82 GS1100GL extremely slow restore

[Roland5color]

As some on here already know I such recent purchased a 82 GS1100GL that's in decent shape but does need the usual repairs here and there to run like a top once again. I have been making post here and there about the bike and figured I would just bite the bullet and start a restore thread. The reason I titled it a extremely slow restore is because I am also currently restoring an early 1900's house and it takes most of my money. So I will be getting the 1100 in excellent mechanical order first so I can safely ride her where ever I would like. Then as money permits get her back I to show room condition.
So far I have changed all the fluids in the bike and a new set of Shinko 230 sport touring tires on. Yesterday I pulled the carbs and during this process started to finally find the signs of previous owners handy work lol. Missing screws and bolts. Lots of stripped screws and bolts and the worst of all bad jetting. Good news is the bike ran really strong with its current bad setup so it should be a real beast with the proper jetting. I tried to search on here for the stock jetting for my bike and I keep getting a error message and no info. I can't even find it in my shop manual. Does any body know the stock jetting for a 82 1100GL? Right now it has one 120 main and three 115's so I would guess they should be all 115. Either way I'm going to get a dyno jet kit since the bike has a 4 to 1 Vance and Hines on it already. I already have all o-rings for carbs and Intakes. This week end I will be orders new boots for air box and new carb intake mounts. Will also be ordering valve shim removal tool so I can adjust the valves. Will be tearing down carbs and soaking then this weekend and hope to have it all back together middle of next week for a test ride.
So far I have only ridden the bike about 90 miles. I am going nuts wanting to take it for an all day ride but I know I shouldn't until I have the fueling right and make sure the valves are good so I don't do any damage that would cost me more time and money. So I sit and wait patiently as the nice weather slips away. Good thing I ride 365 days a year. Minus icy road days of course.

 

[londonboards]

Throw us up a pic when you get a chance.

Greetings

 

[Roland5color]

Well found out stock jetting is 115 for the mains. Started breaking carbs down today for cleaning and new o-rings. Oh the horror. People who lack mechanical skills should not be allowed to use tools LOL. The PO told me that he had taken the carbs apart and replaced everything with new parts. Experience told me that was probably a lie and I was right. All the o-rings were hard and shrunk. I'm surprised it ran as well as it did with everything that I am finding that is either wrong or needs to be replaced.

Most of the screws that aren't already missing are stripped and one of the adjustment screws for carb balance has half of its head broken off. The PO apparently attempted to removed all of the butterfly valves from the carbs and stripped the heads to all those screws as well. Plus broke off one of the screws that holds on the idle adjustment bracket and thought it would be a good idea to just use JB weld to hold that side instead of removing the broken screw and replacing it. I suspect that one of the carbs came from a different rack of carbs because all of its jets are different sizes from the other three.

The good news though is that the carbs are now spotless and going back together with all stripped, broken and worn out parts replaced. My new intake boots, air box boots and new clamps for both will be here any day now. So the old girl should be running like new shortly. I still have to check valve clearance then I will sync the carbs. Once she is running smooth and strong I will tackle the suspension and any electrical that may need attention.

Sorry about no pics right now. I'm having trouble loading them from my phone. Will get them up soon as I can.

 

[Roland5color]

Londonboards I checked out your build and wow. Glad I don't have that much work to do. Good luck to you and you have a great story and history to go with your build by the way. Will continue to watch until complete.

 

[Paul]

Good luck with this, looking forward to a picture

 

[Meriban]

Me Too

Me Too

I have the same bike and am doing a semi complete teardown ( I didn't mess with the crankcase) and R/R. I am finally putting it back together with all new electrical components and just about everything that could have worn out. I don't trust PO's, they tell you that they rebuild the carbs and I find all the jets are wrong and the rubber is all shot. I also discovered that the valves were so tight I couldn't even get any feeler gauge in-between the valve shims. So, I take it apart and put it back together. Only then do I feel as though it is my bike...Good luck on your successful completion of your project.

 

[Roland5color]

Finally got an email from ups today telling me that my parts will be delivered Monday. Which is Awesome because that's the day I get back from my 4 day work week. Should have her running by Monday night.

 

[Roland5color]

Here is a pic of how clean the carbs are now

 

[Roland5color]

The broken carb sync adjustment

 

[Roland5color]

And the JB weld repair from the PO. You can also see in this pic were washer that is suppose to hold the nut for the butterfly rod tight has been flatten and is doing nothing.

 

[Roland5color]

Pulled the bike out of the shed yesterday to put on my Daytona handle bars and to flush the brake fluid. First thing I noticed was a little fuel on the right hand side of the fuel tank just below the Suzuki emblem. I thought that's weird. Then I noticed the rivets in the emblem.. My heart sank. Both emblems on the tank have been riveted on. Who in the hell would ever think that this was a good idea. So eventual I will remove them and I suppose will have to have the tank repaired. The leak currently is very tiny. So small that the fuel more or less just seeps out when tank gets hot. Man I am really starting to hate this guy with the initials PO..

So then I moved on to the brakes. The rear reservoir was fine but the front was a mess. I still can't believe how well something's on this bike work even though they are in bad need of maintenance and repair. Suzuki sure builds them tuff. A picture says a thousand words so I have included one of the front brake reservoir below. The day wasn't a complete disappointment. The Dayton's are perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. I was even able to save the grips and reuse them. I will need new clutch and throttle cables but that's fine. The throttle cable is currently broken at the adjustment by the handle bars any way. In a few hours I will have my other parts and hopefully be able to get the carbs back on.

 

[Paul]

when you take the rivets out maybe find a suitable screw cut it down and tap out the larger hole and thread lock it in (one of my screws is larger than the rest)

did you take the master cylinder piston out and clear that too?

 

[Roland5color]

when you take the rivets out maybe find a suitable screw cut it down and tap out the larger hole and thread lock it in (one of my screws is larger than the rest)

did you take the master cylinder piston out and clear that too?

I haven't really looked it over that closely yet but is there enough meat in the threaded area to do that. Plus the leaking will have to be sealed. As for the master cylinder no I didn't take the piston out yet. It's working properly for now and the brakes are working perfectly. the fluid is also flowing clearly from the bleeders. I know it's not the ideal way to do it but for now it will do until more cash is available. I'm afraid to remove it for now because if it goes badly once it's out I'm stuck. Eventually I will be tearing the whole break system down and giving it a proper rebuild and stainless lines. New parts just arrived. They sure are purty.

 

[Roland5color]

Had a few hours to work on the bike today. So I finished putting the Air box back together complete with new boots, clamps and weather stripping to seal the ends. Quick question for all the experts. Does a UNI air filter flow more air than a stock one? I've never used anything but stock filters on all my bikes. This one to my surprise had a brand new UNI stock replacement one in it when I cracked it open.

Then I set all the fuel float heights and finished of the carbs. Got everything back on the bike and she fired right up just as soon as the bowls were full of fuel. It's running a little lean but I still need to check the valves and sync the carbs before I start messing with the fueling. Hopefully I can get that all done tomorrow. I fairly sure that I can get the couple of small holes that are I. My stock mufflers welded up and then I'm going to take the 4 into 1 off and put the stock exhaust back on. That should get me real close on the jets since they are stock. Then I will shim the needles and adjust the idle mixture S needed. If I have to stick with the Vance and Hines I believe a bump up from 115 to 117.5 mains will do the trick. Only bad thing today was that my neutral light stopped working electrical is on the list already so no big deal.

 

[Roland5color]

I have to wait for the proper tool to check and set my valves but I figured for the hell of it I would sync the carbs today. Man what a difference. I have synced a lot of carbs over the years but this GS1100 really requires a good sync to run. It's a night and day difference between my bench sync and my vacuum sync with the carb tune II. Can't wait to get the valves checked and adjusted. Then I can fine tune the fueling and sync the carbs one last time and move on to the electrical, brakes and suspension. Oh and I fixed my neutral switch it had gotten unplugged from the wiring harness when I was putting the carbs and air box back.

 

[Roland5color]

Well since my last post I have gone through the entire electrical system on the bike. I have to apologize for no photos. However in my defense I spent two days in on and off rain showers working on the electrical because I currently have no garage. So I was just trying to get it done without getting electrocuted and didn't think to much about taking pictures. I cleaned all connections, switches and grounds. Then soldered every crimp. Anyone looking for a cheap and very effective way of cleaning their connections and wires go to your nearest dollar store and buy the works toilet bowl cleaner. It's about a $1.50 a bottle and it works like a charm. Be very careful when using it. I have seen the toilet bowl smoke when the wife is using it to clean. It is not very skin friendly stuff. Most parts looked like new after 30 seconds of soaking in the cleaner, being dunked in water to neutralize the cleaner and then a quick blast of electrical cleaner to make them shine. Some of the more corroded connections required a little scrubbing with a brass cleaning brush.

I ran all neutrals to a single ground point on the frame then I ran a wire from that point to the negative post on the battery. I removed the bullet connectors between the stator and the R/R and the loop that runs up to the headlight. Then I soldered the stator wires to the R/R wires. All electrical connections were also coated in electrical grease. The bike now charges at 13.5 volts at idle and climbs to 14.4 volts around 2500 rpm and stays at that voltage even at 5000 rpm. Before I did all the clean up the voltage was dropping to 13.2 volts at 5000 rpm.

My voltage at the coils with the key on when I started was 9.9. Now it's 12 volts. When the bikes running its 14.4 volts. So the old girl is now charging just as good if not better than she did when she was new. Oh and if you plan on taking your ignition switch apart be very careful. Because if your unlucky like me and the parts don't stay in the top white plastic piece when you separate it from the bottom black piece with the wires you will be crawling all over the floor looking for four little springs and two ball bearing.

I also checked my valve clearances and they were all to tight. I have shims and gaskets on the way. Went for a 70 mile round trip to visit my grandparents grave out in the country and did some plug chops along the way and have discovered that the bike is a little on lean side with the 4to1 pipe and the uni air filter. So I have some bigger mains ordered and I've already picked up some washers from radio shack to adjust the needles. I still can't believe how well this bike ran with all the little things that were wrong with it. It's going to be as reliable as a tank once I'm done and sure to last me for many years to come.

The only other major problem I have to deal with now is the gas tank. I have to fix the leak it has from the PO riveting the emblem to the gas tank. Actually it more like a seep than a leak. It kind of sweats out from behind the emblem. I'm pretty sure that a tank sealer kit will sort that out. Oh I almost forgot I also have to get the suspension sorted. Then I am just going to ride the hell out of it until my house is done being remodeled. Then I will probably tear the bike down and start doing all the cosmetic work.

I would like to thank all the members that have put the time and hard work in to make it so easy to trouble shoot these wonderful bikes. This site is a real God send for any GS owner. Below is the only pic that I have taken recently of the bike and it's not even a good one sadly.