Suzuki GS1000e/s/gs1100/gsx1100 project...

[bobtail84]

This is my GS1000 when my mate and I started about 4 years ago. This is the beginning and there is much more to add in the future..


Yes I know the title is a little confusing... All will become as clear as mud as we progress.

This is the beginning.. genesis if you like.. or just a frame..


It was bought from an internet auction site by a mate as a genuine GS1000s but it turned out to be a pup. The log book says it's a GS1100, the engine say's GS1000. It has e clocks and a 17" rear wheel so we think it's a bitza. I made him an offer So.. this is where we started from.

and the next job was this..

This is a complete ground up rebuild only because I don't want to have to fix it every half hour. When I say we have changed everything that needed to be changed I mean everything, even down to the dust rubbers on the calipers. As I type we have everything back on the bike except the tank, seat and rear end but are looking for ideas for the rear as the GS has a king long bottom and I don't like it much. There's lot's of stainless and shiny and black (cos everyone know's that black is fastest)


It still has the standard bars but they were bent so time for some scouting about..

Found these lurking about.. on a internet auction site at a reasonable cost..

Which look quite nice.

So next the engine was stripped and inspected...

The bottom end was in very good nick, the ends, both big and little, were very good. The pistons and rings also were very good as were the bores BUT the head....

To be continued...

 

[bobtail84]

Right more stuff as the saga continues...


The engine was stripped, cleaned and checked then a full gasket set and cam chain were purchased and the engine rebuild started. Much ali etch and satin black was used but no small furry animals were harmed.




Bottom end together and sprayed

Checking out some shiney to see if it's OK..

Head next

Gearbox, clutch, cams, starter and lots of other stuff slipped in whilst I was looking the other way then it was all slipped it to the frame.

The wiring loom was tinkered with by one of the previous owners. He must must have had a new reel of green wire as he cut lots of wire out and replaced it with the aforementioned electrical conductor. We had a meeting with No4 coffee beans ground to inspire us and it was decided to source a new second hand loom.
Ian found one on the well know internet site and we had a good loom.





To be continued....

 

[steve murdoch]

Nice work so far.
Looking forward for the next step.

 

[londonboards]

Nice job - you can see how far I haven't got in my GS1100 rebuild from my signature link.

You are over the other side of the Tunnel to me, I'll drop over some day and say hello.

If you are on Facebook, you can mess with other GS Brits on our UK GS Owners Group page (see signature again).

Love the engine paintwork. This is what mine currently looks like:

 

[bobtail84]

Thanks for the comments and I will be having a look at your face book page Richard.

The more observant of you may have noticed that there are gold wheels on the bike. TBH the whole bike was gold and it's not a good look. So the wheels were dropped down to a man on Canvey Island (da rock) as the gold paint resisted pretty much every attempt at removal so dipping was required. The cam cover was powder coated but flaking badly and was also dipped.


The result was rather nice..

Then some satin black paint..

Some headlights were added...

and tested. No fires so that was handy..

A bit of a polish and back on the bike.

And one from the rear....

It's coming along nicely..


Jeff

 

[bobtail84]

Now I did have a few comments, well quite a few to be fair.. and none were for the best. Soooo......

Hallelujah brothers.... I have seen the light... and the light is bright...

 

[bobtail84]

OK.... as you all know 70's and 80's bikes had BIG rear ends. Some worked, Kwak Z's spring to mind, but the GS's were 4 king terrible. More arse than J-Lo... So my stylist, kwak1261 and I had some very nice coffee made in his ferkin spenciv coffee making thingy and prodded and poked and this is where we ended up...

As you can see a trim of the tail piece so it fits inside the seat is just the job..


Rear light mounted on a trimmed inner mudguard..

This is pretty much the look we're going for but the seat is off for a trim and re-cover.

The gold paint is going... Black is faster.

 

[bobtail84]

The bike is really starting to take shape now, there is still quite a bit to do as you can see but it's looking good.

Also we had a delivery..

 

[bobtail84]

I mentioned near the beginning of the build the wiring. More specifically the use of green wire.


Some green wire..

possibly attached here or possibly not..

Also can you spot the repair?

A bigger picture may help.

There any a number of gems like this and I believe Ian, who has spent a vast amount of his time helping and building my bike, may have something to say about the brakes. More of that later..


The reason for the complete rebuild was the shear amount of horrors that Ian found as he 1st looked at the bike, then as he started to strip it that came to light.
He was going to break it up and sell it but I said "it can't be that bad I'll buy it from you"... It won't cost too much to rebuild I thought..


Mind you, when it's finished it will be quite nice.


More to come...

 

[bobtail84]

Just so everyone knows this is a bringing the build up to date thread.

Another loom was purchased and fitted (without the extra green wire..) and another stator was also bought.


There are more and as they come to mind I will let you know or Ian will. I have a picture of the bike when Ian brought it home on the back of the lorry so when it's finished we'll have before and after piccies to compare.

This is a little comment from my mate Ian..

The rear brake, ah yes, i remember it well.
it had seized up completely so it was in dire need of an overhaul. there was no fluid in the system either
and most of the paint had come off as well, should have been alarm bells and sirens going at this point.
i pumped the pistons out with the grease gun then set to taking it to pieces, removing the allen bolts that hold the 2 half's together when i separated the caliper i noticed that the joint O ring was in 2 parts and that someone had rebuilt the caliper and used silicone sealant all over the O ring and the joint. that would explain the total lack of fluid in the system.

 

[bobtail84]

One step forward...... lots of steps back...


Saturday morning whilst out shopping with my youngest son the phone rings... It's Ian..


"Elo elo, your not going to believe this".....


"Oh no whats wrong now.. Don't tell me I'll come round."


The general plan was to fill the forks with oil and do a few bits and bobs but when the 1st cap was removed this was found..

Not a problem you may think....
Then the other fork cap was removed...

Hmmm I don't know what to say...

I think the time is coming to get some stinging nettles and hunt the, well I can't call him/her a builder, bodger, yes bodger and whip them till they sell all there tools.

 

[bobtail84]

Plastic parts picked up from the painters..

Shiny black is good. Shiny black is nice.


New springs collected today. Nice to have them both the same.

Zorst is shiny too..

Also the mirrors, rear brake switch, rear pegs, bottom yoke cover in black, indicators, headlamp trim, and a fork brace in black have all been collected or delivered.




It's all coming together rather nicely.

 

[bobtail84]

nearly ready to play.

The bike passed it's MOT test on 9 March 13 and the last time was 9 June 05. There is a bit of finishing of to do as in some chrome GS1000 DOHC badges to be found, tail piece to be mounted and a few bits to adjust and fettle but all in all very pleased. Had a little blast about and it's fantastic.

On the way home from the MOT shop the bike would not rev freely in the higher rev range so after a bit of discussion it was thought it might be the fuel tap.. It's a 50mm vacuum stylee.


Fuel tap rubbers replaced.. Still not revving properly.


The carbs maybe?


They were replaced with a known good set and... still the same... bugger.


The bike had a Boyer Bransden ignition system fitted and we thought it might not be advancing at higher rev range as it pulled like a train at lower revs, so a dyna s system was fitted and.... still the same... bugger bugger.. :nightmare:


Ian, being a perfectionist, then pulled the cam cover of to check that the timing was correct and the cams were on the right marks just for piece of mind.. They were perfect.
After a bit of detective work its running great now, you can hear the clack of each piston as it sucks through the K&N's

I think the problem was a mixture of ignition, coils and carbs'
firstly i went out a bought a new strobe light, the old one was 25 years old at least and had been round the fan on a few engines and melted lead from exhaust pipes.
To begin with the boyer wasn't advancing on the stobe so was replaced with a Dyna S

The engine started and ran but couldn't get the strobe to show a smooth timing mark on 1&4 it seamed to be flashing all over the place. and on 2&3 sometimes wouldn't flash at all.
After a bit of research I found some info that stated that an erratic spark can be caused by bad coils.
Putting a meter on the coils showed that 2 came in at 3.9 ohms and the other 2 at 4.2 ohms
I did a quick swap around and got the bike to run smoothly, the following morning I decided that a pair of Dyna 3 ohm coils was the best way to go with the ignition , that way everything will be new.


Got it all back together and time for a test run, straight away it was a lot better but still not pulling over mid range
on standard carbs and settings, swapped the carbs for a set with lifted needles and 107.5 mains and I've got full throttle response and no lag when fully open to the stop, it tends to flatten off a bit towards 7000 revs
so we can now start playing with the main jets, I'll try a set of 112 next .

This is where it all started..

This is all the problems and grief painted gold.


The hours and effort have produced this...

After a sedate ride around the town we had a look round and found a bolt or two than needed to be nipped up and a new set of front pads were needed. Kwak found one pair and I found another pair in a Harley dealers of all places. The dealer was just as surprised as I was that he had a box of EBC FA65's lurking on a shelf in a dark corner of the stores. Bit of a result finding pads for a 32 year old bike on easter saturday 2 days before a big ride out.


The whole bike is as tight as a tight thing and has no twitches or wobbles that should not be there and it goes like an alsatian with ralgex rubbed on it's knackers up to the legal speed limit...



Now that was 3 years ago and I have put just under 6000 miles on the clock since then and now stage 2 is starting.. :dancing:

 

[bobtail84]

Update time..


I've been looking out for bits and bobs to upgrade the GS over the last year or so and now have most of the parts needed to start rebuilding the ole girl.


I've got hold of a very nicely rebuilt engine with a 1085 Wiseco BB kit, head ported and polished but with standard cams. The engine was built to go into a sidecar outfit to be used in classic racing but never made it into the bike so sat under the bench for years till I payed some quids for it.. quite a few quids but don't tell the wife.

I've been keeping an eye out for some cams and found these beauties a while ago for a good price. They are Yoshimura Stage one in .378 ex .343 so not too wild but should be suited to the mods on this engine.

A few months ago a mate of mine pinged me a link for a set of 33mm Mikunis on eBay which I won for a good price. Again don't mention the cost to Mrs Tail..











I've bought some bigger carbs rubbers and the engine came with a Dyna S system a set of Dyna coils and Taylor leads.
I also found this genuine GS1000 S fairing with brackets on eBay for 43 ingilsh quids delivered....... Bit of a result I feel.





Gonna paint the engine black and polish the clutch and alternator covers plus I have a large amount of stainless cap head bolts to polish and replace all the bolts on the engine.

I have fitted a salty_monk front brake conversion so I can stop the whole shooting match when the new engine goes in the bike.




There are quite a few other bit and bobs to do but I want to have it all done soon-ish. :highly_amused:

Jeff

 

[bobtail84]

More shed time..

I removed the head so I could fit some APE valve springs and thought I would show you what I found..






The head has been ported and polished.





I have a picture of the ports but you can't see too much.

Once the valve springs were changed I replaced the head and fitted the Poppy cams and re shimmed.





Next job is to dial the cams in.

 

[steve murdoch]

When you have it all buttoned up and ready for the road, it would be nice if you could get it on a dyno.
With all the hot rod bits having it tuned perfectly makes sense.
Speaking from experience, failing to disclose all motorcycle related costs to the significant other is not lying.

 

[bobtail84]

When you have it all buttoned up and ready for the road, it would be nice if you could get it on a dyno.

I have an engine builder/ tuner about 10 minutes from the house and I have already spoken to him about running the bike over to be tuned on his motorcycle dyno. There will be a video to accompany that.

Speaking from experience, failing to disclose all motorcycle related costs to the significant other is not lying.

ain't that the truth.

 

[bobtail84]

Soooo, it's been a while since the last update... life sometimes gets in the way.

After the salty_monk brake conversion I found the feeling on the front brake leaver was not as I would like it so I changed it for a Bandit item.



which works very well.

I've also upgraded the front fork internals with Race Tech Emulators, the difference in night and day compaired to the stock setup.

 

[bobtail84]

Also I changed the rubber on the old girl. I realise that some members have their favorite makes of tyres for many reasons, price, wear and others but I thought I would try a premium brand. I personaly feel the extra money is well spent as the feel from the road is good, I had Battlax before and the front did wear in a very odd way, that could have been the forks as well but the internals are now changed so I will see how that goes.



More to come soon.

 

[steve murdoch]

I have used the BT45s for years. Like the grip not too keen on the longevity.
Did yours start to "cup"?
I found if i didn't have enough air pressure they started to do that.