OMG! Where did these beer can tabs come from? GS1100

[Guest]

Oh man....

Tonight I was going to torque down the head and reinstall the cams on this '81 GS1100 I've been working on and when I got out the o-rings for those two special nuts by the cam chain tunnel I found four beer can tab looking things. They look like they could go at the four corners of the head or base gasket but there was nothing like them on either gasket when I took it apart. I don't remember and recesses in the cylinder block or head either.

The gasket set is from Athena with an MLS gasket and says it covers GS1100 80-85. I looked at diagrams from all years (GS1150 in later years, maybe the same?) and didn't see anything that looks like these.

HALP! I want to get this thing done, ridden, retorqued and out of my garage before the snow flies.


/\/\ac

[Jethro]

Can you post a picture? I can't for the life of me figure out what something like that could be.

[850 Combat]

Wire guides

I'm wrong. I should have not posted before the photo. They look like what Salty Monk said. is it a 4 valve or a "G"?

[Macmatic]

Here is a picture with a penny for scale.

[Macmatic]

Wire guides? Could be but I haven't found anything like this on the bike so far.

/\/\ac

[salty_monk]

Looks like some kind of crush washer to me... does it go over the studs or something?

[new bob]

Wire guides? Could be but I haven't found anything like this on the bike so far.

/\/\ac

I just replaced the head gasket on my 1980 1100E (same as 1981) and I did not find anything that looks that that.

[Macmatic]

Looks like some kind of crush washer to me... does it go over the studs or something?

[Glower] Don't toy with me man. [/glower]


yeah, could be. Looks like some sort of seal... metal plate with two attached o-rings. But I don't know where it goes, the engine didn't have them when it came apart and I didn't see and recess in the cases, cylinder block or head where the orings would go. I don't think anything would seal if they were just sandwiched in between somewhere. I don't see these in the OEM fiche or mentioned in the manual but all I have is a PDF to work from for this bike and I may have missed something. I doubt it though, I've been over and over this section of the manual lately.

Most importantly I don't want the bike to leak again! Last road trip I ended up pressure washing my friend and his bike at a Scranton car wash at 3am... once is enough for that.

/\/\ac

[new bob]

[QUOTE=Macmatic;1112158][Glower] Don't toy with me man. [/glower]


yeah, could be. Looks like some sort of seal... metal plate with two attached o-rings. But I don't know where it goes, the engine didn't have them when it came apart and I didn't see and recess in the cases, cylinder block or head where the orings would go. I don't think anything would seal if they were just sandwiched in between somewhere. I don't see these in the OEM fiche or mentioned in the manual but all I have is a PDF to work from for this bike and I may have missed something. I doubt it though, I've been over and over this section of the manual lately.

Most importantly I don't want the bike to leak again! Last road trip I ended up pressure washing my friend and his bike at a Scranton car wash at 3am... once is enough for that.

/\/\ac[/QUIs it a E or G model

[lucabond]

Probably just someone drinking in packaging and had to ditch them real quick, lol.

[Nessism]

My guess is here...

[Macmatic]

Thanks for the replies. The bike is an E model, 1981 GS1100E

Nessism. That's where I was thinking when I looked at the diagrams. I guess I'll pull off the head tomorrow and look at it again but I still don't think those could go in there. The metal plate part is at least 1mm thick and the head gasket had no cut outs for something of thise size to sit in so I can't see how it would seal with these on the top or bottom side.

I won't have a chance to look at it until after work tomorrow but then I'm in the garage this weekend until she runs. This is my friends bike and it originally started leaking (too badly to ride further) around the end of June last summer. Between waiting a couple of months to get it to my house, waiting on parts and trying to find time to work on it between other projects he's been bikeless far too long at this point!

/\/\ac

[Matchless]

Is that not a replacement for the o-ring under the cylinders to the block?
Usually its just the o-ring in that shape without the inner support???

[Macmatic]

Is that not a replacement for the o-ring under the cylinders to the block?
Usually its just the o-ring in that shape without the inner support???

.... There are supposed to be o-rings there? I didn't see them mentioned in the manual and didn't see them in the fiche. The base gasket looks just like the one in the fiche too, so no place for the extra holder to sit.



On a related note: Should there be thread lock on the head nuts? There was when the engine came apart and I'm thinking that might be why it never really torqued down properly. My friend bought the bike with a small oil leak that turned into a gusher on the road a few thousand miles later so I talked him through re-torquing the head in a parking lot someplace in VA which helped for about another 1,000mi. The problem was that you cold go through the patten over and over and always get a little more turn on some of the nuts. I had him stop after a few passes because I was worried about stipped threads in the cases... a little stud pressure seemed better than none if he stripped it all the way out.

Well the threads were good but the center two front studs came out (back in with high temp loc-tite) and there was loc-tite in the special nuts...a lot of loc-tite. I'll check the manual .pdf again but I didn't see anything about using a lock product on any of those nuts.

Thanks for all the input so far!

/\/\ac - back after work.

[Kcwiro]

well if it goes where Ness pictured you would think it would be to help with oil passages... though I have a 750 and for me I just had the stand-offs. Learn something everyday it seems... until he mentioned that I was thinking some twisted chain tensioner gasket....