1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Woodsy]

Is it just my eyes or does the paint look chalky?

This week is going to go so slow for you.... lol

[pete]

I think that's the "satin" finish, it's not really chalky in person...

And partly this week will go slow, partly it will fly... working late tomorrow night and I'm on call and I'm also spending most of the next three days in meetings, so hopefully that will help the week go a bit quicker...

[pete]

Well I got me a bit stuck with my caliper tonight... I may have gotten to a point where I need to get the compressor to get the piston back out again

Got all my brake parts together:



New dust seals on the caliper axles, note they're on the right way this time unlike the PO's effort, this way they will actually do their job and keep the grease in and crap out:



Greasy:



And in:



Piston seal in:



Liberal coating of brake fluid around the cylinder bore and around the piston, dust boot on, and in:



Except if you look closely, you'll see the bottom lip of the dust seal is on top of the opening and I can't get it to wedge into the recess where it belongs, so I'm thinking I should've put that in first and slid the piston down through it... bugger.

I'll do me some searching to see if there's any tips on the best way to get it together as the Clymer, Haynes, and factory repro manuals I have don't say anything at all about getting the piston boot on properly...

If I'm lucky I'll get back to it on Wednesday night, have to work tomorrow night.

[pete]

Bugger, the piston's gotta come back out, which means it ain't happening any time soon.

Every other thread I've come across with the same sort of calipers shows the dust boot on first and then the piston going in, and it looks like paper clips to hold the dust seal up and around the piston is the easiest way.

Maybe if the bike gets towed back next Tuesday like I'm hoping then I can make some noise with the compressor while my wife's at work.

[landshark]

Yeah Pete, i had to put the boot on first then the piston. Is the piston too tight to just pull out?

[Woodsy]

I had to use a compressor on mine as well, and make sure your holding it in a rag because it comes out with some force and a loud POP

[landshark]

Mine were the same initially, but since they have just been rebuilt it shouldnt be too hard to just pop them out?
Im sure your neighbours could handle 2 mins of noise to just pop that out anyway?

[pete]

Thanks guys, it won't come out by hand easily (I think because the seal is brand spankers) and the compressor at night's a no go for the wife, couldn't give a rats about the neighbours as they're all far noisier than I could ever dream of being...

However I may be able to finagle it out if I'm very gentle with a large flat blade and protect everything with rags... or I may just be patient for once and wait for the day I pick the bike up...

[john82q]

I may just be patient for once and wait for the day

Sod that!

- Jump in the car and come n get the mityvac hand pump i showed you. (made 4 the job)
- jerry rig somthing with a tyre pump (even push bike one will do)
- jerry rig some thing to a car valve on yer spare car tyre.
- hook up the master cylinder fill with fliud n pump it out with brake fluild.

Dont use a screwdriver, one slip can fark.



Cheers john.

[pete]

Sod that!

- Jump in the car and come n get the mityvac hand pump i showed you. (made 4 the job)
- jerry rig somthing with a tyre pump (even push bike one will do)
- jerry rig some thing to a car valve on yer spare car tyre.
- hook up the master cylinder fill with fliud n pump it out with brake fluild.

Dont use a screwdriver, one slip can fark.

Cheers john.

Hmmmm... I may have a bike pump around actually... sitting here at work still at the moment... an exciting night of sitting and watching a few websites, and no I'm not kidding...

That mityvac hand pump is actually a very attractive idea, and I'm thinking about purchasing one for myself as that would be incredibly handy for lots of things. I haven't forgotten you showing me that

[pete]

Wow this is boring... anyways...

John where did you get your Mityvac from? Only place I can find it here is at www.zpower.com.au and they want $99.95 plus postage for it.

This guy on eBay is much cheaper even from the US:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mityvac-MV8020-Automotive-Brake-Bleeding-Kit-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem20b8bfdbd9QQitemZ140538534873QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Can't seem to find anywhere else online although that doesn't really mean anything at the moment...

Of course RS have one for $300 ex. GST

[Woodsy]

take a run up to the servo and use there tyre inflator. easy peasy.

[pete]

Yeah true, that would work too, a few options now without resorting to a screwdriver which is always a good thing

Home from work about an hour earlier than I thought I would be now, but not touching anything bike related tonight.

When I get back down there I'm thinking I might have a change of pace and see if I can't get something more done with the voltage monitor as a certain amount of that doesn't need the bike to be here.

[pete]

Well this week has pretty much sucked in terms of progress. On call has managed to disturb me enough to be too tired to look at doing anything at nights, but hasn't been enough to get me a week off work or anything helpful like that...

I also haven't heard boo from Tranzac, so I'm guessing I'm not taking Tuesday off to get it towed back here either...

About the only semi-successful thing is I just did some more tyre research, and it turns out the Shinko 244 dual sports are actually 70/30 road/trail, not 50/50 like I thought, so they may be doable. Only real catch is the 3.00-18 is only rated for 75mph which is 120kph... a bit borderline for the freeway but ok for round town and trips up Mt Mee/Dayboro way etc. which is my preferred territory for fun rides.

[pete]

Alrighty then! I have some progress to report...

I managed to get a couple of minutes this morning after my wife left for work to kick the compressor into action... result:



So, got the dust seal in the caliper first this time:



But then I couldn't get the top bit spread out around the piston with it seated in properly like that, so I took it off and put it around the base of the piston first.



Then I worked the bottom lip into the recess in the caliper, then slid the piston down and the top lip just slid into place on the piston recess all by itself... nice!



Need to add new brake pads to the parts list:



I hear EBC is a good replacement.

Pad guides in:



Pad spring in:



Cover and bleed nipple in:



The nice looking banjo bolt in, the other one is horrid but I won't be needing it as the Mikes XS master cylinder came with a shiny new one:



And loosely bolted it all together for the moment so it's all in one piece and together:



I did try last night to get some stuff done with the voltage meter, but I was trying to use some left over plastic from the rear mudgaurd and it's too thick for the LED mounts I have, so I need to find something thinner for that.

I'll see how I go for the rest of this week and I might try some alternative things for that to take my mind off the fact that the bike's still at Tranzac...