1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Etcheberri]

very nice indeed,
you seem in a comfort zone with wiring/soldering, don t you?

[Woodsy]

you polished the tank yet?.... :P

[Leigh]

So damn close, Pete.
I'm hanging on every photo..

[pete]

very nice indeed,
you seem in a comfort zone with wiring/soldering, don t you?

Thanks mate! Reasonably comfortable... did a bit in college and used to play around with electronics a bit when I was a bit younger so I've had a bit of practice over the years

Unfortunately my hand gets a bit shaky doing delicate work, so some of my joints get a little dodgy...

you polished the tank yet?.... :P

Errr.... nup! Ha

House mate picked up 1500 and 2000 grit wet/dry paper today though... just need to figure out what I'm doing for cutting and polishing...

So damn close, Pete.
I'm hanging on every photo..

Yeah very true Leigh, damn close alright!

Battery and charger shipped today according to eBay updates and Metalgear has my disc and pads in stock so the house mate is hoping to pick them up tomorrow for me.

Headlight should've arrived today or maybe tomorrow so hopefully they'll call to tell me so I can pick it up on Saturday and also have a look at their hand grips and I also should try to get some fuel and vacuum hose as well.

[pete]

And for tonight's effort... I got the electrics tray mostly done and I must say it's about 300% better than the other one even if it's not perfect.

Cut the tray out of the sheet of alu., taped the template on, and drilled the pilot holes:



Looks like it will fit nicely:



And ignoring the ragged pilot holes, you can hopefully see where I managed to get a nice chamfered edge on the whole tray with a file and get the corners somewhat rounded off as well. The old tray was hard to get smooth because I cut it out with tin snips, so using a hacksaw on this one made it a lot easier to file smooth:



Then I realised I'd missed a place for the main fuse holder, so figured it was best going at the front:



And it should sit something like this once I drill the right size holes and get it mounted up:



Plenty of room on top for the various bits of harness that need to go in there and the R/R should hopefully get a nice cooling air flow where it sits underneath. That's also the reason I'm using the 2.5mm alu. sheet; for some enhanced cooling of the R/R.

I should be able to get those holes drilled and get it mounted next time I'm down there and I can then get started on neatening the rest of the harness again and getting the Dynatek re-installed properly.

[Etcheberri]

good job.
i too think it will give extra cooling for the R/R.

[pete]

good job.
i too think it will give extra cooling for the R/R.

Thanks mate, there's a lot of extra surface area there for it! At least the new R/R has lots of extra cooling compared to the old one too.

[pete]

So this was waiting for me when I got home today



Tonight I finished the electrics tray off and I used an oversized drill bit to smooth down the edges of the holes:



Mounted:



Forgot I had an un-insulated 12v bullet connector that needs replacing with an insulated one:



Fixed, and yes, stripped, tinned, crimped, soldered:



Not tightened down or anything yet and I need to get shorter mounting bolts for the components as they're way too long at present.



And from underneath:

[pete]

Then I pulled the bits down I painted with the Blackcote as they should be cured considering it's been three days since I did the second coat.

Exhaust bracket mounted:



I'll be able to bolt it up securely once I tighten down the header bolts and compress the exhaust gaskets a bit.

Centre stand bracket assembled again and back on the bike:



And where it belongs:



And the taillight bracket taken down as well along with the front brake line bracket:

[pete]

I test fitted the seat tonight... d'oh! The new tray is mounted higher than the old one, so the harness needs to come in from the side and I need to shuffle the indicator relay and consequently I need to move the main fuse holder.

So I shuffled things around and it looks nice and neat on top:



Underneath is still pretty good too:



But here in lies my frustration:



I really need to do something with that mess, but it's a little difficult without the battery there so I know what length positive and negative cables I will need to make up and how I can route them etc.

Once I sort that, this will be the next big pain:



That's what causes grief with the Dynatek coils and getting the valve cover off at the moment. Really need to sort something properly for them.

And, finally, every ground terminates together on one side of the starter relay mounting bolt which should be good for a reliable ground:



Really hoping the battery gets here soon so I can get that side of things taken care of and finish the electrics up...

[pete]

Got my battery and charger today and, well... I'm positive the auction said maintenance free...



Not that I'm particularly fussed, but it would be nice if the info on the auction was accurate...

So yeah, lost a bit of time tonight filling the damn thing with acid. At least I've got it on charge and I'll leave it overnight.



I also picked up a fresh roll of insulation tape today. The initial plan with the Dynatek was to use a strip of exhaust wrap I got as a sheath to protect the extra oil pressure switch wire. However the exhaust wrap is white, and it was gonna be a PITA to wrap it neatly. I figured this morning I'd be best just wrapping it with insulation tape, so that's what I did:



All to protect this guy:



And then I got the Dynatek back in and partly routed the wiring:



And, finally, I got the exhaust bolts tightened down so I could mount it with the freshly painted bracket.



Crossing my fingers I'll get a good amount of time on Saturday to get into the sanding and polishing....

[Leigh]

Hey Pete, I was in Jaycar today and noticed they have a heap of options for cable wrap.
Might be worth a look for you.

[pete]

Hey Pete, I was in Jaycar today and noticed they have a heap of options for cable wrap.
Might be worth a look for you.

Thanks mate, yeah they do... already wrapped the Dyna in insulation tape though

Definitely keep that in mind if I ever get up that way though, it's a little way out of my usual travels.

[Agemax]

should have used heatshrink wrap Pete. looks much tidier and wont fail over time

[pete]

should have used heatshrink wrap Pete. looks much tidier and wont fail over time

True... I may revisit that later...

Right now I need to get this thing done, the Christmas clock is ticking...