1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Finally!!!



However, today's my cat's birthday, and we're a little odd in that we celebrate all our cat's birthdays, so we've had some sparkling red wine and while I'm still quite sober, I'm certainly not up to testing ignition components tonight.

I did however duck down long enough to have a look at how they'll go mounting on the new electrics tray:



They'll sit well on top with the indicator relay with room for a fuse box there as well.



Underneath will be the heatsink and R/R so they get plenty of air flow. I'll find somewhere lower down on the left side for the starter solenoid in the vicinity of where it would be on the OEM electrics plate.

As far as mounting the HEI modules directly to the heatsink, I should be able to cut two holes out of the tray to allow them to bolt directly to it, leaving the centre area of the tray intact so I can bolt the heatsink to the tray. If I don't do that, then I'll have the modules heating up the whole tray, which will then heat up the heatsink, which isn't so efficient.

I'm trying to think if vibration will have a negative impact on any of that, but I may be able to reverse the modules and mount them back to back in the centre of the heatsink, allowing me to bolt the heatsink to the tray via each corner.

None of that will probably make sense to anyone, but that's cool, I will endeavour to work it all out over the coming days. First thing is to sort out the actual circuit.

On another note, put an order in today for...

- K&N pod air filters
- K&N recharge pack
- K&N oil filter
- Front sprocket
- A 530 Triple S brand 104 link O ring chain
- Cable luber

Wasn't terribly cheap, but I had a 10% off voucher from buying my 'bars and rear sprocket from them, so that made it a bit better.

[Matchless]

Good show! You should have spark soon!

[pete]

I certainly hope so Matchless! Now the fun begins...

[SVSooke]

Yes waiting for these has consumed you.I'm glad to see you finally got them.

[landshark]

Perfect weather for tinkering today.
Have fun.

[pete]

Yes waiting for these has consumed you.I'm glad to see you finally got them.

Yeah I've been a little desperate... I'm glad they're here too

Perfect weather for tinkering today.
Have fun.

I suspect I'll be shopping and visiting Dan Murphy's today so no tinkering, but alcohol stock replenishing is good too

[john82q]

I agree great weather for tinkering and drinking!
probably best in that order too.

[pete]

Indeed it is John!

As it turned out, I did get a little tinkering done... and I mean a little.

As per my ignitor thread, first test was a failure, but rushed testing means I don't trust it.

I also got my choke bracket for the left carb cut out of the steel stock and started measuring up and cutting out a mount for the starter solenoid.

I suspect it's going to look very agricultural and ugly, but it should be serviceable for the moment.

No pic's due to not having a clue as to how much time I was going to get on it today, so will post some up next time I'm working on it.

[pete]

Well, couple of testing failures for the HEI modules tonight, details are over in the ignitor thread. Gonna be, well, interesting getting them working.

I did however decide to make sure I ended on a positive, so I got my choke bracket almost finished:





You'll notice two holes there as my initial measurements had the fork hanging way out the left side of the carb which would mean a rather extreme angle would be needed to get the cable back to the choke actuator.

I hadn't drilled the hole until tonight, so I went old school to keep the noise down:



I've gotta work out an adaptor/bracket so I can attach the ball end of the cable to the actuator yet, but I really wanna concentrate on getting spark this week.

[Charlie G]

Pete,

Here is the cable diagram. I've tried twice to get this right side up and can't. Maybe it's right side up for you, in OZ?

cg

[pete]

Cheers Charlie, that's awesome!

Can you believe it really is right side up?? Haha... no idea how that works...

[Charlie G]

Cheers Charlie, that's awesome!

Can you believe it really is right side up?? Haha... no idea how that works...

It is! How'd that happen?

cg

[pete]

Probably typical browser refresh issues. I've had photos I've edited and rotated etc. with Photobucket but no matter what I do they show the same image and it's only with a cache clear in Internet Explorer that they show up right.

On a slightly different topic, there'll be an update in my ignitor thread shortly, and I really need to stop looking at eBay.

I bought this today after getting the measurements from the seller as it should suit what I'm looking for:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200583348299&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Obviously I'll need to work out how to mount it to my frame and recover it down the track as the colour won't suit, but I thought it a fair price considering it seems to be in pretty good condition for its age.

Can't see me getting to a wrecker any time soon so I think I'm going to have to stick with eBay for things like this which is a real pain.

I already know that if I manage to get my spark sorted out by this weekend, I won't be able to try for a start anyway.

[pete]

Well, ignoring my frustration with spark, it was fun tonight.

Got home to find two parcels on the dining table waiting for me.

Firstly...



One reproduction factory service manual received! Seems to be quite a lot more involved and detailed than the Clymer, and the only disappointing thing for me was that they don't go into any detail about the ignition system.

I was hoping they'd have some sort of details on the signal generator, but the main part only discusses the contact breaker style, and then the rear has an addendum that lists the pickup coil resistances, but that's about it.

I'm not complaining though as there's a bunch more stuff in there and they cover all the 450's from '81 through '87, so it's thorough!

Next up:



Front spocket, Triple S O ring chain, pair of K&N's, K&N oil filter, K&N recharge pack, and a cable luber. That's the sort of delivery I like to get

Now I'm absolutely desperate to get some spark, get the exhaust made, and start rejetting fun...

I haven't received the Katana seat yet, which means I won't actually get it til Sunday as it's going to the house mate's work and he won't be back home until Sunday. Oh well, not urgent.

[davidduarte]

where did you order the repro manual from? I'd love to get a copy of that.