GS 550L Gets a make over

[Redneck]

Congrats! That is the way it should work but it usually doesn't seem to happen.

Well it helps that the guy who helped me (well he actually did everything I took pictures and held the butane torch) is a Hull Tech in the Navy, which means he is used to removing rusted or corroded bolts and other clogged items (they are also the plumbers onboard Navy ships).

Last night I went out and picked up a metric tap and die set so I can clean out the exhaust bolt holes before I attempt to put another bolt in there.

I also found these.
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

Anyone see any reason why I cant use these for the exhaust bolts? I looked and they do have them in M8-1.25 x 30mm. It calls for 35mm do you think the 5mm will make a big difference? Trying to convert everything over to allen head to reduce the amount of tools that need to be carried on the bike.

Paul

 

[GateKeeper]

Man your lucky......neither one of my broken bolts came out, no matter how it was tried, so I had to drill out, now I have an over sized hole, and need to fill them up, re-drill and tap.....

Glad yours came out in a much better fashion

instead of a regular bolt as you had before, perhaps look at putting in a stud instead ? just a thought, I think it's the route I am going to go once I am at the stage to put the exhaust back on

 

[Redneck]

Unfortunately using studs would defeat my allen wrench tool kit repair kit. I am trying to reduce the amount of tools needed to work on the bike. If I can keep it up I might be down to a good set of allen wrenches to take apart anything on the bike. It is a goal I have.

Paul

 

[Guest]

Remember that the header bolts bolt into aluminium which is a soft material and they are also exposed to repeated heat cycles, so you dont want to loose any thread lenght. For a standard thread metric bolt you want a thread lenght of a minimum of 1.5x bolt diameter, so in this case that's 12mm. 2x bolt diameter would be ideal for alu application, i.e. 16mm thread lenght.

As GK said, the studs/nuts are the best option, but I understand your reasoning, too.

 

[Redneck]

Remember that the header bolts bolt into aluminium which is a soft material and they are also exposed to repeated heat cycles, so you dont want to loose any thread lenght. For a standard thread metric bolt you want a thread lenght of a minimum of 1.5x bolt diameter, so in this case that's 12mm. 2x bolt diameter would be ideal for alu application, i.e. 16mm thread lenght.

As GK said, the studs/nuts are the best option, but I understand your reasoning, too.

What he said!:-s You know if he didn't sound so right, I would have a hard time believing him based on his Avatar and Username. Well then the 30mm length bolt should be more than sufficient was not sure how much room is at the bottom of the bolt hole may just buy a 40mm and put one in to see if it will go in far enough. Unfortunately I had bolts available in 10mm increments though I am sure if I look around a little more I can find 35mm length which is the length of the OEM bolt.

Today after work planning on going over swapping the swing arm and putting the engine back in. Was planning on bringing the bike home but looks like the weather will have me waiting till tomorrow when its is not raining/sleeting. It will be sunny and warm (if your in Alaska or the Yukon) High of 20 degrees F. Sweet.

Paul

 

[Redneck]

Well the weather is absolutely horrible, freezing rain and 30mph winds. Bike is over at my buddies house, so I took some time at work today and came up with the list of things that need to be done to complete the bike.
and here it is:

Mechanical
Exhaust-:lol:
Bolts- 8-8mm x 35mm (Bought 30 and 40)
2-8mm x 25mm (done)
2-10mm x 30mm (done)
1-6mm x 20mm (done)
Engine-
Shims- 2-260 (done)
Carbuerator:-s
Fix stripped out screw (done)
Set Float heights
Finish putting together
Bench Synch
Drive-
New Sprockets (ordered)
New Chain (ordered)
Brakes-
Brake lines (ordered)
Strip for paint
Paint
Install rebuild kit
Electrical-
New Battery
R/R wiring harness (ordered)
New Guage
Electronics board
Rear blinkers
Finish cleaning controls (done)
Complete rewiring
Paint:twistedevil:
Rear Wheel (ordered)
Handle bars
Sissy bar
Air box
Chain guard
-bolts for chain guard
1-6mm x 10mm
1-6mm x 15mm
Gas Tank
Clean out inside better
Start Bike!

Hopefully that list does not grow any longer but I will keep it updated as I go along.

Paul

After reading the recently rebumbed thread:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=171846

I have now added Brake lines.

 

[Guest]

I think Psyguy's avatar does the job. Catches people's attention. Does it not?


If finding 35mm bolts proves difficult getting 40mm and cutting back a few mm should be a good alternative.

I like the "Start bike" item on your list

 

[Redneck]

I like the start bike item also, which the rest was done and I was at that point.

Well went over and re-tapped all the exhaust bolt holes on the engine today and boy am I glad. If we had not retapped all the holes I would probably have snapped another bolt. Apparently when dealing with the wet blaster it is not just good enough to try and flush the media out of the holes when your done. You need to tap each one. Did not get much more than that done. We had planned on changing out the Swing arm and putting on the powdercoated one but alas I grabbed the old needle bearing not the new one and there fore it will have to wait for another day.

Paul

 

[Redneck]

So the bike is over at my buds house, so I took time to work on the electronics a little today. Found out I had not painted the Horn button for some reason so I did that. Finished taking apart the left hand controls and cleaning them real good. Then the interesting stuff was found.
I decided to take a look at all the major electrical pieces and see how much room they would take up so I could make a plate like ColoradoCJ and put all my Electricals under the tank. So i get out the new R/R the big mosfet one, and the fuse box. The fuse box is where I am thankful I had a full parts bike to replace parts.

Yep that is a piece of copper wire wrapped around the fuse holder. There was one on the top also but was not going to put it back on just for the picture. Not sure how I did not notice it before. But here is why the wire is there.

The outside part of the holder is broken off. So they used copper wire to tie it together and keep the fuse in.

But the one on the parts bike is good.

Then I took apart the ignition switch to clean it out and low and behold look what I found.

Dead Spider. Well at least it was dead though my daughter was still not happy about it. "Spiders are icky Dad!"

Anyway I am in the process of trying to get the electrical board assembled so that I can start planning on the routing for the rest of my wiring. As Pete says, "If nothing else do something little each and every day." well it paid off for him.

Paul

 

[Redneck]

By the way here is the R/R, the fuse box and the master fuse laid out next to each other.

Paul

 

[Guest]

yeah that 1st fuse box is lil' (c)rusty

 

[Guest]

That's dodgy as Paul! Glad you got a spare one!

Cleaning that ignition switch up will be a good help as well, between my ignition switch and kill switch I was losing something like 2v until I cleaned them up... I didn't have a spider stealing them though

 

[Allie]

Remember I gave it to you as a parts bike Paul and things like that are why so no complaining! Now get back out there and MUSH! I'm not complaining that you're rebuilding it instead of parting it out, and the owner before me appreciates the thread too. That bike has led a hard neglected life and it's nice to see it pampered.

 

[Redneck]

Remember I gave it to you as a parts bike Paul and things like that are why so no complaining! Now get back out there and MUSH! I'm not complaining that you're rebuilding it instead of parting it out, and the owner before me appreciates the thread too. That bike has led a hard neglected life and it's nice to see it pampered.

Allie, let me say first of all "THANK YOU AND YOUR MY HERO!", and second of all that bike was in better shape than my original bike that became the parts bike. It ran for a full summer and fall before I decide to fix the gasket leak which led to the tear down and complete restoration. I was just suprised that this was the first time I noticed it. LoL. My attention to detail was not very good, because I went through the electical when i started noticing my charging issues. The R/R was fried is eventual culprit, I know big suprise. That and after 30 years some of the wiring is not as good as it once was. But my only complaints is my lack of money to spend on getting it up and running and the fact that my little girs is so incredibly cute she keeps me wanting to play with her more than work on the bike at times.

My goal is to get it running before I move down south in May, If not I will be knocking on GSShoppers door and asking him to help me or maybe AFBill. Both of whom I believe live in Jacksonville, Florida.

Paul

 

[Redneck]

I went down to the garage to try and pull the pilot screw out of the other one of the carbs and the top is stripped out. This happened a while ago and so I let it set while I have been working on other things. Well I went down tried once more to get it out with a screw driver and that failed. So I broke out the drill and the easy out. Well lets just say I should leave this task to Adam ( the guy who got the exhaust bolt out). SNAP goes the easy out. But panic has not set in for I have another full set of carbs. So I have torn apart the matching carb on my back up set. I have the body sitting in the carb cleaner now. My next question is I have all the new orings on the guts of the bad carb.

Can I just switch the internals from the one carb to the other and replace the one oring on the pilot screw?

I had replaced the orings on the other pilot screw put it in and when I went to back it out it got stuck and then the head stripped out. That is when I tried the easy out.

After I soak the body of the good carb I still need to tape it up and paint it. Then I intend to install the guts of the other carb.

Paul

 

[Guest]

you should be fine with swapping all the carb internals except for the needle slide - as the slide wears together with the carb body. so best stick to the slide from that spare carb. unless that spare carb slide is obviously buggered in which case you're better off using the slide from the other carb.

i would use the slide spring from the original rack of carbs so it's consistent with the others on the rack.

 

[Redneck]

I know I should have taken pictures but I did not. Though I may have some comparisons. Anyway the carb came out of the Dip looking oh so fine. I am currently waiting for the funds to come in so that I can get some more primer and paint to make the carb body black to match the other carb bodies.

Went to visit the bike over at my buddies house. I had picked up three different size shims from my local motorcycle parts store. We went through checked clearances on all the valves and after a little re-arranging. I only need three shims to put them all in tolerance. Yay so all I have to do is go back in and trade in three of the shims I have for the three I need. I do know that I will need to order one shim. Which is fine I need to order a needle bearing for my new swing arm. I gunked up the other one I got.

that is all for now, I am being urgently called by the little Princess/bike helper.

Paul

 

[Allie]

Allie, let me say first of all "THANK YOU AND YOUR MY HERO!", and second of all that bike was in better shape than my original bike that became the parts bike. It ran for a full summer and fall before I decide to fix the gasket leak which led to the tear down and complete restoration. I was just suprised that this was the first time I noticed it. LoL. My attention to detail was not very good, because I went through the electical when i started noticing my charging issues. The R/R was fried is eventual culprit, I know big suprise. That and after 30 years some of the wiring is not as good as it once was. But my only complaints is my lack of money to spend on getting it up and running and the fact that my little girs is so incredibly cute she keeps me wanting to play with her more than work on the bike at times.

My goal is to get it running before I move down south in May, If not I will be knocking on GSShoppers door and asking him to help me or maybe AFBill. Both of whom I believe live in Jacksonville, Florida.

Paul

Okay you can have a break from your toils as long as it's at the behest of your helper. She'll be riding with you before you know it!

Yes the wiring on these does take regular sprucing up, I just went through all my contacts again this past fall.

 

[Redneck]

You have to admit I have one of the cutest little helpers around.

Okay maybe I am slightly biased. Only slightly..^o

Hoping to get the Handle bars and the sissy bar sandbalsted and powdercoated tomorrow night. We will have to wait and see if my resources pan out or not. Shady deals for a shadow bike. How fitting.

Paul

 

[cowboyup3371]

She looks just as happy helping you as I'm sure you are of her help Paul. Good job so far and can't wait to see it when you are finished.