My 1981 GS650G Thread

[Skateguy50]

haha nice, I might get in the garage this weekend and see what I can do. Need a new battery though... trickle charge came up fault...

Keep up the nice work, might put mine on the road in the next month as I have to move it and no need to put it in the truck when I can ride it.

[Macguyver]

Getting closer...

Not much of an update, but I painted the top of the triple tree last night. I am not really a fan of painting parts "in situ", but it turned out nice, and gets me ready to reassemble the triple tree and put all of the gauges back together.

It received my typical satin black engine enamel paint scheme to match the rest of, well, everything, so it will fit in nicely in the overall scheme of things.

After paint I set a heater on the tank and left it heating the triple to bake the finish as much as I could to increase durability. I love how the paint goes from looking "rounded off" when wet, to that nice form fitting skin tight look when dry!

[AF_Bill]

Mac, its been a lil bit since I read up on your 650. WOW!!!! I love the progress. I like the idea ya did with the mirrors. I've still got the bars that came with my bike and they have the windshield mounts. I knew I was keepin that thing around for something. I'm gonna try and mount my mirros like you did. And by the way, what kind of paint are you using on the motor?

[Macguyver]

Mac, its been a lil bit since I read up on your 650. WOW!!!! I love the progress. I like the idea ya did with the mirrors. I've still got the bars that came with my bike and they have the windshield mounts. I knew I was keepin that thing around for something. I'm gonna try and mount my mirros like you did. And by the way, what kind of paint are you using on the motor?

Hey there Bill,
I am using Plasti-kote rattle can engine paint. I first apply 1 light coat, followed by 1 medium coat of PPG Specialty Products SXA1031 etch primer(amazing stuff BTW, the rep says it's good for high heat even though the can doesn't state so), followed by 2 medium coats of Plasti-kote T-1 Gloss Black Engine enamel, followed up with 1 medium coat of Plasti-kote 230 Flat Black Engine Enamel to get that nice satin finish.

Plasti-kote does have a satin black engine enamel, but I did not like the look of it, it seemed like it was going to flake off pretty easily, and it took forever to get the proper film build without getting splotches of glossy/flat finish. I think it is the flattening agent they mix in with it to get the satin look, just not good IMO.

I would like to have used a gloss black industrial high heat paint one of our customers use(rated for 900 degrees), but I couldn't justify $250/Gallon to myself when I get the rattle cans cheap cheap cheap with my discount at work.

Thanks for the kind words Bill, and I'll TTYL. Now I'm off to grab some grub, and then get back to work on the bike!

[Macguyver]

LED Gauge Lights

I am trying to free up as much power as possible on my 650 any way I can to lighten the load on the charging system in an attempt to prolong the life of the R/R and stator, and free up power for other lighting, etc.

Having completed the painting required for reassembly of the gauge cluster, I asked myself, what's next? Why, LED Gauge lighting of course!

I started with the stock 2W bulbs for the tach and speedo, plus the two 3.4W bulbs from the new voltmeter and ammeter gauges.

First step is to break the bulbs, yep, you read correctly, smash the bulbs.
In as safe a manner as possible of course, don't want glass shards everywhere.

Then desolder the filament connections, and clean out the insulating adhesive from the cavity left in the bulb body.

I then grabbed a few small chunks of perf-board, some green 3mm LED's, and matching resistors to create my new lighting.

I positioned the LED's in a roughly circular arrangement that would be compact enough to fit into the bulb passages in the back of the gauges, and soldered everything together making sure they are all connected in series, and added the resistor.

Next, I trimmed all of the excess leads, and soldered the new assembly into the bulb bodies. I will be filling the cavities with epoxy to make them vibration proof, and electrically isolated.

The main pic is of the LED's lighting up the voltmeter and the ammeter without changing the orientation of the LED's to shine in any direction other than forward. For the lighting of the tach and speedo, since there is more room around the bulbs, I will be able to gently bend the LED's so that they will light up the interior of the gauges more evenly to increase visibility of the gauges.

They turned out well, and I think they will look really sweet when everything is assembled, and just as important to me, the power requirements for lighting will be dropped significantly, freeing up precious amps for other things.

Not bad for an hour or so on a lazy Saturday morning.

[Bad Kaw]

Very cool.
-KR

[Bribird]

You make me wanna go tear into mine now... I had bought a bunch of leds and resistors to do exactly what you are doing, then during my build cause I was close to the show I was entered in, I just left everything stock but upgraded my R&R to one from an old 1100 honda sabre that I had parted out. No problems at all with the charging system but still like the idea of making some led bulbs for it...

Keep up the great work, I am excited to see the finished product when it all comes together...

[Macguyver]

LED Gauge Lighting part 2

Keep up the great work, I am excited to see the finished product when it all comes together...

Well, wait no longer.

I spent the majority of the afternoon/evening installing and wiring in the gauges. As you can see, I also covered every wire set with black split loom to protect the wires, and keep the looks clean. I love the way split loom ties everything together!

I also ran all of the necessary wiring for the gauges for connecting to the electrickery tray so I don't need to revisit them later to finish anything off.

Is it bad that I am using 10 gauge wire for the ammeter?
I know, not needed, but I prefer to overkill than underkill.

Here is close to the final version of the LED Gauge Lights, all assembled and running. All I can say is...WOW! They are really bright!

I think I need to build a dimmer setup for them and wire it inline, cause they are distractingly bright in the voltmeter and ammeter. Not so much in the speedo and tach.

I think I need to get another speedo and tach and take them apart and remove the red behind the numbers and hash marks. It just dims the light too much, and I want them to glow green, not red.

Shouldn't have a problem with visibility at night though!

Materials used:
-24 ultrabright green 3mm LED's
-4 #53 bulbs (or at least the bodies from them)
-12' #10 gauge primary wire
-8 ring terminal ends
-20' 3/8" black split loom
-a dash of dielectric grease
-4 rubber grommets to replace the hard plastic ones which came with the gauges
-misc. extras

Results:
-truly custom LED gauge lighting and a few ideas for more work to be done

I am loving the way they turned out barring the red accents in the speedo/tach, but that will be remedied on an "as time/materials permit" basis.

Now I need to think of what to do next!

[Bribird]

ya I hear ya. There is a guy on here named Rudy that has a connection on getting custom gauge faces made...no red if you choose... I also thought about that too when considering the led thing.

Dimming LEDs is a kinda strange thing as there is a forward voltage needed before they will operate. A dimmer would only dim slightly at best. You might wanna consider less LEds in the amp and volt, I know that will change the load and you will need a different resister to obtain the correct forward voltage, but that would be the correct way of approachingthe brightness issue.. or just finding some green LEDs that are not as bright. I ordered two different brigtness levels of LEDs in red for mine and the bright ones are really bright.

I too am I huge fan of wire covering.. On my build I covered every single wire in the harness with carbon fiber PET sleeving and heat shrunk all the ends. Even did the same thing for all the control cables... I love the look of a clean harness and think its worth the extra(extreme) effort.

Heres a pic of what the sleeving looks like on some of the control cables.. I took pictures of everything during my build and put them up on my photobucket page...

Your project turned out very well, so ya, its time to move onto the next project... whats that gonna be?

hopefully I was able to stay somewhat on topic as I have been drinkin a bit tonight .....lol

[Macguyver]

Aircraft Switches

Dimming LEDs is a kinda strange thing as there is a forward voltage needed before they will operate. A dimmer would only dim slightly at best. You might wanna consider less LEds in the amp and volt, I know that will change the load and you will need a different resister to obtain the correct forward voltage, but that would be the correct way of approachingthe brightness issue.. or just finding some green LEDs that are not as bright. I ordered two different brigtness levels of LEDs in red for mine and the bright ones are really bright.

I will dim them by using a 555 timer IC and pulsing the power to them, this way I can control the on/off cycle time and control intensity that way. Super easy circuit too, I once won a bet that I could draw a complete 555 LED control circuit with correct component values in less than 30 seconds.

Your project turned out very well, so ya, its time to move onto the next project... whats that gonna be?

Well, my next project was drilling the holes and mounting the aircraft switches I had purchased off of ebay for this project about 8 months ago. The green one is for the LED accent lighting, and the red one is the new run switch. They will work great, and look great too! Next up is mounting the new start switch, and then installing the accent lighting.

[Macguyver]

New Starter Switch

This morning I had planned on installing the new starter switch I had ordered off of Ebay, and what I did not plan on was the guy sending me the wrong type of switch.

I wanted a momentary switch, what I received was a latching switch. I think we can all agree that a switch that stays on until you press it again would not be healthy for the starter!

So I had to rebuild the switch.

I was lucky and the switch fit in the center passage in the table on my drill press, otherwise a vice would work, but potentially be damaging to the threads on the switch unless wrapped in some rubber or similar material. I started off by using a flat edged chisel that I had rounded the edges on, to gently open up the diameter of the bottom crimped section of the switch which holds the internals in by tapping it gently with a plastic faced hammer, keeping the leading edge of the chisel at roughly a 30 degree tangent to the inner lip of the crimp.

Once the crimp was opened, I extracted the internals and proceeded to analyze the switching mechanism. Most latching switches are called that for the very reason that there is somewhere inside them, you guessed it, a latch of some sort. The one inside this switch was molded in a small white plastic piece which acts as the intermediary between the button top and the actual electrical connections. I highlighted it on the image, but it's kind of hard to see. Essentially it is shaped like a small triangle, with the guide from the electrical contacts running up one side on the button press, and latching on the top of it, then being moved over by spring tension, and running down the other side of it on the sequential button press to release the contacts from each other.

The easiest way to transform the switch to a momentary type was to remove this triangle, which I very carfully did using a very small and sharp chisel. One slip here and I would be out one switch, and likely more than a few drops of blood. Did I mention the chisel is very sharp?

Once I flattened the area where the molded triangle used to be, I lightly greased the contacts with some dielectric grease, and reassembled the switch internals, testing the action when all fit together, and sure enough, the switch is now a momentary switch.

I ran a thin line of epoxy around the end of the switch internals, and reinserted the internals into the switch housing. I then folded over the crimp using the same flat edged chisel and my plastic faced hammer to keep everything tight and in place.

It is always a good idea to test components before installing, and the modified switch works like a charm, and because of the way I rewired it, the red ring around the button lights up when the button is depressed.
Perfect.

Now I just need to find my 11/16" drill bit so I can make the mounting hole and wire the switch in.

[Macguyver]

LED Accent Lighting

Since I need to ponder where to mount my modified start switch, I decided to get at installing some accent lighting on my 650.

Unfortunately, I have run out of LED's, so I can only do a partial install, but it will be enough that I can figure out what areas need lighting, and it will give me a good idea of how many more arrays I need to construct.

Each array consists of 5 superbright LED's wired in series along with an appropriate value resistor, built on a strip of perfboard, and encased in double-wall heatshrink tubing to keep the elements out.

I began by wiring in the master switch for the lighting, and wiring it all back to the fuse block in the electrickery panel, covering the wiring with split loom as I went.

The first arrays I installed in the rear went under the fender lower so as not to be visible from anywhere but below the mid-line of the bike. I am a strong believer that the light should be seen, but not the light source. I am likely going to put a shield over the side of the LED's in this location to keep them from illuminating the top of the rear tire to add to the overall effect of hiding the light source.

I also plan on adding two more arrays, one on each side to further illuminate the rear tire and driveshaft area.
After mounting the rear arrays, I then secured the arrays which light up the rear of the carbs and air filter area. Using one array on each side, mounted on the frame. and one array mounted horizontally in the center to illuminate the front of the carbs and the intake side of the engine.

I need to hide an array on each side to light up the spark plug area, likely on the frame underneath the gas tank. There are also 4 arrays of orange LED's built, which will be mounted on the frame in front of the engine to illuminate between the 2nd and 3rd exhaust pipes, which will be shielded from view by the front lower fairing/chin fairing I have planned.
So in total, I believe I need to construct 2 arrays for the rear, 2 for above the engine, and 4 for the front wheel, for a total of another 40 LED's required.

Too bad I only have maybe 14 left. Looks like I need to go to ebay to buy another 100 pack. This should give me plenty, and have enough left over to make additional lighting if I believe it needs it.
While I am waiting for them, I can now install the lighting for inside the timing cover, and proceed with other projects.

[Macguyver]

"Naked" Pics

Now that I have your attention...

Here are some "naked" pics of my LED arrays.

I completely forgot I had a test circuit on a project board that was using the 3mm green LED's I thought I had run out of, so I stripped the circuit from the board and started assembling more arrays for my accent lighting.

I decided to show what they look like before they were encased in heat shrink in case anyone was curious.

*Note* Your resistor values may be different depending on the voltage/current demands of your LED's, and the number of LED's you decide to use. Please use an LED circuit calculator so you don't overdrive your LED's and let the magic smoke out!

[Skateguy50]

For a $2 momentary switch at radio shack I dont think I would try to remake one but well done

Looks good, but I think it is clear you have to much time on your hands need the snow to melt so you can start putting some miles on the 650.

Cant wait to see the bike all back together, perhaps a youtube walk around showing off all the stuff you added.

[Macguyver]

For a $2 momentary switch at radio shack I dont think I would try to remake one but well done

Looks good, but I think it is clear you have to much time on your hands need the snow to melt so you can start putting some miles on the 650.

Cant wait to see the bike all back together, perhaps a youtube walk around showing off all the stuff you added.

A $2 momentary from radio shack wouldn't have the look I wanted, but I see your point. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just buy a new tire.

Yet, I want this bike to be 100% "me". Everything done my way, nothing storebought if storebought isn't exactly what I want. I did break down and buy a couple sets of 32 LED 1156 bulb replacements. Too many LED's to solder, too much time would be needed, and I would have to order some LED's for it, so even I can't be bothered to make them.

I will likely shoot a video when I get it on the road, but I don't think I'll be able to remember all of the individual stuff I have done. Maybe I'll just print out a list of my motorcycle project directory and work from there.

It's really bugging me that I haven't done much on the bike in the last week. I've been uber-busy at work, and people keep bugging me for favors, so I am exhausted by the time I get home. I have had some bad bouts of insomnia lately, so sleep has been tough and in short supply.
Pretty hard to get motivated when you have zero energy.

I would love to be able to take a 1-hour seista in the afternoon, but I think the boss would have issues with that.

I am going to try and get the rest of the accent lighting in tonight, so we'll see how it goes when I get home.