1981 GS450E Rebuild

[cowboyup3371]

Pete, how big is that gap behind the lock or whatever that is? If this is a tool tray, it looks like something might be able to fall down in there from all the bouncing around.

[JimmyR]

Hey Pete - finally got to see your build thread - wow! I haven't read all of it but have spent a large part of this evening on it and you really have done a fab job. The pipes are awesome in particular!

It's funny seeing your reaction to tranzac's work. I know you are a fan but I was feeling pretty grumpy about my tranzac pipes after having so much trouble fitting mine. But today I went back and looked at both what my bike came with and the cover of the clymer manual which has a shot of the stock pipes on the cover and I think the tranzacs are better. The way the Tranzac pipes hug the frame is better than stock and I love that I could specify reverse cones. I am very happy with my pipes now! I am thinking that the ceramic coating might be a good idea for the headers too. Is the ceramic coating treating you right?

BTW if you like Little Creatures beer you should come over here and visit the brewery in Freo. We (me, my wife and my son) sometimes have lunch there and the food is very good. The beer is even better on tap of course!

Anyway, really like what you have done with the bike. I thought about blacking out the wheels like you have done but I do like the bare ally reveal for "spokes". Suits your bike though. And the engine looks incredible. I am envious of how good your engine looks - mine is a mess!

[JimmyR]

Oh - I meant to mention too that I couldn't get a bike like yours registered here. Pods just aren't allowed. So for rego I am making my bike look as stock as possible. Even though everything I have done so far is well within the law they are suspicious of change here apparently.

[pete]

At least you are banished to the garage when your in the doghouse. I end up having to watch my little princess while the wife goes and sulks about how mad she is at me....lol. Wish she would kick me out of the and into the garage...lol.

Oh well... if that is an aluminum pan, sand paper is much better at cleaning up the edges than a file comes out a lot smoother. If its steel hit it with the dremmel with the little grinding wheel.

Paul

Hahaha... mate I just got the get out call... so the garage is where I went

Aluminium it is... but I take all the sharp edges off with a file to keep it quiet then sand paper afterwards if it needs it. At the moment it's just to get those pointing bits gone from the hacksaw as the surface will all be covered by the thin rubber.

Pete, how big is that gap behind the lock or whatever that is? If this is a tool tray, it looks like something might be able to fall down in there from all the bouncing around.

It's all good Scott, what you can't see from the angle of the photo is the tail light bracket which slots nicely into that gap

I'll still have all my tools in a bag or something anyway... I actually have the original toolkit for the bike but the bag is a little worn and fragile now and I need to add allen keys as well.

I haven't figured out how I'm going to strap it down to stop it bouncing around yet though...

Hey Pete - finally got to see your build thread - wow! I haven't read all of it but have spent a large part of this evening on it and you really have done a fab job. The pipes are awesome in particular!

It's funny seeing your reaction to tranzac's work. I know you are a fan but I was feeling pretty grumpy about my tranzac pipes after having so much trouble fitting mine. But today I went back and looked at both what my bike came with and the cover of the clymer manual which has a shot of the stock pipes on the cover and I think the tranzacs are better. The way the Tranzac pipes hug the frame is better than stock and I love that I could specify reverse cones. I am very happy with my pipes now! I am thinking that the ceramic coating might be a good idea for the headers too. Is the ceramic coating treating you right?

BTW if you like Little Creatures beer you should come over here and visit the brewery in Freo. We (me, my wife and my son) sometimes have lunch there and the food is very good. The beer is even better on tap of course!

Anyway, really like what you have done with the bike. I thought about blacking out the wheels like you have done but I do like the bare ally reveal for "spokes". Suits your bike though. And the engine looks incredible. I am envious of how good your engine looks - mine is a mess!

Oh - I meant to mention too that I couldn't get a bike like yours registered here. Pods just aren't allowed. So for rego I am making my bike look as stock as possible. Even though everything I have done so far is well within the law they are suspicious of change here apparently.

Thanks Jimmy!

Mate I still find myself looking at the pipes... love 'em! I even got a compliment on them by a guy with a mad Katana on the GSR run the other week.

I'm loving that ceramic coating. My ankle sits at the level of the pipe but with my boots and jeans on I don't feel any heat at all, it's like not having the pipe there. And my leg is just in front of the heat shield...

When I shut her off, the pipes cool down really quickly and I can hold them with my hand ages before I can even bear to touch the engine briefly. The finish is good and easy to keep clean as well. A quick polish with Mothers mag. and alu. polish when I'm doing the crank case covers and it's good as new again...

I've been told it doesn't last as long as chrome but I guess time will tell on that part...

With the wheels, ideally I should have wires on this, but that was going to end up with probably a different front end etc. so I went with blacking them out except the edge of the rim which works well, but yeah, yours is better with the alloy spokes for sure

I love the wet blasted finish of the cylinder and head, but I'm still a little annoyed I didn't get him to do the crankcases, valve cover, and cam chain tensioner as well... would've been a little expensive though!

I spend hours reading through ADR's and also emailed the Dept of Transport about my pods, and all your bike has to do is match ADR's at the time of manufacture and there was nothing back there to say pod filters were a no go, so on they want. Got a safety certificate first time with them on. If you're keen for pods, do a bit of research and you'll probably be fine... ADR's are country wide

As for Little Creatures... yeah love it! We plan on getting over there for a holiday as neither of us have been there yet and we're thinking of staying at the Esplanade Hotel which I believe is walking distance to the brewery... sounds like it's a good idea

[JimmyR]

Oh the Esplanade is a very short walk from Little Creatures! Almost a stagger... Actually my wife and I have wondered where we would stay if we were visitors to Perth, because we just got back from a trip to NYC and stayed in two different hotels in different parts of Manhattan. Your experience is quite different depending on where you stay. The Esplanade is in a great spot - close enough to the pubs, cafe strip and restaurants but just far enough away to be fairly quiet. Unless there's a festival across the road in the park! Freo is VERY touristy these days. I think the Esplanade is a good call. I don't think I would like to stay in Perth city.

Interesting about the pods. I did email K+N about maybe doing a line of more restrictive pods for those of us who want the looks of pods without the hassles of rejetting but they weren't interested! All the bike "experts" I ask about pods steer me away from them. They all say that I'll use more fuel for no gain. I would love to know how much more fuel...

[pete]

Oh the Esplanade is a very short walk from Little Creatures! Almost a stagger... Actually my wife and I have wondered where we would stay if we were visitors to Perth, because we just got back from a trip to NYC and stayed in two different hotels in different parts of Manhattan. Your experience is quite different depending on where you stay. The Esplanade is in a great spot - close enough to the pubs, cafe strip and restaurants but just far enough away to be fairly quiet. Unless there's a festival across the road in the park! Freo is VERY touristy these days. I think the Esplanade is a good call. I don't think I would like to stay in Perth city.

Interesting about the pods. I did email K+N about maybe doing a line of more restrictive pods for those of us who want the looks of pods without the hassles of rejetting but they weren't interested! All the bike "experts" I ask about pods steer me away from them. They all say that I'll use more fuel for no gain. I would love to know how much more fuel...

Good stuff! Glad we're not way off thinking of the Esplanade No idea when we'll make the trip yet as I think my wife wants to get back to Melbourne first (she came from there originally), but we do need to get over there for sure.

I think she'd like Manhattan too actually but I don't think I would so much... doesn't appear to be that friendly to us two wheeled folk from the little I've seen...

I'm not surprised K&N wouldn't be keen on that although it would be sorta cool. I think they see the market as freer flowing stock replacements and performance upgrades only...

Interesting that the "experts" say that about pods... I'm finding my economy is pretty much the same as it was when she used to be my daily rider in stock standard form with the airbox and the original exhaust. Somewhere around 6L/100km...

The interesting part about the economy is that she's real rich around the lower throttle openings for sure, and maybe bigger openings too going by the popping on deceleration. So, I reckon if I was to get my jetting spot on, she'd be more economical than in stock trim but with the better midrange I'm getting with the pipe and pods... I wonder how the "experts" would take that? I realise I've probably lost a bit of top end but I don't hit 9500RPM all that often in daily riding...

[pete]

Took what was supposed to be a short study break today to take her for a spin around the block to warm up and then have a quick run with the Colortune to see how the jetting is looking.

The quick run around the block was good, but then the comedy of errors started...

Pulled the left plug lead off only to manage to pull the wire out of the crimp and leave the clip sitting on the plug. Cursing begins.

Pulled the lead off the coil and fixed that up only to find that the way the wiring harness routes under the tank combined with the extra size of the Dynatek coils prevents getting the plug back on the coil. Cursing continues.

Popped the tank off and got the lead back on the coil and plug. Cursing eases.

Figured I'd give her a brief 10 second run with the fuel in the carby bowls before putting the tank back on just to make sure the lead's ok. Carbs somehow manage to spit the fuel hose off the T piece. Cursing resumes.

Got the hose back on, tank back on, and all back to square one...

I did persevere though and gave the Colortune a quick run in both cylinders, but due to the... issues... no video this time around.

The mixture screws seem to be ok where they are, just off rich going by the colour, however I'm dead right when I say she's rich when I touch the throttle.

As soon as that throttle opens, the flame turns bright yellow, but it does return to blue at somewhere near what I would guess to be 1/4 to 1/3 throttle or thereabouts. I didn't get as far as marking throttle openings today either.

A few very quick throttle openings leads me to believe my initial assumptions are pretty close.

The pilot jets seem ok, but the beginning of the needle is way rich. It gets ok in the middle throttle openings, but full throttle was hard to tell today. I did see flickers of yellow when I briefly held it all the way open, so I suspect my mains are too big also.

I still haven't gotten back onto Serco yet to see why they didn't follow through and get back to me about the Dynojet kit so I'll try to get that done tomorrow.

Oh, should be ordering the stator tomorrow too... hopefully that can go in on Saturday and the charging system will be back up to scratch again.

[pete]

Got my stator ordered today and they're express posting it so in theory I should have it tomorrow. Gotta do some more work at 10pm tomorrow night but fingers crossed I can at least get the tank off and stator cover loose ready for action. I have Friday off to get the wife's car serviced so I don't need her back together until Monday morning, although it would be nice to have a test run over the weekend at some point.

Passed my exam (just) today, then when I got home I called Serco to find out what the deal is with the Dynojet kit.

Turns out it really does look like it's available, an E3305 stage 3 kit, but I'm looking at around $160 - 170 for the kit and about a month's delay for it to arrive. Think it might be time to enquire with Rapidray for some more details on the needles he sells...

I did also get down into the garage tonight and did a quick test fit with the tool tray:



Overlaps a bit but I've elongated the mounting holes and I think once I bolt them down properly it will actually need a small amount of bending to conform to the shapes in there and it should sit nicely I think.

Then I cut the rubber to shape:



Gave it all a wipe over with metho and a spray with contact adhesive and let that set up for a few minutes:



Then on the rubber goes:



So I'll let that set overnight and hopefully I'll get to mount it soon and see how it all lines up in there.

[pete]

Stator's here, looks like a quality bit of kit and it looks like the insulation for the wiring is ok too:



Got about 1/3 the way through replacing it tonight, and here's how it goes:

Tank and seat off and sat the left leg of the centre stand on some timber to try to prevent losing too much oil, not sure if it's quite enough of an angle to help too much though (drain pan just in case of course):





Sprocket cover bolts removed and gear shifter disconnected from the shifter shaft:



Even though I've removed the sprocket cover with the footpeg on before, this time I had to pull it off:



The most tragic part so far... cutting the cable ties so the stator wiring can just hang there...



Not losing too much oil by the looks:





Managed to not damage the gasket so I don't have to try and find a new one in a hurry:



And there she is:



Had to work at 10pm for a short time so that's all I had time for so far.

Next I need to get the old stator out, work out how long the wiring needs to be for the new one, crimp the bullet connectors on, and get her installed.

I think I'll get back to it on Saturday... or at least I hope so!

[pete]

Crap, just realised that contrary to the picture there's no grommet!!!!

I hope like hell I can use the existing one otherwise I got no idea where I'm gonna get one from... time to do me some searching...

[Matchless]

Crap, just realised that contrary to the picture there's no grommet!!!!

I hope like hell I can use the existing one otherwise I got no idea where I'm gonna get one from... time to do me some searching...

Pete, cut the wires on the stator side of the grommet. Then pull the wires out of the grommet. If the grommet is glued to the wire insulation, pull out the copper and carefully loosen the insulation with a watchmakers screwdriver from the rubber. It should be salvageable.
In worst case some people slit the rubber up to the wires, but I have never had to do that.
Good luck.

[pete]

Pete, cut the wires on the stator side of the grommet. Then pull the wires out of the grommet. If the grommet is glued to the wire insulation, pull out the copper and carefully loosen the insulation with a watchmakers screwdriver from the rubber. It should be salvageable.
In worst case some people slit the rubber up to the wires, but I have never had to do that.
Good luck.

Cheers Andre, did exactly that yesterday avo when I had a spare 15 minutes

I ended up standing on a set of pliers holding the grommet while I pulled the wires out.

I also found this thread yesterday which is helping:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=164649

[Matchless]

Cheers Andre, did exactly that yesterday avo when I had a spare 15 minutes

I ended up standing on a set of pliers holding the grommet while I pulled the wires out.

I actually put the wire in a vice one by one and pull the rubber off the wire.

Keep well!

[pete]

I actually put the wire in a vice one by one and pull the rubber off the wire.

Keep well!

Hahaha that would be the sensible way, I couldn't possibly do that

You too Andre, glad to see you popping up again... you need to find another project so I can follow along again now

[pete]

Ok, I felt like I was riding a different bike during the short test ride today... I think the lack of voltage was having an effect on the Dynatek. Voltage now peaks at 14.7v whereas after the rebuild it was about 13.9v and last week I was measuring 12.5v maximum...

Anyways, yesterday I picked up some RTV and bolts as the philips screws were looking a bit worse for wear:



He asked if I wanted philips or hex head and I said hex... I actually meant allen head but didn't have time to get him to swap them so I stuck with these.

Then yesterday I got the old stator out and you can see that some of the laminate or whatever it is has actually come off and is sitting on the surfaces where the bolts go in:



The old one's looking a bit crusty there and there's a few spots where you can see she's definitely gotten a touch warm:



Comparison time and the wiring is the same length on old and new, and obviously the same size:





Then I managed to salvage the old grommet. Ended up cutting the wires on one side of the grommet then standing on a pair of pliers while using another set of pliers to yank the old wires out.



I was surprised to find the grommet is still quite pliable, but I'll use a bit of RTV regardless.

Getting the new wires through the grommet was a lot easier, and I'm reusing the sheath from the old stator wiring as it's braided and most definitely is better quality than what was provided:





Tinned the ends of the wires, slide the insulator sleeves on, and crimped and soldered the female bullet connectors on:



And slid the insulator sleeves up over the bullet connectors so she's ready to install: