1981 GS450E Rebuild

Careful there , "Good Times". I was watching "Animal Planet" the other night and if I understood correctly, the "Grey banded Australian Colloquialism was put on the endangered list Jan 1, 2012.
ndaugbjerg

[pete]

I only got about 15 minutes in the garage tonight, so all I got done was rivetting the lid to the hinges:



The more I look at it the more I reckon it really needs to be black.

I typically get 20 minutes or so spare in the afternoon after I get home from work so in theory if I have it prepared that should be enough for a couple of coats of paint... I'll just need to pick up some semi-gloss or satin acrylic in a rattle can and some etch primer...

[pete]

Nice Pete. "Good on ya!" (Is that an acceptable phrase or is it another example of Americans butchering your colloquialisms? It was on TV so I'm sure that it's correct. LOL)

Hahaha thanks mate, that'll do fine... she'll be right... haha

That's what I'm talking about with the box cover! Although I would paint it black so it hides in the frame a bit better. No need to call attention to your battery

Cheers Tim! I agree on the painting, although I think for the moment I'll give it a brushed look as a temporary measure as I won't be able to get to paint it for a while yet. I might have to cope with an ugly bit for a while... If I could find some rattle can paint that sticks well to alu. in a semi-gloss I reckon that'd do nicely, no need for 2K on that bit...

That's what I'm talking about with the box cover! Although I would paint it black so it hides in the frame a bit better. No need to call attention to your battery

Nice Pete. "Good on ya!" (Is that an acceptable phrase or is it another example of Americans butchering your colloquialisms? It was on TV so I'm sure that it's correct. LOL)

[pete]

Did the test fit tonight and had to adjust the brackets a little but it looks like it will work, even if it is a little on the ugly side...

Brackets in for the test fit (ignore the bit of rust on the left, I need to touch that bit up, not sure what happened there):



Lid in and up to see if there's clearance to slide the battery out... nup!



Sitting down:



You can also see the front bracket poking out in front of the lid there as I'd bent it a little more than 90 degrees. I bent it back to solve that.

So, I then trimmed the length of the sides a bit and cut the diagonal off at the rear and I now have clearance to slide the battery out:



And sitting on again:



And then after adjusting the brackets and putting a notch in the front so it would clear the side cover mounting tab there:



And here's how it looks from both sides as it is:



Not the prettiest, but I'm hoping once I give it the brushed look it won't stand out so much, and I'm still thinking of replacing the black plastic side piece with alu.

So, still to do is smooth it all off, rivet the cover to the hinges, get the lock on, re-route the trickle charger + connection, and then get it all mounted back up properly.

I also started this thread tonight looking for some stock style harness plugs somewhere in Aus as I won't have time to get them shipped internationally before next Saturday when I should be doing the Acewell install:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=189622

[pete]

Well... first the potentially bad news... I may have made a fundamental mistake with the battery box cover.

A hinged lid needs room to pivot up... I don't think there's enough room... shortening the sides may solve that problem though. I didn't get the test fit done tonight because I got distracted by the arrival of the Acewell, so I'm not sure if there's an issue yet or not.

As to the Acewell...



Size comparison to the existing gauges:



And I also picked up the tacho plug from the dealer today, and from memory I should be able to remove the tach drive without lifting the valve cover or the exhaust camshaft:



Apparently Saturday week I'm going to get Saturday to do the install, so that gives me a week and a half to get my act together and get it all planned out, although I need to finish the battery cover off first.

The fun bit will be trying to find plugs matching the OEM gauge plugs on the harness so I can try to avoid butchering the harness and be able to put the stock gauges back on if I encounter some major issue along the way.

I think there's a vintage connector place in the US that will have them but there's no way they're going to be here on time so it will have to be somewhere local or find some other way.

[pete]

Man arnt you the busy bee. Fly screen, battery box with a lock.......what's next?

Wish you would reconsider putting the Acewell sensor on the rear wheel. You could do my R&D for me and shorten my build time line
Mines still in the box!

Mark

Well... obviously the Acewell is next

But then there's the rear carry rack, then that should make her "complete" I reckon... at least complete enough to move on to the Duc and just enjoy riding the GS

Looking at the Acewell... I reckon it should be relatively simple on the front fork... if it doesn't work out I promise I'll think about the rear wheel ok?

Man arnt you the busy bee. Fly screen, battery box with a lock.......what's next?

Wish you would reconsider putting the Acewell sensor on the rear wheel. You could do my R&D for me and shorten my build time line
Mines still in the box!

Mark

[pete]

Well my Acewell was marked as despatched today and it's supposed to be coming express post so in theory it should be here tomorrow if the post office doesn't do their usual trick and not put a card in the PO box to tell us it's there...

And between last night and tonight I've got the battery box cover pretty much ready to test fit.

I need to re-route the trickle charger battery + connection as it will interfere with the lid where it is currently, but that shouldn't be too hard to do.

So this is what I have at present:



I've done no smoothing/neatening/appearance stuff, just cut, drilled, bent, and rivetted the hinges onto the rear bracket.

The next step is to mount up the two brackets and work out if the lid will open and close without interference and mark out the holes for rivetting the hinges on.

Then I can figure out the hole position for the lock and get the lock mounted, then give it a bit of a brushed look and stick some rubber underneath the cover and it should be good to go.

[pete]

Hey Pete for whatever reason my post did not make it but let me say the bike looked awesome out in the Sun.

Which Acewell did you get anyway. The black digital one?

Paul

Cheers Paul, it was definitely nice to be able to get some half decent ones for a change.

I went with the base model 2853 which has the chrome fascia. Has all the functionality I could ever want and after the seeing the photos Mark posted in your multifunctional gauge thread it convinced me that's what I needed.

Hey Pete for whatever reason my post did not make it but let me say the bike looked awesome out in the Sun.

Which Acewell did you get anyway. The black digital one?

Paul

[pete]

Pete,
I fitted a Sygma to a BMW100. The actuater magnet was a problem, so I gutted an old hard drive which has two rare earth magnets. They are just about impossible to pull off with your fingers and used 2 part epoxy and glued one to the brake disk. The pickup needed a small bracket. It has been working fine for more than a year now. Ran the wire along the speedometer cable, you may want to use the brake pipe.

Cheers Andre, I'm trying to avoid sticking magnets on myself as I just can't bring myself to trust myself to do a good job of that... even though I'm riding a bike I rebuilt from the ground up... go figure

Anyway, those magnets would definitely do the trick and I'm hopeful I can get it sorted with the magnetic bolt I'm getting with it.

Good tip on running the cable with the brake line too, I might just do that

Pete
See if there is room to put the magnet on the rear sprocket and mount the sensor off the back chaingard brecket. You will need to lengthen the cable. That's what I'm hoping to do with my Acewell. That way there is no wire running down the forks.

Mark

I'm gonna stick with the front wheel to start with Mark and will do the back wheel if I can't find any other way... I think with Andre's suggestion above I should be right with the wire down the brake line, but I definitely understand why you don't want to worry about running a wire down the forks as such.

Just ordered the Acewell, so as long as they're in stock at the dealer I should have it later this week and can start working out how to mount it and wire it in.

My only confusion right now is how to make the single indicator light on the existing setup work with the left/right indicator lights on the Acewell. I'm sure it won't be too hard once I get it sorted...

Oh, and mounting the sensor on the front fork/caliper should be interesting also, not much room down there...

Pete
See if there is room to put the magnet on the rear sprocket and mount the sensor off the back chaingard brecket. You will need to lengthen the cable. That's what I'm hoping to do with my Acewell. That way there is no wire running down the forks.

Mark

Just ordered the Acewell, so as long as they're in stock at the dealer I should have it later this week and can start working out how to mount it and wire it in.

My only confusion right now is how to make the single indicator light on the existing setup work with the left/right indicator lights on the Acewell. I'm sure it won't be too hard once I get it sorted...

Oh, and mounting the sensor on the front fork/caliper should be interesting also, not much room down there...

Pete,
I fitted a Sygma to a BMW100. The actuater magnet was a problem, so I gutted an old hard drive which has two rare earth magnets. They are just about impossible to pull off with your fingers and used 2 part epoxy and glued one to the brake disk. The pickup needed a small bracket. It has been working fine for more than a year now. Ran the wire along the speedometer cable, you may want to use the brake pipe.