1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

So fixed the mounting holes for the brace tonight and it fits now, except it definitely is a little lopsided. Not hugely so, but enough to annoy me.



So I got back into it with the file and elongated the right side holes upwards a bit which has made it sit well enough for me to leave it as the guard will cover the top anyway. It's actually not that far out of shape, it seems that one of the bends was maybe half a degree off perpendicular to the sheet of aluminium so the rear sits flat but the front is up a little on the right hand side.



Anyway, I think I've figured how I'll be mounting the guard and I've asked the house mate to pick me up some stainless allen head bolts tomorrow seeing as he has a good fastener shop just around the corner from work.

[pete]

House mate did me a quick favour and picked up some stainless cap head allen bolts today so I can work on mounting the front guard.



Marked it up to cut the sides out where it rubs on the fork gaiters at present:



And then completely forgot to take any more pic's until I had it mounted:



It's on a funny angle there because there's a ridge in the centre of the guard where it mounts that causes it to flop left and right, so I'll put the other two bolts in the front either side to steady it.

Looks like I don't need to trim the rear quite as much as I thought either:

[pete]

Well, I don't know how but I missed doing an update last night with a bunch of work I've done. Could've sworn I posted it but obviously not because it ain't here...

Anyway, in case you haven't seen my ignitor thread, I've put the HEI setup on the backburner for a bit due to major frustration, and I've started on plan B:



I've had a reasonably indepth email conversation with Scott from Dynatek and I'm confident this will work even though it's designed for the 400's with points ignitions.

Pretty much a bolt in except a little close for comfort around the oil pressure switch:



A few little fitment issues like needing a spacer for the rotor (which John very kindly machined up for me), but no deal breakers at all at this point. I'm working on wiring it up at the moment in such a way that I can put the stock coils and signal generator back in with no dramas.

I will revisit the HEI setup but for the moment I just want to get it running so I can drop the first lot of oil and redo the valve clearances and retorque the head etc.

And yesterday I got a parcel:



Containing:



Finally I can look at putting some nice shocks on there to compliment rather than insult the pipe and that won't feel like a pair of struts, and I can have forks that don't feel like they have rubber bands inside...

And finally I got all the mounting for the front guard done, except I ended up with the left side bolt hole too low which pulls it out of shape to the left now:

[pete]

And tonight I got a huge amount of work done...



The guard sits straight. That's it... full on night tonight

[davidduarte]

nice shocks, I'll have to do that one of these days.

[pete]

Yeah I'm likin' 'em Dave! Just gotta get 'em on... means dropping the pipe to do the left one but I've gotta get exhaust gaskets in there yet anyway, so probably after I fire her up with the Dynatek.

[pete]

Just updated my ignitor thread with some more work on the Dynatek setup, mainly getting a separate wire ready for the oil pressure switch.

[pete]

Ignitor thread updated... with a link now to a carb thread:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?p=1493098#post1493098

Round and round the merry-go-round...

[pete]

Rightio, firstly I think I found the solution to my jetting dilemma. Looks like I need VM22/210 pilot jets and N102/221 Small Round main jets. At least going by this thread I finally found during a Google search:

http://forum.motorcycle-usa.com/default.aspx?f=18&m=472209

So, I decided instead of twiddling my thumbs tonight I'd get the shiny new Ikon shocks in.

I spent ages trying to get the exhaust of but had to settle just letting it rest against the side of the engine with a towel to protect it. I think the way to get it off will be to remove the left header and then it will come off easily, but I couldn't get it to separate from the collector by myself, think I need a second person to steady and hold the pipe.

Anyway, the Ikons have a slightly larger spring diameter than the stock shocks, so I popped in some washers on the mounting bracket to bring it out enough for some good clearance:



And they're mounted up and bolts torqued up:



Love it! I could even feel the difference already just dropping it off the centre stand. It actually had a little bounce to it instead of the thump from the stockers that are now more like struts...

Now, this is the end result of my quick trim of the front guard yesterday:



Definitely much better. Obviously I have some tidying to do as I just whacked each end off with the dremel, but the size should be good to go now.

Then I got everything back on for some final mockups, and I'm real happy now:



Ignore that horrid headlight, that needs replacing.

The only things missing from the mockup now are a round mesh grill on the headlight, mirrors, hand guards, and a fly screen. Oh, and some good tyres, preferably dual sports.

Speaking of tyres, I emailed Tyres 4 Bikes the other day to see if they had anything suitable and what prices are like, but no response at all. Sometimes Brissie annoys the crap out of me, all these places are so old school it's not funny, can't email or look online, you have to walk in or ring them and I just don't get time for that very often these days...

Anyways, not sure what I'll do next time, maybe start tidying up the guard and fork brace or something.

I definitely need to do something abou that tacho cable too as it's going to be a real clearance problem on the guard the way it is right now. I might be able to put some sort of guide on the side of the guard to keep it out there like the brake line has on the left side of the stock guard.

[ZombieZ]

Love the exhaust Brotha!

[pete]

Love the exhaust Brotha!

Cheers! Me too actually

Now if I can just get it running so I can hear it properly I'll be laughin'!

[ZombieZ]

Haha same boat I have 4 engines and a extra head but all run just picking and choosing which one is gonna be my badness and i want to swap all the case bolts because the previous owner swapped it for hex nut so thankful its the main reason i bought it!

[pete]

Hey lots of choice, can only be a good thing

You mean the PO put the allen head bolts on there or hex heads? Hex heads would be weird... I've got SS allen heads on mine from Z1 and I love 'em, so much better than the dodgy philips...

[mike-s]

Looking good there, looking very good

[pete]

Looking good there, looking very good

Cheers Mike, it's definitely starting to come together cosmetically now.

I just need to do the finishing/tidying bits like smooth off the cut edges of the front guard and get the tail piece sanded down properly and get the layer of putty on it to make sure it's all even ready for paint.

You finished that fish tank yet so you can get back to the GS?