Z
zosxavius
Guest
I bought this 82 GS1100GK today. The seat back and removable box are behind it, so it was complete except for the side covers. It needs a windscreen and a seat cover.
So looks like it basically needs new gaskets and also needs the wiring harness replaced or straightened out. Someone cut the original harness and it has some electrical gremlins currently. 44k on the odometer. I would actually love to rebuild this bike from the frame up, but for now, I'm just going to fix whatever is wrong and see if I can get it to run for a season without a lot of maintenance. I'm really tempted to mostly just leave the bike as is. I kind of like the character really. Still, I'd like to strip the frame and repaint it sometime. Maybe that can be next winter's project. I'm pretty sure I'll have my hands full just working through this as it is. I know nothing about these bikes, so you can definitely be sure that I'll be back here asking a bunch of stupid questions. This is actually my first bike too. My friend bought it about a year ago and told him to let me buy it off him when he sold it because I just kind of fell in love and here we are today. He had issues with it not starting because a new battery wasn't taking a charge. He got frustrated and gave up on it after cleaning the carbs and getting it to run. I actually couldn't turn it over today because my friend who was helping me decided to disconnect the battery and we never were able to get it to start with our janky ass attempt at jumping it with just reconnecting the wires. Haha and all the oil was drained out of it anyways because the drain plug is leaking. So much for the brilliant idea to drive it back. It was for the best anyways because as we loaded it into a van, the front brake seemed to lose hydraulic pressure anyways. That would have been a fun surprise.
So yeah. I need some mostly cosmetic parts and some work and I think it should run fine again for the most part. I'll have to compression test it after I change the gaskets and see if the cylinders are still in spec. I have the real suzuki service manual for it and that answered a lot of my questions. I'm not all that opposed to tearing the engine out and rebuilding it, but my motorcycle guru neighbor tells me that the gaskets are likely leaking and that the oil I see on the heads is pretty normal. I'll sure know once I get it fired up again and idling how it sounds. Last I heard it run it sounded healthy. I'll quit rambling here, but it would be helpful to know what breaks on these bikes with age and what I should be looking to probably replace to make it more safe and reliable.
So looks like it basically needs new gaskets and also needs the wiring harness replaced or straightened out. Someone cut the original harness and it has some electrical gremlins currently. 44k on the odometer. I would actually love to rebuild this bike from the frame up, but for now, I'm just going to fix whatever is wrong and see if I can get it to run for a season without a lot of maintenance. I'm really tempted to mostly just leave the bike as is. I kind of like the character really. Still, I'd like to strip the frame and repaint it sometime. Maybe that can be next winter's project. I'm pretty sure I'll have my hands full just working through this as it is. I know nothing about these bikes, so you can definitely be sure that I'll be back here asking a bunch of stupid questions. This is actually my first bike too. My friend bought it about a year ago and told him to let me buy it off him when he sold it because I just kind of fell in love and here we are today. He had issues with it not starting because a new battery wasn't taking a charge. He got frustrated and gave up on it after cleaning the carbs and getting it to run. I actually couldn't turn it over today because my friend who was helping me decided to disconnect the battery and we never were able to get it to start with our janky ass attempt at jumping it with just reconnecting the wires. Haha and all the oil was drained out of it anyways because the drain plug is leaking. So much for the brilliant idea to drive it back. It was for the best anyways because as we loaded it into a van, the front brake seemed to lose hydraulic pressure anyways. That would have been a fun surprise.
So yeah. I need some mostly cosmetic parts and some work and I think it should run fine again for the most part. I'll have to compression test it after I change the gaskets and see if the cylinders are still in spec. I have the real suzuki service manual for it and that answered a lot of my questions. I'm not all that opposed to tearing the engine out and rebuilding it, but my motorcycle guru neighbor tells me that the gaskets are likely leaking and that the oil I see on the heads is pretty normal. I'll sure know once I get it fired up again and idling how it sounds. Last I heard it run it sounded healthy. I'll quit rambling here, but it would be helpful to know what breaks on these bikes with age and what I should be looking to probably replace to make it more safe and reliable.
