1979 GS550L Let the Education begin

[Redneck]

Okay lets begin. First like Truth i too am new to the motorcycle world. I am 38 in the military and have wanted a motorcycle for years but family demands have prevented me from getting one till now. I decided to begin my education by buying an old bike and rebuilding it. I say rebuilding because i don't intend to restore it completely to stock. I purchased this bike off of craigs list. I liked the look and style of the bike and figured it would be a great bike to learn on once i have learned to put it together. Unfortunately I did not do all my research when it comes to restoring bikes and have made some mistakes already. I chunked the original seat pan because the seat was trashed. Sad thing is I am pretty good working with leather and could have probably refashioned a leather seat cover for it. Now the seat I got off Ebay claiming to be a L series seat turns out to be a E series seat.....not quite the same look and its an 81 seat not the 79 advertised. Second I did not catagorize all the parts the way I should have. (praying that Doug will be able to make heads or tails of what i have in my garage...thank goodness he lives nearby). Other than that I have completely stripped the bike and beginning the process of cleaning it all up after its long storage in a barn in New Hampshire. As i have posted in the other post my Gas tank is pretty rough on the inside. I am thinking of trying the electrolysis to clean it. I have also contemplated splitting the tank sanding the inside and then mig welding it back together. Anyway I am going to start a running journal here and let you know how things go. Hopefully this crazy rain will let up sometime soon so Doug can make it over and give me the advice and pointers i need to get me heading in the right direction. I am also going to post pictures in the photo album of the progress. Wish me luck (and hope that Doug has a lot of patience).

[DanTheMan]

I have an L seat off my bike that will never be put back on. It has a 2 year old Saddlemen seat cover, is in overall good shape, but I can't ride long distances on it. $50.00 and shipping and it's yours. Look in the for sale parts & misc section for it. It'll probably be a few pages back.

[Maddog209]

Let me know if you want to sell the seat from eBay.I have a 78 550E and could use a spare seat. Good luck with your project.

[André]

Thank

I would not split that thank, I'm shure that someone here know how to clean it. It would be a messing job to weld it and make shure it is not leaking. Just my 2 cents.

[Redneck]

Engine Has been Torn Down

9 April 10,
Well got the engine apart tonight. The cylinder walls are good. The piston look good they need polishing but that is it. The valves look good. I am very encouraged. Need to get a gasket Kit and clean the block and heads. Those broken bolts for the exhaust are still in there. I broke a easy out in one of the broken bolts today. Will have to come up with another plan for getting them out. Pictures are posted in the album of the engine and what the parts look like.

[Redneck]

4 May 2010
Finally got a chance to hit the gaskets. I spent two hours last night trying to get the old gasket off using Permatex and though some came off it is a very slow process. I did find out that Permatex is also very good for removing the old paint. Did a better job at removing the paint than it did the gaskets. I guess I will hit it again tonight. Also got some Gunk to help clean up the rest of the engine. Now I am wishing I had an air compressor and a sand blast rig. Pain in the butt doing it in the deep sink with a scrub brush and a screw driver. I will have a air compressor before I start the next project, guarantee it. Going to drop the cyclinder heads off tomorrow at the machine shop to get out the now 7 bolts and screws that need removing. The education continues.

[Redneck]

27 May update

Well beacuse my daughter has been glued to my butt and I have also had to spend a lot of time trying to keep my son from failing math I have not had a lot of time to work on the bike. But today I got the valves removed from the Heads. I was intrigued to find that the exhaust valves looked great a little sooty but great. The intake valves on the other hand had build up on them. Is that normal? I would figure the exhaust valves would look worse. Anyway used a back woods manufactred hybrid to get the valves out. I had Jethro's spring compressor but no chucks so I made one out of PVC. Should have got a washer fitted and epoxied on. Without one the PVC fitting was sliding around creating quite a bit of aggrivation. They are out. Now Are the Valve guides suppose to come out? Taking them to the parts cleaner next week to see how clean I can get the heads.

[Redneck]

"New bike"on the way..Woot Woot

Well new to me and a donor bike. I have recently aquired a new donor bike from a fellow GSR member who said they would rather see the bike go to a fellow GSR member than to someone else. After seeing the pictures of this bike and hearing its story I have come to the conclusion that it is probably in better shape than the one I had started with. So my bike has become the parts bike and the "New Bike" is going to be the project bike. Unfortunately I won't be able to pick up the bike till this Saturday but I am excited and looking forward to it. Till then I am completely stripping the other bike and cleaning up as many of the parts as I can so that, I will have clean good parts available when the "New Bike" gets here. Oh Crag...Jethro....I might need your expertise and have you two come over and take a look at it once I get it up here so that I can move about this project a little smarter than I did the last. More to follow after next saturday.....

[spyug]

The keys to a good outcome to a bike project are organization, a degree of planning and the ability to adjust to changing circumstances and ideas. As a military man, you should be well equipped.

You will find the first one challenging and time consuming but with experience it gets easier and sometimes ( but not always) quicker.

Starting with organization I would suggest you round up some stout carboard boxes, lots of "baggies" of various sizes, masking tape and indelible markers, a notepad and your digital camera. I also find a bench mount wire brush, WD40, mineral spirits and lots of rags and paper towels to be indispensible.

Prior to ripping in to a project I always try and find and appropriate manual and spend time studying it. In addition, I like to take pictures of the bike from all angles and of all bits and pieces I don't recognize. Invaluable for putting things back together months later.


For bikes with an unknown pedigree, the first thing to get a handle on is the engine and tranny and this can be the make or break for any project.
I like to hear the engine run and I strive to get that sorted first. No point in piling time and money into a non starter.

Generally, when I start a dissassembly I do it by sub assembles and a) clean everything as it comes off b) package everything in the baggies, clearly marked as to what it is and location. For instance, I would pull off everything relating to brakes, including hangers and all nuts and bolts, lines and fitting, claipers and master cylinders. Each sub assembly goes in its own carboard box. I also keep notes as a kind of project diary and it helps me keep track of missing bits that will need replacing, a time line and a record of cost ( sometimes better forgotten).

As mentioned, I clean as I go, especially all rusty bolts and nuts and the wire wheel cannot be beat for this.

Eventually everything will be off and you can then move to the refurb, customization and rebuild. That's where the fun and games really begin.

Good luck with your project and keep us informed of your progress. We love pics

Cheers,
Spyug

[Redneck]

Those are some of the mistakes i made

Spyug, hit the nail on the head. Those are some of the mistakes I made the first time. I got excited broke everything down and did not categorize things properly or take nearly enough pictures. Don't plan on making the same mistakes this time. I also intend to see if I can get the bike running then find out what needs to be fixed prior to just ripping it apart. Tried to upload the pictures that were emailed to me but I kept getting an error. Anyway, will try to post them in my album maybe that will work.

[Redneck]

Wetblaster....Oh i got to get one

Well took the Heads off my 550L to work last night. I found out we had an acid bath at work so I packed up my carbs and the Head for the bike and brought them in on the PM shift. Let em soak for about 2 hours in the bath. The carbs look awesome they have a little residue on them but hope to use the grease lightning on them tomorrow then rinse them off to see if that cleans it off but other than that they looked great. The Cylinder head not so much. It definitely cleaned them up a bit but not nearly what I was looking for. So my buddy points me over to this blasting cabinet. Its a wet blaster using what essentially appears to be sugars sand for media and high velocity water. Now I have never used nor really heard of a wet blaster, but man am I sold. I used it to clean up the vanes and ports and now the head looks like it is brand new. I will post some pics tomorrow. Was busy getting a trailer to go get my "New Bike" this weekend. But I am a firm believer in that machine it was awesome.

Paul

[SqDancerLynn1]

Sugar media was Probably some type of baking soda. DO NOT remove the valve guides- leave that to the professionals if they need replacement

[Redneck]

WoW... Let me say again...WoW

Well got the bike home, the drive was horrendous. Hit traffic on the way down because some 18 wheeler decided he did not like driving with all 18 wheels on the ground and decided to see how far he could make it on the side of his trailer....let me just say I was impressed with the distance he did make. Got the bike loaded up and started heading back. I have now decided one of two things is going to happen, I am either getting a newer bigger truck or I am going to do the 5.0 engine swap in my little Ford Ranger because I was tired of doing my impersonation of the little engine that could.... now back to the bike. I got it home did some clean up on it, Sunday night after I got back from work. It is cleaning up real nice. The gas tank is immaculate inside, needs some outside touch up paint. The front brakes work extremely well. The few rusty parts, aside from bolts and screws I have found, are being swapped with ones i pulled off my other bike and have been sandblasted and painted. I got a new spark plugs yesterday but had to look around and finally found a new battery today. Going to drain the gas tomorrow and put in some fresh gas and see if it will start. I will post pics of the bike when I get it all cleaned up. And I will let you know the results of the attempt to start.

My question is this right now. I am currently cleaning one set of carbs and will be getting the carb kit from Z1. Once I have rebuilt the carbs. I need to do the valve adjustment. Should I be looking at anyting else that needs fixing prior to hopefully getting this bike on the road? Aside from new tires. Oh and let me say I have become a fan of the blast booth at work.

[Redneck]

Blast Booth Frenzy

Well I have now blasted the carb bowls, the starter cover, the air box cover, the rear fender, the brake light holder and the swing arm. All have been primed and the starter cover and air box cover will soon be ready to go on the new bike. These were two of the items covered in rust. (pics soon to follow) Going to paint the rear fender gloss black. I stripped off the chrome because it was pitted pretty bad. So now I am going to give it along with the brake light bracket a nice shiny black finish, with a little clear coat.

Tried to start the bike but it was a no go. I am going to loosen the boots tomorrow and hit them with some carb cleaner, then drop some stabilizer in the gas to see what happens.

[crag antler]

Paul,let's see some pics of the new ride
Got call again this weekend,maybe I'll swing by after,3:30ish or so.