1978 GS400 Barnyard Rescue

[Gold01ca]

Southside, you are doing great work here,
thanks for sharing!

[Nessism]

Yup, awesome work!

Thanks for NOT chopping off the frame seat rails!

Keep going...

[SouthsideWJK]

Seat time

I was able to drop the seat off at a local upholstery shop around the corner from my house this week. Dropped it off Monday, done Wednesday. Gave me a nice false sense of accomplishment...



As you can see, after I peeled away the faux-fur shag cover that looked like it ferried more than a few Jordache-clad babes to a Poison concert or three...it wasn't exactly well preserved history waiting to be revealed....



But they were able to save the foam, which other than the torn spot, was in pretty great shape....



another angle....

[pete]

Seat looks good!

[SouthsideWJK]

Long weekend.

I got the rear hub cleaned and powdercoated, managed to lace it. My second wheel went MUCH quicker than the first. This one only took me three attempts and about 2 hours. Didn't even fill the house swear jar doing it!



I'll probably find out the hard way if this wasn't a good idea, but the sprocket was in rough cosmetic shape so I sandblasted it, powder coated it with blasted aluminum from Eastwood and then again with their clear powder. Was this a bad move?



Got the front tire mounted and balanced. Found a scoot shop a mile from work, they handled it on my lunch break, $25 out the door (had them double check my truing job, checked out well within spec!) Love the aggressive look of the Shinko 244...

[SouthsideWJK]

Starting to resemble a bike...

I got the front wheel on finally! New bearings, seals, everything was cleaned and greased to spec. Loving the look of these tires more and more. As the Spring here leaves us with streets that look like they've been bombed, I think I made a smart choice going with the enduro tires....



I wanted to keep the factory fender, doesn't look like I'm going to have a clearance level I'm comfortable with. We have a '1969 CL350 fender that actually fits the mounting holes perfectly and provides an extra inch and a half of clearance, so I may wind up using it instead.



Now I begin a series of trips to Lowe's, Ace and Menards to buy bolts. Lots and lots of bolts.

[SouthsideWJK]

Carb/Brake help

I have to rebuild the calipers and master cylinder. Never done this before, other than replacing all the seals, gaskets, lines and pads, are there any quirks or problems heading my way? I would love any advice/heads up you can give me.

Aaaaaaand I posted this on the Carb section, but figured I'd get a few more eyes on it over here. I have to rebuild the carbs and I haven't found a kit other than the generic one that pops up on eBay, any suggestions/tips?



I am in the process of getting married in September and buying a house, so buying new ones is out of the question for this season. I mean I could, but I wouldn't have a wedding to worry about paying for, and instead of a house I'd be looking for an apartment of my own...hey wait a minute!

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

[eil]

For the carbs, you don't need a kit, you need these:

1) http://cycleorings.com/
2) http://www.mtsac.edu/%7Ecliff/storag...d_Tutorial.pdf

[pete]

Yep, what he said about the carbs, and some good carb cleaner to dip them in for 24 hours. You guys have Berrimans or something I believe?

With your brake caliper, just get the piston and seals from Suzuki, not that expensive and they will be better quality than any after market ones. Brakes are too critical to go dodgy on... and get yourself a braided steel brakeline as well, makes a huge difference!

I haven't done a master cylinder as mine was too trashed and needed replacing, but again I believe the best bet is the piston and cup set from Suzuki if it needs doing.

As for the front mudguard, I made a bracket/brace out of 2.5mm aluminium for mine and adapted a generic dirtbike mudguard I got cheap of eBay.

If those Shinko's were available over here I would've gone that path on the scrambler style I went for, but having said that, I'm extremely glad I'm using road tyres (Avon RoadRiders) now with the riding I do... the twisties wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun with dual sports I don't think!

[SouthsideWJK]

Exhaust

I did some digging, and actually found a great little cycle salvage off the grid about 45 minutes North of me. They had an exhaust for my GS. The headers and collector bracket are in great shape...mufflers, not so much.

[SouthsideWJK]

Rear wheel

I thought I had the rear wheel laced in under an hour start to finish. Walked into my friend's shop ready to true this sucker when everyone started laughing....somehow in my excitement over all the spokes fitting I had missed that all the nipples seated about 90 degrees in the wrong direction.

Back home to tear it all down. I did some masking and figured that the spokes were correct in their sequence, but I needed to move the whole thing back by two holes.

Another hour of lacing followed by 3 hours of truing (about half of what the front took me, so I figure I'm getting better! At least that is what helps me sleep) bearing in, off to the tire shop and here we are (please ignore the cat house behind it)....



Suffice it to say, having never done a wheel build before, finishing my first two was immensely satisfying. However now I see an added value in those classic GS mags!

[SouthsideWJK]

As of Friday night

Mocked up half the exhaust. I want to see what kind of clearance I have should I decide to hack off the OE cones (which are in worse shape than I thought) and add shorty 12" mufflers.

Seat is tight and right, instrument cluster has been torn down, cleaned, repainted and polished. There was an old Notre Dame parking pass on it and I masked it off and preserved it. Kind of a cool nod to the bike's history and my new adopted hometown.....

Back wheel/brakes get mounted tomorrow...hopefully I'll remember to snap a few pics between coasting laps around the shop. Pumped to get this thing off the stand!

[pete]

Good work, she's looking good!

I haven't tried lacing wheels either but at some point I'll be giving it a shot on some vintage 28" bicycle wheels I have onto some drum brakes for another project.

[SouthsideWJK]

Go for it! It's hard, but not as hard as some of my biker pals lead me to believe. It is LOADS easier if you have a picture of the before or a stock photo of how it looks. This page helped me a lot since I was not wise enough to take a before pic:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-wheels/re-spoke-motorcycle-wheels/motorcycle-wheel-spokes.htm

The real hard part is the truing. Man, if you can get access to a truing stand, do it in front of some Netflix catch up homework with a sixer. I did mine in a friend's shop...standing there with nothing to watch...

[pete]

Haha cool... all my stuff is done in the garage so I might have to get an old PC in there again...