GS500 Camshafts and Carbs into a GS450

[Swindy 84]

Awesome Pete thanks for the info! I have been in contact with guys that make the jets for specific set ups and they have said I just need to tell them whether they are GS500 E or F models. Hopefully I can do a part number check and find out.
We will! I used to live close to you, last year I was in Everton Park but now I am in Petrie. As soon as I get her up and running we should go for a squirt around the Samford valley.

[pete]

Cool, sounds good to me! Got some nice roads around Mt Mee we regularly visit too. If you've got another set of wheels in the meantime there's always a Saturday morning ride with a bunch of fellas on Kats and GS(X)'s which I try to join once a fortnight starting out of Cashmere also.

[Swindy 84]

Cool, sounds good to me! Got some nice roads around Mt Mee we regularly visit too. If you've got another set of wheels in the meantime there's always a Saturday morning ride with a bunch of fellas on Kats and GS(X)'s which I try to join once a fortnight starting out of Cashmere also.

I don't have another bike ATM Pete unfortunately, sold my Ninja a while back. Just gives me more reason to get the GSX on the road!
Is there anyway to identify GS500 carbs? As in whether they are off a GS500F or GS500E? I bought them a while back but can't remember which place I got them from and if he said 2001 model or 2003 model...
Bit of a dilemma!

[pete]

No worries, just means you gotta get that GSX done sooner rather than later

To be honest I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to the 500's... but I would've thought there was no difference between the E and F model carbs? I couldn't see any reason for them to be different... can't even see a need to jet them any different to be honest.

I have the '01 model carbs, they have the extra mid main jet that sits in front of the needle.

[Big Rich]

The biggest difference in carbs is that mid-main jet. Before 2000, the carbs only had a pilot and main jet.

[Boba]

IIRC there is no difference from the 01 or the 03 model carbs. The MAJOR Differences are between the 00 model and 01, when they introduced the mid-main jet. In 04 I believe is the first year they added the TPS (Throttle position sensor)

The main differences can be seen here. The first page of the thread shows the 89-00 model carbs

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=56601.0

On the second page are later model 04+

The bowl gaskets are different. The 89-00 have an o-ring on the floats, the later models do not. The later models had the mid-main jet. The tops of the later models don't have individual vacuum ports pointed up (which have an o-ring in them) and instead they point toward each other and join in a t-joint which then point up to a vacuum hose (no o-ring). The inlets (air box side) have different "holes". You'll see in the picture what I'm talking about.

The later models have idle screws with a plastic end which is white the day of manufacturing, the older models are metal. The older model's bowl drain screws point outward whereas the later models pointed toward the center of the bike, making it a bit more of a pain to drain the bowls before servicing.

If I recall correctly from my research, the 01-03 model were a sort of crossbread between the older and newer as far as external identification. The 01-03 have the black diaphragm caps of the older models but they have the joined vacuum instead of the individual vertical pointed vacuum ports. The 01-03 have the white idle screw. They have the outward pointing drain screws like 89-00, but inside the bowl they have 3 jets, pilot, mid-main, and main just like the 04+. The 01 have the intake side of the 04 and up with two little ports on top and two on bottom, whereas the 89-00 has the big crescent shaped port on top. The 01-03 also has no TPS. For an older bike, you don't need the 04+ model carbs because we don't have the need for the TPS so any gs500 carbs 01 and up will do.

I personally would go with 01+ simply because you'd have the mid-main to help properly tune the bike.

Then again, I got a good deal on gs500 carbs which I thought were 89-00 and bought them for a whopping $50. Need a rebuild (which would've happened regardless) but otherwise all screws and bolts were in good condition, if a bit seized from age. After a healthy dose of PB Blaster spraying, letting soak for a day, more PB blasting, another day of soaking, some vice grips to take off some of the stubborn screws that had oxidized a bit making them very stiff (and my lack of JIS screw drivers, using phillips on those JIS screws almost certainly strip them). Come to find out I wasn't paying the least bit of attention to pictures of the ebay add, or when I picked them up in Melbourn (about an hour from me), NOR while I was spraying them down... Turns out they are 04+

Got them open and everything is in very nice condition inside. The only thing I'm wondering is if I can source an o-ring kit and not have to pay $65 for rebuild kits that include float needles and seats that I don't need as mine are in good condition (save the seat o-rings of course).

Big Rich I'm glad you're here because between you and Pete I'm hoping that you know of a good way to go for a rebuild kit that includes o-rings, but doesn't make us pay for the float needles or the float needle seats?

Also big thanks to you and Pete for having your 450 builds written up. Has really helped me with mine. I have the 850 triple tree, gs500 front forks/caliper, waiting on the front wheel, still looking for a bandit 400 rear wheel and associated parts for the brakes. All this plus the aforementioned 04+ carbs for $205 so far. With the bandit 400 wheel and caliper next, I think I'm doing well with keeping money in my pocketsess. After that, all I need to get is the 520 sprocket and chain.

[pete]

Good stuff mate! Getting the 04+ so cheap is a good score!

The 01 carbs I got didn't need a rebuild, they were fairly recently removed from a bike so I didn't need to do a rebuild and the float bowl gaskets and O rings under the covers are in good shape.

However, I would just go genuine Suzuki for them. Over here, the float bowl for the 01 carbs is a whole $7.70, and the O ring under the cover is a whole $3.50... and we get the Australia tax, so they should be even cheaper in the US. The '04 gasket is 10c dearer...

Edit: Just realised you're in Florida, so you have Deland Motorsports... they used to be good to buy from when the $AU and $US were pretty close and shipping was viable.

[Big Rich]

+1 to Pete.... I would just buy what you need for now. I mean, 2004 carbs aren't really THAT old compared to some stuff. Of course a good cleaning and inspection is necessary as always.

And remember Boba: the Bandit 400 wheel just makes everything "bolt together". A similar styled GS500 or Katana wheel would work too, but there is the machining of the sprocket carrier to do. That much machining better be cheaper than finding a Bandit wheel..... ha!

[Boba]

Well ironically enough, where I work on my motorcycle is two doors down from a machine shop, so maybe I will go gs500 front and back wheel after all. I had a decent bandit400 lined up that i loked the looks of on ebay but I didn't realize the shipper was out of the UK and he refunded me. In a reflective thought, why post on ebay internationally instead of just on the .uk I dunno.

Anywho, I got both float needle seats out after some careful twisting and turning to break them loose. These thiggs sat for a LONG time. I took tons of puctures of me doing the one side so I might make a log of it. One of the float needle seats is a little scored on top either from previous rebuild or from me gripping too hard (used needle nose... maybe not the best idea)

So I ordered all the orings and gaskets from partsoutlaw but the float needle seats are hella $$$. It's cheaper to buy the k&l kit on ebay that comes with both the seat and the needle.

Any thoughts on getting the needle and seat from a k&l kit?

[pete]

Good job on getting them out... can't really comment on the K&L kits as I've never used them, only the genuine stuff. Are you able to match the needle and seat with anything from Sudco? http://www.sudco.com/carburetors.html

There's a local guy here (when I say local, only 1000kms north) who has an extremely helpful amount of Mikuni jet measurements on his site, might help too? http://www.mikunioz.com/product-cate...at-assemblies/

Just thinking if you can match them to the correct Mikuni number you can buy genuine from Jets R Us or some other place like that without the price premium of the Suzuki parts. That's how I buy my jets anyway...

[Boba]

I did a comparison with the K&L kits from ebay and the rubbers from Deland Suzuki (partsoutlaw) and the K&L seem to be pretty well made.

I put the gs500 carbs together with the K&L to see how well it does and will report back. I will say that while everything fits right, the bowl gaskets are a touch difficult to get in correctly. Almost like they are a little smaller than they're supposed to be. I primed the carbs after an engine swap and after a moment it fired right up. I couldn't set the idle because I forgot the idle screw hits the tensioner so I have to lathe the screw like you did (or maybe it was Big Rich?).

I took a couple days off to enjoy the last couple of days of winter break with my kiddo and today I'll be back into the shop playing with things to get it right.

I think I need a new battery LOL

[pete]

Be interesting to see how they go... and yeah it was me who had to get my mate to turn down the idle screw.