85 gs550e

[gothera]

been workin on it for bout a year now, askin questions in various subforums so figured i would make 1 thread to hopefully keep it better together.

bike story-----
i bought the bike for $500 from a friend in basicly pieces the end of last spring. the last time it was registered and inspected was 93' so for all i know it has been sitting for 17 years in a shed in pieces. the tank was a different color,the carbs were off and in pieces(friend attempted to clean it to try and fix it and gave up) the front cowl is all busted up, the ignition cover was broken, the front brake lever was bent, the right clip on was bent, airbox battery and fusebox are gone and the front master cylinder has a flat spot on the corner, besides the various weathing wear and tear(seat stiches) and such

to me it looks like the PO lowsided on a right hand turn and then parked it. my friend claims to know nothing about the accident or when it happened. it was his dads(who died) then an uncle took it for a few years then it got past to one of his friends' dad and then back to him then to me. so lol i got no real clue but somehow he managed to find the title so its legal at least.

we spent a day with 3 cans of carb cleaner and a can of starting fluid trying to get it to start before i took it, it would crank and fire but wouldnt stay running for more then 3 secs and it wasnt on all cylinders. but it had a spark of life to it and i was exicited to have my first bike so i took it home.


the work--------
last year i got it running enough to get it inspected and registered so i could ride and put about 500 miles on it. i parked it late nov and got it out again early march. ran out the old tankful filled up with premium and ran that through putting on 200 miles this year then i took it apart to paint and make it less ugly.

so what i did so far,
. took off the wiring harness and re organized and rewraped the whole thing and put on new connecters
. new battery
. all new bulbs, headlight taillight all 4 signals, licence plate, and all 8 darn bulbs in the gauge cluster
.valve adjustment YAY for locknuts no shims for me
.replaced ignition cover
.located an old airbox on ebay(never been a fan of pods for some reason)
.drained bleed cleaned refilled all the brakes
. new right clipon and brake lever
.since it was multicolored,...stripped, sanded and primered all the plastics and tank
.new clutch springs and cover gasket ( didnt take the discs out cause i dont have a compresser for my airgun to take the bolt off
. new tach cable
.new oil filter, gasket and oil ran for 100 miles and chaged it again,.. could have been 17 year old oil in it, so i chaged the oil 4 times in the 700 miles ive driven it so far to make sure i got all the crap out of loosened up sludge and junk
.new rear grab bar to replace the out of shape bent old one
.located an old starter cover off ebay(mine was gone)
.evaporust dipped the headers,scrubbed um and painted um with vht header paint
.replaced about 30 screws with ss allen heads
.took apart, dipped, cleaned reassembled carbs
.new intake boots, orings and new carb to airbox boots
.new air filter and set of new ngk plugs


that was all done last year to get it rideable it was ugly but it ran and just getting riding was what it was all about

 

[gothera]

so this year im on the "make it less ugly" phase of the rebuild.

so bike got a fresh tank of gas through it and ran dry and disassembled

all the white primered parts are gonna be painted yellow to match my truck, the really ugly 80's chic gold wheels are getting painted black thanks to tips from other thread on wheel paint,


took off the wheels, scrubbed with soap and water , taped um off and sprayed, then sanded the very edge lip where a tire machine would sit so avoid any trouble down the road and add a slight chome accent


before and after

the plastics were taken apart again cleaned with soap an water and sprayed with the first coat of yellow , its still in the mid 50's and raining every 4-5 days for 2 days so painting has been a slow process, weather isnt playing nice

the headers got another coat of paint the vht header paint is awesome, bike ran alot better once i got that on there, its got the ceramic stuff in to hold the heat in

the sprocket was cleaned of grease and grime and polished up and put on the newly painted hub, the chain , both sprockets and the area around the front sprocket behind that cover were just caked in thick old road dirt filled grease not sure why the po felt the need to grease an oring chain but its everywhere so chain got evapo-rust dipped and cleaned , and both peg brackets were scrubbed and got thier paint on

toward the end of last year and this year when i ran it, i had a issues with the brakes squeeling something fierce, like it was embarressingly loud and everytime , so once i took it all apart i sanded the rotors to remove some glaze and high spots, tip from another thread. and sanded the pads of glaze and ow wow look at that, there arent any shims,... the last one to do the brakes didnt know to peel the shims off the back of the old pads and threw um out, so another $60 to bike bandit and now all 3 calipers have shims,... hopefully that will take care of the squeel. that were liberally coated with cnc brake quiet before reassembley.

i want to replace the old lines with new ss ones from Z1 but i dont have an extra $150, so besides having old rubber lines, do the calipers on these bikes not suck back in when u release the lever? cause both my fronts seem to drag, like the pads dont move back and just expect the wear of stopping to create enough clearence, could that be a master cylinder issue? i do have a kinda spongy lever, i did rebleed the lines after putting the front wheel back on so it does have new fluid ( again wishing for ss lines)

other thing on the agenda is i would like to swap out the stock 7in square headlight for a 7in round im not gonna put the stupid front quater fairing cowl pos back on, so im shooting a gs750 kinda look with the round, if anyone has one that would want to swap me for my square or sell for reasonable let me know


headlight

 

[gothera]

so today i scrubbed and taped off the suspension pieces for paint, and cleaned up the swinger,... my swing arm has some really nasty welds and some marks ,surface rust stuff and even though its better now clean still kinda ugly, i was going to just clean it and leave it bare, but im thinking about painting it black again,.. i dunno opinions based on the bike pics?

it looks like its painted silver like the rest of the frame but its the same almost bare aluminum color like the inside of the pipes,.. so not sure if i can gently sand the marks and rust off, or if it will just jack it up and force me into painting it.


since im on the rear suspension i know people have found a gsxr shock that is a direct bolt in replacement for the originals ,.. anyone know which year and model of gsxr that would be? and why does everyone get rid of the stock sv650 shocks(which im told will also fit) are they too stiff?>cause what i got is way too soft, this bike wasnt built for my 6'1 220lb self, so a stiffer rear would be welcomed

 

[SVSooke]

and why does everyone get rid of the stock sv650 shocks(which im told will also fit) are they too stiff?>cause what i got is way too soft,

This I can answer,because they are bad.To soft for the SV which is lighter than your 550,way to soft for you.I'm 6'2" and around 210lbs.No damping adjustments and not much to begin with.Did a 06-07 ZX10R(IIRC) shock transplant on my SV,it was way better.

 

[gothera]

so i got the bike done and put back together, well except for the tank and plastics

still workin the paint(keeps Fn raining) and bondo on tank dents(again rain means longer cureing )

its getting there though, should be done in about 2 weeks as long as the weather holds out


plastics drying on the line

left angle

right angle

front with big ugly square light

still have to sew the seat cover back together and finish bondo and paint, well then clear coat, i think i can get done in 2 weeks

now what do you think about cutting the rear fender so the plate just hangs by the bracket i dont need a rear mud flap

anyone know if you need to have a chain guard in pa? some states you need it some you dont

and for the new suzuki tank sticker,.. above the clear or under ive heard different arguments



oww one last wtf

after cleaning the chain of the 1/2in coat of gease that was on it and cleaning the sprockets and the area behind the front sprocket cover, the front sprocket makes a funny noise like when a piece of fender its rubbing the tire, i can hear every link pushing it around almost like its dragging or the chain was stiff and hoping ,i dunno is there a grease seal behind the sprocket on the output shaft i could have messed up cleaning the area? i didnt take the front sprocket off, the chain is adjusted tight ... maybe too tight? i just never heard this noise before so not sure what to make of it , just siting on it pushing it around its loud enough i could probably video it

 

[SVSooke]

Sounds like your chain is way to tight.Needs about 3/4 to 1 inch of slack in it.My 85 750EF is going yellow to

 

[gothera]

yea wish i had a ef version, i looked into getting the parts to convert it, but the lowers are hella rare to find and would end up costing me close to $1000 to do it.


any thoughts on the tank decals being under or over the clearcoat?

 

[gothera]

more pictures tommorrow, got the plastics done and back on the bike, sprayed the clear on the tank this morning so tommorrow will be a good wet sand, place new suzuki tank label and final clearcoat, so hopefully after a few hours of dry time i can get the petcock back in and get it back on the bike

so if all goes to plan it should be all done and in 1 piece tommorrow night, which is good because i have a 60 mi drive out to the place why i have my advanced msf course sunday morning, so hopefully it will run with no issues , weather has be crap and delayed painting a good 2 weeks from rain

 

[gothera]

did 150 mi today , going to durin and back from my msf2 course , and all the quick stop accident avoidance braking stuff put one of my fork seals in the trash so now i get to take the front end off to rebuild the forks after all,..... the one thing i didnt do go figure

 

[Patman]

Great job on the bike!