what did you wrench on today??

[gustovh]

I ran a compression test on my son's Brat....he has a blown head gasket...time to pull the motor, soooo I installed the carbs, counter sprocket and chain and sprocket cover on my 1100L. Drank some beer and contemplated life.
V

[StubbornDutchman]

O my lanta! Carb dip smells bad.

[Carter Turk]

Changed the O-rings in my cam chain tensioner (3 of them) then went for a 60 mile ride. No leaks anymore. Still need a starter clutch gear. Here's a couple random wrenching photos.

[pete]

The rear mount of my chain guard let go Sunday afternoon descending Mt Mee on the way home. The front mounts were stopping it from moving side to side too much so very little risk of it interfering with the chain, but the knocking over every bump was maddening!



Perhaps not the most elegant solution but it should hold it ok and it's hidden behind the registration sticker anyway so it's all but invisible when mounted on the bike:

[handkphil]

A glorious day off

I had the day off today, which is a rarity. I took the front wheel off of my new-to-me, '83 GS450GA and had a new tire mounted on the rim. The guy also trued up my wheel and balanced it for me. I cleaned out the speedo drive and re-greased everything in sight. Re-mounted wheel on bike, took horn apart, cleaned it and cleaned and greased horn power connections with dielectric grease. While I had the horn out of the way I used brake cleaner (on a rag) to clean the crud off of the cam cover.

I was resting in my recliner a few minutes ago, when I decided to replace my solenoid, which although functional, had a crack in it's body. While replacing the solenoid I decided to put a ground strap between one of the solenoid's mounting screws and one of the engine mounting bolts. I ground a little paint off of the tab that the engine mounting bolt goes through, cleaned everything up with contact cleaner, then mounted the new solenoid. Redundant ground maybe, but it couldn't hurt.

Now I'm staring at the bike deciding what to do next....

[koolaid_kid]

The ground strap is a good idea, I did that to mine as well.
Bike looks nice, btw.

[Seaking]

Now I'm staring at the bike deciding what to do next....

Go for a ride, maybe?!

[Zim]

Tune up today...Sounds great.

[steve murdoch]

Lemmy would approve.

[Gorminrider]

I had the day off today, which is a rarity. I took the front wheel off of my new-to-me, '83 GS450GA and had a new tire mounted on the rim. The guy also trued up my wheel and balanced it for me. I cleaned out the speedo drive and re-greased everything in sight. Re-mounted wheel on bike, took horn apart, cleaned it and cleaned and greased horn power connections with dielectric grease. While I had the horn out of the way I used brake cleaner (on a rag) to clean the crud off of the cam cover.

I was resting in my recliner a few minutes ago, when I decided to replace my solenoid, which although functional, had a crack in it's body. While replacing the solenoid I decided to put a ground strap between one of the solenoid's mounting screws and one of the engine mounting bolts. I ground a little paint off of the tab that the engine mounting bolt goes through, cleaned everything up with contact cleaner, then mounted the new solenoid. Redundant ground maybe, but it couldn't hurt.

Now I'm staring at the bike deciding what to do next....

What an interesting bike! an oil cooler I see? ...several luxury items that I don't have on my '81 T...
What I have been doing when nothing else presents itself, is painting the inside of fenders.just as a prophylactic, nothing fancy..I have seen too many fenders where the corrosion comes through and begins to attack the chrome from the underneath...

[gustovh]

replaced the head gaskets on my son's Subaru brat and reinstalled the engine.....started right up.....have to pull it again, bad rod I think. Next time he will listen to the old man and do a full rebuild from the start.
V

[handkphil]

Back tire

So today I did the back tire. Some people say this is a hard bike to change the rear tire on, but I just took the top bolts off of both rear shocks, lifted the swing arm/rear tire up with my hand until the axle bolt cleared the mufflers, and kicked a couple of bricks under the rear tire. Tire was off in 15 minutes, and that's counting taking off the brake adjuster mechanism and the little castle nut on the torque arm.

While everything was apart I polished up the rear shocks, cleaned the brake dust out of the hub with compressed air and brake cleaner, cleaned the brakes themselves, cleaned up the swing arm and the back side of both mufflers, re-greased the splines on the final drive unit, and generally tidied up everything in sight. Wheel bearings looked and felt like brand new.

Just like yesterday, the guy I found on Craigslist mounted my tire, trued it, and balanced it - all for $20. Now it's all buttoned up and looking like new.

[londonboards]

Clutch Rattle Dismantle

Darn clutch rattle. Let's take it apart.

See my blog: My GS1100G Road Runner Clutch Dismantle













Still not sure what is the exact cause of this rattle:

YouTube: Clutch Rattle on GS1100G

[Zim]

Bars

I'm usually kind of a stickler for 100% stock on my Superglides, but I just couldn't live with the original bars. Buckhorns that felt like they were right in my lap. After two years I still thought about it every time I threw my leg over it. This past summer I saw a new set of take off 6" risers & drag bars at a Harley sidewalk sale for TEN BUCKS! I figured the long rides & club runs are mostly done for the year, so I'd stick them on. Pulled the originals off and all the brake lines & hardware. Put the new ones on, controls & grips, then ordered the banjos for the calipers, reservoir & splitter for under the trees. Got all that stuff in, installed it and measured for brake lines. Ordered them, they came in and I installed them. Torqued everything, bled the brakes & PRESTO! The turn signals touch the tank. Ordered bracket to mount the stock signals horizontally. Now it's done. Today was the first ride. Feels way better and the Russell Renegade brake lines & hardware are superb.
Anyhow, here's before & after.

[pete]

Taking some downtime around Christmas to do a bit of a bigger service on the 450... getting sick of the oil weeps after changing to the fully synthetic oil so I'm going to Motul 5100 10w50 semi synthetic as it is reported to work well in our older beasts.

I'm also doing the fork oil and swapping out the Pyramid Parts front wheel bearings after my rear wheel bearing issues.

I've also used some Inox-MX3 to lube the clutch and throttle cables.

Valve clearances are still in spec, haven't had to change them since about 5000km's and it looks like I'm getting yet another service out of the same valve cover gasket

I've got around 24000km's since the rebuild now.

Here's what the fork oil looks like :



Trolley jack comes in handy except this one has a slow leak and you need to pump it up occasionally:



Bearing removal kit:



And those dodgy bearings are out:



Yes I remembered to put the spacer back in... hopefully I should get her buttoned up today but I don't expect a test ride until after Christmas at this stage.

Interestingly enough a quick bounce up and down on the forks tells me they're stiffer which should be good...