'83 GS550L - Crank Shaft Question

[fourstring]

I had an '83 GS550L in high school that quit on me. I'm no mechanic so I had a guy check it out and he told me it needed a crank shaft, if I remember correctly, he said there was a rod "stuck" on the crank. Ended up just buying another bike and retiring the GS, but I always loved that bike and could never bring myself to get rid of it. Mechanical issues aside, the bike was in amazing shape.

It's now 16 years later and I’ve decided to bring the ol' girl back to life. I dug her out the other day and some TLC (along with a running engine) could make for a pretty nice bike.

Anyway, research has brought me to this forum. I've been looking for a crank lately with no luck, and after that long winded intro (sorry!), my question is...will the crank from any other bike work in my '83 550? another generation GS? another model? etc.

Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

[Dave8338]

Welcome home!

The cranks on this series of bike are built like a car in the respect that they have split rod bearings (two halves) and can be polished or reground in needed. First thing to do is to pull the top end and find out which rod is stuck...it may not be. Also, if it is you need to determine WHY? I wish I had kept a few bikes from my earlier years, they would be very fun to have now.

Basscliff will be along shortly to throw out the red carpet for you, in the meantime, welcome and hang on...it gets fun around here!

Dave

[schweighart2]

try bikeboneyard.com. they have parts for that engine. dont know about the crank. good luck.

[fourstring]

Thanks for the responses, still havin no luck though. I wish the thing were a couple years older...late 70's - early 80's parts seem to grow on trees!

I'll keep trying for a while longer, but I'm startin to think i'll just wind up parting it out....anyone lookin' for 83-86 (GS)550L parts??

[mostholycerebus]

....anyone lookin' for 83-86 (GS)550L parts??

LMK where you are and drop me a PM if you decide to go this route.

[fourstring]

If I decide to junk the bike, I'll give notice here, though I doubt it'll help anyone. I live in eastern Canada and shipping anything to/from here would probably cost too much to be worth it....unless a guy was willing to pay the expensive shipping cost for a specific part that he couldn't find anywhere else...like say, a Crank.