My "immaculate" GS 550 story

[straycatuk]

I bought my 1980 550 off of ebay about 3 weeks ago.Was supposed to be immaculate,A1 etc. ,but on collection (80 miles away) it was obviously not !

Should I have walked away..probably...time will tell.
Once I got it home things got worst;

Carbs not fitted correctly to airbox.
Oil leak underneath engine
oil leak from camcover -I'd spotted that and knew I'd be checking valves anyway.
Electrics a complete mess - poor connections/earths
Back brake seized - pedal only.
Choke linking bar bent,so chokes wouldn't completely close and 1 of the grub screws missing ,stopping no1 choke from coming on at all .
Jet sizes bigger than standard on 3 carbs (102.5) and 1 at 100 !
Air filter disintergated and airbox leaking. Breather hose not connected.

Today I decided to replace the clutch rod oil seal,which appears to be the source of the oil leak,but had to remove the front sprocket ,which was almost new and found that the spocket nut was loose and was been retained by the locking washer. Once I bent back the locking tabs the nut "fell off" ..........completely stripped ! At least the drive shaft thread seems to be ok and all the damage is on the nut thread.Who would fit a new chain and sprockets knowing they had left it like this ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also started working on the carbs and found the mixure screws were only 1 1/2 turns out and according to spec,should be 3 1/2 turns out.


If anyone's interested I'll update this as I progress....or not.

 

[emjay]

Welcome Straycat. This site will work out just fine for you what with all the work you have ahead of yourself. BassCliff will be along soon to unofficially greet you.

Finding an old GS fairly different than advertised is not too unusual, but it stull sux. At least the paint and chrome look good. :wink:

Sure, keep it coming, we all love to read the rebuild stories, especially with pics.

 

[straycatuk]

Hello emjay,

I've already been welcomed a couple of weeks ago and had some good advice on valve clearances. I wish this site had been around when I used to own GSs back in time (84 - 00).

I think the bike has had owners that lavished TLC on it,but a couple more recently who just rode it into the ground.

Even though it's not running right now,it's just nice to have a GS in the garage again.

I wish I could find my old GS1000E .........THE BEAST.[-o<

 

[emjay]

...I wish I could find my old GS1000E .........THE BEAST.[-o<

Those are pretty popular. I'm sure you'll work it all out. Hopefully you didn't pay too much.

What part of Northern England are you from? I lived in Norwich for 3 years while at UEA.

 

[Dogma]

OK, so I won't buy any shiny bikes on eBay. The metal looks immaculate. I hope it doesn't cost too much to get the rest sorted out.

 

[Guest]

I trust you left him positive feedback. :twisted:

Lots of minor stuff, which I'm sure you will work out in no time. I hope you at least got a good deal price-wise.

Welcome!

 

[gbw]

sounds like this bike needed to be rescued and fell into the right hands. Can wait to see what you make of it. Keep us posted. Love the color.

 

[Chuckster]

Keep at it. Looks like that will be a nice bike when you're done! :-D

 

[Nessism]

Guess I’m a freak but first thing I do when getting a “new” GS home is tear it apart. Pull the carbs and replace all the o-rings, replace the rubber carb “boot” o-rings, new air filter, rebuild the brake system, check the valves, etc. To me these are standard maintenance items that should be brought up to snuff right away upon receipt of the bike to assure a trouble free life going forward. The parts are not expensive and should not cost more than about $100 total. Sounds you are being forced to do these items…but no worry. You won’t have to do them again for many years to come.

 

[tkent02]

Carbs not fitted correctly to airbox.
Oil leak underneath engine
oil leak from camcover -I'd spotted that and knew I'd be checking valves anyway.
Electrics a complete mess - poor connections/earths
Back brake seized - pedal only.
Choke linking bar bent,so chokes wouldn't completely close and 1 of the grub screws missing ,stopping no1 choke from coming on at all .
Jet sizes bigger than standard on 3 carbs (102.5) and 1 at 100 !
Air filter disintergated and airbox leaking. Breather hose not connected.

Today I decided to replace the clutch rod oil seal,which appears to be the source of the oil leak,but had to remove the front sprocket ,which was almost new and found that the spocket nut was loose and was been retained by the locking washer. Once I bent back the locking tabs the nut "fell off" ..........completely stripped ! At least the drive shaft thread seems to be ok and all the damage is on the nut thread.Who would fit a new chain and sprockets knowing they had left it like this ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty much to be expected unless the seller is a real GS nut like us.

He might not even have known about the sprocket.

Some people just do crappy work.

Nessism is right, look at everything.

 

[straycatuk]

I keep having to remind myself that it's 28 years old. A lot of time for shoddy work to be done. I didn't buy this bike to the most immaculate machine around, I just wanted to know if I'm going to get back into GSs big time.........and have some summer fun.

Refitted carbs onto rubbers tonight.I had to remove the clips on airbox rubbers as they got bent when squeezing the carbs back in.:-| I'll try tightening it all up tomorrow.

 

[Calvin Blackmore]

interesting thing about the sprocket nut

mine did the same thing actually spun loose and was held in place only by the foam in the sprocket cover.

never hurt the threads on the shaft
I bought a new nut and washer and um

 

[Calvin Blackmore]

everything has been fine ever since

 

[Nessism]

Refitted carbs onto rubbers tonight.I had to remove the clips on airbox rubbers as they got bent when squeezing the carbs back in.:-| I'll try tightening it all up tomorrow.

Did you replace the large O-rings under the rubber carb boots? They are sure to leak if they are the origionals.:-s

 

[straycatuk]

When you say "carb boots",do you mean the ones on the cylinder head?

The rubbers don't look cracked/perished in any way,but I never removed them.

I can't find anywhere in the UK that lists these spares.

 

[Shin-Ken 1074]

She looks straight and tidy, good paint and chrome so with luck it is fair wear and tear items to sort out. By the sound of it I think your right about the last owner just riding it until it started to give them trouble, and they offloaded it. Keep the updates and photos coming its always good to see how things are done and the end result of the hard work, cheers.

 

[straycatuk]

I got the electrics finished today and fitted my "hand made" srocket nut and decided to try and start the bike before I thought about any cosmetics or further new bits.

Fitted tank and as there is no prime position on the CV type tap,I attached a piece of pipe and sucked a vaccuum to get petrol into carbs.Reattached hose and attempted to start bike ............................................this is embarrassing ;

I couldn't even get a "click" from the starter solenoid . Thought I must have disturbed some wiring when tidying it up,so I used a piece of wire as a jumper to pull the starter sol. in. It turned over fine,but no attempt to fire ,battery was starting to sound a little flat after 5 mins. of trying ,so I decided to leave it for now.
As I was pushing the bike back in the garage ,I noticed that the kill switch was "off" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Started 1st touch of button,but screamed up to 6000rpm .I hadn't adjusted the throttle cable correctly.

I'm taking for a test run later !

 

[straycatuk]

Was only going to go around the block,but did about 15 miles !

The exhaust is LOUD . OK at 30mph in top,so I can avoid the law....I hope.

Pulls smoothly in top on full throttle from 2000rpm up to 7000rpm+ with no hiccups . A little flat,but I think that could be the exhaust. Handling is stable,although shocks are original and quite tired.Brakes all work well.

Engine sounds good with no nasty rattles. There was a little smoke when cold.
Oil leak under engine seems to have stopped - clutch rod seal worked.

The bad points - oil is seeping from head gasket. I originally thought it had run down from badly leaking camcover.
Once engine had got hot, it would die at junctions until I re-adjusted the idle speed.

I'll try and post some more pictures over the weekend.

 

[tkent02]

What exhaust and is it jetted for it?

 

[straycatuk]

I don't know what the exhaust is ,but it was jetted at 102.5,which was 4 sizes up,,but plugs looked "rich". I have split the difference and gone with 97.5 s . Difficult to get this right .I remember fitting an Alpha 4-1 on my 550 in 84 and I never got the mid range back.

some new pics. I haven't attempted to clean the bike yet.