Her 550T

[gsrick]

Excellent Rick, sorry I lost track of this thread for a bit.

Your existing rod certainly looks like it's had a hard life and the two piece should make it easier to maintain in future.

Hopefully the seals go in and play nice and the pushrod is an easy swap too.

I'm no clutch guru but I suspect just check the spring free length and plate thicknesses to make sure all is good and in spec while you've got it apart.

No problem nothings been going on but Bonnie polishing her parts when she has the time and waiting for the new parts to arrive. If the rods don't work Eric says he has one he can send and there are a couple of guys south of me that have 450's that might need spare parts.
I'm guessing that spring free length would be under zero compression. I have some slippage on SuzyII (my 1000G) under hard throttle in higher rpms, could that be from the springs and if so could they be bought seperatly or only as a set. Do they(GS engines) all use the same springs? Reason being is I have parts engines(8v and 16v 750s) laying around just waiting to start donating parts to the cause. Hard to check cross reference parts numbers on my phone, but I can find out later on the puter after work.

[Steve]

Do they(GS engines) all use the same springs? Reason being is I have parts engines(8v and 16v 750s) laying around just waiting to start donating parts to the cause.

Apparently not. I just checked part numbers for your 550.
Those springs (09440-19004) were used up through 650s.
The 8-valve and 16-valve 750s share the same spring (09440-19007), and it's the same one that also goes through the chain-driven 1100s.
The 1000 shafty has a third number (09440-19003) that it shares with the early 850s.
The 1100 shafty has yet another spring (09440-19013) that it shares with the later 850s.

All of those springs are also used in many other bikes, trikes, quads, etc. Some are street bikes, some are dirt bikes, but the question was about GS bikes.

.

[gsrick]

So much for that idea. Thanks for looking that up Steve.

[pete]

Pretty sure you measure the spring free length (uncompressed) to determine they're still serviceable...

[gsrick]

I got the rods and seals swaped out and it looks like the 450 two piece rod will do the job and it will make replaceing the rod alot easier if a chain mishap should ever occure again. Good call Pete, I hope others will catch on to this. Wont know for sure untill it's all buttoned up. Bonnie should finish polishing the covers today. I'll have to pick up some clear afterwork. I forgot it when I picked up some VHT 127 to touch up the engine. We're just going to mask everything off instead of yanking the exhaust and pulling the engine. No need to risk broken exhaust bolts when it doesn't leak. Itching to try out the gears under load. The clutch checked out by what I found in the manual. We'll post some photos later.

[pete]

Good stuff Rick! I've given the two rod hint to 450 owners plenty of times, but I wasn't aware it worked for the 550 until I saw that fiche for yours.

Hopefully it's good to go!

[gsrick]

We're back in business. Bonnie has the cover buffed and I gut new gaskets and with the help of new ss allen head screw kit off ebay all the covers are back on. The supplier listed the 550T in the kit discription, but it was short of the long screws for the sprocket and I'm not sure if there is enough to use for the VC. The shims came in and have been swapped out. All 4 exhausts and the #4 intake though within tolerence, close enough go ahead and take care of it now for a no worries bike. That's all for the moment. I'll try to post pics soon.

[pete]

Excellent Rick! Lookin' forward to the pic's

[gsrick]

Update

Sunday 6-2-13

Well it's been a little while since we've posted. I've been busy with a local friends bike. So to catch up we've flushed the break fluids and installed new pads. Had to clean and repaint the rear caliper, the inside piston was stuck. Reassembly and some bleeding and things are looking up.

Hooked the shift lever back up and put the foot peg back on. Shifter linkage is a little too sloppy for my taste, so I'll have a look see for a good replacement. Also installed the new choke cable, the old one was frozen.

Stuck the battery back in, installed the tank and filled it with a couple of gallons of fresh gas. Checked all the lights and everything worked, but the break light via the hand brake. Can't have everything go perfectly first time. I had Bonnie replace the lever the other day, as it was broken. She thought it might be something she did, but the switch is under the lever so theres no harm she could have done.

Ok, key on, clutch pulled in, hit the starter switch button, and she turned over, but I forgot to pull the choke on. I try again and now nothing. Blew the main fuse. Replaced it with a spare and she fired up. She was starting to warm up and nothing. Everything went dead. Blew the main fuse again. Arrrrgh. Replaced it with another and refired it up again, well I tried to. It wouldn't catch, pulled the choke on and she fired up for a few seconds and quit.

Hooked the jumper and tried again and again, nothing. Ether worked, but it would quit. The petcock took a dump, so I hooked up my portable tank and she roared back to life again until it blew the fuse again. Enough for the night, I was all out of 15 amp fuses, and I needed to figure this out before I melt something.