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Hello Everyone,
I've been a lurking member for a few months now, but this is my first post. I purchased a 1980 Suzuki GS850G with approximately 15,000 miles (more on that later) from a guy with too many project bikes and a baby on the way for $750. Now that the it's starting to warm up a bit (relatively speaking for central Illinois), I'm trying to get the bike in shape before the spring sneaks up on me. I should also add that I'm planning on riding this bike to California and back at the end of August, so reliability is of utmost importance here. The previous owner painted the gas tank, put on new front and rear tires, claims to have rebuilt and cleaned the carbs, added a fairing, replaced the clutch cable, replaced all the brake pads, replaced oil, replaced all filters, replaced front fork seals and replaced fork oil, reupholstered the seat, and many other miscellaneous things.
I have been reading through the many articles on BassCliff's site, but am having trouble diagnosing many of the problems accurately to prevent replacing parts that aren't broke. Any advice on any of these problems would be greatly appreciated.
1.) The speedometer and odometer guage is broken and stuck at ~14,500 miles, so the actual bike mileage is difficult to estimate. The cable seems okay, but is there any way to replace just the single gauge or will I have to replace the entire cluster? If I replace the cluster, would you guys recommend rolling the odometer back to the approximate mileage (say 16,000) and informing a possible buyer of what happened?
2.) The left turn signal does not seem to work. If I switch the connections between the lights, the right turn signal doesn't work. Is the switch the most likely culprit here? Should I replace it, or is disassembly and cleaning likely and a doable process?
3.) Cylinder 3 appears to be running significantly cooler (but definitely running), does this indicate that the carb must be running rich? Am I due for a rebuild/rejetting?
4.) This is the baddie: the bike has completely erratic starting behavior. It's been somewhat hesitant to start due to the cold, but warming the engine up a bit with a space heater or propane torch seems to give it some motivation and it eventually fires up. But here is the mystery, if the engine is cold (not frozen due to Father Frost, simply at ambient temperature) the starter button seems to crank it and it eventually fires--with various numbers of attempts that seem to be affected by ambient temperature. However, once the engine warms up and the bike is shut off, pressing the start button does absolutely nothing. It does not crank AT ALL, the lights simply dim very slightly. But, here is the weird part, if I short the starter solenoid, the bike will fire up almost immediately. What could this possibly mean?
5.) there is a small outlet on the rear left (from rider's perspective) of the tank labelled "FUEL" that seems to dribble fuel, but only when the bike is on. How can I fix this?
6.) Has anyone ever tried constructing their own replacement side covers? My bike does not have any, and rather than spending $120 on ebay, I was considering fabricating some out of aluminum diamond plate.
I'm sorry about this very long winded message, and a rather demanding introduction, but I figured this would give you a little bit of insight into my ride.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated, and feel free to rag on me if it seems like I got suckered in this purchase. It is indeed my first motorcycle, but a few of my friends had great things to say about GSes and deemed this a safe buy for someone with moderate mechanical inclinations such as myself.
Cheers,
Damian
I've been a lurking member for a few months now, but this is my first post. I purchased a 1980 Suzuki GS850G with approximately 15,000 miles (more on that later) from a guy with too many project bikes and a baby on the way for $750. Now that the it's starting to warm up a bit (relatively speaking for central Illinois), I'm trying to get the bike in shape before the spring sneaks up on me. I should also add that I'm planning on riding this bike to California and back at the end of August, so reliability is of utmost importance here. The previous owner painted the gas tank, put on new front and rear tires, claims to have rebuilt and cleaned the carbs, added a fairing, replaced the clutch cable, replaced all the brake pads, replaced oil, replaced all filters, replaced front fork seals and replaced fork oil, reupholstered the seat, and many other miscellaneous things.
I have been reading through the many articles on BassCliff's site, but am having trouble diagnosing many of the problems accurately to prevent replacing parts that aren't broke. Any advice on any of these problems would be greatly appreciated.
1.) The speedometer and odometer guage is broken and stuck at ~14,500 miles, so the actual bike mileage is difficult to estimate. The cable seems okay, but is there any way to replace just the single gauge or will I have to replace the entire cluster? If I replace the cluster, would you guys recommend rolling the odometer back to the approximate mileage (say 16,000) and informing a possible buyer of what happened?
2.) The left turn signal does not seem to work. If I switch the connections between the lights, the right turn signal doesn't work. Is the switch the most likely culprit here? Should I replace it, or is disassembly and cleaning likely and a doable process?
3.) Cylinder 3 appears to be running significantly cooler (but definitely running), does this indicate that the carb must be running rich? Am I due for a rebuild/rejetting?
4.) This is the baddie: the bike has completely erratic starting behavior. It's been somewhat hesitant to start due to the cold, but warming the engine up a bit with a space heater or propane torch seems to give it some motivation and it eventually fires up. But here is the mystery, if the engine is cold (not frozen due to Father Frost, simply at ambient temperature) the starter button seems to crank it and it eventually fires--with various numbers of attempts that seem to be affected by ambient temperature. However, once the engine warms up and the bike is shut off, pressing the start button does absolutely nothing. It does not crank AT ALL, the lights simply dim very slightly. But, here is the weird part, if I short the starter solenoid, the bike will fire up almost immediately. What could this possibly mean?
5.) there is a small outlet on the rear left (from rider's perspective) of the tank labelled "FUEL" that seems to dribble fuel, but only when the bike is on. How can I fix this?
6.) Has anyone ever tried constructing their own replacement side covers? My bike does not have any, and rather than spending $120 on ebay, I was considering fabricating some out of aluminum diamond plate.
I'm sorry about this very long winded message, and a rather demanding introduction, but I figured this would give you a little bit of insight into my ride.
Any help is GREATLY appreciated, and feel free to rag on me if it seems like I got suckered in this purchase. It is indeed my first motorcycle, but a few of my friends had great things to say about GSes and deemed this a safe buy for someone with moderate mechanical inclinations such as myself.
Cheers,
Damian
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