New guy with a GS550e : Front light switch question.

[jdvorchak]

Now it's at the bottom... twice...LOL

No problem. Bleeding the brakes is pretty straight forward. Now if the brake fluid looks like Starbucks coffee you have more work to do. If it's just a little dark flushing and fresh fluid is all you need at this time.

Tip? pull the calipers off the mounts and fully compress the pistons. That pushes most of the fluid out of the calipers. Drain the Master Cylinder as much as you can. Plenty of plastic sheet, old shopping bags etc to cover painted parts under the brake hose fittings. Remove and replace the brake lines. Careful not to drip old brake fluid all over the place. I like to have a bunch of plastic bags and rubber bands to cover the MC output and each line you remove. Doesn't matter start at the top or the bottom and pull all lines.

Put the new lines on and re-fit the calipers to the mounts. Plenty of brake cleaner around the calipers making sure you clean the brake dust and crud around the piston prior to compressing them. If you got all of the old fluid out of the MC then you will have to bleed the MC prior to hooking up the brake line. I use my finger/thumb over the output fitting and pump the lever. You will feel vacuum then after a few pumps pressure. Then you know your MC has been bled. Hook up the lines. Keeping the reservoir full with fresh fluid then go to the farthest part from the MC and open that bleed fitting. Personally at this point I'll leave that fitting open a turn or two until I see that gravity has allowed the fluid to drain all the way down and starts to drip out of the bleeder. Tighten that bleeder and open the next closer (if dual pistons). Then just like always pump and hold, release bleeder, tighten bleeder, release lever and repeat. With your calipers fully compressed it will take a few pumps to get the pads back into contact with the rotors. Pretty straight forward process.

[terrylee]

The brake light switch is adjustable. loosen screws on bottom and move switch a little one direction or the other, then pull on lever till light comes on when you pull slightly on lever. Repeat till it comes on where it should. Tighten screws back.

[excellentlunch]

That's good info, cheers Terry.

I ended up draining the oil and popping new oil in. Couldn't smell any fuel in the old oil but figured I'd change it out anyway.

Brakes are sorted. New lines installed and system bled. The caliper were a bit cruddy but should be good now. Worked on it with my mechanic and happy with how it's turned out.

Bike is stopping and running well. Once registered I will be running it about 750 kilometres over two days - it should prove an interesting shake down for a new to me bike.

[excellentlunch]

The brake light switch is adjustable. loosen screws on bottom and move switch a little one direction or the other, then pull on lever till light comes on when you pull slightly on lever. Repeat till it comes on where it should. Tighten screws back.

Cheers Terry. I did note the slots allowed for some sideways movement. I received the part anyway and banged it on and it works a treat. I'll keep the old one as a spare as I think it would work if moved sideways.

[excellentlunch]

Special thanks to jdvorchak for that overview of installation of the lines. Reading it in the hindsight of doing the job, it is a clear bit of instructions. Thanks mate!

[excellentlunch]

As a way to finish the thread I thought I'd post how it all went because it was a bit of a saga.

Forked out the dough for the roadworthy and headed along with some trepidation. Would they notice the leaky fork seals? I carried a rag and gave it a good wipe off before inspecting but cringed when they made me do the brake test saying "make the front forks compress". Will they call me out on the dirty engine, which probably has a slight weep from any number of oil seals or gasket surfaces? Truly, it isn't THAT bad. Would they notice the bits of plastic sheath falling apart from the wiring loom to expose the coloured wires? Surely THAT isn't a problem.

I watched the guy walk around, sit on it, compress the forks and do all the checks, only for him to come back and say, "it's all good mate, but your headlight points right instead of left." See they check your headlight's transition from high beam to low beam and if it dips down and to the right, you ain't roadworthy because your beam shan't shine into oncoming traffic. Turns out my bike must be a North American.

The fella, who was a nice enough bloke, said "get it back to me by 3pm with a good light and I'll sign off on it." OK! Woo! This was exciting, the thing was gonna pass but I had to get me some 7 inch glass to swap in. Many calls and a lot of running around - no wreckers had anything and some joker tried to sell me an aftermarket RD350 headlight with the funky housing - had me stumped but the last person I tried came through big time.

Craig is a no nonsense bloke I used to live around the corner from who is one of a dying bread in my home town: a motorcycle electrician that knows his ****, especially with old bikes. The guy has gone 'above and beyond' so many times for me that it is unbelievable. I always leave the place with a mixture of guilt and appreciation. Guilty because he sorted my ride so cheaply so many times, always giving pointers and spare bits and pieces that 'you might need. take some of these' and appreciation because he is simply a legend. I fear for the day when all we have is 19 year old apprentice service mechanics available to us. Let's hope it never happens.

Long story short - Craig and I swapped in some glass and it passed the test. The road trip is another story, NOT because Fast & Sassy broke down, but because the bike was behaving a tiny bit funky and I didn't quite trust it so I got myself a cheap relocation van and now it's safe in my joint in Melbourne.

Thanks for all the help guys. Now to find myself a petcock (I think mine is toast - the bike seems to starve of fuel when the tank is low and 'res' makes no difference) and work out what that noise is inconsistently around 5000-6000 rpm.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?237775-High-frequency-vibration-noise-GS550e