The non-running GS450ET is now RUNNING!

[pete]

Thanks Pete. It looks better to me as well. It wasn't much trouble to do the plastics. It gives a refreshed appearance that I like. The bike has so much rust and oxidation that it'll never be "bike of the month". I don't have a lot of patience for paint and body work either. It was nice to do a few details, thoiugh. I don't care enough about appearances to worry about every blemish. I'm happy with the way it's turning out- flaws and all. It has some "character".
I'm currently trying to get my insurance and tag, finish electrical and run some plug chops. I went up a bit on the mains to 125 and increased the pilots to 25. I left the needles alone.
I had to stick some jets in there to try it and see. From what I've seen looking at the plugs (running no load on the porch)- I think it's close to where it should be.
I'm going to ask the insurance company if they consider it to be "modified" and therefore more expensive to insure with the the pods.
If all the companies want more money 'cause of the pods- I'll consider going back to the pita airbox.
I saw some videos on Youtube by a guy named Vinny (some Italian last name Martalleno??) who is a very good younger mechanic (high school age in the videos). The videos were made a couple years ago. He spent a lot of time tuning and testing his 1980 GS450 and that's about what he recommended for the bike with K and N's after lots of testing. He went slightly higher 130 mains- I think with some different pipes. He spent a lot of time experimenting with the jetting on his.

Yeah I painted some of my plastics like the lower triple clamp cover and chain guard with Plastikote plastic paint, but the rear guard is black 2 pack and clear coat that I did the same time as the front guard, tank, seat trim, and tail piece. It's been suggested I should put mine up as BOTM but I haven't tried yet, maybe after I get some new photos after a big clean and polish now that she's "complete".

I'll have to look for those videos, haven't seen them yet.

I've got 135 mains in mine at the moment and I'm positive it's way too rich. I was supposed to buy a wideband tuner at the end of the month but the urgent Dyna S purchase took care of that, so maybe in the next couple of months I can still do it. It'd be great to get that going and see what's really happening with the fueling...

Oh, as for insurance, mine's $260 per year full comprehensive and that's including $1500 of modifications and $1000 riding gear... but don't forget I'm old and have had rating 1 for many years with no claims

[surviverguy]

It was "Vinny Martello 1980 GS450 on youtube". Gotta love the guy!

[pete]

It was "Vinny Martello 1980 GS450 on youtube". Gotta love the guy!

Thanks mate, will check it out at some point.

Also, I tried to reply to your PM but got an error saying your inbox is not allowing messages... have you got messages turned off or something?

[surviverguy]

Thanks Pete. Not sure why the message didn't go through. I checked all the settings....
Bought insurance and a tag today. Installed tag on bike. Working on electrical right now. Getting close to "on the road"!

[GateKeeper]

Looks good,,,glad that trim and bumper paint worked out for you.....if you left the screws in place the heads would have gotten some paint as well, and would have finished off the job perfectly....

just get a Q-tip, dab it in some paint and touch up the screw heads, it will be near perfect then....

bike is shaping up real nice....

Cheers

.

[GateKeeper]

Thanks Pete. Not sure why the message didn't go through. I checked all the settings....
Bought insurance and a tag today. Installed tag on bike. Working on electrical right now. Getting close to "on the road"!

either you have exceeded your pm limit, or your settings are not right ?

click on User CP, and then Edit Options, and check the following

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a check mark for the bolded statements will be good to have

[surviverguy]

I'll check on the messaging settings again. I got a bag of ten prewired for 12vdc LED's in the mail today from overseas. I hated to disassemble the gauges again, but wanted working gear indicator lamps. Of course only a working neutral lamp is needed, but it's a special thing Suzuki put on the bike along with the six speed gearbox. I took the gauges back out again and removed the gear indicator assembly



and after studying the options for this modification decided to put the laps in the holes and allow the wires to come the side of white plastic. I kept the circuit board to hold the wires in place after pulling all the soldered bits out of the circuit board. RTV silicon was generously applied to help hold the lamp wires in place.






I did some testing before buttoning it all back up. All the gear lamps work good. The illumination is great.

[pete]

Good stuff... I did my whole gauge cluster with LED's... then put an Acewell gauge on after my tacho and speedo refused to stop dancing even after a disassemble, clean, and lube.

I did at least get to hang onto my gear position indicator in my custom dash...

[surviverguy]

I'm working on installing a horn which works today. The original Suzuki horn wouldn't work attached directly to the battery. The horn from my Toyota parts car wouldn't work either attached directly. I found a working horn, but the horn button has too much resistance to make the horn blow. It'll vibrate a little using the button, but no noise. I've already had the horn contacts apart and cleaned twice. It's gonna take a relay to make it work reliably. The orange horn power wire will be used for the sensing wire for 8 wire regulator rectifier mod. All the electrical is working now- minus horn and R/R....getting closer to on the road.

[surviverguy]

Mate, good stuff! Good work on lots of pics too

Whereever you put that R/R, just remember to make sure it will get plenty of air flow to help keep it cool.

With cooling in mind and needing a large area for the reg/rec, I decided to make a mounting plate from aluminum sheet



and then mounted the reg/rec to the plate. I might cut a little more clearance for the wires at the top....



I also needed a place to mount a small fusebox and some relays. I made another plate for those things.

[surviverguy]

I bought a new rubber strap for holding the battery in the battery box and bought a stainless steel brake line to replace my old front brake hose. Those two items were purchased off ebay- so it'll be a few days before they arrive.

[Mekanix]

Unless you have the led's aligned you might notice some numbers are brighter than others.

[surviverguy]

I left some gap between the LED's and the numbers. They all light up fully. Only one comes on at time, so slight differences aren't a big deal. It wasn't the prettiest repair- but was effective and didn't take long and didn't cost much.
Yours looks much nicer. The prewired LED's with resistors were too long to solder to the board and I just wanted to get 'ur done.

[surviverguy]

Maybe next time I'll solder the lamps to the board instead of the RTV glue method. Anyhow, I'm moving on. I've already had the gauges out about four times. I've got other issues to resolve like horn relay and reg/rec. I want to ride.

[pete]

I ended up with flat top 20000mcd 120 degree viewing angle LED's in mine and they've been great.