My 1981 GS650G Thread

[Macguyver]

would really love to have one of those choke cable assemblies. Any chance you could fab one up for me? or at least the shortened choke cable itself?

As long as your bike is a 650 with BS32SS carbs, I could certainly fab one up for you since I have one now to use as a template. I would likely do one or two things differently now that I have made one. I would probably have the guys across the street cut it out of one piece of sheet steel with their CNC plasma cutter instead of welding everything together. Same would go for the cable holder. I'll get a hold of the guys at the fabrication shop and see what they can do for me for pricing.

[Macguyver]

Air Cleaners

Since I ran out of 1/8" sheet, I can not finish my licence plate holder, so I figured I would jump back on to finishing the air cleaner assemblies I had already cut most of the pieces for.

I started with some 22 gauge sheet steel, which I traced the outline of the air intakes of the carbs onto. Once those were traced, I grabbed the intake boots from the el-cheapo pod filters I have, and marked the diameter of the flange which holds them on the filter, onto the sheet steel. I then crunched some numbers to come up with the proper dimensions to mimic what I believe the flow rate of the original air box was.

Then I transformed my numbers into dimensions on the sheet steel, and cut out all of my pieces to create the air cleaners.





The mesh material which is used to hold the filter foam in place is 1/4" spacing, galvanized steel fencing mesh, and the bolt in the center is an M6 bolt I had laying around. Once I had all of the pieces cut to size and roughly shaped, I broke out the welder and started putting everything together.



The original plan was to weld everything together, but the mesh virtually disintegrated as soon as the welder heated it up, so I ended up using some high temp grey gasket silicone to lock the mesh in place.

Once everything was passed over the bench grinder to clean up the edges, I etch-primed it, then primed and painted the pieces in preparation for final assembly. The filter foam I am using is quite thick, yet free flowing enough that I felt it best to be able to tune the flow down to what I need, instead of trying to nail it on the first attempt. So I also have an inner cage inside the filters to keep the foam where it is supposed to be, and by wrapping sealing tape over the outside of the inner cage, I can tone down the flow as needed.



I have mounted these on the bike, and as expected, it is running lean, but I am confident that I should be able to tune the flow down to a point where I do not need to rejet to use these filters. I am quite pleased that I was able to make the filters adjustable to work with my bike, and I do not not have to adjust the the bike, to make it work with the air filters. As it should be.

On a side note for those who want to use the more inexpensive pod filters on your bike, you can adjust the amount of flow they allow to your carbs.
Simply confirm that they are making the bike run lean (white plugs, stumbling accelleration, etc...do a search if unsure) and block off the pleats on the outside of the filter material to limit the flow down to what you need. When blocking off the pleats, cover the inside of the V shape of the pleats, as this is the only part of the pleat you can easily cover later with silicone gasket maker.

I would say start small and slowly close in on the right amount to block off. You can do a quick and dirty trial by blocking off the pleats with some duct tape to get a good idea of how many to block off. With the el-cheapo pods filters I have, I believe I ended up blocking off 5 of the pleats to get my bike to run right. Your number may vary depending on your setup.

Also, in the sake of keeping the airflow inside the filters as equal as possible, when blocking off the pleats, do one at a time, then test. If the filter is still running the bike lean, block off another pleat with duct tape on the opposite side of the filter, then test again. This method may take a while to get you to the right number, but it does work. Also, make sure you completely cover the pleat in the material with the duct tape to block it off, otherwise, you will be not be able to get an accurate read on the air flow.

Once I had determined the number of pleats to block off, I peeled off the duct tape one piece at a time, and filled the pleat with some silicone gasket maker.

The pods may look a little odd with lines of gasket maker filling in the pleats, and I suppose you could fill them on the inside if you were not worried about a piece dislodging and getting drawn into the engine, thus keeping the outsides of them looking clean.

Well, that's it for now. Pics of the filters on the bike, and more coming soon! (Maybe even a video or two!)

[Rein]

Guess what? My bike is a 650 using BS32 carbs, how sweet is that?! haha. Let me know how much for a set (bracket + cable) or even for your original, if you plan on getting a new one.

Also, what length did you gt for the stainless brake lines?

[Macguyver]

Guess what? My bike is a 650 using BS32 carbs, how sweet is that?! haha. Let me know how much for a set (bracket + cable) or even for your original, if you plan on getting a new one.

Also, what length did you gt for the stainless brake lines?

That is pretty sweet, I will figure out a price for you once the CNC guy at the fab shop comes back from vacation.

As far as the brake lines go, um, I can't remember. I just took a piece of string, and ran it the length of the stock cable, marked it with a marker, then measured the string. I do know I went a little longer than I should have, since I was already planning on replacing the bars with some superbike bars, which would have cut down the cable length by a good 2-3 inches.

[Macguyver]

Licence Plate Bracket

Small update here, Just finished installing my licence plate bracket!

I fashioned it from some 3/32" thick angled fencepost, a standard licence plate light & holder, and some ungodly thick 3/16" steel plate. I wanted the mount to be very rigid since I was planning on recessing it slightly into the rim area to keep it out of the main air flow, and the thinnest steel plate the metal shop across the road had was 3/16"!

Here are some pictures.






As you can see, it's not tucked into the rim area too far, still has to be legible from behind and all.



Which it is.

Now for the piece de resistance, all lit up.



There, now that looks better, or at least, more legal.

Technically, I could go get her safety inspected now, but I have one or two things I want to do first. I will update with more when I can.

[Skateguy50]

Looking good, almost ready to ride!

[pete]

I'm jealous Mac, you're gonna be on the road in no time now! Nicely done again

[Macguyver]

Thanks guys!

Yep, getting very close now. I ony have literally a couple of things left to finish, then I'll be taking the bike in to get the inspection out of the way, and get all of my paperwork in order.

I'm having a rough couple of weeks here, never seems to be enough time in the day, or when I do get a couple hours here and there, custom fabbing parts takes so long it seems like I never make any real progress.

I will be so glad when I am done, then I can get all of the "bike clutter" sorted out and stored away out of sight. I have had bike parts on my kitchen and coffee tables for months now, and it's really bugging me!

Mind you, once I have her on the road, then I will start other projects like rewinding stators, and making some fiberglass body pieces. Luckily, those projects won't take up too much space.

More updates coming soon!

[Skateguy50]

I hear you on the mess... I had engine parts all over for the past 2 weeks or so. Now that the bike is running I need to do a cleanup and sort and stash all the tools that are everywhere. maybe even rebuild my tool kit.

[Macguyver]

Yeah, tools to the left of me, parts to the right...
Maybe I will redo my storage room and build in a couple of workbenches. That would be sweet.

I might just get a jump-start on that tonight since it is absolutely pouring rain outside. Certainly not going to be able to work on the bike tonight.

So how is your bike running now that the top end is all done? Perfectly I hope.

[Skateguy50]

Aside from not filling up the tank or charging the battery it runs GREAT! I had no idea how much power this 650 had the capabilities for till now. It runs so smooth and with the fresh clutch springs it has no trouble hanging onto that power.

I know you 1100 folks reading will laugh a bit but I was happy with what I thought the 650 could do before, but the extra HP I found buried in carbon buildup and old rings is great.

[Macguyver]

That is good to hear, but now you have me wanting to do a tear-down on my engine. Must...hold...off...until...winter...hehehe.

All I know is it will be one heck of a lot easier than the Yamaha Maxim I did for a friend. Good GAWD! Whoever decided to bolt EVERYTHING on it to the backbone of the bike should have been shot! Or at least sent to learn from Suzuki how to build a bike.

[Skateguy50]

Yea save that for winter, it wasnt technically that hard (I survived it after all) just took a while grabbing 2-3 hrs a night as I could to work on it and waiting on parts from the dealer...

Get the bike running as it is and save that, my engine was only at 31k miles and could have gone a lot longer if it wasnt for leaky gaskets. I hope to never open the engine up past the valve cover again.

[AF_Bill]

Mac, looks beautiful!!!!! Get out and ride!!!! Does this mean ya MIGHT hit up the Red River Rally next year?? That would be awesome if ya could. Anyway, all the little details that you've done flow perfectly.

Skate, also followed you're engine rebuild. Glad you're up and runnin too.

[Skateguy50]

Mac you are on pace to make Moosehead this summer, we have some Canadian friends visit from the other side of Maine each year.

Although it would be at least a 2 day ride in and back, some folks could like put you up for a night if needed.