what did you wrench on today??

[Guest]

Hi Chuck. Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, I'm not completely convinced that he was as detail oriented as one apparently needs to be when rebuilding these carbs. He's more of a "git 'er done" kind of a guy.

But in his defense on the clutch issue, he did offer to take it apart while he was here and inspect it, but I didn't want to leave it disassembled while I waited for new parts AND for him to be able to make it back to Ann Arbor to install them (he lives about 60 miles from here).

What are your feelings regarding OEM clutch plates vs EBC vs Barnett? I won't be riding this bike often, and when I do, I'm quite conservative; I like to treat my mechanical things gently so that they last longer.

[chuck hahn]

They are both quality suppliers. What I would do is see if theres a member close to you. I know there are few close to the Ann Arbor / Lansing area. If I was still in Hazel Park I would bungee the Carbtune on and ride out myself. there are so many little quirks that can mimmik something and its totally something else. I dont know the guys experience on old bikes but I do know the forum guys near you that understand them inside and out wont steer you wrong and may save you a lot of strife . If you dont want it down a while to inspect the clutch basket, the plates and fibers, and the gap between the fiber fingers and the basket then just order a clutch cover gasket ahead of time.

Yes the needle bearings and races can wear but the overwhelming majority of clutch noise is due to bad damner springs, excessive wear on the basket where the fibers interlock and ride, and the clutch hub nut working itself loose. Those are the big 3 to check first off.

no worries on being gentle on a GS. Ride it like your trying to break it...they can withstand it and youll enjoy it more.

[dorkburger]

Weekend wrap up...

First and foremost, the furniture clogging up the garage was donated to Habitat For Humanity. Mario, thanks for the truck offer, but we got it done in 3 quick trips. Then I cleaned up the place to its normal level of disorginization.
Then more work on the back wheel.
I took the easy way and had the shop dismount the rear tire. Upon inspection of the rim, it looked like at one time someone tried to remove a tire with a chainsaw. There were a bunch of deep gouges in the bead section which got me thinking about years ago when I had to replace a tire at about mid life that was leaking from the bead. The shop (a different one) said the tire was damaged at the bead. Hmmmm. Ancient history now, and no issues since. I smoothed them out and cleaned up the wheel in hopes of painting it when it warms up this week.

Cleaned and prepped the rotor for paint also.


I cleaned up the sprocket and carrier and noticed wear on the outside of the sprocket. It's no surprise that there is a potential chain alignment issue - I've noticed this in the past when I saw wear on the inside of the chain side plates and on the inside of the front sprocket. I had concern that accident damage I didn't know about at the time of purchase may have bent something - I knew it was crashed, but not how bad. A few years in , I found the front engine mounting lug had been broken off and welded back on. I lined the chain up the best it could by eye and put it in the back of my mind rationalizing that even if something was bent, it's ridden fine for all these years, at least at my level anyway. I want to look further into this though.

Then the brake... while going thru things, I found the torque arm was suck to the caliper, and had no movement whatsoever. I'm thinking this may be what killed the wheel bearing on that side - side loading from no give at the arm is my guess, and only a guess. The other 2 bearings were still perfectly smooth.
It looks like corrosion locked up the arm. I'll reassemble with a touch of anti seize.
hoping for a good week of bike work.

[Guest]

Oh...... almost forgot: I bought an OEM tool kit on Ebay and it arrived yesterday. It was missing a couple of items, but it had all the ones that my original tool kit was missing, so I combined them to make one complete tool kit. When I have the time, I'll post a picture of what I have left and offer them to anyone who can use them for just the cost of postage.

Also..... after inspecting the factory service manual I bought a few months ago more closely, I discovered that it was missing all of chapters 8, 9 and 10, and about the last 20% of chapter 7. So I found four of them on Ebay this morning and sent out an inquiry to all four sellers as to whether their copy was complete. The first person who responded not only assured me his was complete, but showed me how many pages there SHOULD be in each of the 19 chapters. Now that's what I call customer service! So I bought his.

Two more small steps in having a nice - and complete - '81 GS850G!

[chuck hahn]

heres the PDF

http://zeus.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/GS850_Manual_HiRes.pdf

Store this place and click around on it when you get a chance. many tutorials nd pages so its gonna take some time to familiarise yourslef...enjoy.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

[Guest]

Yup. I've already downloaded the manual, but I really wanted a nice, clean printed version. When I need a page to use on a repair, I'll burn a copy of it so I don't damage the original. The PFD that is on that website is a little difficult to use because the scans aren't crisp (though I do appreciate the effort that went into making it; that was a LOT of scanning!).

And yes, I have already saved BikeCliff's website into a folder with several other GS-related websites. There is a ton of information on these bikes out there. How cool is that!?

[cowboyup3371]

Discovered the tach drive sleeve busted in half on me - trying to figure out how this happened since I don't remember hitting it on anything unless something did when I wrecked in October.



I just posted in the parts wanted with the hope someone will have a spare. If not, I'll order a new one this week

[dorkburger]

MI GS850G guy, I had a similar problem to yours. I did a full teardown and rebuild of my carbs, bench synched them, and reinstalled them on new intake boots.
I then did a vacuum synch. The synch went well, but when I rode the bike I found that it didn't idle smoothly, and any throttle transition from closed throttle to open was clunky. I checked and also had a cold cylinder. I pulled 2 pods - the cold cylinder and the one next to it - and found the throttle plate on the cold cylinder completely closed, while the other was not. I matched the closed one to the one next to it, did the vacuum synch over, and its been good since.
A GS in proper tune is not typically cold blooded.

[Guest]

MI GS850G guy, I had a similar problem to yours. I did a full teardown and rebuild of my carbs, bench synched them, and reinstalled them on new intake boots.
I then did a vacuum synch. The synch went well, but when I rode the bike I found that it didn't idle smoothly, and any throttle transition from closed throttle to open was clunky. I checked and also had a cold cylinder. I pulled 2 pods - the cold cylinder and the one next to it - and found the throttle plate on the cold cylinder completely closed, while the other was not. I matched the closed one to the one next to it, did the vacuum synch over, and its been good since.
A GS in proper tune is not typically cold blooded.

Hi Dorkburger. Thanks for that feedback. So is a "throttle plate", and a "butterfly valve" the same thing? I have downloaded Mikuni BS carb rebuild tutorial and remember seeing the photo towards the end that shows all four butterfly valves adjusted such that there is a small opening at the bottom at closed throttle. The photo on the next page shows a small pin being used as a gauge for the size of the opening, but it doesn't specify the diameter of the pin. That would seem to be pretty important. Do you happen to know the spec for that?

Tomorrow is supposed to be partly cloudy and (relatively) warm. I'm really anxious to get my bike running right, so I may play hookie from work and pull the carbs and look at those butterfly valves. Somethin' ain't right in there.

[chuck hahn]

Use a paper clip wire.

[dorkburger]

What Chuck said. My understanding is that the purpose of that is to have all 4 butterflies in the same position as a starting point. Static synch I believe is the technical term. Also called bench synch. The vaccum synch is more important and takes into account and adjusts for slight differences in individual cylinder conditions. When done properly the bike runs much smoother especially of the synch was off.
This of course depends on a proper carb rebuild, good sealed intake tract, etc. It really should be a systematic approach to save headaches down the road. Carbs should also be synced after valve adjustments also.

[cowboyup3371]

Light will also work and sometimes much better than the paper clip as it is possible to not get the clip in the exact same spot.


Charmayne and I finished her valve adjustment tonight and will work to put stuff back on tomorrow including her new Trucklite headlight.

[Carter Turk]

Tried a new throttle cable, as the carbs seem to be hanging up on occasion.
Noticed the nylon sheeth moving up and down where the metal threaded fixture mounts onto the carb post.
Not sure that's causing anything, but the cable did have a bit of slack, and the carbs where hitting the idle stops as they should.
Even so, the idle would hang up, causing the engine to be revving when the throttle was fully closed.
Have yet to test it.
It's a little bit funky fitting a shorter gsxr 1100 cable to a GS handlebar housing.

[zilla]

Working on keeping my new to me GS750E running. I'm not sure the petcock is working worth a crap.
I'd like to get away from the vacuum unit. Anyone make a manual one that will fit?

[themess]

Working on keeping my new to me GS750E running. I'm not sure the petcock is working worth a crap.
I'd like to get away from the vacuum unit. Anyone make a manual one that will fit?

Search for "petcock" and you'll find dozens of threads. Some have specific information on replacement petcocks. Petcock rebuild kits are also available, and I think Suzuki has them. Some people have had good luck with the kits, others haven't.

Don't assume that your petcock is the problem. Begin with a complete tune-up. Check out BassCliff's web site (DSL extreme... someplace there is a link to it) for complete, clearly written instructions with photographs for almost everything you can imagine doing to your GS.

And, welcome to the GSR!