82 GS550M restoration project, metal shavings...terminal?

[bmt]

A friend recently gave me an 82 GS550M that had been sitting, in pieces, in his garage for the past five years. prior to that it sat in another PO's garage since at least 1996. from what i can piece together, from both my friend's recollection, and the spare parts that came with the bike, the orginal PO had a piston seize. after repair he failed to properly reinstall the cam chain and bent two intake valves when he started it. My friend bought a new head, new camshafts, new valves, but never got around to the work (already had a working bike).

I've gotten the bike reassembled and running smoothly and am now going through all of the other issues associated with a bike that has sat in a garage for 12 years.

I replaced the stator today and while draining the oil to do it I noticed a fair amount of fine metal shavings in the oil drain pan. the large majority of which could be picked up with a magnet.

The bike was delivered to me with no oil in it (drained by PO). Since putting the bike back together I've not ridden it anywhere, just idled for a 5-10 minutes at a time while doing carb work and electrical stuff.

Right now I've got about $700 in the project and expect to spend another $600 to make the bike reliable given what i know needs to be fixed. I'd really like to identify where these shavings developed before I spend too much more on the bike to determine if I should just cut my losses. One problem is that the tires and brakes are not currently safe so just popping the bike in gear and riding around to check for a noisy transmission doesn't seem like a good idea and dropping another few hundred on new tires prior to figuring out these metal shavings doesn't seem smart either. have myself a catch 22 here.

Is it likely these shavings were already in the engine as a result of the earlier piston seizure or damage to the camshafts from the PO work or am i looking at another issue that I don't even know about? Could anyone recommend a good workflow to troubleshoot from without actually riding the bike or if possible splitting the crankcase (mainly I'm trying to avoid ruining the $100 athena gasket kit i used for the top end rebuild).

I would have never gotten this far without all of the information posted on the forum so a big thank you to the GS community for that. hopefully I've provided enough information to solicit some help.
thanks,
~Brian

-here is a link to some of my project bike. not many, i'm usually too greasy to pic up the camera!

http://picasaweb.google.com/briantwilley/Motorcycle

[chef1366]

If it's running good pull the oil pan, clean it out along with the pick up screen and ride it!

[Zooks]

Ditto to chef ^ ^ ^

These bikes are renowned for being bulletproof and incredibly reliable. I'd change the oil / clean out the engine and ride it. A certain amount of shavings will accumulate in the bottom of any old engine. A pic of the shavings would be good. Put someting in the pic (like a matchstick) so we can judge the size of the shavings (for comparison).

Also, you've got yourself a true collectors item there. The 550 Katanas were rare in Australia and even rarer in the the U.S, I believe. In good condition that bike will continue to appreciate (IMHO). Definitely a keeper.

Edit: I just looked at your pics and saw the shavings. I think they are from a gear (educated guess). If the gear isn't badly damaged it will be fine. You may find that one cog is a little noisier than others.

[Zooks]

BTW - Welcome to the GSR BMT.

(way too many initials there IMHO LOL )

[Nessism]

Sump cover on the bottom of the engine comes off easily after the exhaust is removed. As Chef stated, pull this off and have a look. Nothing much to loose at this point so keep going.

[SAN]

metal in pan.

HI when I got my 81550T the first thng i did was pop off all covers including oil pan.With only 8.000miles some may say why.Because after 25years cork and paper doesnt last 4 evr.you will be surprised how much break in miles wears on every thing. And when your trans,clutch,gears rings, all use that oil, for the 1st several thousand miles.most not all eng, are still breaking in.unless you have problems, like hard shift exessive vibrations.clean pan, drive it. then drop pan again in2,000miles. Have any off you out there dropped your pan and found no debries in pan.Grooves inside pan trap alot, only one way to get it out.also take ign p/u cover check to see that drain and air holes/passages are not plugged. insect pack mud webs other material in their temp homes.You have a rare bike due you plan on keeping it stock. what is miles. enjoy check out this site. www.gs-classic.de/index1e.htm follow instuctions for english [bablefish]. the 550/650 kats re popular their. SAN ps click on model katana 550m.and readers rides

[bmt]

thanks for advice

Thanks everyone for the encouragement to continue my project. I was worried that this was an uncommon and terminal problem. This week I'll drop the oil pan, clean the screen, and inspect the gears. The athena rebuild kit came with an oil pan gasket, so easy enough to perform the inspection. as long as there aren't any missing teeth I'll probably just ride it as I imagine that I would have to buy a salvage engine to get a new transmission? I do worry that the oil pump with fail from all those shavings. I found some in the oil filter so i know they went through the pump to get there.

to answer some questions that were in replies: a pic is attached of the shavings with a penny for scale and I'm hoping to keep the bike as stock as possible. I'd like to make it a reliable daily rider/commuter. the engine has 19K on it and when I got the bike everything on it (from what i could tell anyway) were original parts from 82, even the tires! I sold my 97 GSXR-600 a few years ago per my wife's request, but she was all for this 550 so it's been very exciting to get a bike again. If I had found so much as a sliver of metal in my GSXR I would have been mortified! Glad to hear that this era of GS is so bulletproof.
~BMT

[TheCafeKid]

I agree with Chef and Nessism. If the bike will shift smoothly, even on the centerstand when warm, and once you get it moving, doesnt toss it out of any gears, i would simply ride it and continue to do so untill something breaks. I spent and still spend alot of time fretting about this and that, odd noises, wierd vibrations from bikes, and in the end, I simply dont enjoy riding them if i worry about that stuff all the time. It has been a process, and im still working on it, but now I try to just ride and not worry about it. If it breaks, it can be fixed, but if i were to go ripping the motors apart every single time i felt or heard something i didnt like, Id never ride. Some of these motors simply sound like threshing machines. But, as said, these things are pretty damn bullet proof too. At the Red River Rally, Spindle off the board here was telling me about a guy he knew that rode a bike home with a broken crankshaft. Steve and I have been working on another GSR members bike who had a snapped in two camshaft. Put new cams in it, checked the head and valves for any other damage, and put it back together and it fired right up and runs great, except that I think it needs new rings...ooops. Bottom line is, if you could pick up the shavings with a magnet, they're not aluminum. So they are probably gear dogs, crank or camshaft bits or whathave you. I have found some bits in my motors that i was sure had to have caused some sort of damage, but never did. Just ride it. When/IF it DOES break, fix it then.... Untill then, enjoy

[skifast1080]

i just changed my oil tonight for the first time and found the same thing. a few slivers or metal in the magnetic drain plug and then some in the filter as well. about as much as you had in the picture. it is mostly ferrous with a few small flakes of aluminum. i guess i'll just monitor it and see what happens.

[bmt]

follow up picture

I thought I would post a pic of what I found in case someone views this thread in the future (spark plug for scale). The oil sump pan was full of metal but fortunately the oil pump intake screen was actually clean! the gears and engagement dogs looked great as well.

Given that I'm pretty sure this metal was a result of the piston seize that the PO had. found a piston circlip, chunks of piston, and the remains of the piston rings.

what is amazing is that after the top end rebuild and some carb and electrical work the bike runs pretty well. As others have stated, it seems pretty hard to kill a GS!

[sternavi]

gs550m

Hi,
does anybody know from were to get shop manual for gs550m?
cheers
Avi

[Nessism]

There is no specific factory manual for the M, only a supplement to the regular 550 manual. You can download the entire manual, including all the various supplements for different 550 models, for free from repairmanualclub.com, or from Basscliff.

[bmt]

I'm using the Clymer GS550 1977-1986 manual. While the manual primarily shows pictures of L models I've found that the information is appropriate for M models (at least the 82, 550) as well and the manual does list M models in the list of covered vehicles.

So far, I've not come across anything that wasn't in that manual.