15 years of owning my GS

[dorkburger]

With the family situation as it sits, other then going to work, I'm pretty much needed at home full time for a few weeks, so I've been spending a bit of time in the garage as time allows.

After finding the bent engine mount, I decided that I should check the others. They checked out ok, but one of the rubber bushings in one of the front mounts was pretty hammered and compressed off center. Definitely some weirdness trying to realign the bolts, and with the front mount / bushings loosely in place, there is a gap on one side. I test fit the rear mount where the bent one was, and it does not set in place properly. With the upcoming long weekend im hoping to try to get some measurements and maybe get the rear mount situation addressed and see how the engine sits.

It seems to me (and I've been wrong many times) that with the two rear mounts holding up the engine, the rest should more or less fall into place, discounting of course, the weight of the engine possibly causing slight downward misalignment due to its weight. We shall see....

[GS1150Pilot]

Hang in there, my friend! Looking forward to seeing that beast all sorted.

[dorkburger]

Thanks for the encouragement- I appreciate it.
I'm cautiously optimistic that I may be onto something. At this point I'll be happy to take improvement if perfection isn't possible. If anything comes from the bum framed parts bike, it may well be that it forced me to take a closer look at mine. Having a good set of mounts and straight frame to comare with may almost be worth buying it alone.

[dorkburger]

[GS1150Pilot]

It's done?

[dorkburger]

Aaah, maybe I should have stuck the fork in me. I'm not necessarily done, but taking a break. A somewhat frustrating day bike related and otherwise.

I managed to check out the previously mentioned items. I measured a 5-6 mm discrepancy between the upper rear engine mount that is welded to the frame between the 2 bikes. Problem is that with the rear lower mounts both being fixed points welded to the frame, there is no give to shift the engine over, just a minimum of play allowed by the boltholes. I tried everything I could think of in regards to checking the various mounts, etc. Another thing not mentioned by me is that under full compression, the rear tire slightly rubs on the right side of the inner fender so there could be other issues as well.

After giving up on the engine mounts, I pulled the seat / tail light assembly of the bike and spent some time eyeballing things. Nothing obvious noticed by eyes alone.

At this point if I really want to find out what's up with it, I think I would need to fully strip it and find a way to get some critical measurements and that's more then I care to get involved with at this time. Ignorance has been bliss for 17 years, and the bike rides fine so I'm just going to...... ride when I can.

It's all back together now.

[dorkburger]

Well, it's been a year and half plus since I updated the ongoing tale.....
I've been meaning to update, but with the Photobucket debacle, and life in general, I haven't been moved to add to this until recently. Plus most of the original pics are visible again.

It's a bit unreal to think that I'm now in my 19th year of owning this assemblage of parts called a motorbike..... Just yesterday I took a photograph of my three year old son on it - he is now 16 and stands 4 - 5 inches taller then me....

Despite the questionable frame, I couldn't pass up a great deal on a set of forks that TxGSrider was selling equipped with Race Tech emulators and Sonic Springs that just so happened to be the weight that Rich would have recommended for my weight.
It's a mod I had wanted to do for a long time, plus forks are transferable let so I gave it a go.

Glib was in process of doing the same job, with a detailed thread here, so I made a thread over at OSS.

https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/forums/topic/7665-cartridge-emulator-install/?tab=comments#comment-86993

Stock damper rod next to the modded one with extra holes drilled.

http://Suzuki fork mods by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

Instead of spending cash on bypass plates, I opened up the "sealed" (take that Suziki) PDF units and removed the damping components to allow free flow of the oil that the emulator now controls. While a stock look isn't my concern, I kind of like that they are still there.

http://Suzuki fork mods by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

Back together - gutted unit is on the left. The remaining parts were left just to hold the external seals in place. The plastic adjuster knobs were reinstalled after confirming that the units were leak free.

http://Suzuki fork mods by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

Caliper inspection... all cleaned up well with no parts in need of replacement..... thanks to semi regular brake fluid changes I assume. I did, however, discover this summer that the holes that hold in the pad retaining pins are worn causing the pads to clack against the calpier when applied...

http://Untitled by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

There was also a verification that the cam chain wear was good, valve adjustment, carb synch, and I blew off that awful flaky wrinkle paint from the valve cover - 90% of it came off with a lame-o powerwasher. The rest with a wooden paint stirrer. It's au naturale bare aluminum for the foreseeable future.
That's about all the new stuff that happened since last update.

Good things may be afoot though....

[GS1150Pilot]

Just getting ready to rebuild the clutch slave on my bandit. Fun to reread this thread. I love how much you love your 1150, Glen.

[dorkburger]

This summer was a bit of an exercise in frustration. I transfrerred the parts bike title to my my name. I was slightly concerned about the fact that the steering lock was cut off, but it went without issue. I then waited for most of it to get my hands on a damaged donor frame that I intended (still intend to, depending) to use to cut up and replace the rusted portion on my parts frame... I gave up and decided to make an attempt at repair using a section of square tube I purchased. After bracing the frame and removing the bad section, I found that the rust went into the curved portion of the frame by the footrest. I definitely need the donor frame now if I'm to move forward with this.

My chain, and front sprocket especially, have died prematurely due to the misalignment - heavy wear on one side of the sprocket and the chain has tight links from engaging the front sprocket favoring one side, and has wear on the inside of the side plates.

In the meantime I read that its not uncommon for the 1150 swingarms to end up twisted. This, plus the fact that mine came with a gash in one of the axle covers was causing an itch that could only be scratched by investigating.
Sure enough, it's twisted - about an 1/8 inch out ot whack, plus, if measuring from the confirmed untwisted parts bike arm, it's also pushed over by 1/4 inch... Hot damn, I may be on to something.

http://Damaged goods.... by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

With this good news, just this week, I went thru all of the swingarm components and cleaned / inspected them.

Full Floater should be renamed Full of Parts.... including the swingarm, there are 5 bolts, 7 bearings, 5 bushings, and 10 dust seals. With the exception of one bad bushing and a questionable associated bearing, all of the linkage parts from my bike checked out ok. Parts bike donated the bad parts as they were good. The swingarm bolt from my bike did have some surface galling and I'm wondering if it was binding from the damaged arm.

Ready to go....
http://Suzuki GS swingarm parts by Glen Brenner, on Flickr


Good and bad bushing.
http://Suzuki GS swingarm parts by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll reassemble this weekend / week upcoming and see if things line up.

[dorkburger]

Oh, and I did manage to ride, enjoy, and even take a trip this past summer, so it wasn't all bad.... I still love this thing 19 years later...
http://Suzuki by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

[GSXR7ED]

Sweet! Thanks for updating!


Ed

[dorkburger]

Ha, thanks guys. Yes I'm a sucker...
After this weekend though I was wanting to bang my head against the wall..

The last thing I wanted to look into was the shock. Like the PDF units, Suzuki makes little mentioned of their inner workings. The parts bike shock was junk due to its rusted shaft so I figured I'd look into it to see how the remote preload and damping controls work - or are supposed to anyway.

But first to remove the spring.... I improvised....

Before the safety mob gets involved, those cable buckles (two used) are rated for 150 - 300 lbs depending on the cable used. After the pic was taken, the jack was given one more pump and the collar came out fairly easily using needle nose pliers, then I gently released the jack and it came apart drama free. I removed two springs this way, and put one back on.

http://Sketchy spring removal by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

The damping adjustment is fairly straightforward - a speedometer type cable turns a geared dial on the bottom of the shock.
The preload was a bit more involved. The remote dial was connected to a pressure type hose. I wasn't sure if it had air (nitrogen) pressure or oil. There is a collar that sits between the top of the shock and the spring with a ring that extends to push on the spring. Neither the parts bike or the one I've been using seemed to work well, but the one from my bike, less so. After looking at the hose, I found oil under a pice of protective covering, so I assumed that the hose is bad. Also, turning the dial on that one offered little to no resistance when increasing the setting, while the parts one did, so I focused on that one. After some repeated cleaning and oiling, it's function returned.

Shock laid bare...
http://Suzuki GS 1150 shock by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

Preload collar after cleaning and regaining function.
http://Suzuki GS 1150 shock by Glen Brenner, on Flickr

All was going well, until it didn't.
Reassembly was good. The last thing I had to do was clock the damping knob so the knob matched the dial on the shock. I got it set properly and was turning the dial to verify, then something got jammed..... then oil started dumping out of the shock where the damper dial resides... poof..... Shock is now junk....

I took a breather, regrouped and carried on still hoping to confirm my chain run, so I began prepping the swingarm and reinstalling the various linkages and ran into another problem. One bearing, despite looking ok was very tight and crunchy when rotating it's bushing inside of it. Thinking that maybe dirt got inside, I cleaned it again and blew it out repeatedly, but no love.

At this point all I could do was to at least stick the swingarm in, set the wheel in place and wait for rays of golden sunshine to illuminate the bike in a warm glow of victory. That didn't happen either..... it was dark out.
The wheel sits differently, but still off center. I've read that this isn't uncommon, so I held out hope and pulled out a straight edge.
The chain run is still not right and has the same problem as before, but perhaps less so.

With a swingarm that I believe to be straight installed, I can now only assume the the main frame is bent. The swingarm was a last holdout of hope and I'm glad that I confirmed this, or I may well have transferred the bad swingarm to another frame.

I was fairly bummed out by nights end and knew I had to just walk away for the night and let things sit.
As of now, I need a shock and a plan. Worst case, I'll buy a cheapo chain, and ride another season... and wait. The waiting is what annoys me the most.
I did decide what I want to end up with last night - a restorable bike - as in a known solid - and straight - foundation that I can restore / modify as time allows. I'm not sure that I love the idea of repairing that rusty parts bike frame as a long term solution, and I'm at least satisfied now that I made my purchase money back in parts that are / will eventually be used. And of course, I just missed out on a titled frame on ebay that I've literally been watching for months. It kept getting relisted.

To be continued....

[GS1150Pilot]

Some great learning there, Glen, though frustrating, for sure. The frame on my 1150 had been wrecked, then rebuilt (welded, straightened). These frames seem pretty prone to damage.

[ryder60]

Really enjoyed this history. I can relate very well to it.

[dorkburger]

Thanks Ryder, glad you enjoyed. In another 15 years I may have it sorted....

Turns out I need to replace a couple of swingarm linkage bearings. I was planning to stop by the local dealer and use some gift cards to the store that I’m hoarding. I looked them up online to ehmmm - mentally prepare. The dealers online fische listed quantity two.... $107... holy cow! I found them on eBay for $39. Hopefully this weekend I’ll order them and a used low mileage Ducati M900 shock on my watch list. At this point I’m putting it back together throwing on a new chain and I’ll ride as is for another season. It’s one of the stinky parts about only having one cycle.