1981 GS450E Rebuild

[SVSooke]

10/81 is almost definatly a 82.My wifes is 10/85,there's a G in the VIN.Sure it's a 86 model year.Here the 82's had this bodywork

In Canada,US to as far as I know.
Very intresting.

[pete]

Interesting... I'll have to have a closer look at the VIN next time I'm in the garage.

As for that '82 body work, well I thought that was like '83 or later... damn out of sync model years! Confusing...

[pete]

Had a closer look at the compliance plate tonight, and definitely no way to tell from that what exact model it is.

It says manufactured 10/81 by Suzuki, it's a GS450, and the VIN is GS450-520025. That's it. No E or S or anything helpful like that.

Anyways... I put it on the car battery again tonight, and this time left the coils plugged in and disconnected the igniter. There's the answer, coils are fine with 12.6 volts, plug the igniter in, and down they go to 10.6 volts again.

I disconnected the igniter again and flicked both coils to ground and got what looked like a nice spark, so the coils are functioning just fine and dandy by the looks.

I'm now convinced I have a faulty igniter... yay.

I did replace the left spark plug cap tonight, so both are new NGK's:



I then took some closer up shots of the R/R connector to try to determine what's changed with it from OEM:



It looks to me like they've wired the stator directly to the R/R without going via the headlight switch, which I believe to be a good thing from what I've read around the shop here.

So, I took the igniter off so I could pull it apart and see if I can't fix it going by the schematic Matchless was so kind to provide.



However, the thing is sealed up solid, no way in that I could see without destroying the casing.

So, a bit of time later, I got most of the outside casing off:

[pete]

Which revealed that there's an inside casing as well that appears to be some sort of solid resin or something that is as tough as nails:



So, time to start searching around here to see if anyone's tried to repair one of these suckers and if so, how they got inside it.

Otherwise, guess I'll be starting a new thread in the electrical forum to see how to get into the thing...

[Matchless]

Which revealed that there's an inside casing as well that appears to be some sort of solid resin or something that is as tough as nails:



So, time to start searching around here to see if anyone's tried to repair one of these suckers and if so, how they got inside it.

Otherwise, guess I'll be starting a new thread in the electrical forum to see how to get into the thing...

Pete,
I have taken a Suzuki self cancelling unit apart in the same way. I found the potting compound on those could be softened by soaking it overnight in lacquer thinners and then removing a layer at a time. A hot air gun also worked well, but tended to melt the wire insulation and the plastic labels on the condensers.
There is another alternative and that is using two IM45 HEI ignition modules if your bike has mechanical advance.
Good luck

[pete]

Pete,
I have taken a Suzuki self cancelling unit apart in the same way. I found the potting compound on those could be softened by soaking it overnight in lacquer thinners and then removing a layer at a time. A hot air gun also worked well, but tended to melt the wire insulation and the plastic labels on the condensers.
There is another alternative and that is using two IM45 HEI ignition modules if your bike has mechanical advance.
Good luck

Cheers for that Matchless.

I started another thread over in the electrical forum this morning before I saw your reply.

At this stage there's the possibility of a cheap one available in the US, but I discovered this morning my house mate has a heat gun, so I may give that a gentle go yet.

Still undecided at the moment, but hope to make a decision soon...

[pete]

So, first off, I'm going to make a new ignitor.

As per this thread:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=171782

I have made a decision on it so hopefully a functioning ignitor won't be too far away and I can get some spark for that first start.

On the repair of the old one which I will persevere with also, I ended up with two options for getting rid of the resin:



Acetone and a heat gun.

I started off with the head gun and while it really loosened up the resin and made it a lot easier to chip away with the chisel, I was getting quite concerned that I was going to fry other components that aren't faulty from the heat.

You can see I managed to expose a little bit of circuit board already, but there's still a whole lot of resin to be removed yet:



So, it's now soaking in a bit of acetone to see if that will soften it up to allow me to remove it a bit more safely:



So, while I wait for that to soak, I decided to clean up the clutch actuator and get it fitted into the sprocket cover again.

Started off like this:



The spring in these photos is actually not the correct one, I found that out when I opened the tin with the screws in it, so you'll see the correct one soon...

Much cleaner, and yes, they really are the same parts, just had a short soak in kero and a good go over with a kero soaked paint brush:



And greased up ready to go back in, with the screws, and now the correct spring:



The threaded channel bit back in place, and oriented correctly so that the grease nipple will work:



And the actuator threaded in with spring attached:

[pete]

Locating dowel in place:



Shiny new stainless bolts ready for the sprocket cover and actuator adjustment cover:



Cover on:



And sprocket cover on where it belongs:



I realise it's a little premature given there's no sprocket and no clutch cable, but i really wanted to see how it looked with all the covers on and I've also only just done the bolts up lightly, they're not much more than finger tight right at the moment.

So, now I need to get a parts list together for the ignitor and get them ordered, then start soldering... should be fun for a change I hope.

[Leigh]

Pete, I saw this and thought of you and your high pipe plan..
thought you might be able to pick some ideas off it.


More photos on the eBay listing

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/YAMAHA-XS-650-1978-/270711186221?pt=AU_Motorcycles&hash=item3f07a4e32d

[pete]

Pete, I saw this and thought of you and your high pipe plan..
thought you might be able to pick some ideas off it.


More photos on the eBay listing
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/YAMAHA-XS-650...item3f07a4e32d

Nice one... I have a collection here of photos like that I have acquired along the way, and that's another very nice example.

The XS650 definitely lends itself to the tracker look, so I'm hoping my 450 will end up doing justice to the scrambler look... just have to wait and see if I can do it or not...

[pete]

Well I must confess to being a little bummed out at the moment...

There's two eBay sellers with what look like suitable GM style HEI units, and both have told me they have multiple units, but neither has managed to either list more than one or update the quantity of the existing listing (if you can do that). So, I'm still waiting to buy a pair... Of course both are different brands too, and I'd rather put a matching pair in.

In addition, I have definitely destroyed the vast majority of the components of my existing ignitor from the heat gun, although I may still be able to read what some components are.

I couldn't find paint lacquer thinners, only acetone, which is supposed to get rid of resin, but soaking overnight did nothing at all, so I'm back to the heat gun.

I'm so bummed out I couldn't even be bothered getting the couple of pic's I took uploaded... oh well.

I thought I'd try to get my old throttle cable on tonight ready for the first start (I'll replace it later), but I can't see how to get it onto the carbs without taking them off again... so I've left that for now.

Hopefully I'll get something good happening soon... so close to that first start I can almost touch it, but just keep banging up against walls...

[scottychop]

Bummer Pete.

I am anxiously awaiting your HEI mod. I've seen this done a few times on XS's, but not a GS.

You can put the cable on without taking off the carbs. You have to rotate the throttle assembly with one finger and hold it open. That brings the slot up to where you can get the cable into it and then let it rotate back down to hold. I keep tension on the cable and then feed it up to the throttle.

[Matchless]

Well I must confess to being a little bummed out at the moment...

There's two eBay sellers with what look like suitable GM style HEI units, and both have told me they have multiple units, but neither has managed to either list more than one or update the quantity of the existing listing (if you can do that). So, I'm still waiting to buy a pair... Of course both are different brands too, and I'd rather put a matching pair in.

In addition, I have definitely destroyed the vast majority of the components of my existing ignitor from the heat gun, although I may still be able to read what some components are.

I couldn't find paint lacquer thinners, only acetone, which is supposed to get rid of resin, but soaking overnight did nothing at all, so I'm back to the heat gun.

I'm so bummed out I couldn't even be bothered getting the couple of pic's I took uploaded... oh well.

I thought I'd try to get my old throttle cable on tonight ready for the first start (I'll replace it later), but I can't see how to get it onto the carbs without taking them off again... so I've left that for now.

Hopefully I'll get something good happening soon... so close to that first start I can almost touch it, but just keep banging up against walls...

Pete the HEI units you want are called IM45 over here and are aftermarket types available at our Autozone and Midas parts suppliers. They are used on Alfa, Chev, Ford, Peugeot and Renault as per their listing.

A year or 2 back Don bought two Bosch types that had the same configuration over in Oz, but I am not sure if he got them working and think he did not try them yet.

I just recalled that I actually used 2k thinners to soften the resin/epoxy on the flasher self cancelling unit

[Matchless]

Here is someone with more than 10 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GM-Ch...Q5fAccessories

[Matchless]

Here is someone with 4 available http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GM-Ch...Q5fAccessories

If you search ebay for HEI Module quite a few come up.