Kiwi Canuck tries his Luck with a Six Fiddy

[Kiwi Canuck]

Sorry about the drop David. I did that on my Nighthawk engine installing the alternator. Knew full well I should have it strapped down but thought "what the heck...this wont hurt anything". Broke the top right engine mount off and had to have a local shop weld it back on. I know the sinking heart and lump in your throat feeling all too well.

As for the rotor taping. I dont tape them. I just shoot the black and use acetone and a rag to wipe the contact patch clean again.

Thanks for the comments Chuck, I considered having them welded back on but thought I would try the JB weld first.

The top one, with the largest chunk missing actually rings when tapped with a screw driver so I assume it's attached well.

Sure is a bitch when it happens though.

David.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

So much for a weekend off so I can work on the bike, my wife informed me we are going on a family outing on Saturday which was all day and so that left Sunday for yard work and a little time in the garage after all that was done.

Didn't get as much done as I hoped but did button the engine up and got that part of the project complete.

I did have a bit of a struggle with getting the jugs on as I was too lazy to go and cut up a few wooden blocks to support the pistons, ended up putting them all in at the same time, didn't know that was possible but I did it.

Also finally managed to get the valves adjusted with the 5 spare shims I had plus what was in the bike, just worked out perfectly.

Hopefully I did everything correctly and don't have to pull anything apart, wouldn't be the first time though if i do need to.

Pictures to follow.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Here's my numbers, mostly at the high end and just 2 slightly tighter, which I like to do when I've had the valves lapped or the seats cut. (just noticed I have written the IN & EX Barse Akwards)

I loved that the spark plugs came in a Suzuki box, pretty cool, never seen that before.

A few shots of the engine finished.

Remember this, I didn't get a real close up but what a difference a bit of cleaning and some paint.

That's it for now.

David.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

I'm still here and working on the bike, just small detail stuff, cleaning and painting or polishing endless amount of fasteners, assembling brake calipers and started assembling the carbs.

BTW I did buy the Hoppes Number 9 Solvent (along with a .22 cal gun cleaning kit for my pellet gun) it worked well on the brass parts of the carbs but needed 24 hrs of soaking to get them fully clean.

You know when you buy all the new parts and you store them away nicely awaiting for the time to install them, then when it's time, you pull them out and most can be identified by eye, but then there are about 10 or so packages that are not so obvious why you bought them or not sure which is which as they look similar.

Well I got a sharpy out and went through everything with my son and ticked them off on the invoice and wrote on the bag what is was for, so after all that effort to be thorough I have misplaced or lost the orings for the rear caliper and something else which I can't remember right now, I also have a few bolts and washers that don't show up as fitting this bike and pretty sure I didn't order them but they were included in the shipment to add to the mystery.

Very frustrating and has been bugging me now for 2 days, I keep looking and trying rack my brain to remember what I did with them or did I actually in fact receive them.

I did find some other parts I needed in my GS1000 left overs storage bin while searching, a set of 4 rubber pilot jet plugs, and 2 carb bowl gaskets all new in the factory packages, which was nice as I had forgotten to order them.

I do have a question about setting up the cam timing, (now that I've closed up the top of the engine it starting to bug me) so I'll ask here.

When I line up the "T" mark at TDC, for cyliners 1.4 the arrow on the EX cam should be in line with the top of the head (or just slightly above) well mine shows about 1/4" high, pretty sure it's not 1 tooth off but still too high compared with the picture in the manual, does that mean the timing is off and I should adjust the back plate to make the mark line up in the correct spot?

That's about it for now, if I get something more substantial done this weekend I'll post some pictures.

David.

 

[Nessism]

Suzuki's part system leave a lot to be desired sometimes. I've ordered stuff before only to receive the wrong parts and/or superseded parts that don't fit. Most of the time the cost doesn't warrant the hassle of returning the parts so they just get thrown in the spares box where they go unused.

As the timing chain elongates the dash line will point above the gasket surface slightly. This is no big deal so don't worry.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Suzuki's part system leave a lot to be desired sometimes. I've ordered stuff before only to receive the wrong parts and/or superseded parts that don't fit. Most of the time the cost doesn't warrant the hassle of returning the parts so they just get thrown in the spares box where they go unused.

As the timing chain elongates the dash line will point above the gasket surface slightly. This is no big deal so don't worry.

OK thanks Ed, that makes sense about the cam chain, I appreciate the quick response.

I concur with your comments about the Suzuki parts system, it takes a while to learn the idiosyncrasies of each bike and manufacturers system, but in spite of the quirks it's nice to be able to have such information and most parts still available.

I have dealt with Honda as well and used Partzilla and DrATV.com and both were good but not perfect.

David.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Quick update, progress has been happening but not very quickly.

I am enjoying slowly tinkering on this project and it's nice to actually feel comfortable assembling carbs and redoing all the wiring in the headlight bucket and know where everything goes without barely needing to reference the wiring diagram, I had 2 connector plugs left over which I soon figured out was the front brake light switch connection which has not been reinstalled yet.

It was also nice to have a spare set of carbs that I bought on ebay a few years ago for the GS1000, but they had 2 broken float posts, so I have lots of good spares as some of the parts fit the smaller carbs on the 650.

It's getting to the point where I'll need to buy a battery as I should be able to test run the engine soon, well soon being once I finish a whole bunch of things including cleaning up the stock exhaust system I got for this bike and installing it.

I'll need to figure out the mounting sequence for them as the bike came with a 4 into 1 and had home made brackets and such so not sure what I'm missing until I mock them up.

A little off topic but part of the reason I'm a bit side tracked on this build is another bike joined the stable last week, when I got home on Thursday my wife let me know it was time to get John a larger bike, he currently has a Honda CRF80 and it's way too small for him.
I was already ahead of the game and had been watching a few Honda CRF150's on CL, wasn't sure about the CRF150RB as it's a competition bike and probably not suitable for where we ride, so was looking for the CRF150F and had a few bookmarked for quick reference.

Texted the first one and he was available in 30 mins so we popped over and was on the way home with a new to us 2006 CRF150F, was in great shape and still had OEM original tires and looked like it was well looked after.

Just needed a bit of cleaning and a service, it was a good time to give the CRF80 the full service treatment as well so that is in progress, just need to do the valve adjustment and check the clutch then that's done and out of the way for another year.

Alexander (my youngest, he's 12) has expressed interest in the CRF80, so he's learning to ride it, I had him doing no throttle starts as he kept stalling every time he went to take off, it worked well and he did 6 in a row then had no problems.

Here is the new 150.

OK back to the GS, a picture of my cleaned up wiring in the headlight bucket, it was nasty in there before, full of dirt and corrosion, now pretty clean and hopefully functional.

Carbs test fitted, slipped in very easily with the new boots up front, still need to refinish the choke and throttle linkages and get them installed.

That's all I got for now.

David

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Photo Bucket has blocked my images, bear with me while I get that sorted out.

I'm using https://imgbox.com/ trying it out to see if it's going to work, very quick to register and upload the first set of images, need to figure out how to resize them and rotate them.

David.

 

[BigD_83]

Hi David,

The engine looks great sitting in the frame.

How do you find the 150? I felt it was a little underpowered for general use, but decently fun in the park.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Hi David,

The engine looks great sitting in the frame.

How do you find the 150? I felt it was a little underpowered for general use, but decently fun in the park.

Thanks Derrick,

My 13 year old son who weighs just over 100lbs thinks the CRF150 is awesome after riding a CRF80 for a few years. (I rode it for 2 minutes and found it to be adequate but I'm just shy of 200lbs)

Cheers,

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

So back again, and a good amount to report.

Installed the exhaust I purchased on ebay, I believe it is the correct one for the GS650E.

It was not without a few challenges, the brackets didn't seem correct, the left pipe was perfect, the right pipe was hard against the rear axle, adjusted the footrest bracket and made a 2 spacers to solve the problem.

Looks pretty good to me now.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

I got the tank back from the painters along with the front fender and side covers.

Old and new.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

So here are my three Suzuki 650's

2012 VStrom, 1981 GS650E & 2013 DR650

 

[Charlie G]

Nice shots of the 650's!

 

[steve murdoch]

The paint looks great.
Do you know where he sourced the decals?
I know it is a small detail but i have always liked the look of the flared rear of the front fender on that model.

 

[Guest]

Very nice trio. :encouragement:

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Nice shots of the 650's!

Thanks Charlie, just looking at that picture, they couldn't look more different from each other.

David.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

The paint looks great.
Do you know where he sourced the decals?
I know it is a small detail but i have always liked the look of the flared rear of the front fender on that model.

Thanks Steve, I was unable to get decals but he didn't need them, he was able to repair the damaged areas and paint the stripes where he had to.

I believe he lost about 50% of the original decals on the tank but was able to save the important reference points so the job still looks original.

The top of the tank was very dented and two other dents on the sides so quite a bit of work, I am very pleased with the outcome.

Total for the job was $1,000, including the tail section which I thought was very fair considering how much was involved.

Agreed on the front fender, nice detail and I was fortunate to find one on ebay in very good condition as a donor as you can see the original one was a little rough.

David.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

Very nice trio. :encouragement:

Thank you for commenting, it's always appreciated to get some feedback.

David.

 

[dorkburger]

I lost track of this while hiding out on vacation. The bike is looking fabulous.