just bought a 78 GS 1000

[Big T]

That looks like a drag racing style header on there, so no wonder it drags

The turn signals are not original, and are much smaller

The headlight shell may be original, but the "ears" that hold it on the forks are not.

You can check the Gallery for a 78-79 and see what it should look like.

It looks like it needs new fork seals, the ring around the tube is a dead giveaway.

[Zooks]

and run it on the freeway for awhile with the gas cap off.

No offence to russr33 but I would definitely never do this. In the rare event that you were to come off there would be fuel spilled all over the ground, the bike and possibly you. Dying a fuel soaked, firey death is not a pleasant thought.

[Zooks]

BTW Don, welcome aboard the best motorbike forum on the internet. You're guaranteed to get the right advice here.

[Fat Don]

Thanks for the welcome! Yesterday I purchased a PDF service manual for my year bike and I'm pretty sorry I did. The pictures are cruddy because the person selling the PDF just scanned the pages from his manual and they are quite unintelligible. I can read the page just fine but those pics are horrid. Today I went and bought the correct spark plug for the bike and some carb cleaner and sea foam. I was hoping to pick up an inline fuel filter as well but they did'nt carry anything like what I have on my bike. I got home and went to put the plugs in and the freakin head on the top of the plug is different than the plugs that are on the bike and so the plug wire wont fit over the top of it. Damn, it's always like this for me, even the simplest of things becomes complicated as soon as I try doing it myself. The right plug is what came with the bike and the left is what I bought. Do they carry the same plug as I bought only with a different head on it?

It looks like it needs new fork seals, the ring around the tube is a dead giveaway.

What rings exactly? The one the arrow is pointing to?

[Sandy]

Actually the top piece of the plug should just thread off with a pair of pliers. As for the fork seals the rings could be a sign that they are on the way out and leaking oil past the seal. However that is not uncommon on a bike that has sat for a while and may go away after you've ridden it a bit. The seals get hard from sitting but once they're exposed to some fork oil the they soften up a bit. It is a sign though that replacing them should be put somewhere on the to-do list, like right beside a set of Progressive fork springs to replace the bagged out stock ones if the they haven't been changed already.

[Big T]

First, go to Bass Cliffs post and go to his site. There's a 1000 manual there

2nd, as Sandy says, Grab the metal tip of the spark plug with a pliers and twist off the tip to expose the threads

Yep, those oil rings on the fork tubes are the sign that new seals may be needed.

[Suzuki mad]

The headlight supports are missing from your bike, they fit on the stantions between the upper and lower yoke. The indicators fit to them. There's also a cowl that fits across the lower yoke and hides all the pipe connectors and lower yoke.

As for the rear indicators you will find that there is a small bracket missing that the indicator bolts too and that fits through the rear of the frame and holds the front half of the rear mudguard.
Looks like you will have some small holes in your tail section once the small indicators have been removed.

There's plenty of places to get Suzuki chromed copy indicators to make it look right. As for bars thats a bit tricky. The orignal flat bars are no longer avaliable from Suzuki so you may have to source after market ones such as Renthals or second hand set of bars to your taste.

[Fat Don]

I see a set of 78 exhaust on ebay in reasonable condition for $200. Is that a good price or should I wait for a better deal to come along? I'm in no real hurry considering the list of things to do is growing.

[Suzuki mad]

Its not growing, were only saying what different from standard. The choice is ultimatley YOURS as to what you do. The first thing you commented about was the exhaust grounding on the floor.

At $200 I'd snatch there hand off but original exhausts are rare in the UK and come at a premium. Depends what your budget is I suppose.

[hampshirehog]

If the tap is the later type - the one with no reserve and you need a small screwdriver to turn it to prime, I'd suggest replacing with a Pingel. IMHO those original taps were the biggest pile of poo ever made with the stupid prime mechanism.

That exhaust looks pretty mean by the way - I like stubby ones.