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82 GS850L engine into 81 850G frame - bolts right up?

mikerophone

mikerophone

Forum Mentor
Past Site Supporter
I have searched, and know the L's are the more "chopper like" and have a different bars, tank, seat and covers and that the body panels and fenders mount different so the frames are slightly different, but the engines themselves bolt right in, correct?

I have a chance to buy decent priced low mile 850L model today and want to make sure the engine will go into my G frame with little or no mods. I'd like to swap the G engine back into the L frame and sell it once I'd completed the G swap.

The engine mount plates are the same. Frames look very similar on the fiches:

 
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Check the driveshaft part number. I think the engine is basically same but the ignition is different and not sure about other bolt on parts.
 
Thanks Ed, a the part numbers are the same for the 81 model "X", and I just checked the VIN on my 81 850G and it's a model X, so looks like I am good?

Sure hope so, thanks for your help!

 
Well I'm all but locked in...couldn't get the trailer back from my brother tonight so I'm going back next week but here's a little more about the bike - sat in a shed for 20 years, original owner gave it to his friend, who's selling it to me.

Was last registered in 92, has sat ever since, only has 12k miles on the clock:



Still has gas in the tank, can't get the gas cap off! Yuck. No oil on the lower half of the engine or below the VC/tach gear so it's defintely in better shape than my motor, rust on the fork tubes but hopefully not deep enough to be a problem. Original stepped (blargh) seat in good shape:



Defintely some rust, mostly surface, so she should clean up nicely:



Comes with case guards, highway pegs on case guards, a sissy bar without a pad in it, but no headlight bucket. I'll inherit an old school Pacifico windshield and fairing complete with an AM/FM cassette deck and 5" speakers.
 
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One other thing to watch for: the valve cover received a few more bolts for the '82 model year, so your old gaskets will not fit.

The '79 through '81 bikes had 16 bolts, the '82 and '83 bikes had 19 bolts.

Somebody mentioned a change in the driveshaft flange (last week? week before?), but I think that was between '80 and '81.

That bike doesn't look all that bad. That is the same color scheme that was on my wife's bike when we got it. There was LOTS of chipping on the top of the tank near the fuel filler port and the side covers had the inset panels brush-painted in a lighter battleship gray, so we changed it at soon as possible. We went with a stock-ish pattern, but our choice of colors. You can see the results by clicking the link in my sig.

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Thanks Steve, I had hoped you'd be by to point anything else out that might be different. There is lots of clear coat chipping and flaking off of the tank and side covers. Should clean up pretty good otherwise.

My current plan is to swap the motor over from this bike to my 81G and then take my time with rebuilding the G motor and put it back in the L and probably sell it, we'll see. If I ever get my v45 Magna back together maybe I'll sell it and keep the L.
 
My 1983 GS850G is wearing an engine from an '80 or '81 GL.

So yeah, it should work fine. The driveshaft on yours may have a verrrrrry slightly different flange pattern, so use the driveshaft from the donor engine. Or verify your old driveshaft before installing the engine. I'm not entirely sure when they changed. But guess how I learned this...

In any case, if you're ordering a valve cover gasket and/or other gubbins and bits, it's well worth replacing the driveshaft-to-flange bolts with fresh ones. These are a goofy length, specially hardened, and come with a thread lock compound. They're extremely critical, so you might as well do it right. If you re-use the old ones, use thread locker and torque them carefully.

A few early '82 models had the 16 bolt valve covers (Suzuki's corporate motto is "waste not, want not"), so look closely before you go nuts ordering gaskets. I can't really tell from these photos. From the frame and the angled clutch cover, that's definitely an '82, but who knows which bin they pulled the cylinder head from.
 
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Thank you Brian - I will surely take a look at the flanges, and most likely just swap the old shaft over if they look different AT ALL. :-) And thanks for the tip on the bolts, I'll be ordering some bits and gaskets for both bikes once it warms up a bit, as well as an o rings for the carbs.

I'll count the bolts when I pull the valve cover to make sure I didn't get one of the older 16 bolt version 82's. All of the other gaskets aren't leaking so other than the oil pan gasket (when I remove to check/clean the pickup screen) and vc/breather when I verify valve lash, I don't think I'll remove any of the others just yet. So few miles.
 
mikerophone said:
I'll count the bolts when I pull the valve cover to make sure I didn't get one of the older 16 bolt version 82's.
Click to expand...

No need to count them all. :-k

Just look across the back row. If there are two bolts on each side, you have an older 16-bolt cover.
If there are three bolts, you have a 19-bolt cover. The extra bolt is front and (almost) center.

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Thanks Steve. I have the tank, seat and airbox but I didn't have my trailer so the bike is still 60 miles north of me and I won't be able to pick it up until early next week but I'll take a look.
 
82 engine will swap directly into the 81 frame. All the motor mounts will bolt right in. It was after 1980 that the propeller shaft changed. Ignition was different. In 82 the ignition went electronic advance so the igniter and the signal generator are different. When you swap the engines just make sure that the signal generator goes with the igniter. Another words you want to put the 81 signal generator onto the 82 engine and vice versa with the 81 engine. Everything will bolt right up.

As mentioned above, when doing the valve adjustment you just need to make sure you have the correct gasket for the correct engine. 82 did have the extra valve cover bolts so will need a different gasket.
 
Thanks JT! I appreciate the definitive information and I'm glad to hear it's a direct bolt in.

I've heard something about the 82 splines or something on the shaft being "soft"?
 
The splines that you're talking about are related to the rear wheel final drive splines and are located on the wheel it self. They mate with the splines on the final drive at the end of the swing arm. The bad ones are gold in color and have been known to ware out much quicker then the earlier black version. Some time in 81 the soft splines were introduced. Some of the 81 models had the harder black splines while other had the gold.
 
Awesome - thanks again! I'll take a look at the spline colors when I swap the shafts over. I'm hoping the wheels are also interchangeable if the one I want to keep/ride the most has the weaker gold splines haven't gotten that far into my research yet.
 
No reason to swap shafts as the flanges should match right up between the two engines. Once you start to swap wheels over you may find some problems with the disc rotors not lining up with the calipers. I know I did when I swapped my rear 16" wheel from the 82 GL out with a 17" wheel from an 80 1000GL. Not sure if you'll run into the same thing since I don't have an 81 to play with.
 
If you DO have the softer splines, you don't need to swap wheels, you can replace just the splines.

For the record, some time in '83, they went back to a harder spline material, it was silver.

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