GS 550L Gets a make over

[Hoosier Daddy]

That's great! New freinds like that are hard to find, plus they usually work for beer.

[pete]

Awesome, that is good news indeed! You never know Paul, you could be ridin' her next year

[Redneck]

I am hoping to have her running before May. I move back down to Jacksonville, Florida and it is going to be about a 30-45 minute ride to work. Would rather do that on the bike than in the Dodge Dakota and her gas guzzling V-8. We will see. Hopefully income tax time will be kind to me.

Paul

[pete]

I am hoping to have her running before May. I move back down to Jacksonville, Florida and it is going to be about a 30-45 minute ride to work. Would rather do that on the bike than in the Dodge Dakota and her gas guzzling V-8. We will see. Hopefully income tax time will be kind to me.

Paul

Hopefully so! That would definitely make a huge difference to the hip pocket...

Does that take you back to year round riding in Florida too? You'll also be much closer to Boulevard Suzuki

[Redneck]

Yes it will especially after spending nearly four years in Maine, Florida winters will be no problem to ride in.

Well got in the garage last night. Wanted to go for some more low profile controls but have decided against it due to budget restraints. So I am cleaning all the contacts on the Run Stop switch and Start pushbutton and I notice how faded the orange plastic is. Don't like that much. So I taped of the off/run switch and I painted it the same green as the bike, and I went ahead and did the same to the start button. I will post picks eventually when I get them back together. I am going to let them sit over the furnace in the garage for a while to let the paint cure really well before I mess with em. Hopefully it will stick well enough to the plastic.

Also got a quote from the Powder Coat shop. To Sandblast all the chrome off the handle bars and sissy bar then powder coat both it will be a grand total of $150. Not terribly bad, but I also have been informed that my wife's Saturn needs two new front tires in order to pass inspection. $300 for that so my powder coating will have to wait. I am going to keep slowly plugging away at the electrics and hopefully get the bike over to my HD builders house so we can get the mechanicals finished.

Well to all the GSers out there Happy Holidays may they all be blessed.

Paul

[pete]

Glad you got some stuff done Paul no matter how small, a little progress is much better than no progress

Bugger on the tyres but hopefully that won't delay the powdercoating too long, at least you've got plenty of other stuff to keep you occupied.

Cleaning the contacts in the controls is good, you will most likely notice a huge difference in any voltage drops if you had them before.

Christmas morning here, so Merry Christmas!

[Redneck]

Merry Christmas Pete.

paul

[Hoosier Daddy]

Merry Christmas!
(Didn't want you to think I wasn't keeping up to date on your build...)

[Redneck]

Merry Christmas Hoosier...lol. You know I have been shopping around to decide what my next bike will be obviously I want a 1000cc or larger I am currently Torn between the 82 Katana or a Naked Goldwing of the same era. The naked goldwing thing is your fault and the NGC's. LoL. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year.

Paul

[Redneck]

Okay here are pics of the right hand controls with paint job after rebuilding and giving all the contacts a good cleaning and removing the cobwebs i found inside. Spiders will get everywhere.





Tonight going to try and work on left hand controls.

Paul

[pete]

Okay here are pics of the right hand controls with paint job after rebuilding and giving all the contacts a good cleaning and removing the cobwebs i found inside. Spiders will get everywhere.





Tonight going to try and work on left hand controls.

Paul

Nice work! That green works really well there actually and you'll be thanking yourself later for cleaning the guts

[Redneck]

Well got off early from work today due to the holidays and after a fun filled trip to go buy groceries for the next two weeks, decided to try and get in some garage time. Well it was such a mess I decided it needed to be cleaned up, before I get back to work so that I don't lose any valueable time looking for things I set down in the mess.

Well during that process I gathered up quite a few Items that will not be using on this project, and took some pictures. I will be selling these items in the parts for sale section of the forums.

This is the grab bag of '79 GS550L parts that is up for sale as one big bundle.


Then I am selling the sandblasted and powdercoated fenders with shocks seperately


My big question right now is does this sprocket still look good?





I don't have pictures yet but I also painted up the button controls for the left hand the other night but I have not finished cleaning the electronics. I am suprised my blinker switch worked with all the grime that I found on it and I still need to take apart the horn switch. I am not looking forward to that it is the same as the starter switch and that little spring inside was a pain in the behind end. Any way some progress is better than no progress.

Don't forget to take a look in the for sale section if you are interested in those items I have more detailed pictures of the grab bag.

Paul

[brslk]

Sprocket looks a lot better than mine but there some wear there.
If you do replace it make sure to replace the other one and the chain too.

Bruce.

[Sci85]

That sprocket is done. Anytime you see teeth bent over like that or elongation of the space between the teeth it needs to be replaced. Putting a new chain on that sprocket will just accelerate wearing the chain out. And as Bruce said, replace the entire set at the same time.

Sci85

[JEEPRUSTY]

Yeah the teeth also have different width in the tips.
They are only what? 20 bucks or so. Turf it. Or use it like a ninja star.