Dan's 1981 GS1100EX rehab bike

[dantodd]

Here we go.

This is the bike as I got it. It hasn't been cleaned our anything yet.


It seems that everyone makes a thread to document their progress on building/rebuilding/restoring their bikes. I figured why should I be any different. I bought a running 1981 GS1100E from 100+ miles away. The PO said he has been riding it and he rode it to the meeting place. after an inspection, discussing the bike and her history I bought a rideable but less than perfect bike for a little south of a grand which isn't bad for this neck of the woods.

She had a replacement right frame cover (I found out why when I dropped the same cover and it got run over by a car. )
There is a hole in the V&H muffler but the headers looks solid
The front end needs a little work, very little dampening but not too much sag to drive for now.
Reported new stator and carb rebuilds by a shop 2 years ago. (no reason to not believe it)
also, a new petcock around the same time.


I'll use this thread to document what I do to her to get it truly road worthy and any little improvements or mods, beyond road worthiness, I make.

I plan on doing this a little differently than I've seen on the site to date. I'll create a number of replies to my own thread with each general area to keep a running list of the alterations I need/make in each area.

 

[dantodd]

Appearance place holder

 

[dantodd]

Carb/Fuel/Exhaust placeholder

 

[dantodd]

Electrical/Ignition

Headlight/Stator loop was already removed by PO ,or more likely, his mechanic. The white with red and light green with white wires were both disconnected and the stator wire was wired directly to the R/R. This is one of the primary reasons I believe the PO really had the stator replaced, plus the stator wires looks fairly new and the connections were clean and greased.

 

[dantodd]

Engine/Drivetrain/Clutch

5/10/16 valve adjustment, installed Realgaskets silicone valve cover gasket. Greatly improved starting. No apparent leaks.

5/11/16 must have done something wrong, getting noise from one of the tappets. I'll have to redo the adjustments to sort that out.

 

[dantodd]

Tire/suspension/brakes

5/12/16 mounted new tire and cleaned wheel

 

[Guest]

Hope you're planning to add pictures.

 

[dantodd]

Hope you're planning to add pictures.

I'm not much of one for pictures but I know they need to be up to tell the story so I'll add enough for that at least.

 

[dantodd]

Last night I finished adjusting the valves. About half were "ok" and I could barely fit a .040mm feeler gauge in the exhaust of cylinders 2 and 3. The old valve cover gasket (or tach gear seal) was leaky enough to drip onto header 3 causing wafting blue smoke. I didn't replace the Taj seal but I did replace the valve cover gasket with a RealGaskets silicone gasket which was a bit tough to place properly but gave a beautiful seal and compressed with just the 1.5 lb/ft of torque. It was a great experience to install we'll see what happens at the next service interval.
I've only had a short trip around the neighborhood but no leaks, starting is greatly improved and there might be a bit better acceleration. Still a bit of popping on deceleration. Sorry, no photos. The only thing to show was a dirty valve cover with RTV on it and a slightly less dirty cover with clean mating surface.

 

[dantodd]

Between vet visit, kids and dog I was able to mount up a new Shinko on the rear to replace my 14 year old Metzler. I had to do the second bead twice to remove a rim protector that managed to sneak inside the tire on the first go-around.

Sorry, no before pictures but here it is mounted but not inflated. I just sprayed purple cleaner on it and ran a rag around it, no polishing or anything like that.

 

[rapidray]

Take that silicone gasket off & replace it with a STOCK SUZUKI gasket before you destroy the tach drive gear & the tach drive gear teeth on the exhaust cam!!!! I'm telling you this as fact!
Ray.

 

[dantodd]

Take that silicone gasket off & replace it with a STOCK SUZUKI gasket before you destroy the tach drive gear & the tach drive gear teeth on the exhaust cam!!!! I'm telling you this as fact!
Ray.

Why would it damage the tach gear? The additional thickness is enough to prevent good mesh?

ETA: just saw that the RealGaskets.com website even says to not use their products for bikes with the tach gear running through the valve cover. Why they list a part the model that has the tach gear in the cover I don't know.

 

[dantodd]

My OEM gasket finally arrived and I installed it last night and double checked the valve clearances. I also have the muffler hole wrapped up properly until I get something new on the bike. This was also the first time I've been able to get out on the new rear tire.

Results from the test ride:
She now runs much better and there is pretty even tappet node across the bank, it sounds a bit like a loud sewing machine now. Popping on decell is louder but fewer of them. It's probably a combination of the valves and the hole in the exhaust being wrapped. The new tire is a noticeable improvement and dramatically improved confidence over the 12 year old rubber it replaced. Three is definitely an improvement in power.