I give up!

[Suzuki mad]

Ron, I bought a GS(X)1100ESD with an 1168 wiseco big bore kit, pods and a dyno jet state 1 tune for £700 ($1400) here in the UK back in 2005 from Eb*y. Looked good till it arrived home.

Took two months to get safe to go on the UK roads even thought it have a UK MOT test ticket then I rode it for three months before deciding that I had to do the work that was needed. It drank 1ltr of oil every 100miles, whines worse than the guy posting recently and won't pull the skin off a banana.

I stripped the rocker box off to find exhaust camshaft lobes had failed as well as cam followers. Plus the whine was from the gearbox.

Took 5 months and £5500 ($11000) to get it back to standard and now runs like a dream.

When the engine went back together I feared that it wouldn't go. After priming the carbs and a new battery second go she fired into life. What an amazing feeling.

If I could afford the plane trip from the UK I would be knocking on your door to help fix the old girl. (I probably wouldn't be allowed into the US with my passport!)

You stripped her down to the base gasket then there should be is no binding her up from the bottom end. There is a chance that if you put new rings in one has not gone in right. Cam chain guides back in correct, front one in place no problems. New head gasket and head back on yep. Front cam shaft in with engine on timing marks. Count 20 pins and line back cam shaft up. Bolt it all down. Seems a little high as the lobes of the shaft need to push the open valves down. Oil into the sockets, chain tensioner on and set, rocker box on. Engine done.
With new rings she will be a little tight. If the battery is not sound then that will make her not turn over well and cause a poor spark.

You have done nothing wrong. There's a simple explanation.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE VOICE'S IN YOUR HEAD. YOU CAN SOLVE THIS.

Walk away from it for a few days then go back over it. When I timed my GS(X) up it took 4 goes.

PM me.

Suzuki mad

[Chris Bohane]

Ron
Give it a week before you offer the bike for sale.

Then, before you place the add give it one more try!!!

If that fails you know that you have tried.

My GS850 caught fire just as I tried to start her after a rebuild....I thought that I had had enough then, BUT, a few days of cleaning all the fire extinguisher powder of her got me back into the groove.

Now she's running again it makes it all worth while.

Regards,
Chris

[Chris Bohane]

[Chris Bohane]

[tconroy]

Thanks guys,but let me respond.The timing is easy to get back in correct position,believe me i could do that in my sleep almost now.That is not the problem.The problem is i put the whold thing back together correctly,I know i did.There arent any ways to put it back together if you follow directions.Cam caps abcd,match them to abcd on the motor.Timing marks,crank trigger,cam tensioner set right,there is no reason the motor shouldnt turn over freely,even real fast, but it doesnt.If i turn it over by wrench it turns over with a considerable resistance but i figured that was because the cam journal go up and down and each time they compress a tappet I should expect resistance.My area code is 940,not 949.I live in Texas,about 60 miles from dallas,250 miles from austin,175 miles to oklahoma city,about 400 to kansas,350 from shreveport,4000 from sidney austrailia.I had a yamaha venture i had 4400 dollars in one time that i couldnt ever get to run right, i even had a mechanic say"I dont know what it is".I gave that bike to a guy just so I wouldn feel the pain any more.Biking is in my blood.It is very important to me.Even if I dont ride and my bike just sits in the driveway there is some sense of satisfaction just knowing it is sitting there.Stupid maybe,but thats me.But I feel the Gs guys like you all are practically family now.I have really sensed some feelings of friendship with this site.You know the GS 1000 is better than a kz 900, cb 750, and most modern day cruisers.Oh well.

And the plugs are out ,right? I know, that was a stupid question but thats about all the knowledge I can help with.Where's the GS guru's on here! Come on guy's!!!

[CRASHNBURN]

Dont giveup yet I know how ya feel been there done that. I traded my trusty ole honda crx for a 1982 gs1100e and it has probs ya just gotta work thru them. I still have turn signal issues I think I may have to change harnesses so I know its all correct. Just chill relax and start over you know everybody here will help and try to give you answers I will say I think this is the best rider forum on the net :-D

[Busafied]

yap- sucks doesn't it?

I drove to Florida to pickup my new project.
New Head gasket installed by PO, he said it just wouldn't fire up and thought it might be timing..
Got back put a battery on her, trying to get her to fire up.
Did that 4 or 5 times, she wouldn't hit.
So I put her on the lift...

Checked fire, had it, pulled timing cover and
rotated it by hand 4 or 5 times, then *motor stops*

So I pulled the valve cover.... looked at the timing marks hmmm think it is off by 1 too.......
OMG@$@$! SAND!

the cylinders ruined, head is salvagable, cams hopefully..
The bike will be back together this yr, better then ever.
point I am making is this-
The thrill of making something run again, after someone else has called it quits and deemed it unrepairable, is what I live for.

Don't quit, take a break, that is what I do.

Like you said seeing it setting there is somehow comforting.
Same here, I don't have to be able to ride it, just know there is 1 more "saved" from rust and scrap by the wayside..

now I am going to ask like the others have, because we want you to enjoy that bike.

1) With Plugs out, are you still not able to turn over by hand?
2) Will it budge Either direction?
3) Will it turn over w/o the cams installed???
4) Are the valves closing all the way, allowing the PISTON to rise in the cyl?
5) How does the Crank bearings look? Did you pull the motor all the way down???

More info Ron, we'll see what can be deciphered from here.

Ron K.

[Nessism]

It seems that many of us have stories of where we screwed up...er...learned something. Remember, it's only a MISTAKE if you do something wrong TWICE, the first time is a learning experience.

On my 450, I managed to bend a valve due to miss-timing the cams. ALWAYS turn the engine over by hand after pulling the cams to make sure everything is indexed correctly.

To check for bent valves, check your valve clearances; if a valve is bent it's won't close and the clearance will be sky high.

I also managed to get the cams 180 degrees out of phase which resulted in lots of cranking but no fire since there was no compression.

Good news is that I'm now well versed on how to time the cams on these old GS engines. We learn from our mistakes...

[ron bayless]

yap- sucks doesn't it?

I drove to Florida to pickup my new project.
New Head gasket installed by PO, he said it just wouldn't fire up and thought it might be timing..
Got back put a battery on her, trying to get her to fire up.
Did that 4 or 5 times, she wouldn't hit.
So I put her on the lift...

Checked fire, had it, pulled timing cover and
rotated it by hand 4 or 5 times, then *motor stops*

So I pulled the valve cover.... looked at the timing marks hmmm think it is off by 1 too.......
OMG@$@$! SAND!

the cylinders ruined, head is salvagable, cams hopefully..
The bike will be back together this yr, better then ever.
point I am making is this-
The thrill of making something run again, after someone else has called it quits and deemed it unrepairable, is what I live for.

Don't quit, take a break, that is what I do.

Like you said seeing it setting there is somehow comforting.
Same here, I don't have to be able to ride it, just know there is 1 more "saved" from rust and scrap by the wayside..

now I am going to ask like the others have, because we want you to enjoy that bike.

1) With Plugs out, are you still not able to turn over by hand?
2) Will it budge Either direction?
3) Will it turn over w/o the cams installed???
4) Are the valves closing all the way, allowing the PISTON to rise in the cyl?
5) How does the Crank bearings look? Did you pull the motor all the way down???

More info Ron, we'll see what can be deciphered from here.

Ron K.

yes the bike turns over both by starter button and by hand,but not fast.It doesnt turn over fast enough to ever start.The bike ran perfectly,it could go over 120 mph before i took it aprt so i no it had no internal issues.I am totally frustrated.So wat if i took it aprt,what would I expect to find?I might no recognize the problem is it was looking me in the face.I had no problems getting it back together.I put the cylinder block on,and the last inch or so before it seated against the lower case i had to take a soft block of wood and tap on eiter side until it dropped completely down,but that is the only thing that fought me.And that want bad.Like I said,it was just like it was before as far as i can tell.I rode it one time 220 miles and said to myself no one has ever made a better running motorcycle than my bike.

[ron bayless]

It seems that many of us have stories of where we screwed up...er...learned something. Remember, it's only a MISTAKE if you do something wrong TWICE, the first time is a learning experience.

On my 450, I managed to bend a valve due to miss-timing the cams. ALWAYS turn the engine over by hand after pulling the cams to make sure everything is indexed correctly.

To check for bent valves, check your valve clearances; if a valve is bent it's won't close and the clearance will be sky high.

I also managed to get the cams 180 degrees out of phase which resulted in lots of cranking but no fire since there was no compression.

Good news is that I'm now well versed on how to time the cams on these old GS engines. We learn from our mistakes...

Timing is not the problem here.I have it in time,i could take the cams ,slipper block,cap bearings off and put them in a box and with a stopwatch i could have it all back together in less than an hour.

[ron bayless]

Ron, I bought a GS(X)1100ESD with an 1168 wiseco big bore kit, pods and a dyno jet state 1 tune for £700 ($1400) here in the UK back in 2005 from Eb*y. Looked good till it arrived home.

Took two months to get safe to go on the UK roads even thought it have a UK MOT test ticket then I rode it for three months before deciding that I had to do the work that was needed. It drank 1ltr of oil every 100miles, whines worse than the guy posting recently and won't pull the skin off a banana.

I stripped the rocker box off to find exhaust camshaft lobes had failed as well as cam followers. Plus the whine was from the gearbox.

Took 5 months and £5500 ($11000) to get it back to standard and now runs like a dream.

When the engine went back together I feared that it wouldn't go. After priming the carbs and a new battery second go she fired into life. What an amazing feeling.

If I could afford the plane trip from the UK I would be knocking on your door to help fix the old girl. (I probably wouldn't be allowed into the US with my passport!)

You stripped her down to the base gasket then there should be is no binding her up from the bottom end. There is a chance that if you put new rings in one has not gone in right. Cam chain guides back in correct, front one in place no problems. New head gasket and head back on yep. Front cam shaft in with engine on timing marks. Count 20 pins and line back cam shaft up. Bolt it all down. Seems a little high as the lobes of the shaft need to push the open valves down. Oil into the sockets, chain tensioner on and set, rocker box on. Engine done.
With new rings she will be a little tight. If the battery is not sound then that will make her not turn over well and cause a poor spark.

You have done nothing wrong. There's a simple explanation.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE VOICE'S IN YOUR HEAD. YOU CAN SOLVE THIS.

Walk away from it for a few days then go back over it. When I timed my GS(X) up it took 4 goes.

PM me.

Suzuki mad

Yep, i appreciate all the encouragement,and yep i did all the things you said.I do believe now after all the encouragement u guys have offered i will take it aprt again and see if i can see something rong.The front cam chain guide...It seemed to go in only one way.It has a ball like end to it that fits into a groove in the front of the head.I dont see how it could be turned around backwards.

[ron bayless]

Beautiful trike.I had decided to keep mine all original except for the handlebars and seat.I dont guess I will be worried about that now.

[ron bayless]

What you recommend I do?
1.take the engine aprt again and stop when I see something wrong?
2/How other than seeing something bent will I know what is wrong?
3.Take it aprt like take the head off,see if it turns over freely at that point.If it doesnt then what?
4.If it does then take the block off and see if it turs over freely then what?
5.teach me,advise me please.
Forward Message

[NICK!]

I'd pull the plugs and turn the engine with a wrench and remember how hard it was to turn. Pull the cams out and hold the chain up and turn the engine again and see if its the same, if its easier then it has to be a cam or tensioner issue. If its the same pull the head and cylinder and pistons so they don't get dinged up, hold the cam chain up and turn the engine, if its easier it must be something with the pistons, if not it has to be the crank or starter clutch or maybe something with the basket. Be systematic and you'll find it soon.

[Killer2600]

I'd pull the plugs and turn the engine with a wrench and remember how hard it was to turn. Pull the cams out and hold the chain up and turn the engine again and see if its the same, if its easier then it has to be a cam or tensioner issue. If its the same pull the head and cylinder and pistons so they don't get dinged up, hold the cam chain up and turn the engine, if its easier it must be something with the pistons, if not it has to be the crank or starter clutch or maybe something with the basket. Be systematic and you'll find it soon.

I love it when a plan comes together....

But yea do what he said except when you take the chain off the cam don't turn the engine over too much or use too much force cuse a piston can hit a valve, if you take the cams out you don't have to worry about hitting a piston with a valve cuse they'll all be closed--just an alternative to removing the head to prevent piston/valve damage.