1981 GS450E Rebuild

[john82q]

yeah heaps better

bit of a trimm both ends, and its a goer.

Before comitting the brace to metal, you might want to pop the springs out of the shocks and see it dosnt hit at full compression, and every which way.

Set of knobbies, and we wont see you for dust.

[pete]

Cheers John, and yeah, good call on the spring removal. If I get the Ikons soon enough then I'll have to do the spring swap anyway, although I'm pretty confident removing 5 inches from the rear will make it aok.

With the arc of the steering, it looks like if I clear the horizontal right header, the left header will be fine, but I'll definitely need to check those things properly first...

As to the knobbies... yeah bring 'em on!

[pete]

Rightio, tax done for another year, picked up supplies, and got half a garage to do another mock up, but that's all I'll have time for this avo as I have to get moving shortly and take care of some other stuff.

Anyways...

Picked up the auto meter from Jaycar, heaps of stuff that will come in handy:



Popped into Capral aluminium at Zillmere and picked up a 400 x 1200 x 2.5mm sheet of aluminium for the fork brace and sump guard. Ideally I wanted 3mm, but for $20 I can't complain! Should be plenty sturdy enough anyway if I bend it right:



Then time for the mock up. I managed to tape it in almost the right place, but it kept sagging forward a little, so it will probably end up maybe half an inch higher at the front at the most.

The masking tape front and rear is where I can trim it back:



I reckon that's at least good enough to give it a trim and a mount once the fork brace is made up, and if it looks like crap I can rethink then.

Also, John, as to the clearance on the rear, if I trim it there then there is no way that's hitting against anything even full lock left/right and definitely not with the forks compressed, don't even need to drop the springs to see that which is even better.

And on a side note, discovered there's a Dynatek ignition setup to suit these twins apparently. The DS3-3C for $US309.99 is listed as "Dyna S Ignition System for Suzuki GS 400 Twin w/ Coils", so I expect it will be fine for the 450's as well, but if I was to go down this (expensive) path, then I would definitely be clarifying first. Interesting that it comes with the coils too, so no using the OEM ones.

[pete]

Did a bit towards the voltage monitor tonight, got LED's mounted up ready to solder to see if the circuit works or not:



Once that's done I can get to calibrating and mounting it, then it will be somewhat useful...

[pete]

Figured I'd best do something about the fact that there was no way to hook a car battery up to the bike to start her up given I haven't decided where the battery is going or what sort of battery it will be yet.

So, did up a bit of a jumper to go from the bullet connector on the inline blade main fuse over to the short lead on the starter solenoid, so I can just hook a jumper cable to that, being ultra careful it doesn't short against anything:



Sorry for the dark photos, but the camera batteries are nearly dead again, so had to do without the flash tonight.

At some point I'll need to hook the car battery up to make sure everything still works as expected so there are no nasty surprises waiting for me.

Week and a half to go... not that I'm counting...

[pete]

No pic's, but I finished soldering up the LED's on the voltage monitor tonight (tedious and painful) and gave it a quick test and it works, yay! Next is calibrating time, then I need to work out how I'm going to mount it so I can make an enclosure up and get it on the bike.

Also, I've been having an interesting email conversation with Scott from Dynatek about their DS3-3C setup to see if it's compatible with the 450's. As a result, I need to get stuck into the manuals and see what the timing is like in comparison between the points and electronic ignition. The 400's and 425's use a slight larger bolt to hold the advance governor on the end of the crankshaft, and they don't have the oil pressure switch in with the points either, but I'm not sure whether the timing marks or mounting points are comparable with the 450's signal generator plate or not. Time to get into those manuals and see what they say...

[pete]

Went down for a little bit tonight, keeping it short as I've been feeling a bit dodgy yesterday and today, thinking I've probably got whatever my wife had on Saturday so wanna get rid of that quick smart.

Anyway, hooked up the HEI circuit ready for Saturday. My prototype packaging really sucks as I can't mount the modules side by side because I made a couple of the leads too short.

In addition, I managed to mount the electrics tray about 5mm or so further rearwards than I should've, meaning I can't put the heatsink far enough back and I can only mount it on the front HEI module for the moment. I can fix that easy enough when i replace the hose clamps with the P clamps though.





Then I took a quick video of the voltage monitor in action, still not calibrated but definitely working:

[Woodsy]

Damn those LED's look bright

[pete]

They certainly are! There's some green and red plastic to go over the top to highlight when the voltage is good/bad which should dull them down somewhat.

[Flyboy]

You surely are a man of many talents my Aussie friend, some good work going on there, getting closer by the day.

[pete]

Well you know what they say... Jack of all trades, Master of none... haha

I'm lovin' doing all these things I've either never done before or haven't done for years.

I like learning new things and generally like to know how stuff works, so it's all interesting, callenging, and fun! I get quite bored doing the same things day in day out...

The thing that's concerning me the most at the moment is getting that tail piece finished and all the painting done to a good enough quality that it doesn't let the pipe down...

[Woodsy]

i hate electrics and painting give me mechanicals any day

[pete]

I don't mind electrics, painting well we'll see... mechanicals I'm getting more and more used to now

I did get down tonight to calibrate the voltage monitor, so now minimum displayed will be 10V, around the middle 14V, and highest about 16.5V, which will allow me to work out which LED's need to have green or red over the top.

Also, I hate census night, that was sooooooooooo tedious to fill out! I figured it would be easier online except you couldn't choose to skip those questions that just get a little too personal... I'm still surprised they don't ask what colour underwear you have on while filling it out...

[landshark]

They didnt leave me the paper form, and my internet wasnt working when i went to fill it out. Buggered if i know what happens there?

[pete]

Apparently you'll cease to exist as a person and will vanish from the face of the earth according to the government...