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Gs850g front fork changes

P

ProSimex

Forum Newbie
I picked up a 1979 gs850g the other day. The front end was half apart so I've been tinkering putting it together. When I go to installed the brake calipers they dont fit. They appear to be correct from what im seeing in the manual.

The front forks seems to be the issue. there appears to be to different types of fork, one with the axle at the bottom of the lower, the other with the axle set at the front of the fork.
What I have seems to be the gs850gl forks, whereas I have gs850g brake calipers.
Has anyone else run into this?
 
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Welcome to a 40+ years old project bike

1st - is the bike a G, or a GL?

Does it have a chrome rear fender and headlight?

Pictures will help
 
Hey thanks for the reply. The bike has a plastic rear fender and currently has no headlight. Here are some pictures.

The fender it came with doesnt fit properly, it rubs the tire when secured at its 4 points. The tach drive won't fit unless its pointed in the wrong direction. all these parts are suzuki, but clearly not all of of them were born together. The forks are air ride, so at first I thought they were correct, but im pretty sure now they aren't.

Im not new to old bike projects. Ive put together an Xs650, a cb550, and an Xlh900. This is my first basket suzuki and I dont know it as well as I've known the other bikes. So figuring out which is correct and what is not has been trying. There's less information out there on them that ive been able to find.

Ive downloaded a service manual but trying to read it off my phone is not great, I need a hard copy.
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Those forks are definitely not from a G model. The 1979 850 forks do have a schrader valve on top, though. They're covered with a chrome cap. Not sure if that feature ever worked for what it was designed to do. It only needed a few lbs of pressure that I could never get right, or it leaked out right away, anyway I, like most others I suspect, installed different springs and ignored the air from then on.

You appear to have several things working against you here. If those forks are from an L model, theyre going to change the way it handles. Here is an explanation of what happens. Maybe start here on the forum home page GS model information chart to see what bike you have. Then visit a parts supplier that has a good diagram like CMSNL to see if you have all of the axle spacers oriented correctly. I think you're missing something, like #8 in that diagram and maybe other hidden parts.

If you have a 1979 850 and need a set of forks, I have a spare set. I may even have spacers in a box somewhere. That speedometer drive gear isn't backwards, it just needs to be rotated to face the rear, with the cable connection on the bottom. It's real easy to misalign things and accidentally bend those little tangs that drive the gear so be careful, which I'm sure you are... just sayin'.

if you could back up and take pics of the whole bike we could offer more help.
 
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