little bit... Since i own a screen printing company, i also can make decals... So instead of taping off and painting numbers and stripes, i made decals!

My poor bike has so much dust on her!!! I'm not sure if i like the 36's but that's the beauty of the decals... I can take them off. I will clear coat over them once i decide if i like them or not though.

 

[Track06]

Jetting the carbs!!! Got my dynojet stage 3 kit, going on...

Main jets are 155, i set the clip at 4 down on accident, ( i read the instructions for the 750 not the 550) so hopefully it was a happy accident! Drilled out the slide holes..

Let me tell ya that was scary!
Then i came to the air correctors... Took me forever to figure out where these went, cause I'm an idiot! Haha It was right the in plain site!

Now to get the motor into the frame put on my new carb boots, slap the K&Ns on here and get the bike wired up!!! I can almost feel the air in my face now!!!!

 

[Track06]

So, good news... And bad news... The good news is, she is almost ready to start tuning!!! Got a carb sync, as well as a colortune, so hopefully taming this beast will be somewhat smooth... The bad news, The buddy that helped me muscle the motor in the engine knocked into my tank and it feel to the ground.... Again!!!! Oh well it was no where near perfect, i picked up some red kote today too line the inside so I'll probably just start from scratch on the tank. This time I'm going to paint the stripe and I've decided on a different "36" Here is a quick pic without the carbs on, she is looking so good! I'm getting super excited!

Front and rear fenders have been chopped, and they are currently being painted, before i get yelled at for not having a front brace/fender. also the frame is just very dusty, it's solid black, the motor is flat black and all the covers are gloss black ask painted with VHT.

 

[Track06]

Carbs are on with new boots, to boot!!! Freshly cleaned, fitted with new K&N pods, and rejetted with the dynojet Stage 3 kit. Just have to wire her up weld the exhaust, and start tuning!

 

[Track06]

Wooohooo look what just came in! Wasn't expecting these till Monday!

So ready to get these in wire her up and start tuning!

 

[Grimly]

Wooohooo look what just came in! Wasn't expecting these till Monday!
So ready to get these in wire her up and start tuning!

Get your digital caliper and check the actual sizes against the marked ones. I bought a handful of new ones, one of which was marked 2.45 and was actually 2.30 or thereabouts. By doing a minor bit of swapping, it turned out not to be a problem, but it might have been.

 

[Track06]

Get your digital caliper and check the actual sizes against the marked ones. I bought a handful of new ones, one of which was marked 2.45 and was actually 2.30 or thereabouts. By doing a minor bit of swapping, it turned out not to be a problem, but it might have been.

Thanks! I mic'd them all and they were all correct, and now my valves are all in there correct tolerances. Now on to wiring!

 

[Track06]

This has definitely been the hardest part... And for some reason i think I'm about to make it even harder and just rewire everything to make it much cleaner and easier to hide. Changed the cog, put on a new chain attached the throttle to the the carbs... Then i began to connect the wire harness.... I've changed the tail light, headlight, turn signals and speedo, so a lot of wiring is different than stock.... Ugh, well almost there anyway! I've been working on this since i got home from work, Its bed time.

 

[Track06]

Have not updated in a while, I have since got the bike rewired all the electrical seems to be working pretty well everything seems to be wired correctly however I cannot get the bike to start. I am getting spark from the coils but it just does not seem to want to turn over. It's midnight and I've been working on his bike since about 6 p.m. and I worked on it from 9 a.m. till about 3 a.m. yesterday. I guess I will go over the wires again and see if I missed anything but honestly I think it's all wired up correctly. The gas might be bad and that is what I am hoping for, the gas was in a can for about 2 weeks and was outside on my back porch covered but still could have gotten some kind of condensation inside. Though I did try to start the bike using carb cleaner and it wouldn't even start then either. :/

 

[cowboyup3371]

What do you mean you tried to start the bike with carb cleaner?

Have you pulled the carbs apart and gone through the full rebuild procedure that consists of dipping each one in a can of Berryman?s for 24 hours and then replacing the o-rings? Did you bench sync them when you put them back together? How many turns out are your mixture screws?

What is the battery voltage when the ignition is off, on, and while cranking?

 

[Track06]

What do you mean you tried to start the bike with carb cleaner?

Have you pulled the carbs apart and gone through the full rebuild procedure that consists of dipping each one in a can of Berryman’s for 24 hours and then replacing the o-rings? Did you bench sync them when you put them back together? How many turns out are your mixture screws?

What is the battery voltage when the ignition is off, on, and while cranking?

Ok so the carbs were done professionally when i got the bike, they are clean crisp and shiny! I have a dynojet stage 3 kit installed, the clip is at the 3rd notch, mixture screws are out 3 turns. Main just is dj 155, and the air correcting is in place. Also running brand new k&n pods, exhaust chopped with shortys. New intake boots, fresh rebuild on the motor. Voltage on the battery is 12.8v cold 12.3v under load, 11.8v trying to start. I did completely rewire the bike, and have gone over and over the wiring diagram. I did notice that the w/r wire coming from the handle bar switch, looks like it connects to the W/B wire coming out of the reg/rec I the wiring diagram and i did not connect those two on the bike.
Thank you so much for trying to help! I've been very excited about this project and so far has gone very smooth.

 

[Track06]

I think i might be off one tooth on my timing.... I'm not sure what do you think?

 

[Nessism]

As the chain wears and elongates the 1 mark will lift higher, above the gasket surface. I suspect your timing is correct.

 

[Track06]

Ok I've gone through all the wiring again, pulled the carbs checked the bowls everything seems to be good, I'm not sure what is wrong. Plugs are new and getting spark, carbs are clean with new jets, intake boots are new, i have fresh gas with a brand new petcock.compression was good before i rebuiltthe top end. There was one thing funky about the intake and exhaust 4 tappets and shims s, they seem to get stuck low, but if i used the shim tool and it slipped they would pop and would both be in tolerance... That didn't seem right to me, could that be the issue?

 

[roeme]

You need to approach this methodically - keep a Journal on what's what.

Not to question your work or knowledge; but let's make sure the basics are covered. For combustion; one needs three things: Air, Spark and Fuel (and the correct mixture, but there's some leeway, which is exploited in the next step).

There's an old trick to get an engine firing: Drop a teaspoon of gasoline down the spark plug hole(s). Screw the spark plug back in, and try to start her. This should get you a few firings.
If she doesn't fire, you have narrowed down the probable causes to compression or spark timing. If she does fire, then the issue must be further 'upstream', i.e. carbs.

Go from there, and tick off the respective bullet points in your journal.