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Progress!!! 1978 GS1000E Restoration/Performance Rebuild

did you flip the half moons around with the lip towards the cams?
hard to tell from the pictures...everything's looking good!
 
Anthony, pull the valve cover back off & flip the half moons around so the lip is INSIDE the head. This will keep them from ever blowing out & will also stop cam walk if you have any. It takes very LITTLE sealant on those, & only at the top where the corners of the half moons meet the head surface, UNDER the valve cover gasket. Just a little dab at each end of each half moon. The bike is looking OUTSTANDING!!! Merry Christmas!
Ray.
 
I never heard that flipping the half moons around would stop cam walk. I'm going to do that myself. If anyone knows it would be Ray!
 
Anthony, pull the valve cover back off & flip the half moons around so the lip is INSIDE the head. This will keep them from ever blowing out & will also stop cam walk if you have any. It takes very LITTLE sealant on those, & only at the top where the corners of the half moons meet the head surface, UNDER the valve cover gasket. Just a little dab at each end of each half moon. The bike is looking OUTSTANDING!!! Merry Christmas!
Ray.

Damnit Ray!!! Can't you mention stuff like this BEFORE I put things together :-)

Merry Christmas!
 
I've never heard of anyone using RTV for the intake boots, is there a reason why you did that? project is draw dropping as usual. Nice touch with the intake boot bolts.

The head was ported by Ray, and the sealing surface for the boots is a bit thinner on on the "top" of each port. The boots I am using do not have o-rings, so, to ensure a good seal I put some gas-resistant RTV around each port and then tightened the boots down. Ray suggested this, and I have seen it done on many other bikes with carb and boot upgrades.

Also, the boots I am using are much larger - they are meant for the 34mm flat slides I will be running. The mounting holes of each boot are 8mm, whereas the original mounting bolts are 6mm. To keep the boots perfectly centered on the ports, I used stainless steel shoulder bolts that have a 6mm thread and an 8mm shoulder - the boot rides on the shoulder and the shoulder is short enough that when it is tightened down it does not bottom out. Under each shoulder bolt is a stainless belleville (curved and serrated) locking washer to prevent loosening under vibration.
 
If both pieces are at the top (or bottom) end of their tolerance, but not OUT of tolerance, they will fit together. It is done millions of times daily in the world of manufacturing.

Do you think the original sets of forks and caps for motorcycles are hand-mated for fit at the factory? NO WAY!

I'm sure that the threads on the fork caps is a modern standard metric thread diameter, pitch, and form. If the caps are made to tolerance, and they don't fit together, then the problem is with the threads in the fork.



As stated earlier, I am sure that the threads on our forks and caps are both based an international thread standard. You have been dealing with some ****-poor machinists if they can't machine threads without having the mating part in their possession. A possible reason for that is that they doubt their own abilities at turning threads.

BTW. great work on your bike!

Actually, here's a thing.
The GS1000 caps I have are 29mm fine, the GS850 caps are 32mm fine, on the same size 37mm tube.
I can see why Suzuki went up a size on the 850, to allow for the mechanical pre-load device.

Given the number of swaps, mix'n matches and general PO uselessness over the years, if I were a machinist I'd not take the word of an owner that X bike is definitely standard and Y size is the thread. I'd want the forks in my hand to see exactly what they are. I'd suppose he's learned the hard way.
 
Christmas day zinc plating :-)

Here's a few odd and ends that I forgot to do - bolts for my controls/switches, miscellaneous washers, etc...
 
Small progress but forward nonetheless:

Installed the Pingel petcock and adapter plate - had to slightly enlarge the hole in the tank so the fuel strainer would fit.



 
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Makin' real progress here, that's for shore.
I know I'll check again before the end of the decade. ;)
 
Folks,

Just a teaser - pictures will be posted this weekend.

1. All brake lines should be installed
2. Building of brand new wiring harness should be complete
3. Dyna 2000 ignition system should arrive
 
Folks,

Just a teaser - pictures will be posted this weekend.

1. All brake lines should be installed
2. Building of brand new wiring harness should be complete
3. Dyna 2000 ignition system should arrive

S/S lines?...oem connectors with new wire....guess we'll just have to wait and see...
 
Unfortunately, only 1/2 of my brake lines and fittings arrived - I will be using Goodridge stainless lines, banjo bolts, and banjo fittings. Also, a coil of wire I need to finish the harness was supposed to arrive today (Saturday) but got delayed in transit by 3 days. Bugger...

I any case, I did make some decent progress today - when I tore into the old harness, my intention was to repair it and add some circuits. After examining it and seeing a bunch of stuff that I didn't like (splices covered in tape, nicked wires, circuits that were designed stupidly, etc), I decided to fabricate an entirely new harness. All of the wiring is 18ga TXL with the exception of the main power feed which is 12ga TXL. All connectors will be Amphenol ATM connectors (these are Deutsch DTM copycats), with the exception of the x2 8-pin connectors where the fuse panel plugs into the main harness - these connectors will be standard Deutsch DT (they have a higher amperage rating and are larger - size is less of a concern near the fuse panel).

Deutsch AT/DT vs. ATM/DTM
AT/DT (larger)

ATM/DTM (significantly smaller)


Old harness - I used some elastic wire retainers from Panduit and some nails to represent the locations of bends, etc.




Before I embarked on assembling the new harness, I drew a new schematic - keep in mind that this schematic isn't completely finished, as I have not delineated the specific ground paths and the locations of connectors, etc. I added x3 relays and x3 additional fuses. The functionality of the "park" position has been eliminated from the keyswitch circuit. The connector for the killswitch has been moved to the same location where the instrument cluster plugs into the main harness (in front of the coils near the tank).


New harness



Splices properly soldered and covered with adhesive heatshrink


Mock-up of fuse panel
 
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Mock-up of fuse panel (cont)


Fuel sender install - removed the cover of the sender to make sure the pickup was touching the rheostat throughout the range of motion. Reinstalled into the tank with new rubber gaskets and SS hardware. I re-plated the cover.


2.2ohm Dyna coils installed - I used 19mm long aluminum spacers to obtain the proper clearance.


Pickup plate and rotor to the Dyna 2000 ignition


Brake lines and remaining wire should be here Tuesday. Will post photos of the brake lines temporarily installed.
 
Today's project - building a mounting bracket for the ignition and R/R. The most difficult part was coming up with a design that would look good but also be functional.

I did all of my measuring/fitting with a cardboard template and then transferred the layout onto a sheet of 16ga steel. The bends were made in my bench vise. The top of the plate uses existing tabs on the frame for mounting - these were for mounting the original airbox. The lower mounting holes uses the rear battery box mounting bolts.








 
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