1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Good news! Got to take her for a spin up the shop and back today and ran just fine and dandy on both cylinders. When I get more time when I haven't been consuming beer and red wine I'll make a up a new HT lead to be sure and all will be good

Pete- Are restorations ever REALLY completed?

You may have a point there... every time I think yeah I'll just do this and she's done... well that's when I think of something else...

I'm hoping the carry rack will be it though, really want to move on to something new and different!

Have a good holiday Pete.

Mark

Cheers Mark, I hope so! Hopefully I can come back and see some more progress on that 400 of yours too

Have a good holiday Pete.

Mark

Pete- Are restorations ever REALLY completed?

[pete]

And on a separate note...

I had some "fun" yesterday... got about a km from home on the way to work and she started running on 1 cylinder. Bugger!

Pulled into a car park but couldn't see anything obvious so I limped home (all up hill) and parked it. Got the tank off and again nothing obvious so had to head to work on the train.

I got in there last night and checked both plugs, right one smelled of fuel so it was obviously the non-firing culprit.

The voltage was good at the coil and it tested fine (5.1 ohms, Dynatek coil), but no spark.

Swapped the plugs over, no spark.

Swapped the HT leads over, spark!

Turns out the HT lead on the right side has the lug that clips on the plug is quite loose. No idea how it lasted nearly 4000km's like that but there you go.

I have two more sets of parts to make another lead as the Dynatek kits give you enough for four leads, so won't cost me a cent to fix it permanently provided a test ride shows me it actually fires on both cylinders.

And the most frustrating part of not riding to work yesterday is that I need new hand grips. The cheapies on there are worn out already, but I also have found them to be too small a diameter for comfort.

I was going to head to the dealer near work at lunch and find a set, but I'll need to do that some other time now.

My wife and I fly down south tomorrow for holidays too, can't wait! No work for almost a week and a half

[pete]

Pete,
Made some progress this week. I need to paint the wheels and mount new rubber, paint the center stand and swingarm and I can have a roller in a couple of hours. And my 450 has a name now. When I joined the forum and saw all these bikes with names, I thought everybody was a little goofy. But "When in Rome, Do as the Romans do" so my 450 will henceforth be known as "W3". That's an acronym for (Hope you are ready for this) "Widdle Wed Wocket"
Niels

Nice one Niels! You really need to get Photobucket sorted so you can get some pic's up for everyone to see... I know I really need to see some

And I love the name... hahha... very clever...

I think I'm one of the few on here that doesn't have a name for theirs...

Pete,
Made some progress this week. I need to paint the wheels and mount new rubber, paint the center stand and swingarm and I can have a roller in a couple of hours. And my 450 has a name now. When I joined the forum and saw all these bikes with names, I thought everybody was a little goofy. But "When in Rome, Do as the Romans do" so my 450 will henceforth be known as "W3". That's an acronym for (Hope you are ready for this) "Widdle Wed Wocket"
Niels

[pete]

Pete

The Tach plug you fitted, is that a Suzuki part?

I dont recall on my 400 if there is a lock tab like you have there on the 450 - I recall just unscrewing the tach cable on mine. Looks like a very neat solution though which I would love to use.

Mark

Yup, sure is! Let me know if you want the part numbers, I haven't emptied the bin yet and the packets are still in there

The tacho cable does just screw in, but it screws into the tacho drive which is what I removed in the second photo there. That whole drive is held in by the lock tab and just pulls straight out.

The plug slides in in its place and is again held by the lock tab. Hope that makes sense...

I just did a reverse lookup on the tacho drive sleeve and it seems to have been used on nearly every GS from the 77 400's onwards so I think this will work for you too.

Pete

The Tach plug you fitted, is that a Suzuki part?

I dont recall on my 400 if there is a lock tab like you have there on the 450 - I recall just unscrewing the tach cable on mine. Looks like a very neat solution though which I would love to use.

Mark

Pete,
I just realized that we haven't heard from the Englishman in a while. I hope he has been profitably engaged in some other project and is not lost in the "Big Thicket".
Niels

Thanks for the concern. Been going through a busy phase at work and had some household projects to take care of to keep a happy home. Will post an update to my thread later. Sadly nothing cool to report though.

Mark

[pete]

come on what is life without a little drama, but hey it looks like there is not much there to create drama with.

Paul

Haha true... I just hate having oil continuously weeping all over my freshly rebuilt engine... irks me quite a lot...

If only I had've known about Boulevard about 12 months earlier...

come on what is life without a little drama, but hey it looks like there is not much there to create drama with.

Paul

[pete]

Well, this thread is getting very close to the finish line... I got the tacho drive replaced with the plug this avo after work finally, so then it's just the carry rack that needs to be done for this to be "complete" at last...

Pic's of the tacho replacement...

Ugly at the moment, really need to replace the dodgy Athena breather cover gasket as it's weeping just as bad as the dodgy Athena valve cover gasket did... but when I got home I got the house mate to have a look at the rounded off bolt holding the tacho drive in and somehow he managed to loosen it... and he even used the same spanner I tried with! Must've been coz the bike was still hot after the ride home...



I will have to pull the tank off and give the engine a really good scrub once I've replaced that gasket...

So the tacho drive is now removed:



And here's the plug, seal, and a new stainless allen head bolt to replace the one with the rounded off head... and of course some anti sieze:



And thar she blows:



I'll get a test on the way to work tomorrow, but I can't foresee any dramas at the present time...

[pete]

Pete,
I just realized that we haven't heard from the Englishman in a while. I hope he has been profitably engaged in some other project and is not lost in the "Big Thicket".
Niels

Yeah true, although he does that from time to time... doesn't post for a bit but then comes back with cool stuff...

Pete,
I just realized that we haven't heard from the Englishman in a while. I hope he has been profitably engaged in some other project and is not lost in the "Big Thicket".
Niels

[pete]

Pete, just put my suggestions on the hot vs cold bending question you posed but it didn't turn up here, GRRRRR I bloody hate complicated computer pages.johnny

Haha all good Johnny, I'll check in on that thread in a sec... I have no doubt you've left me some more extremely useful advice as usual