1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Shoot, I bought the Suzuki shop manual from my local dealer for $45. I think i'm the sucker. It is pretty indispensable though.

Mate if you could get the genuine one for $75 I say that's good going

Over here that probably makes them $150+...

[pete]

Well I'm finally getting to order my caliper parts and things this morning from Boulevard Suzuki, seems my initial email went to their SPAM folder. I suspect it's because the carb T piece is called a "Nipple" on the fiche. I removed the descriptions this time.

Next bit of news is it looks like I'll be able to take a week off around my birthday at the end of June to take my bike to Tranzac to get the exhaust made as well as paint the tank and mudguards.

That means between now and then I have to get to a wrecker to find the seat and rear mudguard and get some paint.

I think I found my fly screen also to hide the gauges:

https://www.slipstreamperformance.com.au/store/product_info.php?cPath=225&products_id=11325

I'll try to get it before painting so I can colour match it. It also may be a little tall but it shouldn't be too hard to cut it down a bit.

And I got my bits and pieces to make up my voltage metre yesterday as well as a bulkhead box for the ignition circuit:



Finally something almost like progress

[pete]

Spent about an hour and a half down in the garage tonight, and all of that time was either trying to get the needles out of the carbs or trying to get a decent pic once they were out. Extremely frustrating on both accounts!

The digital camera's ok for most stuff, but close ups of small items like jets and needles is pushing it way beyond what it and I are capable of.

These are the best I could manage:



Five needle positions there and it's currently on the middle one, so I shouldn't need to worry about locating suitable washers unless it goes down to the bottom setting and is still lean.

I did measure up for the washers just in case, and they should be about a 7mm outside diameter with about a 3mm hole in the centre.

Once again I'm back to waiting... I hate waiting...

[pete]

Well now I'm a little confused again... just for something different

Looked at my needles again and they're marked 4C3 which I thought was stock, however according to the fiche, 4C2's are stock.

However... looking in the Sudco PDF with all their jet needles and also looking at the dimension chart at www.motorcyclecarbs.com, There are no 4Cx numbers anywhere, however it did clarify that 4C2 and 4C3 are effectively the same thing and that the last digit is simply a revision, so 4C3 is just a later revision of effectively the same needle as a 4C2.

Of course this will only present a problem if adjusting the needle and shimming it doesn't get the tuning right, as then I'll need to look at alternative needles.

So, short of working out how to measure the 4C3's at the right interval along the needle length to determine the taper, anyone got any ideas as to where these spec's might be hiding?

[pete]

I've been able to start on my gauge LED conversion tonight, details in the thread in my sig. below, but here's a crappy video of what I achieved tonight:



On another note, not sure how I'm going to go with wreckers tomorrow either.

Turns out two of the four I tried to call today had numbers disconnected, so I'm guessing they're out of business.

The third is no longer a shop front and only does mail order meaning I can't wander in and measure seats and guards

And the fourth guy may or may not be opening tomorrow, need to ring him at 8:30 to see.

So that doesn't bode well for getting my seat and rear guard sorted any time soon, and while my right hand man at work is on leave I can't take days off during the week to go looking either, so the earliest I can do that will probably be the week after next if I can't get anywhere tomorrow. Frustrating!

[SVSooke]

Feel your pain.Only one wrecker left here and they open when it pleases them.It's the place I got my bikes.He knows he has the market here and can charge what he wants and does.The other one that was here the owner died,really nice helpful guy.A bit,well maybe a lot eccentric but not in a bad way.

[mike-s]

Just did a skim read of this thread, here i was thinking that getting my GSX working was a saga, you've got me beat, both in misfortune and in patience. The horizon is closer than you think.

[pete]

Feel your pain.Only one wrecker left here and they open when it pleases them.It's the place I got my bikes.He knows he has the market here and can charge what he wants and does.The other one that was here the owner died,really nice helpful guy.A bit,well maybe a lot eccentric but not in a bad way.

Yeah it's quite frustrating. As it turns out, I'm going to have even more limited time to go look this morning if he's open, so I suspect it'll be a bit of a waste of time even if I can get there. Apparently there are other wreckers, but they're way on the south side which means the only way I'll get there is taking a day off work.

The guy that might open today said he's getting too old to be bothered wheeling all the bikes out himself just for a few hours on a Saturday, and from that aspect I sorta understand even if it is frustrating for me...

Just did a skim read of this thread, here i was thinking that getting my GSX working was a saga, you've got me beat, both in misfortune and in patience. The horizon is closer than you think.

Mate it's been a labour of love... apparently

At least I haven't had to take a hammer to my frame though... good luck with that one!

[mike-s]

At least I haven't had to take a hammer to my frame though... good luck with that one!

You'll keep, p.s. tried www.findapart.com.au yet? you can attach pictures of current/broken parts to the emails you send out to help wreckers confirm/compare parts.

[Redneck]

Pete keep hope in sight... at least with hope in sight we have something to look forward too because I feel that my bike is never going to get done. lol. I feel your pain. Really I do. Have you had any progress on the exhuast pipes other than the mock up? I am looking forward to seeing them on the bike.

Paul

[pete]

You'll keep, p.s. tried www.findapart.com.au yet? you can attach pictures of current/broken parts to the emails you send out to help wreckers confirm/compare parts.

Haha couldn't resist

Haven't had a need to try that one yet, but I have come across it a few times via Google. My problem is I don't know what will fit, so can't go looking for a particular part, although my visit to the wreckers today did show me a RD400 seat is the right dimensions, but will need a bit of work to get to mount to the frame.

Pete keep hope in sight... at least with hope in sight we have something to look forward too because I feel that my bike is never going to get done. lol. I feel your pain. Really I do. Have you had any progress on the exhuast pipes other than the mock up? I am looking forward to seeing them on the bike.

Paul

Mate I ain't givin' up any time soon

I'm constantly looking forward to getting this done and going for a ride finally, but yeah, there are plenty of days it feels like there's no end in sight...

As for the exhaust, at this stage I'm planning a week off at the end of June and want to use that week to get the bike to Tranzac to get the exhaust made and also to do the tank and mudguard painting. I shouldn't need to leave the tank or guards on the bike for Tranzac.

Turns out my dad has a ute I can borrow, I obviously haven't spoken to him enough lately as I thought he still had his old Pulsar...

[pete]

Well the wrecker was open this morning, and while I was only 50% successful, I did get to have a bit of a chat and he was quite helpful which is excellent.

Firstly, I didn't get a seat, but I did find that a Yamaha RD400 seat will fit the bill nicely in terms of overall dimensions, but there'll be quite a lot of work getting it to mount to the frame.

There were a couple of others that would fit as well including a Yamaha SR650 and another that I've forgotten, but both were very wide so will probably look wrong, whereas the RD seat is similar in width to the GS seat.

Unfortunately for me, the RD seat was in pretty good condition and if you had one, you could chuck it on and ride, and of course that means the price was a bit high for me considering I'd need to do a lot of work to it.

The guy there did tell me to get in touch with a guy who runs a business here in Brissie called Hand Made Racers as he'll be able to fabricate me a seat pan for a reasonable price, so that may be worth investigating yet unless I can find a dirt cheap RD400 pan on eBay or something.

I did however score on a rear mudguard. This is actually a front mudguard off a GTR1000, but it'll fit the bill nicely with some remodelling:



Chucked it on with some masking tape to get an idea of fitment:



It's a bit too valanced for how it should look, but it's made out of ABS plastic, so modifying it should be relatively easy, I'll just need to plan it out carefully so I don't ruin it in the process.

I've been contemplating one of these for the brake/tail light as even though it's modern and LED, it should still gel well with the overall look I'm going for:

http://www.thirdgear.com.au/products/Red-Motorcycle-LED-Tail-Light-%252d--Fender-Eliminator.html

It's E-marked and apparently that's ok with the Dept of Transport here from what I've been told, so fingers crossed that's true and it'll be legal for the roadworthy.

I did some more on my gauge LED conversion as well and I'll update that thread now.

[pete]

Neglected to mention I picked up some hose clamps for mounting the electrics tray too:

[pete]

Well, I'm nearly done with my gauge LED conversion. Knocked over the idiot lights over the last few days and tonight I got the speedo backlight done, which means I now know how I'm doing the tacho backlight as well, so that will be all sorted real soon.







Once I'm done with them then I can look at getting the new rear mudguard to fit properly and start thinking more clearly on what to do about my seat situation.

[pete]

Gauges are back together, but camera batteries went flat before being able to take some end result pic's.



Will take some once they're back on the bike after flipping the headlight ears.