what did you wrench on today??

[Grimly]

Annealing the copper washers fixed that, now the remainder of the leakage appears to be the valve cover gasket on the rear section of the RHS. Oil is finding its way down through the fins and appearing above no.4 exhaust. Unless there's a crack in the head casting, I can't see where else it's coming from.
So, that's four leaks happened almost simultaneously - tacho drive, cam chain tunnel seep from the base gasket area (I suspect), head bolts, cam cover.
The odd thing about the cam cover was it took some further re-tightening at around the 200 mile stage from rebuild, and it took more snugging up last week.
I'm beginning to suspect the quality of NE Gaskets isn't great, so I've ordered up a couple of Vesrah valve cover gaskets to have at hand should I need them.
I know opinions on Vesrah vary, but I've never had any trouble with them over the years.
That's always assuming these ones are genuine and not some counterfeit jobs.

 

[Grimly]

Now leak-free (well, not 100%, there's a tiny seep).
By backing out the cam cover bolts about 8mm or so I was able to lift it without disturbing or dislodging the gasket and could smear some Hylomar into the leaky stretch using a fingertip. Let that set for about 20 minutes an carefully bolted the cover down.
Definitely not impressed with this gasket - the OEM gaskets I've been using for years never leaked between services, and I can say the same for the Vesrah ones I used. It's become compressed and hard, losing its resiliency in a mere few hundred miles.
I smelt a rat when it took more settling-down re-tightening than is normal for a gasket bought from a usual supplier (OEM or Vesrah).

 

[Guest]

Dave, I've had similar reports of OEM valve cover gaskets not being as good as they used to. A fellow Katana rider couldn't get his to stop weeping. I'm trying a DIY valve cover gasket on the 450 with average results so far, but have a Cometic gasket on the Kat which has seemed pretty good. The 450 has an OEM head gasket which is great, but again a Cometic on the Kat which is great. I've not tried Vesrah, but the Athena gaskets on the 450 have all been replaced as they went hard and brittle very rapidly.

 

[Grimly]

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder if there's any decent stuff left.

 

[Grimly]

Has CruzinImage started making gasket set for the GS bikes? Suzuki two stroke forum members have had good results with their gasket sets.

Oh, they do. Good spot, thanks. Their price is right, and from what I've seen and heard of their other parts I might be inclined to trust their gaskets. For sure, the next 850 build I do will be using the ring set I've already bought from them.
https://www.cruzinimage.net/2017/10/19/79-81-suzuki-gs850-top-end-engine-gasket/

<edit>
Otoh, a quick scout around the Honda forums reveals that opinion on the Cruzinimage gasket quality it sharply divided. I might just stick with Vesrah.

 

[Grimly]

Happiness is a warm Brillo Pad.

The Hardly silencer, after I'd butchered the inside a bit, was making a good job of taking the output of the Delko downpipes, but there was an annoying blat from it above 4500 rpm, which got steadily more intense.

Looking more closely at the inside I realised there was a flat area at the end of the baffled section which was probably giving rise to a reflected wave, and in turn building up some constructive / destructive pressure waves inside the collector. Also, I realised that I'd inadvertently created a resonator chamber with the rear section of the collector and the front hollow of the silencer, that amounted to nearly a foot of uncontrolled effaboutedness (technical term).

I fashioned a cone to guide the gases into the silencer (actually, it was a cone from the Hardle guts that I'd thrown out), migged it into place and stuffed a couple of stainless steel pot scourers in the space.

Sounds much better, but need to see if the annoying blat is gone on the road.

 

[wyly]

broken side cover pegs had me stumped for a long time every option seemed expensive. Two new replacement covers plus shipping would be over $100, if I could find the right colour otherwise I'd also need to paint(still more $$). Replacement pegs were about $30 for a pair and I needed three, $60. Plastifix, fussy and expensive, I had the material but it seemed a waste to use it to make pegs.

Final solution a 3' wooden dowel from a hobby shop for $2, shaped, cut took about 15 minutes per peg. Glued in place with Sure Seal and a washer for support. About an 1-2 hrs before I had it fitted properly but three years to come up with the solution.

 

[Grimly]

Having been informed by M&P that the aftermarket tacho drives are no longer being supplied, I took the refund and bought one of these...


From a stockist in Latvia, so should get it reasonably quickly. I've been quite happy with the KUS oil temperature gauge, so thought I may as well take a punt on another gauge from them.
8000 is high enough, I think.

 

[Grimly]

Took a punt on a cheap and cheerful Chinese wind deflector, as the screen is just a couple of inches too short.



It's not bad for quality, far exceeding what I expected for the price. Time will tell how well it holds up to being banged about by the wind, though.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32954100011.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.55174c4doz5B3B

 

[Gorminrider]

Interesting find, Grimly. I know someone could use one of these. Report back if it works out well. I've had pretty good result from similar plastics- a bubble faceshield for my old helmet. I've bounced one of these on the highway inadvertently at 60mph and though scratched, did not shatter. Definitely polycarbonate and coated too....they aren't generally "DOT approved" is all I can think to say as a caution where it might ever matter (to a lawyer?)

 

[1978GS750E]

Zinc plating, again!

Zinc plating, again!

Started doing the winter facelift on the GS750 this week. Took the rear wheel off and converted it to tubeless. While it was apart, decided to re-zinc some bits. Thanks to some help from a fellow GS'er (Thanks philosopheriam!) they came out looking much better!

 

[Grimly]

Discovered yesterday that the annoying blat from the exhaust has been tamed, so the cone idea worked, and the scrubbers probably helped. It's now a fairly smooth progress of not too loud noise cleanly up the rev range. Remains to be seen how the scrubbers cope with sooting up. I already had scrubbers in the Hardly silencers on the XJ and sooting up, while not causing a problem, was definitely there. Anyway, it now allows me to carry on the work with the AFR and get the carb properly dialed in.

The cheapanese wind deflector works great, but is slightly too tall, so I've ordered another one. They're so cheap there's no point in trying to cut this one down and likely busting it.

Today I fitted an LED flasher unit, as the original 'zuk one finally stopped working properly, refusing to flash on the right side, oddly enough. I put that down to difference in connection quality somewhere on either side. Since I was changing the fronts to LEDs, it needed a new flasher anyway.

 

[tas850g]

Now that we have + 14" of snow I installed a new LED headlight bulb, definitely an improvement over the halogen. Thanks for the reference HJFisk.

Also bought some new rub pieces for the foot pegs and kick starter.

Now working on installing a new speedo trip meter knob. Seems like the stem is too short. Can't get it to lock/snap into the metal "rod/pin".

 

[Rijko]

Interesting !

I have a T500 engine, looking for inspiration what to do with that.
Until i saw your pics (like them alot, looks like a very cool cafe build !) this was appealing to me, using a 'modern' GS500 frame.

 

[Rijko]

another pic. Will you start a build thread for your cafe build ?

 

[johnod]

View attachment 59636broken side cover pegs had me stumped for a long time every option seemed expensive. Two new replacement covers plus shipping would be over $100, if I could find the right colour otherwise I'd also need to paint(still more $$). Replacement pegs were about $30 for a pair and I needed three, $60. Plastifix, fussy and expensive, I had the material but it seemed a waste to use it to make pegs.

Final solution a 3' wooden dowel from a hobby shop for $2, shaped, cut took about 15 minutes per peg. Glued in place with Sure Seal and a washer for support. About an 1-2 hrs before I had it fitted properly but three years to come up with the solution.

Where do you buy replacement pegs?
That's new to me.

 

[johnod]

another pic. Will you start a build thread for your cafe build ?

View attachment 59695

Yes that would be cool ,it look very interesting.

 

[steve murdoch]

Love the look of that wheel, jabcb.
What is the tailpiece from? A vintage cafe build?

 

[Rob S.]

Removed two seats, three sidecovers and one battery. Was prepared to remove second battery, had my bathroom mat ready to be rolled up and wedged under the rear of the tank to displace it, only to find my mechanic had changed the two sloppy screws and bolts holding the frame crossmember with four beautiful, shiny new Allen bolts. Just have to find the right Allen wrench.

And used jumper cables on a bike for the first time. A bit unwieldy. Surely they make bike-sized jumper cables, correct?

 

[cowboyup3371]

And used jumper cables on a bike for the first time. A bit unwieldy. Surely they make bike-sized jumper cables, correct?

Yes they do....