.png "Powered by vBulletin")
I just finished tearing apart and re-building a 1979 GS550L I bought last year. It's my first bike, and the price was right, so I figured I'd rip it apart and learn as much as I can from it. Well, I'm learning... 
I took the engine apart about as far as it can go, cleaned things up and had a look around, and put it back together. No "spare" parts yet.
Last night I started it for the first time since the re-build. It runs fine, sounds pretty good. There are a couple of problems I'm having a hard time figuring out, though.
1. There's a very small amount of white smoke coming from a few spots. The big ones seem to be where the exhaust pipes meet the head, and also at the joints from the pipe to the silencer. I replaced the exhaust "gaskets" going to the pipes -- should I have put something on there before putting it together? There seems to be a bit of white smoke coming from the top end of the engine, too (hard to tell with the engine in the bike) -- could just be the cross-connection on the exhaust underneath the engine.
A quick bit about a couple of things I noticed putting the engine back together:
When I was putting the engine back together, there are two "incidents" I can remember... One was putting the crankcase halves back together. Transmission seemed to work fine before, then I put the halves together and it stopped working. I figured it was supposed to be like that. Then I was putting the alternator back together, torquing on the bolt with the final drive sprocket held in place, and something went "twang" quite loudly. After that, the final drive seemed to rotate freely again.
I couldn't figure out what had happened until I was putting the camshaft cover back on, and something similar hapenned -- the tach stopped working when I put the cover back on, then I was tinkering with it and there was a "twang" and it started moving again... I figure the worm gear in the cover wasn't properly meshed with the camshaft at first... Not a very pretty sound, but it semeed to be meshed properly afterward, and I didn't make the connection with the crankcase halves at the time.
I tightened up a couple of camshaft cover bolts (near the tach, where it could be loose because of improper seating) and that's solved one minor leak, but the white smoke is still a bit of a mystery to me.
2. What's really bothering me is the shifting. The bike will shift from N to 2, 3, 4,5, 6, but when I try to come back down it won't go from 6 to 5 unless I shut off the engine and shift without the clutch, while pushing the bike forward a bit. The bike won't shift at all from neutral to 1, no matter what I do.
Could be a related problem... The kickstart also doesn't seem to be connected to anything inside -- it's not turning the engine.
Did I screw something up with that first big "twang" putting the crankcase halves together? I'm not really keen on taking the engine back out again to pull the crankcase apart, so if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them. Why isn't the bike shifting?
Okay, sorry for the long message, but I hope someone can offer a bit of help. Thanks, guys!
Michael
I took the engine apart about as far as it can go, cleaned things up and had a look around, and put it back together. No "spare" parts yet.
Last night I started it for the first time since the re-build. It runs fine, sounds pretty good. There are a couple of problems I'm having a hard time figuring out, though.
1. There's a very small amount of white smoke coming from a few spots. The big ones seem to be where the exhaust pipes meet the head, and also at the joints from the pipe to the silencer. I replaced the exhaust "gaskets" going to the pipes -- should I have put something on there before putting it together? There seems to be a bit of white smoke coming from the top end of the engine, too (hard to tell with the engine in the bike) -- could just be the cross-connection on the exhaust underneath the engine.
A quick bit about a couple of things I noticed putting the engine back together:
When I was putting the engine back together, there are two "incidents" I can remember... One was putting the crankcase halves back together. Transmission seemed to work fine before, then I put the halves together and it stopped working. I figured it was supposed to be like that. Then I was putting the alternator back together, torquing on the bolt with the final drive sprocket held in place, and something went "twang" quite loudly. After that, the final drive seemed to rotate freely again.
I couldn't figure out what had happened until I was putting the camshaft cover back on, and something similar hapenned -- the tach stopped working when I put the cover back on, then I was tinkering with it and there was a "twang" and it started moving again... I figure the worm gear in the cover wasn't properly meshed with the camshaft at first... Not a very pretty sound, but it semeed to be meshed properly afterward, and I didn't make the connection with the crankcase halves at the time.
I tightened up a couple of camshaft cover bolts (near the tach, where it could be loose because of improper seating) and that's solved one minor leak, but the white smoke is still a bit of a mystery to me.
2. What's really bothering me is the shifting. The bike will shift from N to 2, 3, 4,5, 6, but when I try to come back down it won't go from 6 to 5 unless I shut off the engine and shift without the clutch, while pushing the bike forward a bit. The bike won't shift at all from neutral to 1, no matter what I do.
Could be a related problem... The kickstart also doesn't seem to be connected to anything inside -- it's not turning the engine.
Did I screw something up with that first big "twang" putting the crankcase halves together? I'm not really keen on taking the engine back out again to pull the crankcase apart, so if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them. Why isn't the bike shifting?
Okay, sorry for the long message, but I hope someone can offer a bit of help. Thanks, guys!
Michael
Comment