1980 GS450 Cafe Racer Project/Rebuild

[Guest]

G'day all,

About a year ago I picked up a 1980 Suzuki GS450 for pretty cheap on eBay, the purchase inspired by hours trawling the pages of Pipeburn. It's taken a while to get to where I am, and it'll take a little while longer to get her finally stunning and running, but I'm keen to get my hands dirty and come out with something built not bought, a genuine cafe inspired build. Looking forward to those lazy summer Sundays.

I'll have some photos up ASAP, but so far I've completely stripped the bike, bought a few bits and pieces (clip-ons, a seat cowl from a 1980 KZ750), got the tank and frame up to a mate of my Uncle's for painting, and I've started to pull apart the engine. She hasn't run in a while, but the engine looks decent, at least at first glance (cylinders, carbs). What I want to do is completely strip and clean the engine, then rebuild it. I've loved looking through the wealth of information here, but at a first attempt, any suggestions for how to go about a genuine GS450 engine clean and rebuild?

Looking forward to sharing the rest of my build, and pulling some genuine inspiration from some of the grouse builds on here already.

Cheers,

Matt.

[pete]

Hey Matt, welcome!

I've rebuilt my 450 from the frame up, so feel free to browse the rebuild thread in my signature below.

The biggest mistake I made was using some Athena gaskets instead of genuine ones. My head gasket, valve cover, and breather cover gaskets were all Athena. The valve and breather cover gaskets got replaced a while back because they never stopped weeping. This weekend just gone I replaced the head gasket because it started leaking at around 20,000km's after the rebuild and then almost let go altogether during my last big ride.

When it comes to carb's, make sure you do the proper dip type clean and get new O rings from www.cycleorings.com to be sure you won't have to do it again.

This page will help you a great deal, and there is a 450 specific carb rebuild tutorial on there too:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

If you post a g'day thread in the GS Owners forum you will get a few more welcome messages and tips most likely too.

What are you planning in terms of intake? If you're dropping the air box and going with pods, I highly recommend K&N pods as they will let you jet reliably, and if you search around you will find my tuning and jetting thread which may help a bit there.

Anyway, good luck!

Now, about those pic's?

Quick edit: Forgot to ask where abouts in the world you are? Your g'day tends to imply you're another Aussie...

[Big Rich]

Yep, sign me up.

[Dr0ver]

Thanks for the warm welcome Pete! And for the sign up Rich. Appreciate the tips, I can't wait to really get cracking on. It's been a long time coming, and will likely take a long time more.

But, I'll get there. I'll be sure to read through your build thread thoroughly Pete, I'm sure I'll have some questions along the way. Regarding the intake, yeah, I'll go down the pods road and scrap the air box.

I'll upload what photos I have here.

(Anyone have a tip on how to upload multiple images? Bigger than a stamp too?)

[Big Rich]

Yikes! That's a sad state for any motorcycle ......

Look into Photobucket for pictures. It's free, and you just copy and paste the "IMG" code.

[Big Rich]

Yikes! That's a sad state for any motorcycle ......

Look into Photobucket for pictures. It's free, and you just copy and paste the "IMG" code.

Edit: sorry about the double post! Stupid smart phone.....

[Dr0ver]

Certainly is mate. These photos are from the original owner, and his eBay listing. Bit of a barn find if anything, cheap as chips. She'll look mint when I'm done though. The last is a ****ty mockup of where I'm thinking of going with it.

[Big Rich]

There ya go.

Fyi: there are quite a few upgrades the 450 can use that are cheap. The electrical system from a GS500 for one thing, along with the carbs. Just be sure to post what you're up to, and I'm sure somebody here will offer advice.

[Dr0ver]

That's it. Right now I've pulled it all apart, sent off the tank and frame for painting, got the KZ cowl from the states, and am now tackling the engine. Complete pull apart and rebuild.

Stuck at needing a slide puller for the flywheel. Interesting about the GS500 electrics. I'll need to start from scratch with mine, the loom and everything else were shot to ****, so even finding a loom from a GS500 on eBay would be grouse.

[pete]

Good stuff mate, she's gonna need some work but it's fun stuff!

When you look for GS500 stuff, don't bother trying locally... I tried a few enquiries on findapart.com.au and the prices I had given to me were beyond a joke when the same thing on eBay in the US costs bugger all... their excuse was "brand new this part costs xxx"... anyway, enough ranting

The mock up looks good with that tail piece on there too.

Rich also has some GS500 cam's in his 450, they have a little more lift. I was contemplating doing that with mine but the way things have been going I'm going to leave it indefinitely.

And the outstanding question... where are you located (just state/country is fine)??

Edit: As for the slide hammer for the flywheel, do you actually need to take it off? I took mine off but in the end there was no reason for it...

[hillsy]

You can use the rear axle as a rotor puller - pretty sure I saw that trick in the manual.

[Pod70]

Hillsy is right, you can use the rear axle as a puller but need to put a cut down m6 bolt in the end of the crank for the axle to bear against, just make sure it is not too long so that the axle engages most of the threads and take it easy. It helps to just tighten the axle and tap the stator with a rubber hammer, tighten a bit more and repeat until the rotor pops off the shaft. Goes with a bit of a bang though...