1983 GS650G project

[GSJim]

I introduced myself a few months back and thought that I would have my 1983 GS650G back on the road very quickly. However, most (OK, all) of my projects take a lot longer than expected and get bogged down with unexpected problems. (Mrs. GSJim agrees.) I will use this thread to post an occasional progress report.

First of all, I promised pictures. Here is what the bike looks like now. From a distance, it looks good. However some of the decals are starting to flake. There is also a large patch on the seat that covers a couple of ripped seams.





Here is the other side of the bike. Note the missing chrome cap on the valve cover. Next time I will remember to Loctite the screws. Sharp-eyed readers might notice a bundle of wire tie wrapped to the frame just under the steering head. This is the wire I added to power my Bosch horns. However the horns were mounted on the fork tubes with the fairing brackets so the horns and brackets were removed along with the fairing. The fairing was a Slipstreamer SR-90. If I find a decent picture of the bike with the fairing, I will post it.





The clear coat on the tail has failed completely and will need to be repainted. There is also a small bit of flaking clear coat on the tank near the filler cap.





Here is the cluster that shows just over 25,000 km. I am the original owner and only driver, so these are all my kms. Mrs. GSJim has a motorcycle license but has never driven this bike. For the first couple of years I rode around 5,000 km per year. After the kids arrived, the bike was used mainly for a short ride to work and back. It hasn't been on the road for eight years.





My first problem was finding enough space to work on the bike. I did a massive garage clean-up (still too much junk) and will build a shed for the garden tools. With any luck, I should have enough space to leave the bike on stands when I remove the wheels and forks.

Thanks to GSResources, I have a very good idea of what needs to be done and I will be ordering parts and tools soon. I can understand why most of you do your own work. It is difficult to find anyone who wants to work on classic bikes. Fortunately, one of my neighbours is a classic Katana fan, so he has recommendations for shops that can do some of the work for me (tires, forks, paint) and I will tackle the rest myself.

I started on the electrical work. The battery and regulator are new but I still need to clean or replace a bunch of connectors. The stator leads have some bullet connectors that need to be replaced. I removed the horn relay that I stuffed in the headlight shell and will find a better place for it.

The next priority will be the carbs. I think I can figure out how to strip and rebuild them. The tutorials I found on BassCliff's site look pretty good. While the carbs are off, I will replace the O-rings and screws on the intake boots. I also intend to exterminate all the miserable Philips screws on the carbs and rails. The tank looks clean inside so I can maybe avoid sealing it.

The forks are leaking so I will need seals. I will also install Progressive springs. The shocks will have to wait a while.

The tires are hard as rocks. I will probably buy Bridgestone BT45s.

The seat and paint are the lowest priority. I believe that some of the stripes are still available. I would prefer to restore the bike to its original condition, but may consider other options. Paint won't happen until next year anyway.

Jim

[Flyboy]

HiGSJim, nice pics, that bike looks damn good for a 27 year old motorcycle, not too much work to be done there at all.
Very rare to find a one owner bike of this age anymore, at least you have no "previous owner" issues to sort out.
Let us know how the work progresses.

[Macguyver]

Hello there GSJim!
It's good to see you back on the GSR!

Well it looks like you have a great little 650.
I agree with Flyboy that you shouldn't need to do too much to get the bike back to factory condition, compared to some of the "finds" members here bring back from the brink.

Please do keep us all in the loop on this, and yes, we may require you to feed out picture addiction from time to time.

I am so jealous that your 83 has a fuel gauge! Wish I had one on my 81.

Good luck, and Godspeed.

[GSJim]

It's time for a quick update.

I heard the bike running for the first time in many years. I had very little to do with it, other than finding a local shop with a good reputation for carb service. Four hours of labor, four bowl gaskets and some needle valves later, the mechanic told me the bike was running like new. He returned the bike with the tank off and warned me about the evils of old gasoline. The tank is on a shelf in the garage full of new gas waiting for warm weather. The inside of the tank looked really clean so I do not plan to seal it. I will give it a thorough inspection when I drain it to reinstall on the bike. The petcock seems to be doing its job.

I found a burned connector in the headlight shell when I was preparing the bike for the shop. I will post a picture as soon as the garage is warm enough to work in. My immediate plans for the first warm day are to inspect and clean all the frame grounds and connect the stator directly to the regulator. I haven't decided whether to use butt splices or a Weatherpack connector yet.

I am still looking for tires. I think I like Bridgestone BT-45s, but I notice that their recommended front tire is actually too wide for my wheel. The mechanic who did the carbs sells Shinko tires, but none of my friends have ever used them.

I will also have to check valve clearances. I have the Motionpro tool and lots of zip ties. Do you normally have to use a new cover and/or breather gasket? I will probably order the gaskets so I have them if I need them.

Mrs. GSJim signed me up for a bike maintenance course at a local college. Three weeks ago some of us disassembled a Suzuki DRZ-400 engine and put it back together the following week. This is really useful because I get to see how all of the stuff fits together without wrecking my own bike. I am very pleased that the GS650 shims are on top of the buckets so I don't have to remove cams on my own bike.

Jim

[BigD_83]

It's time for a quick update.

I heard the bike running for the first time in many years. I had very little to do with it, other than finding a local shop with a good reputation for carb service. Four hours of labor, four bowl gaskets and some needle valves later, the mechanic told me the bike was running like new. He returned the bike with the tank off and warned me about the evils of old gasoline. The tank is on a shelf in the garage full of new gas waiting for warm weather. The inside of the tank looked really clean so I do not plan to seal it. I will give it a thorough inspection when I drain it to reinstall on the bike. The petcock seems to be doing its job.

I found a burned connector in the headlight shell when I was preparing the bike for the shop. I will post a picture as soon as the garage is warm enough to work in. My immediate plans for the first warm day are to inspect and clean all the frame grounds and connect the stator directly to the regulator. I haven't decided whether to use butt splices or a Weatherpack connector yet.

I am still looking for tires. I think I like Bridgestone BT-45s, but I notice that their recommended front tire is actually too wide for my wheel. The mechanic who did the carbs sells Shinko tires, but none of my friends have ever used them.

I will also have to check valve clearances. I have the Motionpro tool and lots of zip ties. Do you normally have to use a new cover and/or breather gasket? I will probably order the gaskets so I have them if I need them.

Mrs. GSJim signed me up for a bike maintenance course at a local college. Three weeks ago some of us disassembled a Suzuki DRZ-400 engine and put it back together the following week. This is really useful because I get to see how all of the stuff fits together without wrecking my own bike. I am very pleased that the GS650 shims are on top of the buckets so I don't have to remove cams on my own bike.

Jim

Jim,

I'm still searching for replacements for my tires. What did you end up putting on your 650?

[GSJim]

No tires yet. I am still exterminating some electrical gremlins and decided to hold the tire money in case I need some help from Eastern Beaver.

I am leaning toward Bridgestone BT45 (100/90-19 front, 120/90-17 rear) but I have also heard strong cases for Avon and Shinko from various forum members. I was a Metzeler fan for many years but I don't think the Lasertec is as good as my old ME33/ME88 combo.

Jim

[BigD_83]

No tires yet. I am still exterminating some electrical gremlins and decided to hold the tire money in case I need some help from Eastern Beaver.

I am leaning toward Bridgestone BT45 (100/90-19 front, 120/90-17 rear) but I have also heard strong cases for Avon and Shinko from various forum members. I was a Metzeler fan for many years but I don't think the Lasertec is as good as my old ME33/ME88 combo.

Jim

I just picked up a set of Bridgestone Spitfires from Motorcycle Superstore for a very good price.

[GSJim]

Another update. Nothing ever works as expected.

We have a long weekend here in Ontario and I thought the bike was almost ready for the road. I have been cleaning and fixing electrical connectors and all seemed OK. So I jumped the gun and called the insurance broker so I could register the bike and go for a test drive on the weekend. So I have insurance and a registration sticker, for the first time in many years. What I don't have is a running bike.

Before the first start attempt I decided to drain the tank and replace the six-month old gas with fresh gas. However, the petcock, which worked fine six months ago, is now seized solid. So I decided to siphon the gas. The siphon picked up some rust flakes from what I thought was a clean tank. Upon closer inspection with a bright light, I found a small amount of rust inside the tank along the bottom seam. The part of the tank that is clearly visible through the filler looks fine. I think the easiest way to deal with this is to put a gallon of Evaporust in the tank to derust the bottom while I deal with the stuck petcock.

I have an inline fuel valve for my temporary fuel bottle arriving tomorrow, so I should be able to start the bike and at least make sure that the electrical repairs are OK.

Jim

[GSJim]

Now that summer is over and I am no longer driving all over the place (in a mini-van) I need to spend some quality time with the bike again. On the weekend I cleaned up the frame grounds with Deoxit and inspected the wiring harness. Here is what I found in the headlight bucket.



White/red, white/green and the yellow wire loop confirm that this is the infamous stator to regulator loop through the headlight bucket. A bit of the damage at the top is mechanical but the small brown area is where the connector has started to overheat. Fortunately I spotted this in time and the rest of the connector is still usable.

I also found that the stator leads were too short so extensions with bullet connectors were used to reach the stator connector under the seat. The current path is stator, bullet, bullet, connector, harness to the headlight bucket, connector, yellow wire jumper, connector, harness, connector and finally rectifier. In other words, there is way too much stuff between the stator and regulator.

For a quick fix I will bypass the loop by crimping the wire from the stator directly to the regulator wire. In the longer term, I will install a three conductor Metripack connector on the three wires between the stator and regulator. I also plan to run the red wire from the regulator directly to the battery through a 15 amp fuse. The ground wire looks OK as is. The regulator on my bike is underneath the air box so the distance between the regulator and the frame ground under the battery is only a few inches.

My son helped me inspect the brakes on Sunday. The rear pads are finished but there is still a lot of meat on the front pads. I will have to check my service records to see if the shop ever changed the front pads. There was a small bit of corrosion on the pins. During the winter, we are planning to pull the front and rear brakes off the bike for a rebuild and then reinstall with stainless lines.

Jim

[GSJim]

It's time for another update. The bike is on the road again and I have put a few hundred kilometers on the clock.

The first order of business after the electrical fixes was to clean the tank. I found a rubber bung at the hardware store that fit the fuel gauge sender hole with a bit of trimming.




For the petcock opening, I used a piece of heavy masonite with the O-ring from the old petcock.




Here is the tank sitting on a tire on my Workmate bench. I flushed the tank several times with water to clean out the large rust flakes. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There was a small amount of rust visible at the very bottom of the tank so I poured in a gallon of Evaporust and let it sit for several hours with a good shake very 20 minutes. I drained the Evaporust and sprayed the inside of the tank with WD-40. The next morning I dried everything, and installed the petcock and fuel gauge sender. The sender required some minor tweaking as described in Mr. Jethro's fuel gauge sender repair tutorial. Installing the sender was an exercise in frustration and curse words. The only method I found was to keep wiggling and twisting the miserable thing until it popped in.




After the fuel tank was reinstalled, I checked the oil, topped up the brake fluid and checked the cables. Here is the test pilot preparing for the first ride. I wanted to ride to get a feel for my future work requirements and because I was paying for insurance anyway. Besides, every time Ted the Katana man drives by he asks if the bike is on the road yet and I really want to say yes the next time he asks. I stayed in my subdivision and off the major highways just in case something went wrong.




So, what have I learned from this exercise?

1. The bike can be ridden as is but it isn't 100%.

2. Air forks work better when you remember to put air in them. Next time I have the forks off I will install Progressive springs and forget the air.

3. Original rear shocks do not last 28 years. I was planning to change them anyway. Ikons?

4. Original rubber boots on cables do not last forever. The clutch cable boot tore when I pulled it back to adjust the clutch.

5. The OEM horn is terrible. I took my Bosch horns off when I removed my Slipstreamer windshield because the horns were attached to the fairing mounting brackets. I might try Fiamms because they are a bit smaller than the Bosch horns and might be easier to install. The Bosch horns will go in the van or my son's car. Mazda horns are not much louder than Suzuki bike horns.

6. I am not used to riding without a windshield. I will probably buy a small Slipstreamer.

7. The guy who did my carbs did a great job with cleaning and balancing them. I am not sure I like the way he routed the clutch cable. It is sitting on the outside of the number 1 carb and I think it should be between the 1 and 2 carbs according the the service manual. The clutch works fine but I wonder if it would feel better if the cable was routed differently. It's not a big deal because I will remove and service all the cables over the winter.

8. The miserable fuel gauge is not reliable even after the Mr. Jethro tutorial fixes. I cleaned and carefully bent the wiper to make good contact but the gauge is jumpy or just shows empty. I will just ignore it for now.

And the biggest thing I learned was that the main risk to my safety is not the rusty bike but rather the rusty rider. I had no idea that I had lost so much flexibility over the few years the bike was parked. Time to start the stretching exercises for the spring.

So, where do I go from here?

1. My son (mechanic) has offered to help me rebuild the brakes over the winter. We will do the whole job: master, calipers, pads and brake lines. The front pads and rotors are OK but we noticed a bit of corrosion on the pins. The rear brakes need pads but the rotor looks OK. We will strip the brakes off the bike when I park it for the winter.

2. Clean and lube (again) all cables and replace any damaged rubber or plastic bits. Check the routing with the service manual.

3. Replace the connectors on the stator leads to shorten and simplify the wiring path. I crimped one phase of my stator directly to the rectifier to avoid the headlight loop while I was waiting for parts. I will install bullet connectors on the rectifier leads and connect directly to the bullets on the stator. This will bypass some heat damaged wire in the harness.

4. New tires in the spring. The old tires are good enough for low speed test riding around the neighborhood but I won't take them on the highway.

The cosmetic work is still on hold. I may take the tank and plastics in to have the stripes scanned before any more bits flake off, but painting is beyond the budget for this winter unless I find a decent contract.

Thank you to all the contributors on this forum who helped by posting their stories or writing tutorials. I made good use of the Basscliff collection. Service manuals are OK but the tutorials make it so much easier. I will have a whole bunch of questions when I get started on the brakes.

[7981GS]

The bike looks great! You are making great progress on getting it back in top condition.

Daniel

[BigD_83]

Looking good, Jim.

All in all I'd say that your bike is still a winner as-is.

What's up with the rear shocks? Are they stiff as rods? I'm finding the same thing on mine.

As for your fuel gauge (#8), that sounds like it might be a loose/corroded bullet connector rather than something wrong with the sending unit itself.

I'm still in for splitting the costs of the graphics package if you are...I pulled my tank off the bench when I was working on the carbs (don't ask) and put a fairly decent-sized dent in it that needs to be pulled and filled before repainting, but the paint and decal work is going to have to wait until at least next spring due to the cost of Christmas.

[GSJim]

Thanks for the votes of confidence. It's been a long time since I parked the bike.

What's up with the rear shocks? Are they stiff as rods? I'm finding the same thing on mine.

Stiff. Maybe the seals are sticking on the rods? They don't appear to be corroded. The OEM shocks can't be rebuilt but several people have recommended Ikons. I will look at the alternatives after the billing date on my credit card.

As for your fuel gauge (#8), that sounds like it might be a loose/corroded bullet connector rather than something wrong with the sending unit itself.

I didn't think the wiper was making a good firm contact so I tried to bend it a bit without much luck. I will check the bullets too. Everything under the tank was filthy. I could also have a bad connection in the headlight shell. I did an electrical cleanup but concentrated on ignition and charging circuits for the first round. Everything else seems to work fine.

I'm still in for splitting the costs of the graphics package if you are...I pulled my tank off the bench when I was working on the carbs (don't ask) and put a fairly decent-sized dent in it that needs to be pulled and filled before repainting, but the paint and decal work is going to have to wait until at least next spring due to the cost of Christmas.

My contract work is dead right now so I can't stretch the budget to do paint either. I was planning to take the tank and plastics to the graphics guy anyway. He can scan the graphics and print them later. A bigger problem is to figure out what shade of red I should use. I have a document from Germany that gives the original colors but the samples are fairly small. The Pure Red (076) looks redder than my stripes. The orange is not too bad. I was hoping that the tape behind the tank emblem would be less faded but no joy.

Jim

[duaneage]

No tires yet. I am still exterminating some electrical gremlins and decided to hold the tire money in case I need some help from Eastern Beaver.

I am leaning toward Bridgestone BT45 (100/90-19 front, 120/90-17 rear) but I have also heard strong cases for Avon and Shinko from various forum members. I was a Metzeler fan for many years but I don't think the Lasertec is as good as my old ME33/ME88 combo.

Jim

I've used IRC RS310s on my 650G for 7 years and I've always been happy with them.

[GSJim]

Time for another update. Nothing much happened over the winter. Spring is almost here and it is just barely warm enough to move Mrs. GSJim's garden stuff out of the garage so I have room to work on the bike.

As mentioned previously, the bike runs but still needs work. This is turning into a rolling rebuild so I can order a few parts every month instead of killing my credit card. Here is what I am planning for the next few weeks.

Springs: Ordered Sonic 0.9kg/mm (50lb/in) springs. I will install these with fresh 15wt fork oil as recommended by Rich at Sonic. Anything will be better than the original springs.

Seat: Ordered a Saddlemen seat cover from Rider's Discount in Michigan. I try to support local suppliers, but they can't always get all the parts from the Canadian distributors without special orders and long delays. I PMed the GateKeeper regarding his upholsterer in Mississauga, but decided to go for the less expensive option because I don't know if I want to change the shape of the seat yet. A custom seat can wait until I can afford to do the paint and stripes. Mrs. GSJim has already patched the original seat cover but the stitching on the patch is failing and the original cover is too weak for more patching so I can't choose the do nothing option.

Shocks: The Hagons look pretty good. I'm waiting for a reply regarding recommended springs.

Tires: Will order a pair of BT45s on Monday (credit card cutoff date for the month is tomorrow).

Brakes: Found a local supplier for SS lines. I need to order the lines, parts and pads. The brakes felt OK on my test ride last fall so I decided to do the tires and suspension first.

Jim