81 650E Refurb

[GS650E_81]

Just pulled the valve cover.. how does it look? Will it be okay to remove the old baked on gasket with a razor blade? I also have a rubber piece where the moon sits, is that normal?

It looks like the PO used some kind of thread locker on all the screws, I should be able to throw these in some year old berrymans carb dip to clean up, right?

[cowboyup3371]

You can use a scraper just go REAL easy on it or you'll gouge the metal. If that happens you could be in for a good leak. I use both my metal and plastic scrapers as well as a Roloc wheel to take mine off.

[GS650E_81]

Got the gasket on this morning.

Not sure if it is leaking or not. I fired it up for a few minutes, and white smoke was coming from what looked like the carbs. not sure if there is water in the float bowls as the bike hasn't been started in two months or so.

Might be leaking a little at the moons and one side, but hard to tell right away.

It needs an oil change as the oil is very low so I don't want to run it to much right now..

[MAJikMARCer]

Carb/Airbox Removal

Today I removed the carbs and the airbox to clean them both up. The airbox was coated with old grease and grime.

I'll tear into the carbs a bit more later, I just wanted to get them out of the bike so I could get started at my leisure. One thing I did notice that the carb tutorials and the service manual didn't mention was how to remove the throttle and choke cables. I figured them out, but I may have to try to write something up about that for other noobs.

I need to inventory all the little pieces and parts I'm going to need to order. There were a lot of worn out screws holding things together. I had to use vice grips to remove the air filter screw it was so badly stripped out.

I think I'm going to go ahead and have the airbox powder coated while I have it out too.

Question about the airbox. There was a little hole on the bottom that didn't correspond to any screw holes. I'm guessing it's a weeping hole for oil/fuel, that manages to get back into the airbox, but I keep hearing about making sure the airbox is all sealed up, so I'm confused. Should there be something connected to it, or is it just a weeper?


The plastic part of the airbox, that connects to the carbs, was OK, but it looks like I'll have to replace one of the air tubes. It was bent up badly and not connected up right so the lips were damaged.

I also noticed that one of the tubes was narrower than the others. I'm guessing it's because it's closest to the actual air intake hole from the airbox, so it needs to be more restricted to balance the air flow. Is that right?


I was only able to get one of the intake boots off the head. The others were not budging. So rather than risking damage I put some penetrating oil on the screws and I'll tackle them later.

The one I did manage to get off looked like there had previously been a silicone sealant used. I didn't see it on the boot so I'm guessing the PO bought new boots but didnt bother to clean off the surface on the head. <sigh>


Here are the carbs. They don't look terrible but they do need to be cleaned up and the floats will very likely need to be tested and possibly removed. Oh and the inline filter will be going away, since most of you all seem to feel they do more harm than good. My tank is clean so rust isn't an issue.

[MAJikMARCer]

Got the other three intake boots off. A little extra leverage thanks to my slip joint wrench helped. I tapped the right sized screw driver in with a hammer and then with the wrench I was able to break the screws free with no breakage. They look like they were fairly new, thankfully.

I did tear up the head on a couple of them, but I planned to replace them with allen bolts anyway.cycleorings.com has them so why not?

[tom203]

Your bike's PO liked goop! There is a drainage hole in air filter box (to let water out when rain riding. There is also a nipple fitting at bottom of airbox itself- I haven't taken mine out yet, but I suspect it's a crude one way valve gizmo- lets fuel drain (if there's a carb problem), but shuts under engine vacuum.
If you haven't already, doublecheck cam to crank timing to be safe.

[MAJikMARCer]

Your bike's PO liked goop! There is a drainage hole in air filter box (to let water out when rain riding. There is also a nipple fitting at bottom of airbox itself- I haven't taken mine out yet, but I suspect it's a crude one way valve gizmo- lets fuel drain (if there's a carb problem), but shuts under engine vacuum.
If you haven't already, doublecheck cam to crank timing to be safe.

As I understand it the POs dad had the bike first. I think it was fairly neglected when the kid got it. He had a job at the local Suzuki dealer so he may have been doing SOME things right for it, but he was being cheap. Same as his dad apparently. Granted the bike isn't worth the amount of work I'm putting into it, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'll learn a lot in the process and end up with a nice fun bike.

As for the drainage hole. There was no nipple or anything on it, just the hole. The fiche images don't show anything like that either.

[tom203]

Look at the parts fiche (if you can see it), part #7 is a hose that connects to airbox bottom thru a nipple. My guess is that it has one way valve in it.

http://www.alpha-sports.com/spst/1981%20GS650E/01.htm

Yours seems like a worthy restoration- I've yet to see a E in my area- lots of shafties, mostly neglected. I got lucky, mine was maintained despite sitting out fot two riding seasons.

[MAJikMARCer]

Look at the parts fiche (if you can see it), part #7 is a hose that connects to airbox bottom thru a nipple. My guess is that it has one way valve in it.

http://www.alpha-sports.com/spst/1981%20GS650E/01.htm

Yours seems like a worthy restoration- I've yet to see a E in my area- lots of shafties, mostly neglected. I got lucky, mine was maintained despite sitting out fot two riding seasons.

Ah, no I have that hose. It connects to the plastic 'front' part of the airbox. The hole I have is on the bottom of the big blocky box.

[MAJikMARCer]

Finally started to take the carbs apart for cleaning. The PO told me he had rebuilt them. I'm thinking he might not have been lying. Things look pretty clean. The only obvious issue that I've seen is that it looks like the fuel and vent T tubes didn't get new O rings. They were looking a bit flat.

I had to leave the garage door open a bit with a fan due to the fuel fumes (there was about a tablespoon and a half of fuel in each bowl), so I could only work until the cold got to me.

Thankfully all the screws, jets, and needles have come out without an issue. Only one had previous damage, but it wasn't bad and didn't give me any problems.

So, thus far, this is looking to be an easy project, mostly just cleanup. I think I'm going to take the connecting plates to the powder coater with my airbox and make them look pretty. That means I probably should get some polished allen bolts. Thoughts on where I can get those?

[tkent02]

Any metric fastener supply place.

[MAJikMARCer]

Back at it finally

Well due to financial constrains my rebuilt time and amount has been adjusted. Thankfully a nice tax return gave me a bit of $ to work with so I can button things up for the upcoming riding season.

Finally got my new O rings from Robert Barr. I also ordered a MotoBatt MB10U battery. Many new gaskets and other goodies are coming via Boulevard, including everything I need to do a proper oil change (including removing the right clutch cover so I can clean the oil level glass).

I've been in the process of 'dipping' the carbs the last few days. The carbs weren't terrible but it's more and more clear that the PO did it half-a$$. Many O rings were so brittle they easily broke when I tried to remove them. Additionally many of the other little bits that connect up to the carbs had so much grime I'm surprised if they worked properly. That's all getting cleaned up. I considered paint, but the parts that I've cleaned so far look good after the cleaning, so I think I'll save myself the hassle and leave them as is.

Lastly I got the airbox to the powder coater yesterday. It'll take a couple weeks as he's a bit backed up but that'll be a nice touch to this rebuild.

Basically the entire air/fuel system will have been overhauled in the end.

I still need to check on vacuum synching. I suspect it'll be cheaper for me to just order a CarbTune unit, but I need to call around first. Unfortunately there aren't many GSRs, with one, near by.

I'll take pictures as things start going back together.

[MAJikMARCer]

Airbox back finally

Well I'm starting to think I should be the one with the title "Project SLOOWWW", not Shwartz.

I finally got the newly powder coated airbox back. It looks like new. really nice. I have put plasti-dip on the wire holders. Second coat is drying now. Probably overkill as the wires are wrapped pretty good there, but better safe than sorry.



After this is in, it'll be tuning time and finally an oil change. There is much more I want to do, but riding season is nearly upon us.

Luckily the wife insisted that I have a reliable bike that we could take on weekend trips (who am I to argue!) so Friday I picked up a Honda NC700X. Bang for the buck it's a heck of a deal. Rides really nice too. Definitely not going to be as exciting as the GS if you put the spurs to her, but it'll be a nice weekend get away bike or work commuter.



This actually gives me a lot more freedom to work on the GS too. I can really do things right instead of rushing to button things up so I can ride. There is still a lot of neglect that needs to be taken care of (brakes and suspension).

[cowboyup3371]

Congratulations; that looks like a really nice bike. How does it ride?

[MAJikMARCer]

Congratulations; that looks like a really nice bike. How does it ride?

What little I got to ride it, very nice. I thought the low red line (6500) would bother me, but I think it'll be fine. Besides, when I want to go high revs I can pull out the GS.

Unfortunately since I bought her the weather has been too cold to ride comfortably. Doesn't look like it's going to be conducive for at least the next 7 days either. Dang it. Hurry up Spring!