1981 GS450E Rebuild

[mike-s]

how does this look? ebay heat shield

[pete]

how does this look? ebay heat shield

Honestly I ain't keen on the mounting method for those ones, I wouldn't be happy to wrap hose clamps around the ceramic coating...

However...

I got a spare 2 minutes to call Tranzac today... it's been made!!

However...

It goes to the ceramic coaters on Friday, so it should be ready at the end of next week. I could get the bike back this Saturday, but I believe I may be able to do the BBQ'ing of the painted bits, so I think I'll do that and get the bike back with the exhaust at the same time, so maybe Saturday week or I might take the following Monday or Tuesday off and get it towed then.

The other good news is that I don't have to worry about a heat shield after all, when I spoke to him today he said he made one already! Mind you, if I'm keen I can always go and make a fancy one later if I want to... but one less thing to make means less time before it's on the road

[mike-s]

Very nice, something extra to increase your value for money just a little bit

Hoppefully he's kept with the general theme of the bike, i'm sure he would, especially if he's GOT the bike there with him to measure it all up.

[cowboyup3371]

Woo hoo

[pete]

Very nice, something extra to increase your value for money just a little bit

Hoppefully he's kept with the general theme of the bike, i'm sure he would, especially if he's GOT the bike there with him to measure it all up.

Yup for sure! I suspect it'll be nothing fancy, just a solid piece of steel or whatever that follows the shape of the pipe where the rider and pillion legs are, but I won't be doing any complaining

Woo hoo

Yeah baby!

[pete]

Well it seems I at least have something to do this week at last... although Tuesday I'm supposed to be working til 10pm so can't see me doing anything that night

Anyway, got an hour or so today to BBQ the painted bits and while that was cooking away I got to finish trimming the duck tail to size.

In the BBQ:



I obviously didn't get a couple of bits prep'd real well, but it looks like I can get away without redoing them.

Trimmed duck tail:



Seat lock cut out seems to be good:

[pete]

Took them out after they'd cooled a bit, and yeah, definitely some bits weren't prep'd enough, but over all pretty good. I was also expecting it to end up not quite so matte given the can says satin, but it'll fit in ok I think as I really don't wanna have to do it all again:



And the grab handle seems like it'll fit ok too:



I still need to test fit the duck tail against the seat and seat trim as I expect I'll need to do some touch ups to the shape, but it lines up pretty well with the front of the stock duck tail now which is all I was really trying to achieve before the bike got back. It needs lots more sanding yet too to get rid of the excess sharp pointy bits after cutting it today, and of course in preparation for the putty to go over the top to even it all out and get it to be a good base for painting.

So now I can put the carbs back together and assemble the front brake caliper which means I don't have to sit around doing nothing waiting for the bike to get back from Tranzac... nice

I also figured out I should be able to get a bit of a move on with the voltage monitor as well if I finish the rest of it up.

[Woodsy]

aww u baked em, i reckon they looked cool how they were! Hurry up and bog the tail!

[pete]

I preferred the way they were before too, but gotta bake 'em otherwise the first sign of brake fluid and it'll be repaint time...

No more work on the duck tail til the bike gets back and I can make sure it all lines up ok

[Woodsy]

I've never spilt brake fluid on any of my parts even when doing a pad change and a brake bleed, i reckon you should strip them all back and re paint them without baking them...... you know you wanna.......

[pete]

I've never spilt brake fluid on any of my parts even when doing a pad change and a brake bleed, i reckon you should strip them all back and re paint them without baking them...... you know you wanna.......

Well... I have...

You have no idea how prophetic your comment was... stay tuned for an update while I upload pics...

[pete]

Well bugger me... notice something in a little odd in this pic?



Yep, those diaphragm covers were painted with caliper paint... were being the operative word

I wondered why every time I touched some of the parts I would come away with black fingers, and I figured there was some soot from the BBQ sitting on top, unfortunately in the case of the diaphragm covers it seems it was the paint... it had baked pretty much right off, but it stuck well to nearly everything else, so I'm guessing whatever alloy they use for them just doesn't provide a suitable surface for the caliper paint.

I wiped them down with a damp rag, most of the paint came off, but the float bowls were still good:



Repeated with metho and got most of it off:



I thought maybe my prep was bad, but if you look closely you can still see the sanding marks so I can only gather it's the alloy that's the issue... bugger!

Oh well, I persevered putting the carbs together so I can get them on the bike when it gets back ready to test fire it again.

Assembled the choke lever adaptor:



And the clutch lever:



Left carb's float bowl back on with pilot and main jets inside:



See that paint stuck just fine to the float bowl... oh well...

Then I dropped the clip on the needle to raise it one notch as a starting point for the fuelling with the K&N's and new exhaust. I'll get some 2 size up mains as well at some point, but not urgent right now.

[pete]

Left carby assembled:



And repeated for the right:



I finally get to use the new T piece:



That went in real snug between the carbs too, a much tighter fit than the old one so hopefully no more fuel leaks out of that area.

And all back together again:



And, finally, a couple of short dodgy videos to show that the choke lever adaptor in its final form actually works and has no more clearance issues, so it's ready to hook up to the lever on the GSX control once the bike is back:



That's it for tonight, man I'm so frustrated about those diaphragm covers! Guess I'll need to polish them up as they look even worse now than they did before.

Next time I'm down in the garage I should hopefully be assembling the caliper, at least the paint seems to have stuck ok to that and the caliper bracket.

[Big Rich]

Pete, I missed it- what kind of K&N's are you going with? I put the 2-1 filter on my GR and already went up 3 sizes on the mains (need one more I think) and about 3 washers under the needle clip. So either my stock setup was very restrictive or I have a slow fuel valve....... Better to be a little too rich starting out than too lean, right?

Good work so far man. Keep it up!

[pete]

Pete, I missed it- what kind of K&N's are you going with? I put the 2-1 filter on my GR and already went up 3 sizes on the mains (need one more I think) and about 3 washers under the needle clip. So either my stock setup was very restrictive or I have a slow fuel valve....... Better to be a little too rich starting out than too lean, right?

Good work so far man. Keep it up!

Cheers Rich! I've got individual pods for mine and when I talked to the guy at Tranzac about a starting point for jetting, he said most likely I can keep the pilot the same, go up one notch on the needles and up two sizes on the mains.

Generally speaking I think our bikes were a bit less lean from the factory than in the US as we generally lag behind in emissions laws etc. I could be wrong, that's just pure guesswork...

And yep, agreed, definitely better to be too rich! For my next fire up to test the ignitor and finally hopefully the full 15 minute heat cycle, I don't expect to hit WOT which is why I'm not worried about the mains just yet, it should mainly be on the pilot jet this time around.

Man I want my bike back... with the shiny new exhaust!