1982 GS300 Project - Where do I start

[pete]

What all would I need?

New triple trees or just the forks themselves?

Does the front end I put on change the rake or is that constant with the frame? If the rake were a bit shorter I wouldn't mind as it'd give it a less cruiser stance....

Do some looking on Alpha Sports parts fiche's... use your part numbers in their lookup tool to see what other models they fit.

If later models use the same triple trees then you can just use the forks etc.

[hjacobmiller]

Steering stem is PN 51311-44100-291.

300, 250 and 450 all use it.

I don't know if I want to swap the forks out though. I mean that is gonna be at least $70 for the forks, at least another $50 or so for the calipers and bracket, plus pads, rotors and wheel.

Might be outta the budget for the time being. Other than changing I don't see a huge advantage to switching. You can't fit a much bigger tire on your 450 can you Pete?

Started stripping into the old seat pan and getting the old staples out. Looking and what I can cut back and taper the back end out to. I've been spending a little bit more time working on a drawing, but I really want to make sure I do the important things first before I get distracted on paint, etc.

[pete]

Given your list, I'd be tempted to split it over two winters. First winter concentrating on mechanical stuff and second on cosmetic. That way it would take the pressure off having to rush it back together for summer...

I'm running a 100/90-18 on the front, but if you go the L path you can get a 19" front wheel which gives you better tyre choice.

[hjacobmiller]

I agree that rushing is the last thing I want to do with this project.

I may add another bullet to the list. Exhaust. New headers, gaskets and do the emgo upgrade like razor.

Left header was rusty on the underside near the manifold and the right was the one I switched to get rid of the cinch in the other thread. It had a fair amount of surface rust and bronzing when I got it.

Have to look into seeing what'd that cost to have new ones made. I suppose I could polish up and then wrap which may be a cheaper alternative.

Im really diggin those gaiters though Pete.

Side note: pulled the plugs today and from what I can tell they're spot on. Maybe a little lean on the rite side, but they are the same plugs I had on from before the cinch in the header was fixed.

I seem to have a slight hanging idle, which concerns me because I don't what I could do to seal up the airbox. Its not like alot of the others.

What else should I be thinking about mechanically to do? My newb ignorance is overwhelming.

BTW I think you and Razor are the only two that look at this thread ha ha.

[razor02097]

Try turning the mixture screws out another half turn. If the idle increases that is a good thing. Turn the idle knob to bring the idle back down. My 300 seems to like 2.5 turns on the mixture screw....more than 3.5 and there might be a jetting issue. The slow jet should be 17.5 stock.

Pete and I maybe the only one's posting on this thread but there are a lot of lurkers. There are 625 views, that's almost 30 views per day.

[pete]

Mate like Razor said, more views than replies so someone's watching

The gaiters serve one very useful purpose that I like which is keeping the crap off your fork sliders and out of your fork seals... in addition to looking the part on a "scrambler" of sorts... haha

Don't forget if you really want to know what your carbs are doing properly, you'll need to do plug chops at different throttle openings from WOT down... just "reading" the plugs after a ride won't give you an accurate idea of too much...

[hjacobmiller]

This may be a dumb question Pete, but did you change any of your jetting?

I'll see what I can find in your thread.

Throttle chops indeed. Will do more reading.

First board exam on Thursday!

Side note: Ducati project? Very cool. I'm definitely jealous.

[pete]

This may be a dumb question Pete, but did you change any of your jetting?

I'll see what I can find in your thread.

Throttle chops indeed. Will do more reading.

First board exam on Thursday!

Side note: Ducati project? Very cool. I'm definitely jealous.

Well.... yeeeeaahh I did... but that's a work in progress...

I'm hoping to go the expensive(ish) route for tuning with a wideband analyser... mainly because it's something new and cool to play with but I also want to get her running better.

Good luck for Thursday!

And yep, link in my sig. to the little Ducati project, although it's sitting idle at the moment due to lack of funds and time...

[razor02097]

Hey Pete... have you thought about picking up an infrared thermometer? That can tell you a lot for about 1/4 of the price of a good wide band setup.

[pete]

Hey Pete... have you thought about picking up an infrared thermometer? That can tell you a lot for about 1/4 of the price of a good wide band setup.

I saw one once and thought about it... but that's as far as that went...

[razor02097]

haha I hear you

The only bad thing about O2 sensors is they only measure O2... If there is an ignition issue not all the fuel is burnt and the O2 sensor measures lean when it is actually rich. Adding more and more fuel until the O2 sensor reads right literally dumps fuel into the cylinder.

The thermometer isn't perfect either... if a cylinder is really cold it could be the cylinder is really really lean or really really rich. It takes some fiddling to get it right.

[hjacobmiller]

Would either one of them tell me why I can't get my carbs to synch up

I went to synch them up with the gauges today and had really funky readings on the right cyliner. Way down.

Didn't really have time to look into it. Not going to be able to ride for a few days I guess.

Any thoughts of what it might be?

I was thinking I didn't get the mixture screws right, didn't get the timing right on the Dynatek, or and I really hope this isn't a possibility, but maybe a burnt valve from when that exhaust was bent?

I wouldn't even know where to go if it was a burnt valve.

[razor02097]

Did you plug the vacuum line that goes to the petcock?

[hjacobmiller]

Did you plug the vacuum line that goes to the petcock?

Yeah with a golf tee.

Do I need to do the other one going back towards the airbox?

I didn't think to check if there might have been a leak in my hose gauges. I might start there when I get time.

[pete]

Refresh my memory... have you done your valve clearances yet?