The tossed 78 GS1000 rebuild thread.

[IanC]

One last bit done before I called it a night.

[Chris]

Thanks for the info TCKid. I suspected that might be the case since I had tried a couple of years ago to source a new tank for my GS1000S and was told Suzuki had discontinued them.

Ian, those covers are looking great! You'll have to do mine!

(Just kidding! Come over to the garage this summer when I get back to the US and we'll polish together while I supply the beer and brats. We'll just tell your Mom it's "bonding" time.)

[IanC]

Project still going. Forks, wire wheels, gaskets, headlight and bucket are all coming in the mail. Think dad is getting some SS braided brake hoses made up for me. I degreased, washed, scuffed and primed the frame. Tomorrow I'll scuff it and wash it again before spraying it. Started cleaning up other random parts and painting them. Everything possible will be re-assembled with stainless hardware if not (axles, engine mounts, etc) the heads will be polished, installed then cleared coated with nail polish or modeling paint. I was pretty pleased with the polishing job I managed with a drill mounted polishing wheel but a co-worker said to bring them to him and he'd put them on a bench polisher so everything is boxed up and going to work with me tomorrow. Once the wheels are here I'll be unlacing them and all that will be going to him for polishing as well as the forks to polish the fork legs. I'm watching an 1100 swinger and as long as it stays in my budget I'll be picking it up too just can't decide on polishing it, painting it or leaving it be. Got outbid on the V&H exhaust so that's a bummer. Hopefully someone here gave it a good home. I'll be saving my pennies to add one as a finishing touch. Still no luck on a tank, taking it to have a good shop see if they can cut it open, fix it and weld it shut.





So far required parts list remaining is:
-Headlight mounting ears (Update, parts incoming)
-Lock set (somehow seat lock failed in crash, ignition switch housing broken on bottom)
-Fuel tank (Update, being repaired)
-Tail housing (mine might be fixable but it's cracked)
That's all I can think of that I need to find used unless someone has some nice mirrors. You can still buy them new from Suzuki but they are spendy. Everything else I need is just odds and ends I'm replacing while I'm in there.

[IanC]

Quick update. Bought an 1100 swingarm so that'll be coming soon. Now to decide whether to paint, polish or leave it.

Frame drying.


Headlight mounting ear. The other is bent so either I have to find one of fix it.


Re-assembly starts soon!

[IanC]

Body parts on the frame to get an idea of looks.



Electronics panel all cleaned up and mounted.



Also re-wrapped the wiring harness and picked up a bunch of stainless bits and pieces. Gotta play the waiting game on parts now.

EDIT: I also found someone who can fix the tank so I'm pretty happy about that.

[Chris]

brake lines

Ian,

I boxed up your brake lines and will cart them over to the mailroom tomorrow. You should have them in a week or so. I hope the basic stainless braided lines and blue anodized parts such as the banjo fittings don't bother you. Had I known you were going for the total black out look I'd have gotten black lines and fittings. Sorry.

I like that the bike is starting to come back together and like the work you're doing, especially on the electrical panel. You sure are doing a nice job with our formerly orphan GS1000 refugee. This summer when we head north we should make it up to New York to show the former owner what became of his lost child. I think he'd like to see it.

Dad

[IanC]

Thanks dad. Not really total black out. I think the lines will look good. There will be lot's of black, a bit of white and lots of shiny. Oh and a little blue. Planning on an Earl's cooler so I'll try and get blue fittings for that and they'll both be good contrast.

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. IanC,

Excellent progress. I recently went through a similar procedure rebuilding my bike after my crash. Luckily, my forks were not bent. I didn't take the engine out, but I took everything off except the engine in order to replace and repair the damage and perform other maintenance. I wish you luck and hope you have fun. I'm looking forward to your completed project. Nice work.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[IanC]

Not much to update. While I've been waiting on parts I've been polishing bits and adjusted my valves. Thanks Steve for the handy spreadsheet, Cliff for his excellent site and dad for the loan of the tool and voice of experience. I snapped some pics of the new parts that have made it in but my camera batteries died so I'll try to remember to pick some up tomorrow.

[IanC]

My coffee table currently:



No, I'm not married. How could you tell? I did manage to save my original speedo face and internals. Dropped them into an 85mph shell I had. I didn't break the old shell open or mangle the trim ring, the crash did that. I don't know how my gauge face and insides survived but I'm not complaining.




New headlight and bucket. Sadly the trim ring has a ding. Oh well still got it fairly cheap.



New headlight mounting ears as one of mine was bent. Thanks dad!



1100 swinger I bought off of Eric_Banks32 here on the forums. Soon to be polished.

Also got my pan gasket in finally and the motor is back in the frame. I'll get a pic up soon.

[Chris]

Ian,

Love the shot of the coffee table. I think mix and match games make for an enjoyable evenings entertainment.

The headlight looks great too. I'm glad the headlight ears showed up. What about the forks and wheels?

I'm looking forward to seeing the engine in the frame. What did you pad the frame rails with while installing the motor?

Did you have to swap any shims when you checked the valve clearance?

Dad

[IanC]

No forks and wheels yet. I was assured they were in the mail as of yesterday so soon. To protect the frame I just taped up the sides of the frame and had a few people help slide everything down and get it lined up. There still ended up being a couple scratches that I need to touch up. The motor isn't bolted in completely yet. Not happy with a few fasteners and since the local hardware source doesn't have them I'll either order them from www.tastynuts.com (not a porn site ) or Fastenall. I hear rumors of a place in Knoxville that specializes in metric fasteners so I may try finding that.
The valves were mostly in spec. A couple were tight and replaced shims in those. Now to get Colin motivated to do his while it's waiting on parts.

[IanC]

Hasn't been a lot to report lately. Been wet sanding my swingarm, wet sanding it some more and yet still wet sanding it some more. It's getting close to done. Mostly been waiting on parts.


Made up a new engine to battery ground cable as the old one was in sad shape. I'm working out a set-up to replace the underseat electrical connections with GM style weatherpack connectors. Like this:
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You can get them in a number of different connections and they are easy to custom pin. Best of all, as the name implies they are weather proof. So all those annoying bullet terminals will be replaced and any random ones left will be replaced with new.

New to me wire wheels to replace the mags. One was bent in the accident. I really like the looks of the wire wheels. Eventually these will have to be relaced as the wires are looking a little sad but that will be for another winter. Tires that came with them are practically new so I'll ride them out for a bit. The front wheel luckily came drilled/tapped for dual disc so that saves me a trip to the machine shop to have it done.

New forks. One of mine was bent. Since these came off the same single disc brake bike the wheels came off of I have to take one down and swap the fork leg out with my old one so I can mount dual discs. Which leads to another project, since I was already eventually planning on getting Progressive fork springs for it I might as well spring for them while I'm going to have a fork apart anyway. So Progressive front springs are on the way.

In a fit of wanting instant gratification I mounted the dual discs to see what they'd look like. I love the look of wire wheels with dual rotors. I plan on doing the cbr rotor/Kawi twin pot brake upgrade so I'll see if the funds are available before I button this all up. If not they'll come later.

Now I noticed that sliding the 1100 swingarm over the rear wheel gives me lots of spare room between the tire and swingarm. Does anyone know how wide a rear tire you can fit on these wheels and still clear the swinger? Also, the 1100 swingarm and the 1000 swingarm bearings use different part numbers in the microfiche. Does anyone know the difference? I know the 1000 one will work in the 1100 swinger but is the 1100 a better bearing?

[Big T]

Two things

1. Widest tire you can put on that rim is a 120. 130's get all puffed up, leading to poor handling. You can get a wider rim that will accept a wider tire and go up to 150/160 width. But the rims won't match, as the GS 1000 rims have their own unique profile

2. You can't use single brake fork lowers for a dual brake set up, they're left side only. If you mount one on the right, the offset is wrong. Get some dual disc fork lowers and adapters

[IanC]

My bike was originally dual disc. I'll be using the lower from my original fork so I can mount the caliper. Thanks for the tire info.

Edit: Just re-read that, so the mounting point for the caliper on the left was different?