what did you wrench on today??

[Grimly]

I had a lovely time trying to remove the internal bar weight mounts from the ST1100 handlebars. The first one came out with a lot of lube and persuasion from a slide hammer, but the LH one just wasn't shifting. I'd doused it with penetrant from inside and out and in total it had been left for a couple of days. Today, it grudgingly started to move, but the slide hammer wasn't filling me with hope that the handlebar mounts would withstand a lot of that. I resorted to making up a jury-rigged puller, which worked well in getting it out for an inch or so, and after that, the slide hammer jerked it out cleanly.

Simply a long socket of 16 or 17mm, a 4" bit of 8mm all-thread and a nut+washer. I should have done that in the first place, would have saved a lot of grief.


Tags: ST1100 Bar end weight removal

 

[Ray916MN]

GSXR1100 is getting worked on. Over the past 2 days, started a parts list, stripped most of the bodywork, pulled the forks off and sent them out to Race Tech, cleaned up the front wheel, painted it and got a new tire mounted, replaced the battery, started it for the first time to start to figure out what's wrong with the motor.

90% sure it is a rod knock. Hope to get some definitive testing done before Thanksgiving.

How it sits.

 

[trlsrider]

Sounds fine.... If the noise bothers you buy some earplugs... Just imagine your bike is a Suzucati...You have tinnitus from being around loud noises and the ticking is all in your head...

 

[wymple]

Don't sound like a rod to me. A rod knock should go away under load, specifically when the revs are climbing fast, and reappear in a heartbeat when the rpms start to level out. I also thought I heard the knock in your engine miss a few beats, and a rod won't do that, IMO.

 

[Ray916MN]

Sounds fine.... If the noise bothers you buy some earplugs... Just imagine your bike is a Suzucati...You have tinnitus from being around loud noises and the ticking is all in your head...

Your input unfortunately doesn't qualify as helpful, although it has some potential for qualifying you to write smart ass motorcycle T-shirts.

Don't sound like a rod to me. A rod knock should go away under load, specifically when the revs are climbing fast, and reappear in a heartbeat when the rpms start to level out. I also thought I heard the knock in your engine miss a few beats, and a rod won't do that, IMO.

Interesting you should provide this take. A buddy of mine who is a respected local mechanic and tuner happened to stop by yesterday and he too didn't believe it was a rod knock.

I've got my fingers crossed.

 

[edgeofvamp]

I listened to this on my phone, so I didn't hear very well.
I wouldn't say it sounds like rod knock, it sounds similar to piston slap on my phone.
Not full on, but more like the cylinder is ovaled or flared at the bottom of the cylinder bore.
It is just a guess until I can get home to my computer to have better sound quality.
Does the engine have loud valve tick or was that my phone.
The only other thing I can think it sounds like at this time is that it could be detonation, hopefully I will hear better later.

 

[Guest]

I had to give the 450 some lovin' yesterday, I think she was feeling a little neglected by the attention I'm giving to the Kat, despite the fact I ride her every day...

She'd gotten a little weepy...



Think I re-used the valve cover gasket one too many times last service...

However I did give her a present and popped the GS500 cams in at last, hopefully I'll get a test ride today and see how she runs.

 

[Ray916MN]

Working on the GSXR1100 more. Let's see if the knock is an exhaust header leak.

Hmmm, 3 missing exhaust collar bolts. Two stripped holes. Remove the exhaust. Heli coil 2 holes, replace the exhaust gaskets, remount the exhaust. Nope. Still knocking.....

I can do the rod knock test by just removing the plugs, so that's next.

 

[mcycle-nut]

Not today, but yesterday. Drained the carbs, gas tank, and pulled the battery on my wife's 850 so it doesn't sit and fester over the winter. Aired up the tires and charged the batteries on the 1100s before taking them for a blast.

 

[Grimly]

Finally turned the corner on the front-end re-assembly of the 80 bike and came within a gnat's breath of having it running again. Probably tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

Nice! That's the funnest part.

 

[Gorminrider]

Rewound the stator for the New 650. That spool of winding wire was a wonderful investment since I don't count the time.
That's 3 I've done. ah, Suzuki! I wish I could say I'm getting better at it, but I tend to experiment....this time, I thought to wind all legs at once from 3 spools to help get the turns in nicely....and miscalculated on the spools -oh yeah! ran out of wire before the last poles were wound-hawhaw too funny unwinding perfectly good wire.' Guess I can electrify a fence with it or make a lot of lovely Garottes for the CSIS Xmas craft fair...

 

[Ecklund]

Replaced the brake line between the master and the front brake manifold/splitter.

Why? Because while swapping out the handle bars I did not get the wires coming out of the kill switch housing where they are intended and pinched two of them causing a direct short.

When I turned on the bike it completely melted the brake line.

Picked up a new one today and the bike is back on the road.

The phrase dvm azz kept coming to mind...

 

[Grimly]

Finally turned the corner on the front-end re-assembly of the 80 bike and came within a gnat's breath of having it running again. Probably tomorrow.

... and it started up fine, after a bit of reluctance caused by me not using the enrichment pull to its full extent. Doh.
Which was useful, as it made sure the oil was up and around before it fired.

 

[dorkburger]

Got some work in the garage done today.
First was the folly of hydronic heat in a cold garage part 2..... When we bought this house 5 years ago, renovations left us with a spare heater. I put it in the garage and connected it in parallel with the kitchen baseboard heat loop where it poked into the garage briefly to clear a door opening, and valved it to run water thru the heater or bypass it. I had intentions of sealing up the garage. It didn't happen soon enough, it froze, and I was left with a few hundred pounds of scrap cast iron.

Last week, I was at a job where an office was to be demoed. The GC allowed me to take a heater if I wanted, so I cut one out, humped it into the van etc,etc. Piped it in today, and added drains this time so it can easily be drained if needed.

Also the garage door has had about an 1-1/2 gap at the top since I installed it 2 years ago. Took a look today and swapped the top roller bracket side for side. It allowed the door more adjustment and closed the gap.

Between the new heater and a little electric heater I'm hoping to keep it warm enough to work in.
Along with some work on the GS, there is a lot of window trim work on the house upcoming. (New windows coming)
.....not looking for miracles, just hoping to be able to get the space in the 50 so I can paint the trim

 

[Grimly]

Got the last of the auxiliary wiring feed and returns done and was able to utilise Vetter's cunningly-contrived spare ways that won't be used for the optional horns in the fairing (the bike now has a pair of very Mercedes-sounding Teutonic K-Series honkers that will have hapless peds and drivers scurrying out of the way).
I'm taking it out for a run up the road tomorrow (weather permitting), sans fairing, sans headlight cover, just to see if it's handling right with the new front end and before I plonk the extra weight of the fairing on it. I'm surprised at how relatively little the fairing weighs, each time I pick it up, so I don't expect it to affect handling much, especially compared to the hongking great Acrybre fibreglass fairing I had on it 20+ years ago.

 

[Ray916MN]

Got around to doing the definitive test for rod knock on the GSXR1100 and #3 is bad. Pulled the motor.

Noticed the steering head bearings were bad too and pulled them while I was grungy.

Took off the rear wheel too since it needs to be painted.

 

[Grimly]

Another bold step towards the 80s. Or, the Vetterisation of the World.

Another bold step towards the 80s. Or, the Vetterisation of the World.

Finally got the WJ IV fitted, only to discover an annoying slight unsymmetry in the bracket and / or fairing. It's only obvious in the spacing twixt fairing and fuel tank, but it might be the bike the bracket came from was laid down and the bracket pushed over to the left a bit. It will do for now though, and I simply am not going to take it off and mess around with it any more. When the valve clearances next need done, I'll do it then.
Anyway, the fairing sits well enough on the bike for now, complete with the shorty screen from the other WJ IV (the blue one).
That's a Koito 7" headlamp in there, replacing the awful sealed beam. The Koitos were fitted as standard to Mitsubishi Pajeros / Shoguns of the late 80s, and are reckoned to be one of the best H4 headlamps around, and for extremely small money, too, which suits me fine. Initial beam tests with it show it to be fine, but not had it out in the dark yet.
I've enabled the amber running lamps, but seperately switched, so they'll only be on when I want them to be. There will be a white LED DRL doing that job, and two auxiliary 7" hi/low headlamps, one either side of the fairing, for serious illumination. Those will have Hella units and contain a couple of cheep 'n cheerful LEDs to start with, but will be replaced with more upscale (and better controlled) LED bulbs later.
Three or four times the standard amount of light for no more than the original power consumption of the single headlamp, and none of that crappy eye-adjustment nonsense needed when going from main to dip. That's always something that's bugged me - dropping from a good high beam output to a relatively crappy low beam of one lamp. Who needs that?

The lowers are from an unknown source, but they're identical to the Pantera ones that came with that fairing. They needed a bit of trimming, but will fit ok, once I drill a couple of new holes and get new well nuts from ebay.

 

[kvillebuckeye]

Pulled the rat's nest of wiring out of the headlight housing and got about halfway done pulling the main wiring harness off the frame. Trying to make sure I label as much as possible for when I rebuild a new harness!

 

[fred smailes]

Grimly, I too have a Suzi (81-850g) dripping with Vetter stuff the latest addition being a pair of Hippo Hands.
The reason I replied to your post is your observation of the fairing being offset to the tank.
My fairing has the same issue being maybe, 1/4 to 3/8s inch to the right.
I thought the same thing maybe bumped at some point, but if anything the fairing should probably be a little left as it has a little road rash on its right side. I think the jig the mount was welded in was the problem.
You need the BIG UGLY Vetter trunk next,,, lol
Fred