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Waking up an old GS450

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G

Guest

Guest
My friend just bought a 1980 GS450L off of Ebay that has been sitting in a shed for about 3 years. We are in the process of waking her up but my question is...is there anything special we should do to it before starting the motor. The motor is not locked up and she basically just needs a good carb cleaning and some other little things. And yes, before anything else, the O rings for the carb boots are being replaced. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
You could get some oil in to head to lubricate the cam's, pull the spark plugs out and let a bit of penertrating oil free up the ring's,clean out the gas tank,filter and the carby's,clean the air filter, if it's foam.
Best of luck!
 
Thanks, I gave him a to do list as long as your arm. This should be fun.
 
And we can sell you the magic reawakening chant...$19.95!

Or we can send a "displaced" witch doctor to perform the ritual for... $1995!

Of course we take PayPal! :lol: :lol:

Good Luck!
 
I'll see if he can work the witch doctor into the budget. In the meantime...I'll take 2 chants. Do you have any of the Liquid Swartz? It worked on Spaceballs.
 
Update and advise time...
We cleaned the carbs
Changed the O rings
Replaced the igniter and starter silenoid
Changed the oil and filter
New air filter
New spark plugs
New battery
She fired right up and ran great.
The next day she wouldn't start. The lights would work but she would not crank with the starter button and just a hint of a burning smell came from under the left side of the gas tank. I jumped the silinoid and it cranked. I ran a jump wire from the yellow/green wire at the silinoid to the orange/white wire it meets through the connector in the headlight bucket. She turned right over then no problem. Am I over simplifying this or does it sound like all I need to do is bypass that section of wire in the main harness. I'm leaning toward a short in that wire causing the problem. Any thoughts?
 
It has been my expereince that after pulling the carbs an airbox out of a GS an enless number of wires have been pulled loose and the activity of going through wiring with a good cleaner is a worthwhile step.

R
 
Believe it or not we didn't have to diturb the wiring pulling the carbs. We just pulled the air box enough to get the carbs out. I'm still wondering, though, why it ran fine the first time we started it and now nothing. Does my bypass idea sound reasonable or is there a better way?
 
Is your handlebar switch in the "run" position? Has a fuse blown?
 
Broken/shorted wires in those old harnesses are not unheard of. It happened to me on the road in Montana. I'm not quite sure I understand you here tho'. Is the starter switch and clutch lock out switch still operable with your jumper wire in place? If all you are doing is adding an outboard wire to replace a similar connection in the harness...well I'd do it. If you're bypassing the main fuse and other switches I'd look around for a burned wire and try to fix it.
 
I've checked all of the switches and they are operating properly. The fuse is fine. I don't like bypassing fuses and switches because I assume that they were put there for a reason. What my plan is is to bypass that one bad section...without skipping any harness junctions, switches, or fuses.
 
And for my next trick...let's see how hard it is to get the lights to work. Where would I be without my wiring diagrams?!?!?!?
 
Where did you get a wiring diagram? I need one badly because my bike looks like some kid had some fun with some wire cutters :(
The wiring on these bikes should all be pretty much the same right?
I know I need to buy a service manual, but I havent gotten around to it yet.
Thanks

Gavin
 
Post a new topic for the diagram, I am shure someone can email it to you!
 
So now it runs with one dead cylinder...and the coil is fine. The two big problems now are that for some reason it will start without holding the clutch in and some if the wiring is so cut up there isn't any thing left to connect. Time for a new main wiring harness.
 
Now to add to the soap opera...we thought one of the header bolts was among the may missing. It turns out that it is snapped off in the head. Does anybody know a way to get it out that will not invole tapping the hole and using an oversize bolt? There isn't an exhaust leak so I'm tempted to let it be, but part of me is saying that it should be repaired properly. Any suggestions?
 
If there's no exhaust leak - JUST LEAVE IT ALONE. It may be that whatever remains of the bolt is digging in to clamp enough to hold it tight.
So unless you need to remove the exhaust there's no reason to mess with it.
I've had to do the drill-tap-helicoil routine on my friend's GS450 and it's a real pain.
 
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