My 1981 650GL

[Skinner]

Cleaning up the brakes

Tonight was a good night. After I removed the callipers and master cylinders on Saturday and saw the condition of the fluid I thought for sure I was in for trouble when I opened everything up. Well, the insides were dirty, but there was little corrosion and almost none on the pistons and zero on the sides of the pistons. And the rubber was all very pliable and stretchy. No cracks, tears, cuts or holes. I even checked closely with my magnifying glass. So I used a bit of brake cleaner, a bit of Simple Green and some scrubbing to clean them up. For the tight spots a brass brush on my dremel worked very well. I rinsed everything well, blew them out with compressed air and left them to dry. Tomorrow I'll reassemble everything. I'm going to remove the wheels and get new tires put on before the brakes go back on though. Some pics for your enjoyment:

Before:


Before:


Before:


After:


After:


Cheers!
K

[Skinner]

The wheels came off tonight...

Literally. I removed the wheels tonight.

While I have the brakes off I decided to remove the wheels and get some new tires installed. The tires that are on the bike look great and have lots of tread left, BUT they were installed in 1992. I think I'll replace them. Tomorrow I'll take them to a place called Power Cycle in Windsor, Ontario. It's the local Suzuki dealer and he has lots of older bikes in his showroom to look at while I wait.

Taking them off wasn't difficult, but I had to use my impact gun on the front axle nut. That sucker was on tight. And the rear axle required a hammer and a dowel to remove, but other than those things I had no issues. The wheels are dirty but in good shape otherwise. I'll clean and grease the rear drive with some moly grease before reinstalling as well.

That's all for tonight!

[Skinner]

New needle valves

When I reassembled my carbs I had to adjust all the floats to hit 22.4mm, and I had to bend the tab a bit too much, at least in my opinion. I was suspicious about the springs in the needle valves. They just didn't seem "right" and there was play. I could grab the pin and pull it upwards a bit, like the spring wasn't pushing it all the way. It may be nothing, but today I ordered new needle valves just to be sure. I don't have the carbs back on the bike yet so it's a good time to do it. It's a PITA to remove them and I don't want to do it again if I don't have to.

Cheers!
K

[Skinner]

It was a long weekend in Canada (Victoria Day) and we had guests so I wasn't able to get much done on the bike. Since my last update I've reassembled the callipers and master cylinders and cleaned up a lot of the dirt that was in the hidden places around the frame. Today I was able to get a bit more done. I reinstalled the air box (that was a chore) and started to work on getting some of the electrical items functioning again. The gear position indicator isn't working for the gears but does show neutral. The speedometer light circuit isn't working either. Other than that, the electrical is good.

I removed the gear position switch, sprayed it with contact cleaner and scrubbed it with some 000 steel wool. I then used a wire to jump from the contacts on the switch back to the engine and all the gear position lights came on. I cleaned the little pin as well and reassembled but I'm still only getting a neutral light, no gears. Strange. It works when jumped with a wire, but not when installed.

I was happy to learn that the starter motor is working fine and the engine turns over without issue. A couple weeks back I squirted some oil into each cylinder before I started cranking it manually while checking valve clearances. So today I did a compression test. The cold results were 148-140-148-150. I double checked number 2 and it is indeed 140. Like I said, these are cold numbers.

I still haven't got my wheels back from the dealer - the front tire was back ordered - so I haven't reinstalled any brake parts yet. And I'm waiting on new needle valves before I reinstall the carbs. The gas tank has a new petcock, the fuel sender is reinstalled and it's ready to go.

Hopefully later this week I'll be able to start it up! A few pics:

Airbox reinstalled


Gauges and bucket apart to deal with wiring and burned bulbs


New battery installed.


Cheers!
K

[hikermikem]

Lookin' good! Those carbs are a real PITA to squeeze back in there. Liberal amount of spray silicone on the rubber parts works good for me (and sometimes a 2x3 for leverage). You didn't secure the airbox, right?

[Skinner]

You didn't secure the airbox, right?

Not tight. The bolts are in the holes and I'll loosen them up before installing the carbs. I've got my can of silicone spray at the ready!

[Skinner]

All my electrical problems (there weren't that many) are now solved. Everything lights, flashes, beeps and glows like it should. A few cleaned connections and a couple of new bulbs and all is well.

I also managed to take apart the rear shocks for cleaning. I used the same method as Old Guy did for his GS650GL project - a couple of ratchet straps. Worked like a charm! I WD40'd the shock bodies with aluminum foil and 000 steel wool and they came out very nice. There is some pitting but it's hardly visible now. And the springs are soaking in an Evapo-Rust bath as I type. I'm quite happy with how the shock bodies turned out because they were the rustiest part of the bike.

Also, my backordered tire came in and I'm picking up the wheels tomorrow.

They glow, they flash, they blink!



Removing the springs.


That looks better!

[Old guy]

Looking good.

[Beaner242]

Great job on the bike and the details of your projects. Im in the same position right now on my 81 550T. Im not taking as many pics as you are though. LOL

[Skinner]

New rubber!

I picked up my wheels from the dealer today. When I got home tonight I decided to give the wheels a good cleaning before installing them on the bike - it would be much easier. So I used some industrial strength Simple Green, a Scotch Brite pad and a brass wire brush and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed some more. There is a fair bit of surface corrosion that only a stripping of the clear coat, sanding and polishing will repair. But that's a job for next winter. For now I just wanted to get them as clean as possible. I let everything dry, installed the rotors and mounted the front wheel. I then realized I installed the speedometer drive pointing towards the front. Oops! No time to fix that tonight so I'll take care of it tomorrow.

New rear


New front.


Front installed. For now.


Cheers!
K

[850 Combat]

All my electrical problems (there weren't that many) are now solved. Everything lights, flashes, beeps and glows like it should. A few cleaned connections and a couple of new bulbs and all is well.

I also managed to take apart the rear shocks for cleaning. I used the same method as Old Guy did for his GS650GL project - a couple of ratchet straps. Worked like a charm! I WD40'd the shock bodies with aluminum foil and 000 steel wool and they came out very nice. There is some pitting but it's hardly visible now. And the springs are soaking in an Evapo-Rust bath as I type. I'm quite happy with how the shock bodies turned out because they were the rustiest part of the bike.

Also, my backordered tire came in and I'm picking up the wheels tomorrow.

They glow, they flash, they blink!



Removing the springs.


That looks better!

Clever way to remove the springs. Thanks for that tip.

[Skinner]

Clever way to remove the springs. Thanks for that tip.

Thanks, but the credit goes to OldGuy for that one.

[Skinner]

And the wheels are on

Last night and tonight I installed the front and rear wheels, brakes and shocks. I only ran into a couple of problems: 1) I was left with a "mystery part" last night, but a quick pic posted to the forums had me set straight within minutes, and 2) I had to re-route the rear brake hose. The new brake hose and fittings is about 1" longer than stock, which in itself wouldn't have been a problem. However, the new hose has a steel collar at the nut which limits how close to the fitting the hose can bend. I couldn't install it in the same way as stock so I had to re-route it over a frame cross member. This had the lucky effect of taking out the slack from the slightly longer hose. So it's all good. The shocks also turned out a lot better than I expected. They look great. Tomorrow I'm installing the new float valves in the carbs then back on the bike they go. I hope to start it up for the first time since 1993 this weekend. Fingers crossed!





The stock hose didn't go around the cross member.






Cheers!
K

[Skinner]

Carburetors installed

Today I moved a big step closer to starting her up - the carbs are installed. That was a bugger of a job. It's a very tight fit in that space, but after much pushing, pulling and swearing I got them in. Installing the choke cable was easy. Installing the throttle cable, not so much. It took me about half an hour just to get it reconnected. Vent lines and vacuum line went easy, but my fuel line is a touch too small so I'll buy a larger diameter tomorrow.

I also installed new DOT4 brake fluid - the brakes are now complete. I also started installing all the bits I had to remove, like the foot pegs. If all goes well I'll fire it up tomorrow.

Cheers!
K

[Skinner]

It is alive!!!

Today was a great day! I installed the vacuum and fuel lines, secured the tank to the back of the bike, put a golf tee in the vac line, turned the petcock to prime and hit the starter button. And it started! It sputtered a bit a first (it last ran in 1993) and there was some smoke from the oil I squirted into the cylinders awhile back. But after playing with the idle screw for a bit it ran very well from the get go. I then adjusted the pilot jets and vacuum synched the carbs. That proved to be a little difficult. I bought the Motion Pro adjustment tool and it worked very well for the two outside carbs. But it would not touch the middle carb. The frame and choke bracket were in the way. No matter how I tried I could not get it to engage, so I had to get creative with some needle nose pliers and a lot of swearing. The good part of an hour later I was done. The bike is running very well. Snappy throttle response, returns to idle very quickly. I haven't had it on the road yet, but that's the next step. After I get my plates and insurance of course.

I thoroughly enjoyed tearing the bike down and building it up again. The folks on this forum were an incredible source of help and inspiration. Thanks to all! Now that the hard part is done I'll tackle the cosmetic things as time permits. But first I'm gonna get out and ride!

Cheers!
K

Calibrating the synch tool


My synch setup:


Before:


After: