1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

And then we come to the kicking screaming and general tantrum point of the night...

The valve cover gasket is wrong!!!! This is from the Athena kit I was assured was right for my engine number, but I bought it so long ago now that there's probably nothing I can do about it, but I'll send the guy an email in the morning anyway and see if something can be done. Man that makes me mad



I flipped it over, both fore and aft and left to right and there was no way it was gonna fit, and it also doesn't have the extra hole at the front that the later model 450's have. They added that halfway through the '81 model year.

So I obviously wasn't getting the valve cover on tonight after all... dammit!

So back to the carbs.

Float height set somewhere between 23 and 24mm's:



No more thinking about it now, just doing it... far more sensible idea...

New float chamber gasket on:



Float chamber sitting on:



And secured with shiny new allen bolts with anti seize:

[pete]

New choke assembly gasket on:



And choke assembly on with shiny new allen bolts and anti seize:



Gave the mechanism a quick test and the choke actuator lifts nicely and the spring pulls it back down just as nicely:



Repeated it all for the right carb and there we have two fully assembled carbs:



And then all the mounting hardware and choke hardware cleaned up ready to join them again:



Sat the carbs together with the fuel T piece in place and the throttle actuators linked again:



And it was around here my battery thirsty camera decided to spit out the latest lot of batteries, and the new lot I put in seem to have exceeded their shelf life as straight away it started reporting low battery again... more frustration...

Anyway, it means I lost some sequence pic's at the end here, but no big deal as the tricky bits are done.

Carbs joined:



And the choke lever on:



I'm happy that I got to replace the chewed out philips on the choke lever there that always used to vibrate loose while riding.

I think I've worked out how I can mount a handlebar mounted choke lever too without too much drama.

If I remove the choke lever, I should be able to make up some sort of bracket to hang off the left carb and pull the choke shaft up from there. Probably doesn't make a lot of sense but I can sort of see it in my head.

If I get some time I'll endeavour to GIMP it.

I tried to mount the carbs also tonight, but even with some WD sprayed in the intake boots, I couldn't get them to slide in properly.

Mainly I think that there's not enough leverage for me to do it while I'm stopping the bike rolling as well as trying to get the carbs in at the same time.

I may need to enlist the assistance of my house mate to hold the bike while I shove them on.

Anyways, tomorrow's battle is to do something about the valve cover gasket, and next time on the bike will be back to electrical gremlins.

[pete]

Called the Suzuki dealer this morning, and they use the same fiche as everyone else, so no dice on the pilot air screw spring, they are just as much in the dark as I am... dammit.

A new valve cover gasket is $55 but there are none in Australia and won't be until mid March.

The guy I got the Athena kit from is aware of differences in the 450 covers, and if I read his email right he may even just be sending me the correct one, although I've asked him to wait until I can get a proper pic through to him to make sure.

So hopefully that means the valve cover gasket will be sorted, but I still need that darn screw...

[Leigh]

Can you get away with setting the screw and applying a lump of threadlock?
Or perhaps taking the screw to a nuts & bolt shop and getting a spring fitted up?

[Flyboy]

Hi Pete, good progress there, I can't wait for the day you fire it up.
Leigh has the same idea as I do, your best bet is a dedicated spring supplier, let your fingers do the walking for one in or close to your area, an industrial supply may be able to help as well.

[Adler]

Maybe take apart a couple pens for springs? You never know, might get lucky!

[pete]

Can you get away with setting the screw and applying a lump of threadlock?
Or perhaps taking the screw to a nuts & bolt shop and getting a spring fitted up?

Cheers Leigh, although I'm not keen on the loctite idea as I'm going to need to adjust the screw once I get to tuning with the exhaust and pods and things, think I'd definitely rather stick with a spring for that stuff.

And yeah I'm starting to think that may be my only hope at the moment...

Hi Pete, good progress there, I can't wait for the day you fire it up.
Leigh has the same idea as I do, your best bet is a dedicated spring supplier, let your fingers do the walking for one in or close to your area, an industrial supply may be able to help as well.

Me too Flyboy, me too

And ditto to Leigh's comment there...

Maybe take apart a couple pens for springs? You never know, might get lucky!

Thanks Adler, I initially did actually think about that, but I don't think a pen spring will have enough tension. There's not a lot of tension in it, but pen's are generally very softly sprung...

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! Here's a crappy blurry pic of the right carb's spring which is what I lost for the left carb:



I just remembered Suzuki_Don mentioning he may have one around, so I will PM him now.

If not, I did find this:

http://www.smallparts.com.au/store/item/cs03000080000352/hobbyspringscompression/

$11.65 plus postage ain't cheap for a little spring, but it may just get me out of the poo if 3mm diameter is big enough. Worth a gamble if I can't find one anywhere else...

Oh, and using a measuring tape (not flash for small stuff but workable), it appears to be about 4mm diameter and 8mm long...

[pete]

Rightio... got the house mate to give me a quick hand tonight to attempt to get the carbs mounted up.

After struggling for about 5 minutes with him holding the bike and me trying to get the carbs to slot into the boots, he remembered he had some rubber grease:



Spread a little inside each boot and man they slid on nice and easy. I could've done it myself last night if I knew that grease was there:



Then I took a couple of quick snaps of the valve cover for the gasket guy to clarify what I need, and he's right, I have the 15 bolt valve cover, whereas the gasket in the kit is for a 12 bolt cover. I think maybe mine is actually an '82 model rather than an '81 model... oh well. I gave him the engine number when I ordered the kit, so not sure how it went wrong there but if he's prepared to sort it out six months down the track, then I must pay a compliment where it's due and say that's impressive service. I guess he meant it when he says he stands behind the Athena name...



Then, onto the right controls for a clean up and try to remote any excess resistance in the kill switch.



Some disassembly pic's to see how feral it is inside and also to help me put it back together in case I get distracted while it's apart. On call for work this week so I expect my 'phone to ring at any minute and to have to go fix something, so best to make sure I got lots of reference material in case that happens.

[pete]

Guts cleaned up:



Starter button back in:



Onto some assembly pic's:

[pete]

I neglected to mention that before assembly I gave all the switch contacts a good spray with contact cleaner and ran them through their positions to really work it in and try to clean them up as best I could.

So, more assembly:



And back where it belongs:



Then onto the ignition switch:



Removed the cover and pulled the switch out:



Separated the switch guts and it's a tad ugly in there:

[pete]

Good run over with contact cleaner, and much much better now:



Switch back together:



Back in place with the plastic cover on:



And back where it belongs:



And that's where it sits tonight.

So, with any luck, I'll have a valve cover gasket on the way tomorrow so I might be able to get the valve cover on this week, and hopefully one of the possible avenues for the spring works out and I can complete the carb assembly also.

In the meantime, I can now go and hook the electrics back up and see if the voltage drop has improved or if there's still more to do. I suspect there will be more...

[Leigh]

$11.65? Pfft, says I..

Take the other spring down to a bolt shop, bearing shop, bike shop..
Say G'day in your friendly casual manner and tell him you need one of these..
Yup, that's right, just the one..

I'll bet they have something similar.
You might not even have to pay for it..

[pete]

My housemate's a legend!

My housemate is at home on a day off today and he dug around some more and he found the spring!!! Yeeehaaa!!!

In addition, the gasket guy is sending me the right gasket free of charge, so seeing as he's doing the right thing, I'll also do what I feel is the right thing and send the unused wrong one back to him at my own cost.

[Charlie G]

Pete,

I'm not a praying man, but I was doing some considerable wishing for you. When I took my headlight/blinker switch apart I lost a spring and a ball bearing from it and didn't know it. Two weeks later, after looking at an active thread I realized I lost it and looked in the garage. Low and behold I found them. I bet your happy!

cg

[cowboyup3371]

I'm happy it is finally working out for you Pete