old bike

[Anonymous]

My dad's 1985 450L was ridden very little when he first bought it, then its been in storage the past almost 10 years. what are the necessary tune ups i have to do other than the basics, like oil change, fuel change and prolly carb rebuild. last time i tried starting it it didnt turn over, all the lights were on, but no ignition. So help me out on what to do with this bike, o yeah, i dont know much at all with bikes. its my first one.

[Anonymous]

o yeah, another thing, theres less than 5k miles on it.

[Jethro]

Wow, not a lot of miles. Was it stored indoors?

I think your on the right track for the first step. After a carb rebuild, see if you can get it running and idleing. Then there are some things you should do before taking a test ride of any length. Check tires for cracking and pressure, check fork seals, check chain tension, new brake fluid, maybe caliper rebuilds if nessecary, check to see the battery is charging, make sure any cables aren't binding due to corrosion and make sure clutch is adjusted right.

Even stored indoors, there could be corrosion at any electrical connection. That can spell trouble and often does on old bikes. Buy a can of electrical contact cleaner and clean every connection you can get to.

There are other things to do before going on any big rides at all, but you can do some evaluating on the test rides.

[Anonymous]

im not looking for 5 day rides or around the state kinda thing, just around near places. and yes it was stored indoors.

[mdole]

The 450 is a good bike to start out on.

[SqDancerLynn1]

Check the run switch on the rt bar, also check the clutch starter switch--starter will not work without the clutch pulled in. It also has a side stand switch that will kill the engine if it is put in gear with the sidestand down

[Anonymous]

where is the rt bar and where can i find that clutch-starter switch? remember guys, im not yet familiar with the parts on my bike, just the basics.

[Joe Nardy]

where is the rt bar

I think this is referring to the engine Run/Off switch on the right hand of the handlebars just inside the grip.

and where can i find that clutch-starter switch?

There is a mechanical switch built into the clutch lever. You must have the clutch lever pulled in before the bike will start.

[sv650]

The 450 is a good bike to start out on.

And also just fine for the 5 day around the state trips, as long as you stay away from the interstates. (You want twisty roads anyway, right?). Remember a 400 was a fairly big bike in the late 60 and early 70's!

SV

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on 1st bike.

Lots of great advice here. Pretty confusing at first for sure. They've provided a wonderful list of things to check so here's what I checked or wished I'd done on my 1985 GS550LF which I got in June 2004. Very similar in condition. It has around 4,000 miles on it right now. It was COVERED with a motorcycle cover inside a garage for 17 years. Has more damage from things falling onto it than from being dropped. Still has original tires (but not for long).

1. Check the tires very, very closely. If there are ANY cracks, don't go very far or very fast until you replace the tires. Tires is a whole other subject.

2. Fork seals, how can you tell they're bad? Oil on forks where the rubber dustcaps slide. My rubber dustcaps are dry-rotted so I'll be doing fork work soon even though my seals aren't leaking oil yet and it drives perfectly.

3. How do you know the ignition is not working? Pull spark plugs, connect the plug wires and lay the plugs so they're grounded onto a metal part of the engine where you can still see the electrodes on the bottom. Crank the engine. I HOPE YOU AREN'T JUMPSTARTING FROM A RUNNING CAR. YOU CAN RUIN MOTORCYCLE ELECRONICS (SO WE'RE TOLD) IF YOU DO. I USE A JUMP PACK. Everyone sells these things now. Not much good for a really bad car battery but excellent for a temporary or starting booster battery for a motorcycle!! If you jumpstart from a car, don't run the car's engine. Your motorcycle is only drawing a fraction of the car battery's capacity unless you crank forever. Speaking of which, DON'T CRANK FOR MORE THAN 30 seconds or so before you stop and let the STARTER cool down. I didn't know that until I read a .PDF copy of a similar model to my GS550LF from the internet since I didn't get an owner's manual with mine. Anyhow, back to spark troubleshooting: If you see blue spark on all plugs, you can assume ignition is good. If not, you'll have more work to do. Time to dig out the service manual (see below for recommendations).

4. Are you getting gas TO the carbs? The fuel petcocks are sometimes a problem. Most of them I believe are the kind that for ON and RESERVE to provide gas out the fuel line, you have to be cranking (or pumping a vacuum by engine or a vacuum pump). If there is a PRIME position, it is supposed to flow gas to the carbs without cranking. You don't want to run the MC in PRIME after you get it running (voice of experience, again - see below, carbs clogged = gas all over garage floor). Most of the posts here seem to imply the rebuild kits are crap. My thought is if I can get OEM (original equipment manufacturer). I'm going with OEM.

5. I'd bet your carbs are clogged. I'm no expert on the carbs on that model but I can tell you for sure that if when cranking (with gas in the tank), and then you stop trying to start and pull the spark plugs, they better be soaking wet with gas. If they're not, you'll have to work your way through the fuel system until they are. In other words, clean carbs using the carb rebuilding series on this website as a guide. Pay real particular attention to the jets because if they're clogged it'll never run right. Mine were clogged in my idle jets. Once they clogged up 100% the machine refused to start. Before that I could ride but only with the choke on all the way to work and home. Real lean (not getting enough gas) obviously. I learned from that for sure. When you clean your carbs use Chemtool B12 additive. If the carbs are an absolute total mess, you'll have to disassemble and tank the METAL parts. The tank chemicals EAT PLASTIC and RUBBER - you are warned. The Chemtool B12 additive (gas addititve) cleans up just about any thing carb-related better than any spray can carb cleaner from the Auto Parts stores. Store gas by adding STABIL or better gasoline stabilizer to gas. Run engine to get stabilized gas into carbs. You can then drain carbs or just leave the stabilized gas in there. Either way, this will prevent having clogged carbs prematurely. Been doing this to my lawnmowers, tiller, snowthrower, edger, etc. for many years and haven't had a carb problem at all with any of them.


6. Get a Clymer or Haynes service manual or a factory service manual copy if you can find one. I got a Clymer with mine when I bought it. They're just a little too generic in my case because it covers 6 or 8 different variants of GS550. I think Clymer is better than Haynes unless you plan on a TOTAL tear down and rebuild which is how Haynes writes their book.

7. CABLES, CABLES, CABLES. After you get the bike running and get a service manual so you know how to adjust the cable slack, LUBE all cables. My clutch cable broke while riding home from work in August 2004. No lube. New cable took a while to come in from BikeBandit.com so in the meantime I ordered by special order at a Suzuki dealer. They got it in 4 or 5 days! You have to unhook cable at the control end and somehow get a light oil down between the cable inside and the outer part where it slides. I'm going to try real cable lube and a cable luber tool as soon as spring gets here. There are other methods such as using a plastic bag, filled with light weight oil?, hole in bottom of bag, pulled down over cable and held in place with a rubber band around the bag to seal the bag to the cable. Hung overnight. It's said to work good. DON'T use WD-40. It is not a lubricant.

8. Chain tension. Unless you have the book or someone else tells you what it is, around 7/8 inch to 1 inch deflection in the middle (pushing up) would be about right. Your supposed to put it up on center stand, rotate the rear tire and check in several places. Never made any difference on mine (yet) with so little miles but I still think that's the way to do it.

9. CHAIN LUBRICATION. Most drive chains have O ring seals to keep the permanent lube in and dirt out. (If yours is original chain, it's an O rign chain). Dirt still gets in and the links rust on the exposed surfaces (voice of experience again). Get some NON-synthetic chain wax in a spray can and follow directions. You need the chain warmed up for the wax to work it's way in so this will have to come much later. (It's a parafin wax mixture that's easy to clean up overspray onto places where you don't want if you get it before it's been on there too long). Once it dries it really stays on the chain.

10. These engines won't start or run properly without their air filter so I've read. Don't forget to re install it when you clean carbs, etc. or you may never get it started.

11. Best of luck. I'm sure there will be hundreds of good recommendations. Be sure to search the forum regularly. Sometimes things wind up on the wrong title.

[Anonymous]

thanx guys for all your replies, im sure they will help my bike driving down the road. ill tell ya once i get all these things established. it will be awhile.

[snowbeard]

unless the tank was drained, your carbs will most definitely need a good cleaning. then go from there. sounds like a fun bike! enjoy!