what did you wrench on today??

[wyly]

I'll print out your question and bring it to him, he's an extraordinary technician/mechanic but considers himself a suspension expert first. I'll have an answer for you next week.

 

[wyly]

I wasn't going to paint until next year but I got bored and as I had all the bits off the bike ... decals removed and sanded. Now I have to come up with colour, I was thinking red but then maybe not. The tank will likely be sanded down to bare metal and polished.

 

[ddaniels]

The GSX1100G is having trouble starting so I pulled the carbs today and parts are currently soaking. I will say pulling these carbs is a piece of cake compared to the FZ1.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

ew…

 

[ddaniels]

The GSX1100G is having trouble starting so I pulled the carbs today and parts are currently soaking. I will say pulling these carbs is a piece of cake compared to the FZ1.

Got it back together yesterday and still wouldn't start. Looked at the spark plugs. Not good. Bought new ones and put them in today. It's alive! All sync'd up and adjusted and ready to go.

 

[wyly]

Did you ever start something and come to regret it? I thought it would look good to polish my tank, I'd forgotten what a pain in the butt it was the last time I polished a tank. Suzuki put more paint on the tank than I've ever seen any car or bike, I think it was painted and clear coated twice, and two sets of decals on one side too. I tried an automotive chemical paint stripper and it barely put a dent in it. I went through and entire can of stripper and the clear-coat, decals and paint hung on like nothing I've ever seen before. I switched to mechanical means, a brass wire brush on my drill today I hand sanded. Two days in and my tendinitis has returned to my elbow and my fingerprints are gone so I can't open my phone by touch...but I do think it's gonna look great. I think I'm going to paint the rubber tank protectors the same as the fairing.

 

[Guest]

Did you ever start something and come to regret it? I thought it would look good to polish my tank, I'd forgotten what a pain in the butt it was the last time I polished a tank. Suzuki put more paint on the tank than I've ever seen any car or bike, I think it was painted and clear coated twice, and two sets of decals on one side too. I tried an automotive chemical paint stripper and it barely put a dent in it. I went through and entire can of stripper and the clear-coat, decals and paint hung on like nothing I've ever seen before. I switched to mechanical means, a brass wire brush on my drill today I hand sanded. Two days in and my tendinitis has returned to my elbow and my fingerprints are gone so I can't open my phone by touch...but I do think it's gonna look great. I think I'm going to paint the rubber tank protectors the same as the fairing.



View attachment 60238

Use an aircraft paint stripper, I did on mine and the paint fell off.

 

[wyly]

Use an aircraft paint stripper, I did on mine and the paint fell off.

That's what I used, Aircraft and Auto stripper and that's what I expected to happen, I bought it at an auto body supply shop. I wanted to avoid using a wire brush or scraping so I wouldn't have to remove deep scratches.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

That's what I used, Aircraft and Auto stripper and that's what I expected to happen, I bought it at an auto body supply shop. I wanted to avoid using a wire brush or scraping so I wouldn't have to remove deep scratches.

I tried strippers, then I tried draping a lacquer thinner soaked rag over a body part. Wow, fast and powerful! Boils right up, great for steel parts.
Caution: Can't have it on a plastic part for more than a couple minutes before the ABS begins to melt too.

 

[Grimly]

Replaced the cheapanese relays in the fairing and the frame for some decent Bosch ones. I hadn't had any trouble with them, but they are a bit flimsy and I simply don't trust them, as the top pops off far too easily, which would leave them adrift and capable of causing some mayhem.






Also stripped a Telefix fork brace from a set of L forks that had been lying around for 20 years. Some monkey had attempted to strip them but all they'd done was round off all the cap bolts. It took some heat and the judicious application of a Torx 30 adjusted with a precision percussion instrument to achieve full undoing.

 

[steve murdoch]

A "precision percussion instrument" sounds so much better than a b.f.h.
Nicely said, Grimly.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Checked valve clearances and all are too tight to measure…wha?
Ok, did some reading here and learned they just get tighter with wear.
So I ordered 3 shims in a size range of: 2.50, 2.45 & 2.40. I'll try each in place and determine the correct size shims for my final order.
Looks like Z1 prices are 1/3rd of bikebandit's.

 

[cowboyup3371]

After begging for it yesterday again, it was finally warm enough that I spent time on the bike side of the garage this afternoon. I won't completely say the isopropyl alcohol with wintergreen was the the right thing to use but I was able to get my carbs back on a lot easier than the first time a few weeks ago. And, I reinstalled the left coil after repairing one terminal that had come out back when I removed it to try using on Charmayne's bike. I wasn't ready to fire it up though so I turned the key on to at least function test the lights and discovered that after sitting for a year, my Motobatt discharged enough that it's dead (charger saying it is charged but voltage is >9v). And yes, even Motobatt recommends putting the battery on the charger once a month for about 24 hours at most. Sadly I didn't do that but I'm actually not that upset since it's been about three years since I last replaced it anyway.

 

[Guest]

Battery Tender pays for itself...

 

[cowboyup3371]

Battery Tender pays for itself...

Yes it does; something about a piece of metal in my leg starting May of last year kind of made me forget about it for awhile especially since I only rode the Bandit once I could start riding again.

 

[Redman]

Checked valve clearances and all are too tight to measure?wha?..........

Too tight to measure is not too unusuall, but ALL of them...

If can still spin the bucket around, then concider the clearance as Zero, and figure from that.
Other folks can probably describe in more detail.

 

[hank2]

Replaced warped front brake rotors today with used pieces. from a GS850, IIRC. I don't have a way to check runout but will test with ride soon. Not sure what new OEM front rotors spec new, but these were at 5.0 mm with my crude caliper. 4.5 is the wear limit. I have new front and rear pads on hand, but the old ones still have a lot of meat. Hope to install my new Sonic fork springs next.

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Too tight to measure is not too unusuall, but ALL of them...

If can still spin the bucket around, then concider the clearance as Zero, and figure from that.
Other folks can probably describe in more detail.

The last time I checked the clearances was 25,000 miles ago.
This and other stuff is what happens when your bike seems to run great year after year.
Other stuff: Found all the intake O rings were fossilized and broken, valve stem oil seals were hard as Bakelite.
Mostly it was time that hardened all the rubber parts, 38 years.

 

[Burque73]

ew?

The last time I checked the clearances was 25,000 miles ago.

Guess that would explain the toasty looking valve.

I'm curious how it ran. Were there any indication of the valves hanging open like rough idle or hard starting, low compression numbers etc?

Also, can burnt valves be reused without issue?

 

[Buffalo Bill]

The last time I checked the clearances was 25,000 miles ago.

Guess that would explain the toasty looking valve.

I'm curious how it ran. Were there any indication of the valves hanging open like rough idle or hard starting, low compression numbers etc?

Also, can burnt valves be reused without issue?

Them valves ain't burnt, they're encrusted with burnt oil that leaked down the stems. That's the one condition I expected because it happens to all 4 stroke engines in short order.
The bike ran very good, smooth slow or fast. Recently I felt a slight hesitation when I whacked the throttle open, but attributed that to mid 30? weather.
Also found the snorkel was loose and off the box, that would affect intake velocity/response.
From looking at the bowl floats, I must have tuned it rich to compensate for air leaking around the hardened O rings.
Compression was 135 psi, all cylinders. All plugs had a slight amount of white ash, inside the acceptable range but slightly lean.
I cleaned up those valves already, and did a slight back cut. I'll lap them in after I do a stage 0.8 port and polish job.
When I first pulled them out, the seats were clean, I got greazy fingerprints all over them before I took that pic.
If any don't lap in pretty, I'll replace them.