1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Man your one patient bloke...I would have redlined up and n down the street by now, but then again youve not been arrested for such shinanagins either.

maybe you should keep it that way...

Haha there's the reason I haven't put the fuel and vacuum hoses on yet

I've also gotta get that chain link on too, that could be interesting otherwise!

Of course I'd never take an unregistered bike 'round the block a time or two...

I must agree with Woodsy on the shield.
Perhaps they could make a second shield from where the pipes join each other behind the cylinder back to the current shield.

Daniel

Hmmm yeah I dunno... I'm not saying yes/no on this one yet until I get her going

We did bandy some ideas about earlier in this thread when I didn't know they were making the heat shield, so there are still ideas floating around in my head if it needs to be longer...

True.
At least take it for a few miles around the hood.

Daniel

Now I'd never do a thing like that Daniel, I'm a law abiding citizen ok?

[pete]

Wow Australia Post shocked me... my parcel arrived today!



I've been eyeing those hand guards off for ages and I finally bit the bullet and got a pair!

They're a bit of a tight squeeze around the master cylinder and cables but they fit and there's plenty of room for my hands and the levers behind there. I was worried they'd be no good with road bike controls but turns out there's not dramas at all, awesome!

They're just on loosely for the moment as I need to take them back off to get the hand grips installed yet:



Then I started to tackle the chain link install.

The tool I got is great... except it's for the master link type that you press on then install the clip, whereas this chain needs to have it pressed on and then the pins riveted or mushroomed with a ball peen hammer. Just dandy...

So, start off with the master link joining the ends of the chain:



Pop the O rings on:



Use the chain tool to press the link down on the pins properly:



I gave the rear wheel a spin to make sure the master link didn't cause any kinks in the chain to indicate I'd pressed it down too far and it was all clear, and here it is now waiting for me to mushroom the heads of the pins.



I guess I'm going to have to wedge a block of wood behind it or something so I can get the ball peen hammer onto them.

I think next time I'll make sure I get one with the spring type master link...

[ged]

Fantastic work Pete, just beginning the long journey of doing up my 850. Hey where did you get your mirrors from? Also is Tranzac still at Redland Bay? I had some work done from them about 6 years ago. I am looking at a Mac exhaust system and maybe a modification by Tranzac to make mufflers look like the originals.

Regards

[7981GS]

When you try to mushroom the master link pins, make sure that you also have some form of metal plate between the lumber and the pins so that you get a good hard surface to hit against.
Long-nose Vice Grips between the pins will help hold the parts where you need them to be before you mushroom the pins.

Daniel

[pete]

Fantastic work Pete, just beginning the long journey of doing up my 850. Hey where did you get your mirrors from? Also is Tranzac still at Redland Bay? I had some work done from them about 6 years ago. I am looking at a Mac exhaust system and maybe a modification by Tranzac to make mufflers look like the originals.

Regards

Thanks GED! It's a fun journey

The mirrors are eBay cheapies from Taiwan as I needed the Yamaha style mirrors that have the left hand thread on the brake side after getting the master cylinder from Mikes XS.

Tranzac are at Carbrook now, Beenleigh - Redland Bay Rd. No signage though as the council forbids it... love their work and can only highly recommend you give them a call

Where abouts in Brissie are you?

When you try to mushroom the master link pins, make sure that you also have some form of metal plate between the lumber and the pins so that you get a good hard surface to hit against.
Long-nose Vice Grips between the pins will help hold the parts where you need them to be before you mushroom the pins.

Daniel

Cheers Daniel, that makes perfect sense. A nice solid base will definitely help.

The only difficulty I think will be holding all that vertically while I hammer the pins, but I'm sure I can work something out there too

[Hoosier Daddy]

I've always used the clip type master links so excuse my ignorance... but isn't there a specific tool for peening over the pins?

[Flyboy]

Yeah HD, I am sure there is, I am sure I had one many moons ago, when the dinasours still roamed the earth, a chain breaker, it was a combination "take the chain apart and put the chain back together" type tool.
THat gold chain looks wicked with the red bike Pete, nice choice, what next, I remember when chains were grey, take it or leave it.

[pete]

I've always used the clip type master links so excuse my ignorance... but isn't there a specific tool for peening over the pins?

Yeah there is... the proper chain rivetter that I found was about $145 which means it would be cheaper for me to buy a DID chain or something with the clip type master link...

However you'll see real soon how I got around that

Yeah HD, I am sure there is, I am sure I had one many moons ago, when the dinasours still roamed the earth, a chain breaker, it was a combination "take the chain apart and put the chain back together" type tool.
THat gold chain looks wicked with the red bike Pete, nice choice, what next, I remember when chains were grey, take it or leave it.

You'll see in a tic Stan once I get my update done

The gold chain was pure fluke... ie that just happened to be the colour they are... but yes it does work well with the colour of the bike by pure dumb luck

[pete]

I managed to hit somewhat of a roadblock today, but I'll get to that in a sec.

Firstly, I got the chain sorted.

I got some time while my wife was doing other stuff today but no matter how I tackled it, there was no way by myself I chock something up behind the chain so I could use the ball peen hammer on the pins.

So I dug around the garage instead and ending up finding my house mate's chain breaking tool... hmmmm...

Time for some more Aussie ingenuity...



I put the chain press tool over the half a link I wasn't touching to prevent the link being forced off, and then I put the breaker over the pin needing to be peened.

Seemed to work ok in the end:



And got the chain guard back on:



Next is where I hit trouble... and this is big trouble for getting the bike done before Chrissy.

I decided I'd get the gear shift lever adjusted today as I was breaking my new boots in that I'll be riding with so I figured it was a good time while I had them on.

Anyway, I discovered I could only change gears up or down depending on where I had the lever adjusted to which was really weird.

I looked closely and noticed that the shift lever was a little loose on its shaft, and the heim joint appeared to have a reasonable amount of free play.

I'm convinced now that the biggest problem is the heim joint attached the shift lever.

I had a look at Alph Sprts and it ain't cheap, so I'm guessing from a dealer here is gonna be a killer, but worth a call Monday just in case.



One thing I looked at tonight was seeing if the hole for the heim joint is a suitable size that will let me use an aftermarket pair of heim joints. Finding them will be the trick...



I have a M6 helicoil type kit here, so if I could find aftermarket heim joints with an M6 thread, it should be easy to assemble and sort the issue.

If anyone else has any better suggestions on how I can get this sorted please let me know...

[Flyboy]

Nice job on the chain there Pete.
Bugger about the shift linkage, I would imagine there is nothing for it, other than replace the joints, that one in the pic looks well worn, with plenty play.
Unless you want to be creative and convert to Rose joints, but that would be a bigger job and no cheaper, sorry man, I have nothing, maybe troll ebay for some NOS????

[cowboyup3371]

Pete, remember that Alpha Sports is the most expensive over here. Make sure you do some shopping around. What's the part number and I'll see if I can find something locally.

[7981GS]

Great job on the link. Did you purchase the tool or borrow one?
As for the shift linkage, I have a set of rear sets off of my '79 1000S that might be of use to you.
Let me get some pic's later today and see if any of the parts could be of any help.

Daniel

[pete]

Nice job on the chain there Pete.
Bugger about the shift linkage, I would imagine there is nothing for it, other than replace the joints, that one in the pic looks well worn, with plenty play.
Unless you want to be creative and convert to Rose joints, but that would be a bigger job and no cheaper, sorry man, I have nothing, maybe troll ebay for some NOS????

Cheers Stan, glad it's on!

And yeah there's heaps of play in there, as in mm's worth of play

Converting to Rose joints is what I'm thinking about actually. If I could buy a pair with M6 threads and a short shaft like the original, then it would be pretty straight forward to do. I need to grind the back of the existing ones so I can remove them and see how possible that is.

Pete, remember that Alpha Sports is the most expensive over here. Make sure you do some shopping around. What's the part number and I'll see if I can find something locally.

Yep Scott, I remember Boulevard are about $20 cheaper.

The reason I was looking at Alpha is that our local dealers here are much dearer than Alpha, and I don't really want to wait the 3 weeks it will end up taking to order from the US as that will definitely mean no bike by Chrissy...

Great job on the link. Did you purchase the tool or borrow one?
As for the shift linkage, I have a set of rear sets off of my '79 1000S that might be of use to you.
Let me get some pic's later today and see if any of the parts could be of any help.

Daniel

Thanks Daniel The press tool on the left is the one I bought, the chain breaker on the right is one that my house mate swears he didn't have and didn't even know what it looked like I think senility's setting in!

Cool thanks for that, although as I said above to Scott I fear if I get stuff shipped from the US this time it will probably kill my Chrissy deadline.

The lever and linkage on the 450's appears to be unique to the 80 - 82 model 450's also going by the reverse parts lookup on Alpha Sports.

I'll call my local dealer tomorrow to find how many hundreds they want and try not to fall off my chair at work, and in the meantime I'm going hunting for Rose joints as I said in reply to Stan above...

[Hoosier Daddy]

Heim joints are used in various Industrial applications but I am at a loss for what vendors to recommend over in Oz. Try extending your search out to the Industrial suppliers. If you were here I'd say Mcmaster.com or Grainger.com that I use at work... so maybe they have a branch there or something similar.

[pete]

Heim joints are used in various Industrial applications but I am at a loss for what vendors to recommend over in Oz. Try extending your search out to the Industrial suppliers. If you were here I'd say Mcmaster.com or Grainger.com that I use at work... so maybe they have a branch there or something similar.

Yeah everything I've seen industrial wise so far have been for tie rod ends and so forth for cars, so way too big.

I'm looking at these though as Tarozzi stuff is pretty good. A little pricey perhaps but I'll give them a call tomorrow. I'm sure it will end up half the price of just the shift lever from Suzuki...

http://www.motorcycle-parts.com.au/Rearsets&Spares.htm