My 1982 GS1100GL rebuild

[Guest]

So I'm starting this thread as a record of what I'm doing, feel free to comment and give me some tips as I go since I'm a complete noob.

Before any work started my bike would start up right away with full to 1/2 choke. It would also stay running but wouldn't hold an idle without choke until well after it was warmed up and it wasn't a very good idle at that. I took it for a quick drive around the block to give myself a seat of the pants baseline and power was very sporadic but when it did kick in... wow... much faster than my last bike ('88 VS750GLP Intruder).

Please forgive my workshop, it's my parents garage since I don't have a garage at my apartment.

Notice the newspaper underneath for an oil leak due to a stripped oil filter housing bolt.

Notice the bent rear left turn signal bracket... I got a NOS one off ebay for $6.

Gauges look nice but the tack, fuel gauge, odometer & trip odometer don't work.

 

[Guest]

So first things first. I'm pulling the carburetors to dip each one overnight and analyze the intake condition.

Upon dis assembly I found that the carburetor to cylinder head boots were fine but the o rings were shot, one even had a break with a 1/4" gap. One of the carburetor to air box boots was mangled from improper installation but the other three were fine. I'm going to try to salvage the boot for now because in a few months I'd like to put on a V&H exhaust w/ K&N pods along with a DynoJet kit. So for now, I'm going to try to tune the bike with the boot as is and if I have problems I may just spend the 10 bucks for a new one. It's not ripped, torn, or broken, just malformed so I think I should be fine.

As you can see below, the carburetors were really dirty on the outside and after opening up two of the four, I've found that several of the internal o rings were broken, more were permanently squashed, and overall there was crud throughout the carburetors... they needed to be dipped.

Now let's all sing along... "Which one is not like the others, which one just is not the same"

Man, this stuff is great.

 

[Guest]

Over the next two days, I'll be disassembling and dipping each carburetor and cleaning the bike up because it's filthy. Everything I touch seems to have black crud on it which makes me think... has any PO ever cleaned anything other than the tank and fenders?

Things on my short list to get done by the end of the weekend:
-Clean her up
-Change all oils... engine, middle & final
-Change oil filter & studs
-Change oil screen & gasket
-Valve job w/ new gasket
-Install new tachometer cable
-Finish carburetor cleaning, reassemble, & put back on bike
-Clean & seal the airbox
-Install new petcock
-Troubleshoot fuel level sending unit
-Check exhaust sealing

Question time: I'm going to be replacing all three of the oil cover studs since one is stripped.... how would you remove them? Since I'm removing the bottom oil pan to clean the oil screen & gasket, I've got to take off the exhaust so I'm thinking while the exhaust is off, I'll just take a Vice Grip to the studs and hopefully they will come out easily enough. The other method I'm thinking is to put two nuts on the studs and use them to turn the stud out of the block but that involves me going to the store to get two nuts which fit onto the stud. Also, will the stud come out with conventional lefty loosy righty tightie?

 

[thombre]

Sean,
Suggest you keep the two bars attached to all four carbs.Soak two at a time.Replace needles,plugs,o rings for seats,(I used the old seats),gaskets.I hired David Holmes with 20 years exp.to clean the carbs adjust floats and screws.He was able to remove all the parts and clean them.May have to clean everything twice.I checked vacuum on petcock valve.Reinstalled carbs,and cut fuel filter in fuel line between tank and carbs.I didn't touch the intake boots,I just sprayed them with WD40 to help get the carbs back on.The carburetors are performing well.

 

[Nessism]

Sean,
Suggest you keep the two bars attached to all four carbs.Soak two at a time.Replace needles,plugs,o rings for seats,(I used the old seats),gaskets.I hired David Holmes with 20 years exp.to clean the carbs adjust floats and screws.He was able to remove all the parts and clean them.May have to clean everything twice.I checked vacuum on petcock valve.Reinstalled carbs,and cut fuel filter in fuel line between tank and carbs.I didn't touch the intake boots,I just sprayed them with WD40 to help get the carbs back on.The carburetors are performing well.

Bad advise here (sorry to sound harsh). The proper way to clean carbs is to take them all the way apart. The interconnection O-rings for one thing need to be changed and there is no way to do that with the carbs together.

Regarding the intake boots, they should come off and the O-rings changed. Air leaks from leaking O-rings is the number one most common issue with GS bikes so do NOT shortcut or you are just wasting your time.

 

[Good Times]

Just found your thread. Love the bike. It's my bike's big brother. I almost bought one right before Christmas with 4500 miles on it. BUT it was right before Christmas. I had to wait and watch it slip silently into the night......nooooo.....nooo.....good-bye awesome bike......

Anyway....what's the latest with the build? Let's see some pics!

 

[Guest]

Thanks GT, I'm moving along with the build. I've been slowly working on it for the past few months and now I've hit crunch time with the unseasonably nice weather so I've set a goal to be back on the road by May 1st. This may be a challenge since I just signed the papers for a new job tonight so April will be a month of change and hopefully this work will keep my mind occupied through all of the craziness. That being said... here's a bunch of pictures in no particular order.

I'm pretty lucky in that I've been able to use the blaster at my father's manufacturing plant which has a huge air compressor so I've been able to blast just about everything I want besides the frame. here's some of what's yet to powdercoat or polish

I've borrowed a friends Eastwood Hotcoat gun and I live very close to Eastwood so I picked up some high gloss black powder and a toaster oven at the target up the street and voila

I completely stripped the wiring harness down to the wires, cleaned up all of the old goo, checked the integrity of all wires & connections which was good I did bc it looks like someone sent 12v through a ground wire melting it back to a soldered junction. I removed the stator to hand switch wires, added a coil relay wire, removed unused wires, and replaced 2 junctions which were melted... one from the stator and one from heat from the motor. I still have yet to replace a few connectors since I just ordered enough from Z1 to replace all old connections. I rewraped everything tape then split loom & tape again which was a bit of overkill but after a week of chipping away I was left with this:

So at this point, I've got a whole bunch of parts bagged and tagged and ready to be installed.

I've got the frame, swing arm, and centerstand at the powdercoater now and I should get it back in about a week... for reference my guy is doing it for $210 in gloss black... zrzpowdercoating.com if anyone is in the NE Pa area I'd recommend him. Below is a before so I'll post an after later

And I've got a bunch more OEM parts to put back on the bike

Some other things not shown are the new bars, all new bearings, new stainless lines just shipped today to be used with DOT5, front springs are cut & pvc ready to go, new UNI air filter, all new fuel & vent lines, new case bolts, and more.

The way I see it, I've got a lot of the small things done and now I've got several big tasks ahead including. Clean and paint the motor, Clean & paint the wheels, Paint the tank & side covers, and then I should about be ready to reassemble.

In the middle of this I picked up a Vetter Windjammer with lowers, hard-bags, and trunk for a pretty good deal but I'm trying to get her on the road before I worry about mounting that up. I'm going to get that stuff together ASAP seeing as I'll be commuting 100mi per day with my new job.

Ask and you shall receive

 

[Nessism]

Nice work! Looking good!

 

[Good Times]

Great work for sure. I'm glad you posted up on the wiring harness. That the next big step for me.

Can't wait to see it all come together. It's going to be sweet.

 

[Guest]

Woo hoo the frame is back from the powdercoater

And I got in the watch crystal and epoxyed it in place

I hope to get a lot done this weekend!

 

[Guest]

Wow painting the engine feels GOOD! I'm finally over the hill and can see the finish line on this rebuild / restore. Enjoy...

The entire oil pan used to be black with caked on oil

And here's the only before picture I really have that shows the general condition of the paint.

 

[old_skool]

Hmmmm, looks familiar

I didn't do a full tear down, thats this winters project for me. Good Job!!

 

[Guest]

Well I'm in the home stretch. I've got pretty much everything refurbished and most if not all parts to be replaced in stock and now it's just a matter of putting it all back together. I find I'd go crazy if I didn't organize everything so I took a picture when I laid it all out.

I really like the wheel paint I chose which is Duplicolor Wheel Coating in a metallic graphite color... you can not really see the metalic in this pic

The motor is back in the frame

And here's some of the side covers going back on.

By the end of yesterday I got the clutch sorted and back in with all side covers on the motor. New oil pan gasket on, new oil filter, new filler cap crush rings, rebuilt and PC'd cam chain tensioner, rebuilt carbs (yes they were dipped again), new UNI air filter, with carbs & air box on, new vent & gas hoses, & rebuilt rear rear dif & swing arm back on. All of the gaskets are new so I'm hoping no more leaks.

Now I've got all of the front end parts back at my house (since the bike is in my parents garage) so I should have the front end assembled and ready to install this Saturday. I've got all of the electronics sorted and ready to install so I'm hoping that I can get most of the bike together this weekend. I'm leaving for vacation the week of the 4th of July so I'd love to have the tank and side covers painted before leaving so that I can let it cure while I'm away.


Oh and one little tip for everyone out there... I wasn't sure what to do with the rubber coated wire hold downs that are welded to the frame after the powder coating oven ruined the coating. So I stripped them down to bare metal with a razor and some sand paper and then dipped them in black plasti-dip. It worked great and I picked it up for about $7 at Lowes.
http://www.plastidip.com/home_solutions/Plasti_Dip

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

Of course I couldn't help but put the tank and seat on it so I could sit on her for the first time in months.

The good news is that it looks like I should be able to start this baby up soon... the bad news is that it'll have to wait a few weeks because I leave for vacation soon and will not be able to work on the bike until the weekend of 7/14. That being said... I hope to take the bike out the weekend of 7/21. I'll probably ride her around with a primered tank for a week or so to work out the kinks and give me time to prep the vetter hard bags and windjammer which are going to get painted at the same time. I'm still not convinced I'm going to use the windjammer but I will definately be painting it with the rest of the motorcycle. So what you you guys think?

 

[LarryJ]

I am glad that I had the chance to see your bike in person. It looks even better in person! Your attention to detail shows!

 

[Guest]

Thanks Larry, good luck with your GK!

 

[Good Times]

Really diggin the bike and the work you've done! Keep it up.