GS 550L Gets a make over

[Redneck]

Pine-Sol soak overnight?

Bruce.

That was my second thought the Pine-sol soak. That may very well be the route I go. I did not get any pictures of the other caliper but they are much much much much better. They actually worked a year and a half ago.

Sci,

The shock that I just recieved was looking into replacing the whole brake assembly if I were to buy it new. It wasn't the body assembly that scares me now.

I just discovered that the front pads alone on this bike are $150 if I get OEM pads..... I am a little sticker shocked at the moment.

Paul

 

[brslk]

That was my second thought the Pine-sol soak. That may very well be the route I go. I did not get any pictures of the other caliper but they are much much much much better. They actually worked a year and a half ago.

Sci,

The shock that I just recieved was looking into replacing the whole brake assembly if I were to buy it new. It wasn't the body assembly that scares me now.

I just discovered that the front pads alone on this bike are $150 if I get OEM pads..... I am a little sticker shocked at the moment.

Paul

Holy crap! I haven't checked out new pads yet but HOLY CRAP! how can they possibly cost about 3x as much as auto brake pads???

Bruce.

 

[GateKeeper]

To clean.....

I would suggest liquids of some kind, brake cleaner, pine sol as mentioned, and some soft scrubbers.

Don't use anything hard/metal you don't want to nick the areas where the pistons go and cause a leak.

I just used varsol and a stiff nylon bristle brush to clean up mine, now mind you I did not have solids in mine, but the varsol cleaned up the old brake fluid and once I had clear varsol in all the areas, I knew it was good to go...

 

[cowboyup3371]

I'd recommend spraying a lot of brake cleaner in there and let it soak. But, I'm sure the pine sol might work too (haven't tried it myself).

 

[Redneck]

Well I got to spend some time with the bike yesterday. Did not get my ambitious list completely done due to some difficulties with the valve clearances. I discoverd that somewhere along the line I had moved my 1 and 4 cylinders from TDC so Adam and me had to reset the timing which meant rechecking the clearances. Got them all sorted out but need two more shims to finish up.

We moved on and as we put the valve cover back on we realized that two holes on the cover will need to be retapped. Of course I left my Tap set at my house. Luckilly they are accessible with the engine installed.

Putting the last needle bearing in the PCed swing arm we started to run into the same issues as SCI85 did but we prevailed with a leather mallet and a lot of beating.

So swing arm went in. Engine went in. Exhaust started going on, and of course once again I manged to walk out the house and leave the crush gaskets at my house.

We went ahead and mounted them up anyway so I could see what she looked like. The old rear wheel is still on till I get the tire put back on the new one and my PC source has not been availble to get the handle bars done. But She looks like a real bike again. Getting there. Now for the pictures. The streaky stuff is the sputtering snow fall.

Getting there one step at a time, instead of the great leaps and bound I wanted.

Paul

Once again smilies brought to you by Peanut.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Looks great Paul.

 

[Guest]

Hey Paul... that looks like... well... a bike again

Nice work! She's gonna be done before you know it!

 

[GateKeeper]

Nice.....once again it's a motorcycle, and good looking at that....

button up the last few bits and peices and you will just have to wait for the nice weather to go riding.....

snow,,,,who needs it............

 

[Flyboy]

:clap::clap::clap: Yeeeehaaa, awesome, Paul, looking very good, I see a whole lotta riding in your future, not too long from now.

 

[Redneck]

Well I had intended to pull the brake calipers out of the Carb dip yesterday ( they have been in there three days now ) but a heart to heart talk was needed with the teenager about how he has complete his homework, and turn it in if he expects to live to see 17. By the time that was done it was time to fix dinner and my life got in the way of working on the bike. But this morning woke up found out my income tax return was in, whoopeeee. So I have been a busy little beaver today.

I have ordered from Eastern Beaver the wiring kit for the R/R.
I have ordered from ANplumbing the items needed to make my own S/S brake lines following Nessims guidance.
I have also orderd from Suzuki Boulevard and Ahsley (bless her heart) the front and back sprockets, bikemaster o-ring chain, EBC Brake pads for front and rear breaks ( significantly cheaper than OEM), and the crush washers form my brake lines.

I am currently waiting for feed back from the company before I order one of these:

http://a123rc.com/goods-130-A123+Motorcycle+Start+Battery+132V23AH-4S1P.html

By my estimates its about 4.2"L by 3.1"W by 1.2"H. Significantly smaller than your standard bike battery.

I have to go home and make sure i have all the gaskets for my carbs tonight and they will go on order if not. That should be the last of the big ticket items to get the bike back on the road. Then it just up to me to get it all put together. But hey its a step in the right direction.

Paul

BTW

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

 

[Guest]

Well I had intended to pull the brake calipers out of the Carb dip yesterday ( they have been in there three days now ) but a heart to heart talk was needed with the teenager about how he has complete his homework, and turn it in if he expects to live to see 17. By the time that was done it was time to fix dinner and my life got in the way of working on the bike. But this morning woke up found out my income tax return was in, whoopeeee. So I have been a busy little beaver today.

I have ordered from Eastern Beaver the wiring kit for the R/R.
I have ordered from ANplumbing the items needed to make my own S/S brake lines following Nessims guidance.
I have also orderd from Suzuki Boulevard and Ahsley (bless her heart) the front and back sprockets, bikemaster o-ring chain, EBC Brake pads for front and rear breaks ( significantly cheaper than OEM), and the crush washers form my brake lines.

I am currently waiting for feed back from the company before I order one of these:

http://a123rc.com/goods-130-A123+Motorcycle+Start+Battery+132V23AH-4S1P.html

By my estimates its about 4.2"L by 3.1"W by 1.2"H. Significantly smaller than your standard bike battery.

I have to go home and make sure i have all the gaskets for my carbs tonight and they will go on order if not. That should be the last of the big ticket items to get the bike back on the road. Then it just up to me to get it all put together. But hey its a step in the right direction.

Paul

BTW

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Paul, don't do the A123 battery, go for a Shorai or a different lithium one that has built in battery management.

The A123 cells are awesome but unless you have some fancy electronics to monitor the charge in each individual cell you may end up with individual cells being over/under charged.

The end result could just be a flat battery, but it could also be a bit of a fire...

 

[Guest]

Not only that, but how is a 2.3 Amp Hours going turn over a cold motor? I can't see that having enough cranking power to turn over anything but a single cyclinder engine if that.

 

[Redneck]

Well thanks Pete I was not sure. But was willing to give it a try. Guess I won't now.

SCI85, I was kind of following along the lines of what Colorado CJ did on his 550. He used an RC battery with similiar characteristics and said he was having no problems with it.

But I will look into the Shorai.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Allie]

Looking fan bloody TASTIC!

 

[Flyboy]

Paul, me just a grumpy old fart who has a problem changing his ways, but there is no substitute for a good old Yuasa battery, not a days drama in 30 years of using them.
Take it from where it comes.

 

[Guest]

Well thanks Pete I was not sure. But was willing to give it a try. Guess I won't now.

SCI85, I was kind of following along the lines of what Colorado CJ did on his 550. He used an RC battery with similiar characteristics and said he was having no problems with it.

But I will look into the Shorai.

Thanks,

Paul

Cool, I just don't want to see it all go up in smoke on ya, that would suck big time...

Here's a thread about what I was referring to...

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=180350

 

[Redneck]

Paul, me just a grumpy old fart who has a problem changing his ways, but there is no substitute for a good old Yuasa battery, not a days drama in 30 years of using them.
Take it from where it comes.

My big thing was just looking for a smaller size in order to find somewhere to put all the electronics now that I have the bigger R/R and the Eastern Beaver Fuse Box. I don't want a lead acid battery. I am looking at an AGM battery. The Shorai is just way too much after everything I just spent. I was looking last night but now my problem is finding out which AGM battery is suitable replacement for the lead acid (http://www.batterymart.com/p-yb10l-..._Code=suzuki-gs550e-l-m-tx-motorcycle-battery)

I am going to call these guys and see what they might have that is comparable.

Paul

 

[Redneck]

Last night after our family Valentine's Day dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, I had a little time to slip down into the garage. I pulled out the rear calipers that had been sitting in the left over Carb cleaner. At first I was like eh... the paint did not look like it had even bubble at all. The good new was that as I was rinsing the dip off water flowed freely through all the ports. So then I picked up a wire toothbrush and started scrubbing. Whamo the paint started coming off like a boiled apple. It was cool. The funny part was that the grease/brake dust on the inside of the caliper arms (the part that sits over the rotor) would not come off, but then again my wire toothbrush was too wide to fit down in there. I will look at finding something else tonight.

Pete's philosophy at work, ever how little as long as its something, even if its just sitting there staring at parts with a beer in your hand.... I mean planning out what you will do next.

Paul

 

[Guest]

Hahaha nice Paul, glad my ethos is continuing... all including the beer

Of course staring at shiny new pipes for hours on end is quite acceptable also

 

[cowboyup3371]

Sounds good so far and I half agree with you and Pete - it's nice to just sit there and think about things that need to happen. Of course, it gets frustrating after awhile when you can't get back to it for whatever reason.

I'm interested to see what you finally decide on the battery Paul as I started thinking of going that route with mine.