Putting a GS550 back on the road

[roeme]

No pictures as of today, since work was done online. Found the equivalent of craigslist in some neighbouring countries. This should make sourcing parts alot easier (already in the process of getting a used rear caliper), and allow this project to pick up some steam again.

 

[roeme]

So, the rear caliper arrived last week. I couldn't wait to get to the garage, so I disassembled the caliper in my apartment.

Pistons were stuck (naturally), but with some WD40 and a bicycle pump I was able to get them out without the use of any brute force (barely 8 bars of pressure -116 psi is nothing)

Note: I don't recommend this to a beginner. Air can be compressed easily, and when the pistons slip past the seals, they do so in a nice explodey way. Read: accelerated.

Preparation.


Some old newspapers to catch the piston and prevent damage.


A lot of dried out junk mixed with WD40...


All the stuff cleaned up well after two hours of ultrasonic.

The pistons had some very slight corrosion; much better than the ones I already have though. More importantly, the sealing faces of the caliper are in much better condition than the one I already have.

Next day, the brake caliper was mounted to the bike, system flushed, refilled (no pictures of that unfortunately).

Next work item will be to exert pressure on the system for a prolonged time to make sure the slight corrosion doesn't compromise the seals ? completely forgot that when I left the garage.

Also, I have exhausts on the way, which is the last major item remaining. After that, it's merely an oil change before first fire.
After that, new tires and valve adjustment, then off to inspection.

To say that I'm excited would be an understatement.

 

[roeme]

First fire, stupidity, cleverness, and leaks

First fire, stupidity, cleverness, and leaks

So the exhausts arrived last week, and this weekend, I found some free time to wrench on the bike.

Exhausts went on without a problem, though I get minor blow-by on #1; I have installed the exhausts without seals temporarily, because I was unsure if there already were seals in there and they're "just" stuck fast. Not unlikely since I had to use a lot of heat to even get the exhausts out. I will provide a picture later.

Unfortunately, I've found the petcock to be leaking, a quick disassembly, cleaning, spring pulling and reassembly didn't help unfortunately. Also, an attempt to convert the petcock to a manual one (by installing the lever upside down) didn't help and instead leaked even more. New petcocks go for $100+, so I'm leaning towards a rebuild kit, since apart from the gasket the petcock seems to be in good nick.

Here's where the stupidity comes in.

So I went to fill the carbs manually, and naturally, fuel got dumped. F$kc! So back when I rebuilt the carbs, did I do a bad job after all?! Welp, get used to the idea of a re-rebuild. But hey, since I have some fuel in the bowls still, I could still attempt to fire'er'up, right?

And then I saved my bacon: Instead of just hitting the starter, I went to use the kickstart, intending to slowly turn the engine through a full cycle on all cylinders, to make sure everything's in order, yadda yadda..lo and behold, #3 starts compression cycle aaaaand LOCK.

Aw man! Out with the spark plugs. Turn the kickstart a wee bit to bring the piston to TDC (easier to clean out the excess fuel), get some fuel to the face (the pistons move FAST, huh), some tubing in, try to suck out anything left (nothing to speak of, phew), and then it's off with the carbs.

And as soon as I got them off, it hit me: I confused the tubes and dumped fuel into the vacuum line! Oh for the love of $DEITY! And I even took care not to rush things this close to the end!

Well, back on with the carbs, and on the fourth kick and choke, she came alive for the first time after who knows for how many years. Smooth running, even.

Now, unfortunately I have misplaced the Bolt, spacer and cushions fixing the tank's rear, so thats another piece to get...anyone have a spare? (Parts 0932012013, 0932012017, 0918008067. Bolt and washer I can source locally).

So that now leaves me with the following items remaining before MOT:
- Get remaining parts to mount tank properly
- Repair petcock or get a new one
- Replace Tires and Tubes
- Install a fresh battery
- Sync carbs (only bench-synced currently)
- Determine if old exhaust seals are in there, if so, get some heat cycles on to loosen them and then replace, if not, install fresh seals

Since the engine is smoothly running and has good compression so far, I plan to run it for a while before I have a look at the valve clearances.

Just hope that MOT inspection won't be a PITA and I can get her titled/plated in time for this season. Yay!

 

[Nessism]

Since the engine is smoothly running and has good compression so far, I plan to run it for a while before I have a look at the valve clearances.

Sorry, haven't read through your entire thread but this part sounds like a BAD idea. Doing a valve adjust is absolutely critical and should be one of the first things done on any GS restore project. Tight valves can hang open when hot and burn both the valve and seats. Not good.

 

[steve murdoch]

A great tip to use the kickstarter check[if you have one] before hitting the button.
Had a somewhat similar vent hose mix-up once, glad to see we all those "d'oh" moments.

 

[roeme]

Sorry, haven't read through your entire thread but this part sounds like a BAD idea. Doing a valve adjust is absolutely critical and should be one of the first things done on any GS restore project. Tight valves can hang open when hot and burn both the valve and seats. Not good.

Wouldn't the engine exhibit bad compression on tight valves? :-k

Ah, "hot". Makes sense...I'll have a check after the next run. I assume running the engine for a few minutes only should be safe?

Even though I'll have to muster some courage to do my first valve jobbie and fear it'll take a lot of time to source shims, it's a better alternative than to ruin the engine...who know what the PO('s) did or didn't do.

 

[Big T]

If your cylinders filled with gas, the crankcase probably filled up also

 

[roeme]

If your cylinders filled with gas, the crankcase probably filled up also

It was a minute amount of fuel in #3 only. No gasoline smell detecable. Not too worried about it, and I'll change the oil quite soon again.

 

[roeme]

So, time for some updates here. Images are clickable to get both higher resolution and sharpness.

Now, remember where I wasn't sure if exhaust gaskets were installed or not? Took a picture, which to old-timers is quite obvious (not to newbie me)...

...showed it to the owner of the local Suzi shop, and he confirmed that those are old gaskets, and they should come out easily.




Yeeeaaaaah, no. You might recall that I had to use heat to get the exhausts out, and in similar vein, the gaskets were almost fused to the head.

Naturally, I had not much pause to take pretty pictures. Here's one in the middle of the slaugher:


With some ? literally ? heated persuasion, sweat and swears (no tears tho, I'm way beyond that stage), I managed to get them out.


In this picture, there is no exhaust gasket. It's all corrosion residue, ash, what-have-you. At least I was able to get that crap away with a small dremel wire wheel.


New gaskets in, exhausts back on. One problem solved. Gasket aftermath (new vs. old):


I'm quite surprised that the old ones have stuck that fast. The new ones, while being at least double the thickness, were quite a bit smaller in diameter than the exhaust ports. I had to be quite artistic to get the exhausts on, as there was a challenge three-fold: 1. position gaskets correctly, 2. keep collars on top (they want to slip down and wedge themselves between frame and pipes in such a way that you cannot move the up later on) 3. align the exhausts so both back and front can be screwed on. All three to be done at the same time.

I was about two hands short, but managed in the end.

As for the petcock, out of curiosity I asked aformentioned Suzi shop wether they could get a replacement petcock? Indeed they could, from the suzi warehouse somewhere in Europe, for the low low price of 160$. Eeeeh....a quick ruffle through the misc parts bin, and a GSX 550 E petcock was used instead. Same bolt spacing, minor gasket difference, same principle of operation. Cleaned up sealing area on the tank with some steel wool, filled in a bit gas, confirmed good seal, still so after leaving it over night. Noice!

Also got the rubber and sleeve parts for the tank mount from the same place, screw and washer was already at hand. Hey, this is beginning to feel like IKEA ? get the parts and simply assemble.

No, that would be too boring. Since I'm already that far, why not attempt to adjust valve clearances by myself? Suzi shop confirmed to have shims at hand, and will let me bring in old ones to reduce price for new ones (still have to figure out wether the shim club beats this, since I'm located across the big pond...).

Well, whip up an ad-hoc diaper to keep everyhing clean...


...download the valve guide from library, off with the breather cover (a long time since that was off - maybe still from Japan?)...


...and off comes the valve cover. This is somewhat of a milestone for me, since I never was that far into the engine up until now (Shut up, oldtimers).


Measured all tolerances, got two EX at below 0.03 and one IN right on the bottom mark. Unfortunately left my notes at the shop when I got the new shims, so right now I can't tell you which is which and what. More importantly; this is little thing that a garage buddy has brought in was super super useful:


In case you didn't spot it, it's a little magnet, with just the right amount of attraction. Just lift the shim a wee bit ? to overcome the 'vacuum' created by the tight fit with oil - and pluck the shim out.

Ah, yes, used the zip-tie method popularized in this very forum to hold the valves open:


Btw, shop owner asked me why I didn't bring the old shims with me in the first place; told him I can't rotate the cams without the shims in place, that would damage buckets and cam lobes (I read that here)? He told me that's not true. So, oldtimers, now's your time. Who is right?

--- splitting up post here because for some reason we can't include more than 10 images in a post, in spite of the recent upgrade --

 

[roeme]

Anyway. Getting back home, took the valve cover, breather cover and cam caps (or whatever it's called, online parts fiche are of no help) to the buffing wheel. breather cover halfway through, caps done:


Still trying to figure out why some aluminum parts can be buffed to a mirror finish, others not above "cloudy". Hmmm.

 

[Kiwi Canuck]

The reason some of those parts may not shine up is they have a clear coat on them, use 600-800 grit wet & dry sand paper and see if it takes off the clear coat, or use paint stripper.

Nice job so far.

David.

 

[roeme]

The reason some of those parts may not shine up is they have a clear coat on them, use 600-800 grit wet & dry sand paper and see if it takes off the clear coat, or use pint stripper.

Nice job so far.

David.

Thanks!

I will revisit aluminium parts then with some sandpaper.

In other news, not much happening in terms of project progress, though I did visit the bike today to get the engine running for the first time after valve adjustment.

Was relatively hard to start, and hesistant to take throttle until warmed up, but that was most likely due to very cold temps, me not yet used to this engine&carb setup, and not waiting long enough for the bowls to fill proper.

As the bike is not yet plated, I only drove it around on a nearby parking lot for a bit. Engine felt smooth, and itching to get above 5K rpms, but I behaved myself.

Only "complaint" I have currently that she seems a bit hesitant to drop rpms after closing throttle (I'm well used to that symptom and its causes from my other GS), but this may be due to the carbs set up differently (PO put in 130 jets) and only bench-synch'ed as of now.

All that remains prior to inspection now:
- Fix mis-wired indicators, maybe replay blinker relay
- Mount chainguard (Requirement for inspection)
- Get new tyres on
- Sync carbs (that one's not strictly needed, but it's not a big job anyway).

 

[LightsOut]

congrats on the first startup and ride!
Really nice work so far, following along.

 

[roeme]

So I've been a bit lazy with keeping this thread up-to-date, but work on the bike could continue only intermittently anyway, as work and despicable weather interfered.

Nonetheless, the bike now got fresh tyres. After having experienced Metzeler Sportec Classics, Pirelli Sport Demons, and Bridgestone's BT45, I've put on BT45s on this bike as well.
Also, cleaned up the front axle assembly parts, those were just horrible, axle nut even required some heat to come loose.
The ultrasonic had to take its merry time with all these parts, gotta invest in a parts cleaner to be able to prep the parts better.

Overall the bike still has lots of work still in it, but at this point it's mainly cosmetic and improvements, the fundamentals are now covered, and the bike ready for inspection.

A snapshot before re-mounting the wheels...


After I've got the wheels on, I really wasn't content enough with the parking lot, and took the bike a bit further (non-public roads). However, as it has sat for about two weeks prior, the bike was nearly impossible to start with the kickstart, did take some time with the starter and hung on to choke for a good minute. Also, #3 wasn't firing - a quick check with the ignition lamp told me that at least spark should be getting there...humph, did I screw up the valve adjustment or something in the carbs? This would be real bummer this close to the end...

Still, I wanted to get the bike at least out of the door for a bit. After driving around the parking lot for a bit, upon opening the throttle a bit more, the bike surprised me (and some pedestrians) with a super loud BANG! - cylinder three had woken up, and ignited some previously un-burnt fuel in the exhaust...so at least fuel's coming through carb #3, hence something else must be amiss there :-k

I then took the bike on aforementioned paths, carefully listening for some weird sounds, and opening the throttle incrementally. Mind that I'm used only to my first 550, which has it's own set of issues and things rattling around. Also, this one has non-standard main jets (130 vs 80), so one additional thing which will feel quite differently. The only thing I can say currently is that this setup returns to idle slower than my other 550 (not as serious as with an air-leak though), and dropping off the throttle quickly results it some faint high-pitched rattling noises at the beginning of engine braking. Though nothing too much out of the ordinary I assume, since I was testing without a helmet on anyway, in order to hear better. Possible that I simply heard stuff I couldn't notice before.

But man, am I one happy camper! Finally, finally I can begin using this bike properly. And for once, weather let me take a decent shot:

And another one:

Yes, still work left to do, as previously mentioned. But nothing too serious or I haven't done previously.

Next day, I synchronized the carbs. This time around, the bike came alive quite fast after hitting the starter button, which leads me to believe that the carbs and valves are fine, and I "simply" had the bike sitting around for too long last time. Not 100% convinced yet, but it's too early for myself to jump to conclusions; first I've got to get some experience with this bike's setup .

Carb syncing time! They were bench-synced, so adjustments were minor, but still had to touch everyone of them.


That syncing is such a royal PITA on the GS, getting at that #2 sync port must be some engineer's strange idea of humour. Still, I got it done. Didn't go for a test run though, as the weather once again was worsening. The skies are basically just trolling currently.

Now for all the bureaucratic stuff.

Edit: #3 stuff

 

[roeme]

So on monday, I jumped through all the hoops to get the bike road legal. In my particular jurisdiction (the process is not the same across the country), for a bike that hasn't been insured nor inspected for a good 20 years and doing that as a citizen, not commercially, that means getting temporary plates, then getting the bike inspected, then have the title transferred and getting definitive plates.

I will spare you the somewhat kafkaesque experience at the agency ("DMV"), this is popular culture by now – suffice to say I got the plates, and even got them in a timely manner (I was prepared).

Temporary plates are costly, so naturally I got them only for duration of the day the inspection was due. Meaning a proper shakedown ride, highway and all, I could only undertake a few hours prior to the inspection. Including fixing any issues that arose. And you guessed it, issues did appear.

First, the bike began to lose power intermittently, with no clear correlation to rpms. Stumbling, hesitating, re-awakening, exhaust backfires - had it all. A quick spit-check of exhaust temperatures confirmed that 2&3 weren't doing their part, so I prepared to swap a known good ignition coil from my other 550. Just as I had the tank off, I noticed the culprit: The primary connection of the 2&3 coil was broken, one of the spade lugs shook loose. T'was no wonder, I could slip the lug on and off nilly-willy. Squeezed the lug with some pliers good and proper, then it held on like it should.

I realized that this might've happened to the PO, recall that I found the other original coil dead on this bike. My hypothesis is that for whatever reason the bike was run too long on that coil only, so too much load was put on it, until it finally died (No idea if this is possible though).

Anyway, having fixed that, I set off – after I while I noticed the speedo indicating zilch. The speedo cable had finally given up the ghost. It did look very tired when I worked on the bike, but as it worked so far, I put off ordering a replacement (more on that later). Not only that, the rear indicators stopped working as well, once again, a loose connection, and one rear indicator practically disintigrated due to the combination of prior damage done by a third party, and vibration.

Welp, couldn't do nuffin' about it now. Went to the inspection place, and through all the checks with the very friendly inspector. Aforementioned issues were duly noted&recorded, but otherwise the bike was fine, brakes good, headlight adjusted properly, no leaks, engine fine...basically, safe to be put on public roads, sans cosmetics. Passed, under the conditions that I had to fix the speedo/indicators ASAP, no follow-up inspection required.

I am a happy camper.

Went for a few more miles, and upon revisiting the garage found out that I had a replacement speedo cable ready! Ordered that some time ago and forgot about it. On it went. Also, fixed the indicators.

Tuesday, I got insurance and sent off the necessary paperwork to get the bike titled, and plated.

....and finally today, I got the new title in the mail.

So for now, this thread has concluded, as the bike is back on the road, and now begins its service - which was the original goal. Cosmetics and stuff I'll handle in different threads.

I've learned a ton, made mistakes that I'll be able to avoid in the future, and will be able to overhaul my first bike with much more confidence.

Almost can't believe it's been two years already.

 

[dorkburger]

Congrats..... glad it came together. Now to enjoy it!

 

[Mr.humbucker]

Congrats and enjoy the ride! Thanks for taking the time to post and share the experience. Your statement that you've "learned a ton" says it all. This website is amazing for those who increased their knowledge, skill and ability due to the sharing of those who know these great old bikes so well. Sure makes the ride more enjoyable when you put it together yourself.

 

[roeme]

Thanks for the kind words.

Totally agree, this is the real magic of the internet for me, bringing like-minded people together from all around the globe.

 

[Grimly]

Btw, shop owner asked me why I didn't bring the old shims with me in the first place; told him I can't rotate the cams without the shims in place, that would damage buckets and cam lobes (I read that here)? He told me that's not true. So, oldtimers, now's your time. Who is right?

I can say with some degree of certainty that if you turn the engine over without a shim or a shim substitute in the bucket, you will chip the edge of the cam lobe.
A coin of suitable size is a good substitute.