1983 GSX250S Build

[landshark]

Do they put you on a Harley or a BMW?
You could find a Q-ride course up there, or just take a bike for a test ride?

[pete]

I think they're beemers... seem to be a motard style but I haven't been close enough to see what they are. They run the Q ride courses at Brookside which is 5 minutes from home which is why I thought of them.

A test ride would work, except I want some added protection in case I drop it... I wanna build my confidence again.

[Woodsy]

I think its something that once you know how to do it, you can do it for life. You'd feel like your cheating on your 450.... lol

[pete]

Haha true... although when I get the 450 going I'll be breaking the engine in, taking it careful with non-scrubbed in tyres, as well as not having ridden for 9 1/2 years... I can at least take that last bit off the list

[Woodsy]

Well that puts an end to my morning, the local parts store doesnt have any valve grinding paste or the lapper to do it with and i dont really want to put the head together unless its perfect.

[pete]

Bugger, I hate it when that happens! You got a Supercheap or Repco nearby?

[mike-s]

There's bursons, supacheap, auto one, rare spares, O'Reilly auto parts to name just a few in your general direction if it helps.

[Woodsy]

Went to repco and they wanted $20 for the laping tool, got a stanley one from supercheap for $12 which is for 4 different sizes.

First time i have lapped valves and got them all done this afternoon, was going to take some photos but i got to caught up in doing them lol

Engine should be together tomorrow morning, just waiting on my tap from the States, just hope the ash cloud hasn't held it up.

[mike-s]

A suggestion from someone i know whom has done way more engine work than i ever will which will save you a crapload of calices and blisters on the palms of your hands.

Remove the stem seals, attach a cordless drill to the bottom of the stem, prime the seat with coarse paste and enough water to help lubricate the lapping generously. Hold the head right way up to avoid fluid going down into the stem and squeeze the trigger ever so gently so it is rotating 2-3 times a second at most, apply gentle pressure by lifting the drill lightly to make the faces contact for about 2-3 seconds, check it to make sure it's distributing correctly and top up any water or paste if needed. Do this enough times so that you can see a freshly cut seat evenly across at least 1-1.3mm over the entire circumference of the seat. If there is seat damage a fair bit of effort may be needed to get it working fine again (i speak from experience with that).

Hold the valve open slightly and wash the valve and seat down with water to remove all the coarse paste. I usually use a hose on a spray setting from the carb/exhaust side spraying down "into" the chamber area

Now do the same thing with the fine paste, this time you can spin slightly faster due to the finer cutting action (3-5revs/second seems to work for me). You can do this possibly a littler longer for the same reason as well. Once you are done, the seal should be even across the entire face and smooth with few grinding marks.

Lastly when you wash it the last time, be thorough and use soapy water and a toothbrush after the initial wash down so you remove as much of the grinding paste from everywhere that may lead to ingestion of any fragments if they remain on the bike.

[edit]Found the pic i was looking for. This was from when i first took the head off my GSX, obviously the valve was shot and the seat was surprisingly good considering. It still had a couple of holes eaten away in it but they were shallow enough that i could lap them out with a lot of effort. It's a shame i found out about the drill idea AFTER massacring my fingers and hands.[/edit]

[Woodsy]

That is one stuffed valve!

I did try the drill idea but my drill was just to big to get in there, so i put a rubber hose on the end of the valve stem and into the drill, that worked but the hose kepts coming off the valve so i just bought the lapping tool. I dont mind the manual labour my valves wernt to bad, an hour and they were all done.

Had a Neighbour come past the garage today asking me what was wrong with the bike now, told me to sell the piece of crap and get something better and that its only been trouble for me... I really hate people like that.

[pete]

Yeah mine were quick and easy too, but I had the head wet blasted which cleaned it all up and had the valves faced, and it wasn't in bad nic to start with, just some carbon build up.

I can't stand people like that either, they're the sort that just "buy a new one" all the time then whinge when something goes wrong and they don't know how to fix it... just tell him he's a knob and where he can go... haha

[Woodsy]

Yeah i normally shut the garage door when i see him coming then wait till he goes past and open it again

[mike-s]

We live in a set of units and have a garage in the main courtyard of the complex so a lot of people walk past on an extremely regular basis. Also my garage is so damned small and full of bikes & crap that i tend to do half my stuff under the lifting door. Both of which don't do many favours for shutting the door when people i don't want to talk to come by.

for instance when i went to refit the muffler and take the pictures last night i had to endure 15+ minutes of a neighbour asking silly questions about this that and the other before my only other riding neighbour popped by and started chatting away for a further 15-20 minutes and THEN i was able to spend the mere 20 minutes it took to refit the muffler, roll the bike out and take the photo . Unfortunately this is a regular occurance that sometimes i don't mind, but i know that I've lost countless hours of potential worktime to neighbourly blabbering when i could be doing something constructive.

I've only had the "new bike" suggestion once or twice, but most people are willing to chat with niceties and limit comments about the bikes to "you spend a lot of time in here working on them" or the occasional compliment.

This setup is also going to make getting the stick welder out a bit of fun as I've got to run a bloody long extension lead, set up a screen (a precaution for any curious neighbours) and choose a time of day with the least number of people walking by and have a crack at it.

[pete]

Yeah that's gonna be real interesting Mike!

Most of my stuff is done in the garage, I just stick the cars in the driveway which act as a sort of screen.

The neighbour across the road rides a KTM and is keen on seeing my bike done, but haven't chatted to him for months as he's always out, but when I was getting the moisture curing POR 15 Blackcote on my wheels he came over for a chat. I had to keep painting while he chatted away otherwise the paint was gonna start curing in the tray before I even got it on the wheels...

I'm not much of a neighbourly person I'm afraid, probably a good thing I live in a house rather than a block of flats or town houses

[Woodsy]

Here is my inspiration, standard re trimmed seat with the front cut off and tail section as well but its been changed abit in the rear which i am not really liking THAT much, different tank though which is off a gsx1100, if only i could get wire wheels....



I'm really tempted to strip it down the the frame now and repaint the whole thing....