1980 GS1000S Reluctant Rebuild

[Kiwi Canuck]

I used Pine Sol at 1 part Pine Sol to 2 parts water with good results on my 85 750 carbs.The 78 1000 carbs needed something a bit more serious hence the Klean Flo.Read here that Simple Green can do bad things to carb bodies,can't recall what this early though.Makes them go dark?

Thanks for the reminder on that, I do remember leaving some bolts in too long and they came out a bit etched, so I better find some odd bit of aluminum to test first and search the forum for info about simple green and carbs.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Carb Cleaning Day

Got a bit of time this evening to get to work on the carbs, got 3 of them done.
Used simple green and a small nylon brush on the outside to degrease them and clean them up a little before I dip them in ?? (not sure yet)
Because the P.O. ran the bike from time to time, it appears things were not seized or junked up too much.
They came apart nicely and just a little rusty coloured corrosion near the built in filter under the whosmadingy, (valve needle) but otherwise seem in OK shape.
I didn't pull the butterflies out but looks like it's not too much extra to do so if I need to.

Here's a shot of one that's cleaned and ones that not.



Tops and bottoms all done for now, unless I get them buffed up a bit more later.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Safety precautions

John Britten was just plain careless - told many times of the risk of fiberglassing without protection. In NZ a lot of the early boat building experimenters have died of cancer due to not taking simple precautions.

Surprisingly, the members of the Britten team who tell stories of using power files in clouds of carbon fiber are all fit and healthy....but they wore masks which I understand they bought themselves....

I remember when I was younger we installed pink fiberglass bats without any respirators or protection, it irritated the heck out of my skin, I can only imagine what it did to my lungs.
But back in the 60's and 70's we never thought about it much, but it's very different today thank gosh.
I was involved in restoring old houses for a few years and had to be really disciplined to remember to wear the respirator in a hot sweaty attic ripping out old insulation and removing old piping and wiring. I still see many guys working without protection and I'm not much better as I still find myself buffing something on the wire wheel without safety glasses.

[ptexotik]

I got nuthin' ... other than to state I look forward to pictures of this completed project!! wow

[Kiwi Canuck]

Shims & Engine Cover Emblem

I went down to the mail box in the US this morning to pick up a couple of packages.
Got my shims from Ray (GhostGS1) and an engine cover emblem from Mike (MSKiwi), Mike also included some copies of GS1000S supplements which I didn’t have, so much appreciated, thank you.
I now get to tick off a few things from my list of things to do. I really do appreciate the help and generosity of the members here who offer parts, advice and support, without which I would not be doing what I’m doing, so thank you to the many great people out there who give so much to the members here.
Here is a picture of the cover, I used 2000 grit W&D paper to take the gold finish off and it came up pretty good, need a bit more work but it’s possible to remove the gold finish but it’s a delicate job.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Thanks

I got nuthin' ... other than to state I look forward to pictures of this completed project!! wow

Thanks for the comments, they really do help me stay motivated and you think you're looking forward to seeing pictures of this thing completed, ME TOO!

I love working on this project when things are going well, but I've had a few moments when I just want it done, seems I'm always waiting on something to arrive so I can finish the next piece. Hopefully I'll make some progress this weekend.

[Kiwi Canuck]

A quick recap of some of the work completed recently,

Some recent work done, some complete some not.
Chain installed, (stayed with the 630), still need to pick up a chain tool to crimp the link.
Clutch hub welded and clutch reinstalled, waiting on OEM screws for clutch cover.
Valves checked and new shims installed, needed 7 new shims, bought 2 OEM from my local dealer here just so I could measure what I needed, and then purchased 5 from the shim club.
Valve cover installed with new gasket.
Valve cover end caps installed, thanks Rich (VMASS) for the freebie replacement one I needed.
Carbs cleaned and almost back together, waiting on new main jets.

Here's some pictures from today.

[Nessism]

Bike looks fantastic.

[azr]

Bikes looking great David!!

[ozman]

yup love this project, keep up the good work !

ozman

[John Kat]

Great work!
It's time to check if the frame is not bent...
I have rebuilt the exact same bike and discovered that the frame was bent when my project was finished
It's very easy to do so why hesitate?
I used a laser beam normally used to check chain alignment ( http://www.profi-products.de/en/prod...i-laser-tools/ ) to determine if the front wheel was straight ahead of the rear wheel.
The laser beam was set in turn on each side of the rear wheel by lying it flat against a flat surface positionned against the rear wheel .
You note the position of the beam on the floor at the level of the front wheel.
If the distances are not equal on eitheir side....you have a problem

[Kiwi Canuck]

Thank you

Bike looks fantastic.

Well thank you for the compliment, I have seen your impressive rebuilds and take my hat off to you for such detailed and awesome photos and contributions to this site.

The pictures of your beautifully finished bikes when I first came on this site is what inspired me to take on such as full scale rebuild, and I will soon get the reward of all the hard work.

PS. I have also used your photos to see how parts go back together, because I forgot to take pictures myself.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Thanks

yup love this project, keep up the good work !

ozman

Thanks Ozman, well at least we know where all the missing GS1000S's are now that we have seen a picture of your stash of bikes How many do you have there?


On a completely different subject, I was considering taking on a project to see how many "S"'s are out there and track all the known Frame Numbers and see if we could come up with a rough idea as to how many bikes were sold world wide.
I believe all bikes with frame numbers starting with GS1000 52XXXX are 1979 "S" models and GS1000 53XXXX are 1980 GS1000S but a few other GS1000 models may have also used the 53 series frame numbers.

If I was to ask for Frame Number (maybe engine Number as well) and country of original sale if known, and where it's located now. Would you see any issues with giving that info out?
I would keep it on an Excel spreadsheet and email it to people who have supplied the information once I've got enough info to make it meaningful.

[Buetra19]

I just read this entire thread! Awesome!

Now back to my 80 gs1000 in the driveway....

[Kiwi Canuck]

Installed Console tonight

Finally bolted on the console, just test fitting a few pieces to see what goes where.
I'm lost when it comes to the cable routing, I have the manuals with the cable routes but they just aren't that clear to me just yet.
I think I have to do it the wrong way twice before my brain will interpret the instructions correctly.

Here's the console bolted in with the bolts upside down, now that I have rechecked the diagram.



You may have noticed the Front Brake assembly has been removed, well, see the next post for the story on that.

Under, over, behind ??? not sure yet were the cables go but I'm sure I'll get it soon.