I'm in the twin club….

[tkent02]

The 500 pistons and cylinders arrived yesterday, everything looks very good. Unfortunately won't have a chance to put it together for a month or so.

[pete]

Bugger, I wanna see it done!

Be sure to post some pic's up, I still haven't seen this process done in detail yet...

I want to know my options should my 450 have some sort of drama... or for when I decide I want a little more torque...

[tkent02]

OK, I'm on it again. The pistons come up about 1mm short of the top of the cylinder, the pistons are lower top and don't look like they will hit any valves or anything... Not sure how much compression it will have, might be pretty low. But I don't have a set of 450 pistons to compare, so I'm going to throw it together and see what happens.

[tkent02]

[pete]

Now that's purdy!!!

[BigD_83]

Even more inspiration for re-doing the paint on the 650.

Powder coat or paint, Tom?

[tkent02]

Just paint, don't really have a way to remove the old paint from the cooling fins, so it would look like crap powder coating it.

[cowboyup3371]

Looks fantastic Tom

[tkent02]

Stupid PO tricks, all three oil filter studs have been replaced, look as new. WOO Hoo, right? Wait a minute, a 6mm nut won't thread on. I'm thinking it's some goofy SAE size....
Other than that the engine is done, installed, ready to fire it up.

Edit, it just needed to be smashed on with an impact, don't know why the nuts wouldn't go on, but at least it's metric.

Never seen the whole bike before, it was a stack of boxes when I bought it.



Here's a funny one. Oil leaking around the oil pan. Odd, the bolts are not tight... Why would I not tighten the bolts? I think I didn't have the gasket at the time, just put the pan on to keep dirt and crap out.

I need to limit myself to one project at a time so I can remember this crap.

[smartin108]

Rob has a great deal right now on Haynes which is vastly more detailed than the Clymers. I have both.

http://www.z1enterprises.com/

[tkent02]

OK, in your Haynes how do they say to position the cam for checking valve clearances? The Clymer says lobe straight up, which is wrong for the four cylinder bikes. How does Suzuki say to do it for the twins?

[pete]

The twins are to be done with the cam lobes parallel or perpendicular to the valve cover gasket face... check the clearance when neither lobe is pushing down on a valve bucket.

Be *ultra careful* with the Haynes and Clymer, particularly the Haynes... there are torque spec's in there that are incorrect.

[tkent02]

She runs!!

Rode around fifteen miles or so, winds out good, no funny noises, no problems with 6th or any other gear. Doesn't pull as hard as I would have thought, maybe that's just the high elevation, maybe it's lower compression with the 500 piston in the 450 head, maybe I just need a bigger rear sprocket. Went out on the highway, gets up to eighty mph easily enough, would do more, dunno how much more. Don't care, it's not really my highway bike.

Starts, runs, idles all just fine, carburetor seems good at least from what I can tell by riding it.

Nice and nimble handling, with some attention to the suspension, brakes and tires it will be a keeper.

Less than a year this time, wish I could do that well on the 550/650...

[Ecklund]

She runs!!

Rode around fifteen miles or so, winds out good, no funny noises, no problems with 6th or any other gear. Doesn't pull as hard as I would have thought, maybe that's just the high elevation, maybe it's lower compression with the 500 piston in the 450 head, maybe I just need a bigger rear sprocket. Went out on the highway, gets up to eighty mph easily enough, would do more, dunno how much more. Don't care, it's not really my highway bike.



Starts, runs, idles all just fine, carburetor seems good at least from what I can tell by riding it.

Nice and nimble handling, with some attention to the suspension, brakes and tires it will be a keeper.

Less than a year this time, wish I could do that well on the 550/650...

Nice.

Why is it that there is such a thrill from brining back a bike from the dead?

The altitude in most places near you would make most bikes wheeze. The only bike I ever had that didn't strain going from Park to Summit County was the XX.

Any plans for pics? Yeah, I know, but its cool to see the completed bike.

[tkent02]

Nice.

Why is it that there is such a thrill from brining back a bike from the dead?

Just something I have been doing for a long long time, have always enjoyed doing it, but I haven't been able to really get anything done the last couple years. Too much time spent away working and when I'm home I'm too busy riding the dirt bikes.