wheel swap: speedo brake issues

[kamesama980]

My bike is a '77 400x. originally it had spoked wheels with drums front and rear. I swapped them for alloy wheels with drum rear, disk front from a '80 450. I'm having two problems with it. first, the speedo doesn't work. it didn't work before, still doesn't work. secondly, the front brake doesn't work.

speedo: the gear appears to be opposite of what it is on the spoked wheel, and from what I can tell, turns opposite what it's supposed to. (stuck a drill in the cable and got it to read). I also got the front wheel off the ground and spun it backwards and got the odometer to read an increase

I did a google image search and it seems that all the pics I can find of a 77 400 or 80 450 have the disk on the left, mine the bolt holes for it are on the right and the letters on the caliper are upright that way (as were the letters on the drum hub before). is it feasible to just swap the fork tubes (and rim) to put the caliper on the left rear (obviously bleeding is going to be an issue) and reverse the speedo

Brake: I think I know the answer to this but I'll put it out there anyway. rebuilt the caliper, rebuilt the master, bled the s* out of it, gravity, manual, and vacuum style. put a quart of fluid through it. it drags a little and when you pull the lever (all the way to the grip) it drags like 5% more, not really worth a darn for stopping. I am using the old hose still and I suspect it's bad inside, trapping a little fluid to cause it to drag, flexing enough to keep it from building pressure. as such, I priced out a stainless replacement at around $75 from bikebandit. any other suggestions?

77 gs400

80 gs450 (these look like the wheels I got)

My 77 GS400

 

[waterman]

On your bike, it appears that the right fork is reversed, or more likely it should be on the left side. On my bikes, the holes where the brakes mount is behind the fork. Is this how you have it setup with the cast wheels?

Likewise, the speedometer is driven from the left side of front wheel, if your is on the right it would spin backwards.

When you are bleeding your brakes, do you have the pads and disk in position? I had trouble in the past bleeding where the piston would retract and not build up pressure from the lever unless the disk was in position. They can be a royal pain but search here for suggestions.

 

[kamesama980]

update: swapped the stuff around. speedo does work now, haven't gotten the brake to bleed yet, stainless lines are in the mail though. all of my bleeding was with the caliper mounted over the disk.

crap, now I need to 180 the tire on the rim never ends. lol

 

[1948man]

http://www.alpha-sports.com/suzuki_parts.htm
This fiche might help you. Click on your year and then scroll down to your model and click on it.

 

[kamesama980]

update: still no brake pressure. put the stainless line on, bled it the typical way (open, squeeze, close, release), gravity, and vacuum. tried them all with the bars level, left, and right. Runs great otherwise.

 

[kamesama980]

solved the brake issue. I didn't think much of it when putting the master together but the pistons are different. the old one is a tiny bit longer and has a sort of reed valve looking bit on the front end behind the main cup seal. soooo, cleaned up the old piston and swapped the new rubbers on and viola, front brake.