The Michio Zombie: My 1979 GS850G

[DesertRatliff]

I love motorcycles. Even though I'm a motorhead, there is no cooler machine. But I've never owned a classic, Japanese bike. Until now.

Meet: the Michio Zombie, a 1979 GS850G resurrected from the dead.

It started with a Craigslist ad with this picture:

A non-running, but garaged for the last 6 years GS. Nearly complete, new tires, clutch cable, sparkys, ignition switch, battery, petcock and a whole lot of character for less than .$75 a CC. I wanted this bike! The ad had a map and after I quickly wrote an email to the seller, I threw a ramp in the truck, a few hundred bucks in my sock (I had just sold a bike and was cashy) and headed out to try to find it. The map had me looking in a trailer park in town and after dodging mangy dogs and prying eyes for the better part of an hour, I gave up. No classic GS in sight. I headed home defeated, hoping this would be an easy buy. I pointed the truck home and after 5 minutes, decided to slow my roll and grab a cup of coffee. While sipping the hot black stuff in the parking lot, my phone pinged an email ping. It was the seller! She wrote a descriptive and nicely worded email answering my questions about the bike (title in-hand!). She could meet that afternoon. And...the map was wrong, bike was not located there. OK! Long story longer, I was the first on the scene, cash in hand and swooped it up before anyone knew better.

First things first. Clean it up. Here she is stripped down a bit getting a good bath

After the clean, I tried to start 'er up. Gas was leaking everywhere! I thought maybe I would get lucky and have a runner on my hands, but it was obvious that this bike was going to need a thorough going-through.

Pull the carbs and drain the fluids:

Pull the carbs apart and give them a bath

 

[DesertRatliff]

And then to get an idea of the last time the valves were spec'd:

Not great! Cyl 1 had its exhaust valve so tight I couldn't get my .01mm feeler in. All the rest were out of spec except Cyl 2 exhaust, but I was able to shuffle around shims until all I needed was two 2.70mm. My GS buddy Mike was able to send those down from Grand Junction free of charge. Thanks Mike! I owe you a cool beverage or two!

While I was waiting for new o-rings (carb and intake), a new Rick's R/R, and a whole big order from Z1, I stripped some things down and made them pretty(er).

Airbox before:

Resealing the important stuff:

After:

Battery Box before:

After:

 

[DesertRatliff]

I stripped the seat down and was horrified at the rust. Not something I'm used to here in the SW.

It was paper thin, and the edges had rusted down to sharp, tetanus-inducing serrated knives; not serviceable in my eyes and made me appreciate the composite pans of the future. So I found a new seat on ebay with what looked like a slightly better pan. I made an offer and it showed up in slightly better shape. Here, stripping down.

With this last bit, all the old fluids were replaced including gear boxes, engine oil and brake fluid. No hydraulic clutch or coolant to flush on this beastie!

 

[DesertRatliff]

And then I waited a bit. And then waited some more. Turns out the mail is slow these days. Time to smell the roses (Columbines here in Colorado, that is)

And then, just like that, everything showed up. Time to replace o-rings and gaskets. The pilot fuel needle on carb #2 was worse for wear, too, so that was replaced. Notice the pile of stainless hardware. Replacing the rusted, Phillips crap I hate as I go along.

I found a used Dyna 2000 ignition with coils on here for a good price. Here's that getting installed. I read that the Dyna coils don't fit easily, but mine did with an extra nut in there as a spacer. Easy peasy and looks good enough

 

[DesertRatliff]

And Rick's mosfet R/R going in

 

[DesertRatliff]

With valves on the loose end of spec, carbs rebuilt and set to spec, new throttle cables added, electrical updated, fluids flushed and filled, a few things painted, lots of hardware replaced, seat recovered and the newish battery charged, it was time to fire this Japanese beaut to life. Insert Frankenstein quote of your choice here. It came to life, idled ok, so I timed it (glad I didn't give my old timing light away even though the thought has occurred to me). And then noticed that the "new" petcock was leaking. Arghhhh! I ordered a rebuild kit and...waited. It finally showed up, so I rebuilt the petcock and tested it for leaks. No leaks! Good to go. Now all that's left is to wheel this heavy monster out on the street and take off for the high country!

The Maiden Voyage:

With the maiden voyage behind me, stopping for little tweaks here and there, it's time to tune the carbs for 9,000ft (plugs are RIIIIIIIICH!) and fix some aesthetics. The bike was missing the front fender, so a member here sold me one that needs a respray and a little body work. Someone added drop bars that I like but didn't make accommodations for steering stops and the bars have contacted the tank on both sides to have dented it with paint flaking off, so need to sort that. The gas cap and seat lock have their tumblers jimmied and ruined, so that needs a fix. Gauges work, but gear selector light for 2nd gear is burnt out and something in the instrument cluster sounds like I've trapped an enraged bumble bee in there, but all in, this bike's a runner and already lots of fun. Here's to 41 more years of life (for the both of us)!!!

 

[cowboyup3371]

None of your first pictures are showing up (the only one that does is the last post you made).

 

[DesertRatliff]

Hmmm. All copied and pasted from my google photos and viewable on my screen. Relative noob here, but I'll see what's going on as this process works a charm on other forums that I am a veteran of (ADV Rider, etc). Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Images linked to google photos or google drive don’t show up here for anyone but the google account holder. Been there. Done that. You need to use a site like Imgur or Flickr. Instructions for Imgur are linked in my signature. Post #6.

 

[DesertRatliff]

Good to know, thanks. I'll make the change ASAP