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mechanics book time

bccap

bccap

Forum Sage
Past Site Supporter
I have a 1983 gs 750E. Does anyone know the book time for a mechanic to remove and overhaul carbs and reinstall ?
 
IF they would even take on the job, you would be looking at $4-500 dollars. :eek:

There are several members here that offer a similar service for less than half the price.

You can do it yourself for FAR less than that.

Where are you, one of us is likely rather close.

.
 
I have one too and while not a pro I can be fairly quick but yet thorough so I'd say 3 to 4 hours (not counting soak time of course).

I will be off to see my pro wrench buddy later to day so I will query him and let you know what he would charge.

Are you getting some weird estimates?

Good luck with it.
Spyug
 
Thanx Guys
I live in Vancouver BC. I am the first owner of this bike, and have less than 10000 km on it. My interest in cycling has been renewed and have just pulled it out of retirement after 12 years. The bike still had 12 year old gas in it, but fired up right away. I live in an apartment so I don' really have facilities to work on it. Like draining oil and gas and disposing of it. So I through some Seafoam into it topped up the gas, but it bogs to about 3800 rpm and then damn near tears my arms out when all 4 cylinders engage. I suspect the jets are clogged and or varnished. My reason for asking about book time is this. A few days ago I took it into my local shop for an oil and filter change. For which I was quoted $20 plus parts. As I wanted to go for a ride after I also asked him to throw knew plugs in, change the front headlight bulb, adjust and oil the chain. For which I fully expected to pay mechanics rate for. I did not expect to pay for the mechanic to search for parts. 2 hours total labor. As I observed him heading for the parts department several times. I am now leery of hiring them to do the carb job without a firm commitment to the labour involved. I like this shop as their product prices are very good. Just ordered 2 new tires from them to replace the 28 year old rubber on them. Any advice ?
 
Wow, 2 hours to look at a spark plug and a bulb?

Why would you go back there?

You're getting hosed
 
Yes. Unless your pockets are deep, learn how to service your own bike or get a much newer one. The harsh reality of a GS is that they don't know how to work on them, don't want to work on them, and it costs a bundle to have them do the work which may, or may not, be done correctly.
There are plenty of folk here that can advise you on procedures. For example, look at this site: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/
Scroll down the right side. Just below Other Contributors there is the link called CV Carburetor Rebuild Guide. Download it and read through it.
You can do your own carbs for about $20-25 (USA) and the cost of a can of carb dip $20 (USA).
I have never done it before, but my GPz is now running on a set I rebuilt. It took time, but the satisfaction of a job well done is priceless.
Best of luck.
 
Ya I know what you mean. Unfortunately they are the only Suzuki shop in the city, without heading to the suburbs. But they do have their good points ie product prices. I am just looking for a fair number of labor hours that both the shop owner and I will be satisfied. With NO SURPRISES !
 
Time spent on the work order is billable time. Does not matter if it is spinning wrenches or walking to the back for parts.
shrug2.gif


Now, if he had to order something, waiting a few days for the part to come in is not billable, but opening the package, then installing it certainly is.

Actually, you should consider yourself very fortunate that they are even letting the bike in the door. Many shops have a "10-year" rule. Anything older than 10 years is not allowed in the door. Too many things break, due to lack of mainenance, which adds to the actual time on the job, taking them over the flat-rate billable time.

It won't hurt to ask how much they would charge, but also get a detailed list of what will be done and the parts involved. Too many times, even "professional" mechanics will drop the float bowls, spritz some carb spray around, put some new gaskets in there and call it an "overhaul".
noway.gif


An "overhaul" should involve complete dismantling, soaking the carb bodies and the brass jets in cleaner (probably overnight, in your case), then re-assembly with new o-rings and gaskets.

.
 
bccap said:
Thanx Guys
I live in Vancouver BC. I am the first owner of this bike, and have less than 10000 km on it. My interest in cycling has been renewed and have just pulled it out of retirement after 12 years. The bike still had 12 year old gas in it, but fired up right away. I live in an apartment so I don' really have facilities to work on it. Like draining oil and gas and disposing of it. So I through some Seafoam into it topped up the gas, but it bogs to about 3800 rpm and then damn near tears my arms out when all 4 cylinders engage. I suspect the jets are clogged and or varnished. My reason for asking about book time is this. A few days ago I took it into my local shop for an oil and filter change. For which I was quoted $20 plus parts. As I wanted to go for a ride after I also asked him to throw knew plugs in, change the front headlight bulb, adjust and oil the chain. For which I fully expected to pay mechanics rate for. I did not expect to pay for the mechanic to search for parts. 2 hours total labor. As I observed him heading for the parts department several times. I am now leery of hiring them to do the carb job without a firm commitment to the labour involved. I like this shop as their product prices are very good. Just ordered 2 new tires from them to replace the 28 year old rubber on them. Any advice ?
Click to expand...


There are a few Vancouerites on the forum. Some are preety hard core when it comes to builds so maybe one could be of assistance.

If it runs like a bat out of hell above 3800 I would run more seafoam and hope for the best, After you replace your deathtrap tires.
 
Steve
As I said before I have no problem with paying for work performed. But going upstairs to look for parts in a darkened room {roughly 10 min. shot } while the parts guy and owner are sitting in a cafe across the road, I do not consider professional. Especially when there is a customer spending money on everything from helmets, clothes, tires etc. As the oil change was 20 bucks. Do you consider 2 hours labor reasonable for the work I had done. If I owned the business I might have told the customer not to bother with the chain as I had just informed he needed new tires and was about to purchase them here. { the chain was not that loose as I had inspected it a few days ago }
 
Do the work yourself or buy a newer bike. Taking this dinosaur to a shop cannot end well. Just a few hours shop time is more than the bike is worth.
The normal plan is to ruin the bike and then sell you a new one.
There are a lot of GSR members who would love to take that old bike off your hands and give it a good home.
 
I like my " dinosaur ". But I guess I might bite the bullet and do the work myself. This site is excellent and offers much help when people develop problems. I did look at new bikes but didn't honestly like them. The 750's I saw seemed a bit over the top. Wide fairings and when I sat on them I felt I was inside them rather than on top of them. Maybe I'm just a bit old fashioned.
 
The problem with working on these old bikes is that nuts and bolts, for example, can get bloody difficult to undo. I've spent several hours for example trying to remove a swinging arm pivot bolt (should take about a minute if it wasn't rusted in). Plus most of the mechanics now working in shops just don't know what they're looking at when faced by a bike older than their dad.

As tkent says, taking these old bikes to a shop isn't fair on them or you unless you trust them 100%.
 
Greetings and Salutations!!

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. bccap,

If I can work on my 30 year old motorcycle, anybody can. Really!

Anyway, let me dump a TON if information on you and let you in on some GS lovin'. :D

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.
big_hi.gif


If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....
hat1.gif


Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Rebuild Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...

carpet.jpg


Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike! :D

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
Steve said:
Time spent on the work order is billable time. Does not matter if it is spinning wrenches or walking to the back for parts.

Now, if he had to order something, waiting a few days for the part to come in is not billable, but opening the package, then installing it certainly is.
Click to expand...

Back when I worked in a dealership we charged Flat Rate for labor, and the mechanics were paid on commission, if it took longer than the Flat Rate book called for it was out of my pocket, if I could do the job in less time it was to my advantage. And yes, the trip to the parts counter and the test ride were on my dime, not the customers. It meant having to hustle to be able to bill 8 hours in an 8 hour day, but it can be done. I did not have to go digging around for parts however, thats what teh parts guy is for.
 
You really should do this for yourself, it's not that difficult. If for some reason you absolutely don't have the facilities to do it I'd be happy to. You would have to ship them to Texas so that might be a slight problem and pay for shipping back to you, but I would do it for you. You will also need to get a set of o-rings from Robert Barr who is a member here. Your carbs are the same as my stockers were, not a big deal. For what a shop will charge you could probably pick up a set of used RS flatslides.
 
Take cell phone pictures of everything so you can see how it goes back together, buy an O-ring kit & carb cleaner & give it a go. Use the correct size screw drivers so you dont ruin the idle mixture screws & pilot jets. Figure on some new rubber manifolds & air box rubbers too. Those can get expensive. Theres nothing cheap about an old bike but you can not afford to have a dealer do the work. They dont want to and most dont know any more then you do about 1978 carbs. Theres a section on this forum that will walk you right thru the job & plenty of people to help you out. The dealers intenionally try to blow you out the door with the high price so they dont have to do them
 
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