My 1982 GS 450 - journal thread

[bren]

project journal - valve day

Tonight I cracked open the valve cover. Unfortunately i have a bolt that is rusted into the head and broken off, fortunately it's sticking a few mm out of the head, enough to grab hold of it with vice grips. I'm leaving it alone for now. it's very stuck. Tomorrow I'll get a torch from the auto parts store. right now the stub is soaking in pb blaster. Don't have a welder unfortunately. so i can't weld a nut on it. I do work with someone who maybe could do that for me if it comes down to that.

The rest of the bolts were torqued properly. One other bolt was rusty but i was able to get it out and clean out the hole.

it looks nice and clean on the inside. the oil is light amber, like the oil was changed and never ran after that.

here are my measurements of valve clearance. My smallest feeler gauge is .02mm and i have them in .01mm increments. does this look right?

"driver" side:
intake:
clearance: less than .02mm
shim: 2.50mm
shim needed: 2.45mm

exhaust:
clearance less than .02mm
shim: 2.65
shim needed: 2.6mm

"passenger" side:
intake LT .05mm, exhaust LT .05mm
no adjustment required

I may be the first person to crack into the valves on this bike. Is it normal for valves to have different shims from the factory?

also it's my understanding that valve clearances usually tend to tighten over time, is that right? I don't really understand that. is it from the camshafts wearing into the bearings?

---

everything else is on order that i've discovered so far. needle & seat, intake boot o-rings, and sh775 box should be here in the next couple days, hopefully tomorrow. also in the mail still: tires, brake shoes, throttle cable, valve cover gasket (oem at that!), some new bolts for the valve cover.

just need to obtain a couple of shims and a new turn signal relay. probably also need some o-rings for the float bowl drain plugs. i'll find out if it leaks i guess.

i also checked out the chain. the adjuster was all the way in when i took the wheel off, so it's clearly a new chain. I measured and it appears to be a 530 chain. it's dirty but it's oiled with no binding links or anything.

phew! well it's coming along at least. as long as the stator and ignition system are ok still, I hope this will have me up and running. I need to run tests on those. i want to put a dyna on at some point.

i'm a little concerned about the wiring in general. the small gauge red wire with the fuse on it was getting pretty warm when i had the battery plugged in and the headlight on. there's a bullet connector on that wire that i tried cleaning up some. maybe once i wire in the 775 box and put a led headlight in, it will be a little happier.

the last todo list item for the moment: the 'driver' spark plug looks pretty rich and the 'passenger' plug looks really lean. i'm hoping that cleaning the carbs and replacing the intake orings fixes that but i also need to get the stuff to check the sync.

that's it for tonight, thanks for reading

[LAB3]

Valve clearance gets tighter as the valve wears itself deeper into the valve seat

[bren]

before i lose it again. carb o-ring sizes on a bs34ss

"For your emulsion tube, you need a 1.1mm x 3.1mm (cross section by ID). I've tried O-rings that were extremely close, and they would not get the job done. I've seen this O-ring available at parts outlets like Beach Blvd. The Suzuki part number is 09280-03003, and its current price is $1.40 at Beach. This particular O-ring has to be spot on to provide the proper interference fit to hold the emulsion tube in place.

The adjustment screw takes a 1.25mm x 3.8mm. This one shouldn't be too tough to find."

drain plug o-ring is Item #: 13249-41310 size unknown

[bren]

Alright, did some work on the bike today. She's been lying on her belly for over a month now. But I finally got the wheels back on! She's a roller again! I managed to get it back up on the center stand by tipping her over onto a stack of pillows and tipping it back up onto a floor jack. Thankfully she's not too heavy especially with no wheels.

I struck out twice trying to find new brake shoes for er. My bike, the TXZ, has spoked wheels which use an older size shoe that was mainly used in the 60's-70's, mine being the last year model to run them. Pretty difficult to find and expensive. Third time's a charm though, ebay special. I swear there's gotta be like half a dozen sets of those shoes left on earth! I'm glad to know now that you can get them re-padded, I saved the old shoes.

I boogered up that valve cover bolt pretty bad that's stuck in the head. At least I know my limits now; it's gonna take a drill press to fix it. I'm gonna "pretend I didn't see that" and see if I can just goop rtv around that area and get her running for the time being until I can get the top end off and fix it properly, maybe this winter. So I just jammed that cam cover back on and called it a day.

Polish_20240717_204138154-sm.jpg

[bren]

I put some of her clothes back on and took another pic for morale she's a beaut
Polish_20240717_205719639-sm.jpg

[bren]

i just found my bike on the forum already

https://www.thegsresources.com/pg_display.php?displayid=605

[bren]

Today I accomplished my goal of hearing motorcycle noises! She ran! Started right up. I had problems though.

I have a high hanging idle issue. It goes straight to 4000rpm's and won't come down.

I messed with it a little bit but mostly read the forums.

- although the intake boots look ok, the rubber is peeling off of the metal backing plate. I'll get another set of boots. also the clamps seem stretched and bottom out.
- the weather stripping on the airbox lid is severely deteriorated. That's another suspicion I have.
- I also will take the carbs back off and make sure the float heights are set correctly. I didn't do it right.

one odd thing I noticed. The one instance where it seemed to run ok - was when I forgot to reattach the petcock vacuum line to the carb. It was idling at a more normal rpm, and the throttle response was working more as expected. Although a bit slow to come down. Which my understanding is that this would cause a vacuum leak on #1 carb. but it would also be only using fuel from the bowls, which makes me think floats aren't right. but a bit strange that a vacuum leak would cause the idle to come down ... i'll have to investigate this more. maybe the carbs are just severely out of sync, or there's a much larger air leak on carb2 than carb1 and inducing a leak on carb1 lets them both run more evenly.

curious stuff. but I was happy to hear the engine run. it sounded half decent to me, when it wasn't revving to the moon.

advice appreciated!

intake boot on the 'passenger' cylinder :
intakeboot.jpg

[Grimly]

IF the carbs are way out of sync, things will come to normal-ish as they get closer. You might still have an air leak or other problems, though.

[bren]

IF the carbs are way out of sync, things will come to normal-ish as they get closer. You might still have an air leak or other problems, though.

yea i guess i'll find out. i was gonna mess with the sync a little and see what happened, it being a twin i figured it can't hurt to just twist the knob and see what happens. But I didn't have time today. i stayed up way too late reading and overslept. thru my research last night i learned that someone before me may have put a cheapo carb kit in my bike. That is, if it's true that all mikuni jets are stamped; mine have no markings. so all bets are off in that department. I definitely wasn't fond of the needle jet they used with the rubber tip. it got smashed up into the jet and the tip was deformed.

i have some parts on the way to work on the air leaks, a carb tuner, a fancy caliper to measure the floats, and some other stuff to try. i'll definitely take a second look at the pilot jets and stuff...

[rphillips]

Jets with no markings???? now that'll got'ta really make you scratch your head don't it?

[dgates1]

If it ran smoother and didn't run up to 4000 rpm when you took the vacuum line OFF.. I would assume the petcock is shot and it is letting fuel go down the vacuum line.

[bren]

well i'm back working on this project after a few month hiatus. I'm having similar issues to what i had before.

i replaced the intake boots. the airbox looks good and i replaced the stripping around the lid and oiled up the filter. It's still running pretty weird.

I did get a new petcock also but haven't put it in the tank. The original one unseized so I left it on for the time being. I set it to prime to rule out a leaking petcock vacuum port.

So tonight, I went to try starting it up again. It wouldn't start at all unless it was on full choke. it finally did start and revved up to 4-5k. when I remove choke it dies. Could be idle set too low I guess but also, when I give it throttle, it dies. just as before, it runs slightly better with the vacuum line removed from the left carb. the throttle will actually respond then. but if i put my thumb over the vacuum port, it revs high again.

I've got the carbs back off and on the bench, I'm gonna check float height. I don't believe it's set right. I eyeballed it when i added different needle valves.

that's clearly not the move. my measurements:
right carb: 31.6
left carb: 28.5

they are supposed to be at 26.6 if my manual is correct. so they're both super lean.

so those are set correctly now. bending that little tab is nerve wracking. I also discovered that my jets are in fact mikuni originals and that I just didn't look hard enough for the markings. I've got 115 mains and 17.5 pilots.

And, I do believe that fixed it.

It wouldn't start cold without choke. But I slowly inched it up to about half choke, and finally it did! and it didn't run away! I cautiously blipped the throttle and it responded! I inched down the choke and it was still working!! I need to set the idle screw higher because i had to hold a touch of throttle, but it's finally running normally and idling right at ~1k happily!!

so it seems that the old carb boots are probably still good - i'll hang onto those. it's easier to take the carbs out with the new, soft ones anyway. and I've got a spare petcock.

hooray! now all that's left is the electronic stuff! my SH775 needs to go in and I need a new blinker relay, and I want to do the headlight mod, but I think that's all that's left before i can go ride!

https://tenor.com/view/trump-dance-trump-2024-trump-gif-12734161508561409577

[Rob S.]

Needing full choke to (cold) start is normal. Revving high after starting is normal. You then reduce the choke to bring the revs down to 2k or so, where you let it idle for a minute or two to warm up.

Try to reduce the choke slightly to achieve a normal idle (1100 rpm). You can ride away with the choke still partly on, cutting it off totally after a mile or so.

If your bike can hold a 1k idle after it's completely warmed up, fine. Many older bikes just can't do that any more, so 1200 - 1300 rpm is acceptable. If it can't hold an idle below 1400, well, some refreshening, refurbishing or rebuilding might be in order.

I assume you know where the idle set screw is?

[bren]

Needing full choke to (cold) start is normal. Revving high after starting is normal. You then reduce the choke to bring the revs down to 2k or so, where you let it idle for a minute or two to warm up.

Try to reduce the choke slightly to achieve a normal idle (1100 rpm). You can ride away with the choke still partly on, cutting it off totally after a mile or so.

If your bike can hold a 1k idle after it's completely warmed up, fine. Many older bikes just can't do that any more, so 1200 - 1300 rpm is acceptable. If it can't hold an idle below 1400, well, some refreshening, refurbishing or rebuilding might be in order.

I assume you know where the idle set screw is?

well that's good to know. I'm still new to this machine. The best I could do was to compare my experience to what I could find on youtube, which isn't a whole lot - not many 450's on there. most bikes i've seen on there, they just kick it over and it goes straight to a nice idle. Once I got the floats set right, that's what mine did at about half choke. i was able to reduce it a little at a time after it started getting warm.

Yea I know where the idle screw is. I had it turned all the way out for testing. and yea my bike seemed to like it around 1200 from my limited testing tonight.

[rphillips]

Congrats, seems like you got it. As long as you get it to idle right when "completely warm", mostly or almost warm don't count.