1981 GS450E Rebuild

[pete]

Please let us know how well that iPhone app does as I might want to check it out as well.

Thanks.

Will do Scott, tried it on the train on the way home this avo but it can't get a good GPS signal to work, however I walked home at 5kmh apparently...

If I can manage to get myself a tank bag (Chrissy time budget restrictions in place) then I'll give it a go and report back.

Yeh, don't... cut them apart, clean and lube them properly.

Had a peak in at this today, and that's what I'm doing, although not cutting, prying the bezel off instead

Pete,
As Dale says! You would land up with diluted oil and dirt on the inside of the face and glass I think.
Just bend the folded lip up with a screwdriver and get the glass out then the rest will follow. Use Benzine if you can get it.

Yup spotted these updates today, done

Uploading pic's at the moment... and have a question...

YOU CAN AFFORD AN IPHONE -- C'mon Pete, people restoring "old" Suzukis are supposed to be dead broke. Not able to afford the latest gizmos like that.

Bike must be running reasonably ok if you've done the initial 60km with no stalling, carb mixture issues. Hope it keeps running well for you. It took me nearly 12 months to really sort my carbs out properly. But I am happy with them now.

keep the posts coming.

Hahahaha nah don't fear Don, it ain't my iPhone, it's allocated to me by work

I have to have mobile access to email and it's more cost effective than a crapberry, so that's what we get

My personal mobile's on the cheapest plan I can get onto... hahaha

I am fouling the left plug at idle which I noticed especially yesterday when sitting at traffic lights, so I ordered a #20 pilot today which should be here tomorrow and that should hopefully take care of that.

Aside from that, I'm really happy with how well she's running considering I've done some total guess adjustments and no plug chops as yet...

I really want to spend the effort getting them dialled in as good as I can though and I reckon she's lean on the needle going by the subtle popping I get during deceleration at times.

[pete]

Ok, so these are the two lubes I picked up yesterday, and the 3 in 1 is what's in the freshly cleaned cables now, with the silicone one reserved for the gauges:



Hopefully it's the right stuff...

So tonight I had to do the horrid thing and rip the instrument cluster apart again. I really don't want to and risk breaking something and having her off the road again so soon, but they're no good the way they are... really should've done it when I did the gauge LED's... anyway... all apart...



The back of them is decidedly disgusting:



I'm not cutting the gauges, I'm prying the bezels off instead. I don't have a drill press to hold a cutoff wheel to be accurate with the cutting, so that's too scary an option...

I had trouble getting started with prying the bezel, so I grabbed some wire cutters and cut into the bezel to give me a starting point:



Levered my way around with a small flat blade screwdriver:



And after taking a while being careful and getting enough clearance to slip the screwdriver down the side of the plastic housing, I was able to lever the bezel off finally:



Didn't make too much of a mess of them:

[pete]

Both bezels are off:



However I can't for the life of me work out how the trip meter reset knob comes off!



Searching says three options:

- Yank it off, press fit
- Screw it off, left hand thread
- There's a philips head screw holding it on

I've tried the first two and can't see a screw anywhere and none are working... any clues? I'll pop a thread in one of the tech. forums in a sec...

[pete]

Just popped this thread in:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=186027

[Hoosier Daddy]

I read here that mine should just pull straight off, but it didn't budge, for the life of me didn't want to pull any harder. I was skepticle to hold the shaft with pliers and twist the knob in case it really did have a flat locator on the shaft and was supposed to pull off.
Never have figured it out.
Yours with the hole in the center, I'd be looking really close for a screw.

[pete]

I read here that mine should just pull straight off, but it didn't budge, for the life of me didn't want to pull any harder. I was skepticle to hold the shaft with pliers and twist the knob in case it really did have a flat locator on the shaft and was supposed to pull off.
Never have figured it out.
Yours with the hole in the center, I'd be looking really close for a screw.

Yeah I didn't want to yank too hard either...

If there's a screw in that hole I'm screwed... haha

I have no screwdriver that's thin enough as well as long enough to reach the bottom of that hole.

It was full of dirt which I scraped out, but that hole goes way down...

[rustybronco]

It was full of dirt which I scraped out, but that hole goes way down...

Put a punch or a nail in it, grasp the knob and tap the 'pin' with a hammer.

very gently at first...

[pete]

Put a punch or a nail in it, grasp the knob and tap the 'pin' with a hammer.

very gently at first...

I like how you think Dale, you always seem to come up with a real good suggestion that always seems to work, so I'll definitely be giving this a go tonight

If that hole is indeed all the way down to a metal splined post as seems to be the case in the other thread, then that should be a perfect technique for it...

[pete]

So the trip reset knob is threaded onto the shaft... sheeesh...



Didn't get much time at all tonight, just enough to work that out.

Hopefully I'll get in there again tomorrow night as I need to clean and lube them and reassemble them yet.

The orange bits are from drilling those extra drain holes during the LED conversion:



Didn't get the #20 pilot jet today either, would really like to get a chance to fiddle with the mixture screws again on the weekend but if the jet doesn't arrive there's not much chance...

Also, a mate at work brought in his brand new tank bag he doesn't have a use for, so figured out it will hold my work laptop and the tank so I'll buy it off him. It's brand new to boot!



That also means I can give the iPhone speedo app a go once I get the speedo and tacho back on the bike.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I dunno, looks like the odometer is reading a little high... now would be a great time to take care of that.
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Kidding!!!
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(Sorta)

[pete]

Hahahahaha nah I'm happy knowing how many km's she's *really* done... not gonna help resale value any (not that I intend selling of course)

[pete]

So I think my issue may have been at least partly due to drilling those drain holes during the LED conversion. Heaps of orange plastic shavings around the speedo in particular:



Everything got a clean with either degreaser or lighter fluid and the drill test worked. Fingers crossed they're fixed as the drill test is not exactly conclusive...



Also, the guy sending my pilot jet had his order paperwork moved on him so no orders got sent until yesterday and I won't have it until Monday which is a bit of a bugger. I was hoping to get time this weekend to have a fiddle with the mixture screw. Oh well...

I also got the registration papers and sticker in the mail yesterday so that went on as well.

[Matchless]

Pete,
I think you should be OK now. This is just about a definite must do on a 30 year old bike and the same goes for the the left and right handlebar switches.
Have you ridden at night yet? I was just wondering how you find the LED conversion on the road.

[pete]

Pete,
I think you should be OK now. This is just about a definite must do on a 30 year old bike and the same goes for the the left and right handlebar switches.
Have you ridden at night yet? I was just wondering how you find the LED conversion on the road.

Well just got back from a short 20km ride, just waiting for the Mrs now as I'm doing the taxi thing to a hair appointment today...

The speedo is still a little bouncy but doesn't seem to stick as such, but the tacho is still reasonably bouncy. I think new cables might be the go, especially for the tacho. I replaced the speedo cable not long after I got it when it stopped working (didn't know I could lube them back then) so it's in better condition than the tacho one but I think they both could just be replaced.

I haven't gotten out at night yet unfortunately but all the idiot lights are easily visible during the daylight hours which was my first concern.

I do need to get a night ride in soon to check the headlight focus and night visibility of the gauges as well.

I also tried the iPhone speedometer app today (Speed Box Free 4.7) and it seems to be reasonably accurate going by the time in the car with the known speedometer, but it tends to read pessimisticly which means I wouldn't rely on it solely given you'll occassionally be doing probably 5kmh over the limit at times. It seems once you're keeping constant speed for a while it's ok, but stop start it's almost useless.

I put it in the tank bag for the short run today and glanced down at it occassionally and I think with the 100/90-18 tyre on the front I'm now going about 10% quicker than the speedo says

I might have to look into an alternative speedometer next year. Not sure I really want to replace the whole gauge cluster though as even though it's a tad ugly it's all easy to read and right there... in the meantime I'll just compensate and drop 10% off the speed where necessary.

I also rode the last couple of km's back behind an awesome 3 wheeler. It looked like an old Morgan with the fish tail pipes up each side and sounded great but when I pulled up beside him he said it was home made but I didn't quite catch the rest of what he said as the lights went green. Sure was quite an impressive piece of work with all the perfectly curved body work which was shiny metal, no idea if it's alu. or what though. I turned off before him so didn't get to catch up with him again.

[pete]

Got out for a short ride up to Dayboro and back today, that was nice except for the showers on the supposedly "mostly sunny" day... oh well, at least I got out for a ride

The speedo seems a lot calmer now and doesn't seem to stick any more but has an occassional bounce, but the tacho is pretty much useless, bounces all over the shop. I still reckon the speedo's about 10% less than the speed I'm actually doing because of the larger tyre though, and knocking 10% off the speed did seem to bring me in line with most of the traffic I came across, so I'll stick with that until I can confirm for sure (without using a speed camera for reference ).

New cables in the new year will be the way forward to fix the bouncing I think.

Anyway, tonight I cut the knee pad shapes out of the neoprene sheet and started working on the design I'll attempt to carve out of them.

I'm going to use just the "GS" out of the GS Resources logo on the GS Goodies page. I don't think I'll be able to pull off the whole logo, so I'm just doing the "GS" bit.

Mock up on the cardboard template with the letters cut out:



Marked and cut out the two pads:



The shape and size should be right:



And made a template for the GS letters as the start of the design work:



I'm also thinking some of putting some horizontal lines through the surrounding areas along the lines of what's in the attached photo of a Triumph knee pad.