1980 850G Resurrection

[Bigred0216]

I am calliing this build the "Resurrection because this bike was killed by the previous owners just messing with stuff and making "improvements that did not need to be made. that, and over 20 years of neglect and poor maintenance.

I went out to the garage this morning after leaving the battery on trickle charge all night to see if I could get the old girl to at least spit or sputter or make some kind of noise that would indicate signs of life.

I put about a gallon of gas in the fuel tank and tried to see if she would pop off. I got a few sputters as by some miracle at least one cylinder found enough fuel and air in the right combination to achieve combustion, even if for only a moment. Then I looked down at my feet.

Gas was pouring from carb #3. I do not know if it was coming from the fuel bowl gasket or a little higher up.
Major carb work is needed. I got an offer from a GSer on here for a nice freshened up set of carbs that I am going to take him up on as soon as I get the chance. I think it is time to give up on trying to get it to do anything more until I put some work into it.

This is going to be a long and drawn out project, not because of the amount of work needed, but because of my financial situation and my already packed schedule. Between work, and making time for my personal life, This bike is sort of on the back burner. Which is unfortunate.

Most of the problems with this bike are just regular maintenance issues. The rest are cosmetic. And undoing what some jackhole did. Like cutting off a very expensive set of OEM exhaust pipes.

I am new to the GS series bikes, but I have immediately fallen in love with its relatively simple design, good ergonomics, and the fact that mine is the only one I have seen in my area. They are unique, and each one is different in some way.

I am currently importing pictures from my phone to my computer, so I will upload as soon as that is complete.

 

[Bigred0216]

View attachment 18582

How she sits at the moment. I need to move that mountain of stuff so I can have some garage space back.

 

[Bigred0216]

I do not know if it is because I am a junior member or what, but this whole bit about only posting one picture at a time is getting annoying.View attachment 18583

 

[Bigred0216]

View attachment 18584

This is the last photo for now. I will post more as time goes on and I do the work needed. As always, any and all comments and help are welcome. I may post technical questions in another section of the forum if they are urgent. Otherwise, I will keep all related posts in this thread. unless, of course, it is a classified ad for wanted parts

 

[Steve]

I do not know if it is because I am a junior member or what, but this whole bit about only posting one picture at a time is getting annoying.

No, it has nothing to do with your member status, it has more to do with doing it properly.

Have you visited BassCliff's site yet? He has a tutorial there on How to Post Pictures.

When you do it correctly, they will look like this, and you can do up to TEN pictures per post:







Looks like you have a good project ahead of you, but it will be worth it.

.

 

[Dogma]

No, it has nothing to do with your member status, it has more to do with doing it properly.
...

"Properly", or just the best workaround for a shortcoming of the forum due to the realities of the cost of hosting pictures on a site run on member donations?

I'll settle for it being the "proper" kludge.

Good to see another 850GLT project. Eil has one going too.

 

[Steve]

Good to see another 850GLT project.

Thanks for pointing that out. :-k

I just went back to look at the pictures and noticed a "G" fork, but the rest of the bike does look rather "L"-ish. :-\\\

BigRed, check the triple clamps on the forks. If you have the "L" triples and the "G" forks, the bike will handle strangely.
The "L" triples will have the fork tubes almost in a line with the steering stem, "G" forks are offset considerably more forward.

EDIT: to help clarify the matter a bit, here is a copy-and-paste from another recent thread that covered this topic:

Take a look at THIS THREAD, especially post #17, where I am explaining this to someone else, but there are pictures so you can see what I am talking about.
In post #21 is another good picture that shows the difference.

.

 

[Dogma]

Thanks for pointing that out. :-k

I just went back to look at the pictures and noticed a "G" fork, but the rest of the bike does look rather "L"-ish. :-\\\

BigRed, check the triple clamps on the forks. If you have the "L" triples and the "G" forks, the bike will handle strangely.
The "L" triples will have the fork tubes almost in a line with the steering stem, "G" forks are offset considerably more forward.

.

Good catch. I totally missed that.

 

[Buddy]

I think it's a G with a small headlight, a 550L tank and a funky seat on it. It has the cowl behind the seat.

Buddy

 

[Steve]

Stop it, Buddy, we are just picking that poor guy's bike to bits. :-\\\

I agree about the small, chrome light, it appears to be from an "L".

You are right about the cowl, though, but the more I look at it, I can see that it is NOT an "L" seat.

The "L" seat is not straight along the bottom edge. This is an 850L seat on a 650L (which was taken quite some time ago to show that it does not fit).

Not so sure about the 550L tank, it could be an '80 or '81 850 tank, as well, as they were only about 3.5 gallons. The tank on my wife's '82 is 4.5 gallons.

.

 

[Dogma]

I think it's a G with a small headlight, a 550L tank and a funky seat on it. It has the cowl behind the seat.

Buddy

Ya know, you're absolutely right. That is a G after all.

The headlight does look small, but not enough of it is chrome to be an L headlight. It looks like a small version of my stock G light. Maybe black paint over a chrome L bucket?

 

[Bigred0216]

Well, as of last night, thanks to Buddy, I have some parts to get started doing something productive to the old girl. He let me have a set of slightly beat up, but still very servicable stock pipes and a gas tank that I will send to my friend who is a professional auto body tech for a little (or a lot) of lovin. oh, btw, at some point (after I get the correct tank back from the body shop) I am going to put the tank that is on it up for sale. I dont want to sell it quite yet because I have no idea when I am going to get it back yet. I have no idea what it is supposed to fit, but it definitely does not belong on the 850. if anyone is interested in it, just let me know

 

[eil]

Looks like PO took a G model and tried to make it into an L. Now that's just plain rude.

I have a similar project going on in my garage. A fully stock L model that I'm trying to get back into good running condition. Only wish I didn't have to wait so long on parts and tools!

 

[Bigred0216]

It is much more complicated than that. the PO put the gas tank off what appears to be a GS500 or something on it. They welded a little piece of round stock onto the backbone to put the rubber bushings on to hold the tank on. The headlight assembly looks to be off of a late 70's Honda, and the exhasut system was mutilated and has automotive style tail pipe turndowns on them. this poor bike has been through hell and I would bet that nobody really cared for it since about 1985 until I bought it. It is a shame, really.

 

[Buddy]

I finished the little Buell and started on your carbs today. They should be ready by Friday. I also found a fuel sending unit. Have you tried to remove the old exhaust yet? What ya doing Saturday or Sunday?

Buddy

 

[Bigred0216]

Buddy, I sent you an email. For anyone else who is interested, this weekend is is my birthday so I am going to be at my girlfriend's family's hunting camp near Frisco City, AL riding 4 wheelers. They are getting all of their ATV's up and running from winter storage several months earlier than they normally would just so everyone can go up and have fun with me. I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so unfortunately, the GS gets put on hold for yet another weekend.

 

[Bigred0216]

What are you wanting to get out of that Buell, Buddy?

 

[Buddy]

What are you wanting to get out of that Buell, Buddy?

Don't know. I want to keep it around a little while and see if my wife is interested in riding it. I'll let ya know if I decide to let it go.

Buddy

 

[Buddy]

How'd that birthday go?

Get anything else done on the 850?

I've been stalled on the carbs a day or two waiting on some o'rings and attending the funeral of a friend. I'll finish then up this weekend for sure. Then first good weather weekend I'll come down and get ya fixed up.

Buddy