GS1000 GL rebuild

[Ricardomontoban]

Hello,

I've been on the forum for a while, but never posted, due to being able to get most of my questions answered by a post I found, or BassCliff's site.

I bought a GS100GL April of 2013 as a "birthday present" to myself. It wasn't my first choice, but I went ahead and bought it, not knowing what I was getting into. 2 years later I still haven't started it up since I bought it.

So far I've managed to rebuild the carbs, which were filthy. New O-rings from Robert Barr. I used a crockpot with a pinesol solution at the time. It got most of the gunk off, then I scrubbed with a tooth brush, and re-assembled.

The air box has been cleaned, and sealed, bolts replaced and rust cleaned out. I cleaned the foam filter that was inside, over the cage, it was in good shape so I cleaned with mineral spirits I believe, and the put some filter oil on it.

Rebuilt forks with new seals, and progressive springs.

Went through valve shims, replaced ones that weren't within tolerance. Also got silicone valve and breather gaskets.

I went to replace the bearings with needle bearings, when I took the yoke apart I saw that this motorcycle already used needle bearings, and the races were in good shape.



Then I went ahead and disconnected all my electrical connections, sprayed with contact cleaner, and coated with electric grease. Some of the connections were in bad shape, so I cut them out and replaced them. I also extended the R/R cable to ground to the battery. There are two 9 pin connectors next to the coils that have melted together (1 blue, 1 white), I couldn't get them apart, so I sprayed contact cleaner into the and will be ordering new ones from Z1.



Electric box all rusty out of motorcycle frame.



Wire wheeled off all the rust. Then two coats of rattle can black.

I re-installed the battery box and replaced all the bolts with plain steel allen bolts with zinc washers. I hope the bolts in this area don't need to be specific type of metal. I feel that I remember reading somewhere that stainless steel isn't good for electrical connections, so I figured plain steel was the way to go.



If you look close you can see the allen head bolts connected to the fuse box and other electric parts.

Exhaust gaskets have veen replaced.

Carb boots are all new, with stainless steel hardware. The right two intake ports had all of the screw holes, to bolt them up, stripped. I wound up installing stainless thread inserts, and they seem to be fine.

Replaced motor oil, oil filter, secondary gear oil.



Bike when I bought it.

I now know that as is mentioned in the welcome, buying a 30 year old bike without much knowledge isn't ideal. I've spent time on and off over the past two years working on this bike, and I want to get it rideable by August. There always seems to be something that pops up, so that I have to put this project on hold, or a wonderful little gremlin to stop me in my tracks.

Last things I think I need to do are replace brake lines and rebuild calipers, and master cylinders. At this point I'm wondering if I can just swap out the whole old brake system, for some slightly more modern direct bolt ons. I grew up riding BMX, and learned that just because it isn't the same company, it doesn't mean some parts aren't interchangeable. In the end I hope to change a lot about this bike, but first I know I need some type of baseline to start from, that way when I do change something, I'll know what went wrong,

[eil]

Well, hi there! We have almost the same bike, but yours has more oomph. Looks like you're well on your way to having a good rider, here are some random responses to some of your comments.

2 years later I still haven't started it up since I bought it.

As in, you haven't had the engine running at all yet? Yikes, that's usually the first step before you go working on suspension, bearings, brakes, etc. If true, you might have a knackered engine and don't even know it yet. Granted, it's fairly unlikely since these 8-valvers are pretty much bulletproof but previous owners (POs) can and do trash perfectly good engines out of ignorance and then offload the results onto some poor unsuspecting soul.

Also got silicone valve and breather gaskets.

I can't speak of any personal experience but those who have tried these weren't really happy with them. They leak and you can only torque down the bolts to right around finger tight which puts you at risk of losing bolts. I use aftermarket gaskets for these and they weep a bit but work fine otherwise. OEM ones are better, of course.

Then I went ahead and disconnected all my electrical connections, sprayed with contact cleaner, and coated with electric grease.

Excellent.

How about the R/R? Is it stock? If so, you'll eventually need a new one, budget about $80 and search the forum for "polaris R/R" to find the one to buy.

Replaced motor oil, oil filter, secondary gear oil.

What about the final drive?

I now know that as is mentioned in the welcome, buying a 30 year old bike without much knowledge isn't ideal.

Well, it depends. If you want an education in motorcycle maintenance, it's an excellent idea. That's what I did. Bought my 850GL for $250 on craigslist and it hadn't run in over a decade. I put much much more into it just in parts alone. And it's ugly as heck because it's still rocking all of the original bodywork and stuff. But it runs beautifully. Someday I'll do a cosmetic update on it. Right now I'm having too much fun riding it.

At this point I'm wondering if I can just swap out the whole old brake system, for some slightly more modern direct bolt ons.

Not really. There are adapter plates you can buy to upgrade to a newer front-end brake system accompanied by a tutorial on the site, but honestly the stock brake system is plenty sufficient when refreshed with new OEM parts and stainless steel brake lines.

Welcome!

[BanditRE]

Welcome brother. I did the same thing as you more or less with my 850. $400 on craigslist, never restored a bike in my life, took the plunge, spent hundreds of hours and a couple of grand fixing it up and bringing it back to life. I bought it last June, and until May of this year it hadn't run since 2001. Its now running and on the road, sort of. I got a few rides before hitting a few more snags that have it parked once again. But in a week or so, it should be back up and running, and hopefully the final gremlins worked out. Like you, I had no baseline to work from, which makes it trickier than if you were fixing up a bike you already owned, or a similar bike you used to have. No worries, you'll figure it out.

I had a good time working on the bike, thoroughly enjoyed it. Best of luck with your project. There's a lot of help on this forum when you need it. Ill say it before someone else does, post pictures, everyone likes pictures!

Good luck

[Ricardomontoban]

Thanks for the support guys.

So after reading eil's comments I went ahead and reconnected everything. Measured my float needles twice, and put in all the fresh rubber I have (O-ring boots, intake boots, air box connectors, and exhaust seals.


Everything in place.

i got really excited to at least hear the starter motor click, but no such luck. I put the key in the ignition, and nothing, not even lights. I looked around and when installing the airborne I disconnected one of the red wires into the reR of the wiring harness bundle. I reconnected the wire, and was able to get the headlight working.
i had replaced the turn signals a while ago with some after market ones. The only difference was these have a orange and green wire vs the black & black white wires. The turn signals light up, but don't blink. I thought maybe the wires were crossed, so I switched everything. To my pleasure, the right turn signal doesn't even light up anymore.
There is no sound from the starter, at all. I'm hoping that I disconnected a bunch more cables when I was installing the air box.
The only other problems I'm having are that I'm missing one of engine intake boot clamps. I made due with a slightly larger spare I had, but it won't hold up to riding, just getting it started. The other thing is that I'm feeling like I botched the wiring "nest" in the headlight. There is one brown wire that has no connection point. In the wiring diagram it isn't connected to anything, but maybe that's my ignorance.

As for the final drive, I haven't done that yet. My opinion is that if I don't have brake, I'm not going anywhere. I intend to drain the final gear oil this coming weekend. I also hope to order all my brake parts tomorrow.

[eil]

When pressing the start button, do you have the kill switch turned on? Do you have the clutch pulled in? (The latter has stumped many a newbie, myself included.) If still no dice, grab this color wiring diagram and follow the green/yellow wire from the solenoid back through the harness until you find the problem: http://cid-2370b62ddf9f0c6b.skydrive...%5E_switch.jpg

The brown wire in the headlight bucket doesn't go to anything, it's just a switched 12V source for accessories.

[Ricardomontoban]

Wow, I didn't realize the clutch needed to be held in; the more you know. I'm going to head out to the garage and see what happens. Thanks again.

[Ricardomontoban]

Tried holding in the clutch last night, and presto, it turned over. Tonight I'll try to run some fuel into the carbs and get spark. This whole process has been slow and agonizing, but hearing the engine turn was a blast of inspiration.
i still need to get the indicator lights sorted, plus a ton of other stuff, which I'll chronicle here.

[Ricardomontoban]

Tried to get the motorcycle to turn on tonight; no such luck.
The bike took in about an 2 ounces of gas. I pulled the choke lever up, but it kept lowering, something else I will have to address. Luckily the carbs weren't leaking. I thought they may have been flooded so I let the carbs sit for a few minutes, nothing.
I did notice the oil level dropped below the L (low) after turning the engine over several times. I'm guessing because of the full oil change and new filter it's going to take more than 2.78 liters. I'm going to read up and see what I may have missed, in the mean time I'll keep fiddling with other odds and ends.
I did check to see that the plugs were getting spark, they were.



My beauty supply store gas tank.

[Ricardomontoban]

After fiddling around with all the electrical connections for a few days, still no luck. I figured maybe attempting with the gas tank on might do something but that made things worse. I read about people using fiber washers for the petcock, as a quick back up; no dice. Even with thread sealer the fuel was pouring out around the bolts. Fortunately my fuel gauge went together fine, and is not leaking.



what I thought was going to be a leak proof job.



I went looking around for people with similar experiences and realized I shouldn't have been cranking the throttle, due to the bike using a vacuum petcock. I plugged the vacuum hose and gave it a try. The bike would sound like it had combustion every so often, but not enough, or maybe just one cylinder was firing. I don't know if I should try with a bit of starting fluid?
as for electrical, my indicator signals still won't flash. I'm going to try to attach the old ones to see what happens. The horns worked only when I pushed the button at a certain angle. My thinking is when I took apart, and cleaned, the horn/ light switch I fudged something in the rebuild.



looks good with the tank on, but that's about it.

[eil]

Yeah, never touch the throttle until the engine has warmed up a bit.

Are you using choke at all? You need some if the engine is cold. If your choke knob won't stay pulled out, you can adjust the "tightness" of the collar by turning the ring under the rubber flap. If it's cracked (as mine was) it won't tighten and you'll need a new choke cable. Which is not hard to buy or install. Before I ordered a new one, I either held the choke knob by hand or used some small rubber-coated vice grips to keep the knob from retracting.

I don't know if I should try with a bit of starting fluid?

You should not. That stuff is crap and damages the engine. A properly adjusted GS starts every single time with only the briefest touch of the starter button. If it does not, something is wrong. And therein lies the fun.

Compression, spark, fuel. You need all three. Process of elimination. Good luck and keep the questions coming!

[Darren]

from my own experience, install a fresh set of plugs if you flooded it , it will wash out plugs and they will be no good

[eil]

from my own experience, install a fresh set of plugs if you flooded it , it will wash out plugs and they will be no good

Huh? What does "wash out the plugs" mean? Too much gas does not kill spark plugs. If you flood the cylinders, you just open the throttle wide, turn it over a few times, release the throttle, let it start, and then ride away.