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THANK YOU! to the GS forum on the restoration of my 79 GS1000L

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    THANK YOU! to the GS forum on the restoration of my 79 GS1000L

    This post is a THANK YOU to all that have posted in this forum - without your help and all of the resources available here, I never would have undertaken what has become an extremely enjoyable rebuild of what is now a family heirloom. I feel I owe the forum a recap of my experiences in the process in the hope that I can help others if they ever want to undertake something similar. It will be fairly long, but I hope it's worth the read.

    Here's my 1979 GS100L:





    and here's the gallery of most of the images taken during the rebuild and detail shots of the finished bike: https://goo.gl/photos/TjhN5pXbQGKMkbQ77

    I've owned the bike for almost 30 years, and when my kids were young we took road trips on it. Here's my son Ryan & I in 1996, wearing goofy looking rain gear in a storm on the way to Portland 200 Indy Car race:



    As the years went on and I started my company and got remarried, I rode it fairly often (but in Washington weather that's not a lot - it only has 26,9XX miles on it). Over the past 5-6 years, I seriously neglected it, and it moved from the garage to outside for a year, which did it no favors and I'm still kicking myself for having done it. After feeling really guilty about not caring for it, I gave it to Ryan to try and get it running and start riding again. After 4-5 months, he gave up and it passed back to me.

    As the weather started to get colder last October and I had some spare time, I thought I would try to get it running for him. After doing points and plugs, new gas and carb adjustments, it ran OK (kinda), but we found out quickly that the front master cylinder did not relieve pressure on the front pads - to the point that the brake was almost totally locked up - it wouldn't roll at all. It was at this point that I found out about this forum, which turned out to be a godsend!

    To start off, I removed the front master cylinder to find out that the tiny pressure relief hole in the bottom of the reservoir had become rusted completely shut which was not allowing the pressure on the front pads to release. Using a small piece of wire, I was able to open this up to allow the front brakes to operate again. So far, so good – I could now ride and stop the bike! However, it smoked a bit at start up which I knew were valve stem seals, and with a pretty lumpy idle it probably needed some carburetor work so I thought the next step would be doing both of these operations with the engine in the chassis. The best laid plans always go awry...

    I consulted this forum to get some ideas on changing the valve stem seals, and came up with the plan to use a tool that I had fabricated and the rope in the cylinder trick to keep the valves in place while I removed the collets/springs/seals. Although it was a little bit of a pain in the ass getting all of these removed and the new seals on, I had met my match when it came to getting the split collets reinstalled. If anyone on this forum has done this operation with the engine in the frame, you are a God! I couldn't do it.

    So, it looked like I would have to remove the engine to reinstall the collets. Without ever having done this operation, I wasn't looking forward to it but after reading others' experience on this forum, it didn't look too difficult. It turned out to be a piece of cake removing the engine from the frame. I ended up using an overhead chain hoist with straps to suspend the engine in the frame and eventually moved the frame away from the engine. After fabricating a couple of aluminum brackets, I mounted the engine to an old engine stand which gave me stable access to start digging in.

    At this point, I'm thinking "I'll just pull the head and freshen up the valves and seats while I do the seals", and the head came off super easily. This was a great idea and was a quick solution to the original problem, but then I had another great idea – "while I'm this far, I'll just pull the cylinders and re-ring it at the same time!" As everyone knows who has done this before, the head studs are a great place to cake on road grit / sand / gravel / mud / dirt, and everything the bike has run over for the last 30 years - I even found a feather in there!

    So rubber hammer the cylinders to crack the bottom gasket seal and I start gently prying. Literally, once the cylinders moved 1-2mm, it froze and REFUSED to budge any more due to the buildup of all of this crap on the head studs! After consulting the forum again, I swallowed hard and soaked the studs to loosen the gunk on them and started hammering again - to say this was stressful is a massive understatement - it took 15-20 minutes of continuous pounding to remove the cylinders, which revealed that the pistons were in great shape and there was zero play in any of the rod bearings. But, since I couldn't slide a rag into the gap between the case and the cylinders as they were starting to move, all of the garbage that came off the studs had now ended up in the crankcase!

    I have always been afraid of cracking the cases in any motorcycle I have ever owned, but once again, the forum came to my rescue - after reading through multiple threads, it looks like the bottom end of these motors is extremely simple – not at all something that should trip me up. So, off came the covers, out came the clutch and case bolts, and by the end of the night I had everything stripped and laying on my toolbox! Piece of cake!

    After consulting the forum again and measuring all clearances, it looked like the crankshaft/main shaft/counter shaft bearings and gears were all good and could be re-used. However, the splines on the main shaft for the front sprocket were getting sloppy due to the old sprocket nut being so loose that once I bent down the locking tab on the washer, it spun off with my fingers - YIKES!), so I ordered another main shaft on eBay for a whopping $29 which gave me another entire shaft/sprocket/gearset.

    At this point I ordered all new seals, o-rings and gaskets for the entire engine so that on reassembly, there would not be a single rubber part that remained from the original engine - by God, this engine will NEVER leak again! I also built my new favorite tool - a DIY soda blaster - to completely strip the engine case/cylinders/head/valve cover for repainting as well as to clean the combustion chambers, valves and pistons to make everything look completely new. I used rattle can Rustoleum engine silver and clear, baked it in the oven (****ing off my wife) and all parts looked brand-new for reassembly, but it doesn't stand up for sh*t to gas :- (

    I cleaned everything so you could eat off of it, then replaced the right side crank seal and installed the crank, then swapped a couple parts from my EBay main shaft to the original, installed the new seals and plugs and reinstalled the transmission. Yamabond on the mating surfaces and it went back together a whole lot easier than anticipated.

    Engine case reassembly went great except for one thing: I mistakenly used the wrong seal for the main shaft where the sprocket splines are (it had the same ID and OD as the correct seal, but the wrong lip arrangement for the main shaft spacer), so I had to crack the case again to replace it. Normally I would have gotten pretty bent out of shape about this, but the engine is so easy to work on, I got it done in under an hour - it was no big deal. I will never hesitate to get into this motor again if need be - it's WAY simpler than I had myself psyched up for all these years...

    CONTINUED---
    Last edited by Guest; 06-02-2017, 06:04 PM.

    #2
    PART 2---

    When I had it outside, evidently #1 cylinder picked up some water, which rusted in the bore leaving some minor pitting - thank God the piston was at BDC when I parked it! I gave the cylinders and head to a buddy to freshen up, so he honed the cylinders which virtually eliminated the pitting and surfaced the head and cylinders, taking .007" off between them, so we wouldn't have any clearance issues.


    However, when it came time to install the new piston rings, there was an issue. I had ordered new stock size piston rings, but they were too big. I started a thread on it: http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...-rings-too-big Once again, the forum came to the rescue. Turns out that Suzuki's parts fiche is not always right, but GS forum members are! Got the new correct rings, and they were a prefect fit right out of the box - I didn't have to touch the end gap. Set the ring spacing and installed the pistons on the crank with new circlips.

    The cylinders were super easy to install by myself (after reading more forum tips) and the head went back on. That's where another potential issue cropped up: I had ordered a set of Vesrah gaskets, and the O-rings did not fit in the copper sealing rings of the head gasket: http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...rah-gasket-set I ended up grinding down the metal o-rings provided with the kit in order to not have any potential leaks or sealing issues. Overall, not too impressed with the Vesrah gaskets, but they do the job.



    After putting the head back together with new stem seals, the valves lapped & all surfaces soda blasted, you would have sworn this was a new assembly! I was able to buy a bunch of the proper shims from someone on the forum, so I could adjust every valve to within .001" of factory spec. The "zip-tie" method of shim replacement I learned of in the forum made things a breeze. Once the valve adjustment was done, the valve cover went on and new stainless Allen bolts for all the valve and side covers make the engine look great.



    Interspersed with the engine work, I had the frame/swing arm/side & center stands/triple trees/misc parts professionally sandblasted and powder coated in "50% black" (for $200, it was absolutely the best value of anything I had done in this project). A note on powder coating: the painter asked me what color I wanted and I told him "BLACK". He laughed at me like I had just told a joke or was the stupidest person he had ever met. I then learned that there are as many versions of "BLACK" as there are stars in the sky! Powder coating can be laid on in any finish from so shiny it will scratch if you breath on it to so dull that it will suck up whatever light touches it. I wanted to match the factory finish, so he shot it in "50%" black, and although it may be slightly duller than factory, you'd really have to have a good eye to tell the difference. I'm totally happy with it because it's super strong and I haven't scratched it ANYWHERE on reassembly. I would have spent over $100 to do a rattle can job and it would not have been 1/10 of the powder coat.



    Next I rebuilt all the brake master and slave cylinders and repainted all of them with gloss black caliper paint (of course, baking them in the oven again and ****ing off my wife even more). I think next winter I'll strip them all again and do powder coat. If anyone knows where to get a front master cylinder kit that has the right diameter dust boot, let me know, since the one I bought had the wrong part included (1980+ I guess is a smaller diameter) and I can't find another kit that has the right one.

    Since they were so cheap, I installed all new bearings for front and rear wheels (and the sprocket carrier). The new bearings are double sealed, so they should last forever, in contrast the the factory bearings which were either fully open or only sealed on one side. Once again the forum came to the rescue with tips on removing the front bearings (using an anchor bolt that expands to the inner race of the bearing, then hammering it out). In both removal and reassembly, heat and cold are your friends - keep a heat gun or propane torch handy and store your new bearings in the freezer until you're ready to install them. When reinstalling them, I heated the wheels and froze the bearings and they literally fell into place - I don't think I had to pound more than a couple times to seat them all the way.

    I ordered a $23 polishing set (three wheels and 4 compounds) from Amazon, and set off to polish the wheels. I taped off the spokes and started by sanding the rims with 400 grit sandpaper to get the major pits out, then progressed to 600/800/1200/1500, then hit them with the polishing wheel. They popped right out beautifully! Once the rims were polished, the gray factory paint looked like ass, so off to try and match that factory dark gray paint. Don't know if anyone else has had any luck with this, but I didn't find anything close at all. I settled for another rattle can product - Rustoleum sparkly dark gray, which comes out very dark - almost black. After masking everything, I soda blasted the wheels then shot it with the new paint. Once that was dry, I shot it with 3 layers of clear. Honestly, although the wheels are much darker than stock, I like the look better - it really does look like a factory finish...



    CONTINUED---

    Last edited by Guest; 05-01-2017, 02:28 PM.

    Comment


      #3
      PART 3---

      After doing a bunch of reading and trying not to completely blow the budget, I bought some Shinko Tour Master 203 tires (130/90V-16 rear and 100/90V-19 front) replacing the old Metzlers, which according to the date codes were produced in August and October of 1994 - I think it was time for new skins...

      Of course, now that the wheels were polished, all the engine covers needed to be polished (see a pattern here yet?) and the front forks needed to be cleaned up. On another forum suggestion, I got some paint stripper (KleanStrip Aircraft Paint remover) and the factory clear on the forks and engine covers was gone in 15 minutes. That stuff is AMAZING and cleans up with water! This was yet another operation that I was dreading turned out to be incredibly easy and hassle-free to do. However, getting all the covers to shine was a SH*T-TON of work: after the factory clear was removed, the covers were still pitted pretty badly. Sanding with 400/600/800/1200/1500, then hitting it hard with the tightly-sewn wheel with red compound got them shining, but left bad swirls. Had to spend more hours with the loose wheel and white compound to finish them. Also polished the carb bowls and tops. Mothers Polish will keep it all in shape from here on out. I ordered new "SUZUKI" & "DOHC" decals for both cases which goes a long way towards making the bike look brand-new – for $35 for both of them, it's money well spent.



      The speedo and tach were both functional but had condensation haze built up so bad on the inside of the glass that it was almost hard to see through it, so once again the forum came to the rescue and I cut open both cases to clean the bezels and the dial faces. While I was in the speedo, I rolled it back to 00000.0 (logging the original mileage first) so to keep an accurate record of the new mileage, since now the bike will literally be brand-new. It will stay in the family for decades to come, so I'm not worried about the legalities. After reassembling the gauges on the mount, they were both REALLY floppy, so I added small O-rings on the mounting stud between the cone-shaped rubber washer and the chrome back cover to help clamp it a little better - it works perfecetly - the gauges are now solid but flexible.



      The original coils had cracking wires and mismatched tips, so I completely rebuilt them (again with forum help): cut off and discarded the old wires (removing the factory numbered outer tubing first to reinstall on the new wires), then drilled out the old wires from the coils exposing the sharp pins in the bottom of each wire hole. New 7mm wires were installed and epoxied in place, then new NGK plug ends were added (and for $2.79 ea, they were SUPER cheap):



      Next came the carbs and boots: when I removed the carb boot o-rings, they literally disintegrated into dust when I pried them out! UNBELIEVABLE! it's amazing that the engine ran at all! Needless to say, new o-rings went in. The carbs were in pretty good shape internally, and all the floats and jets were perfect. I soda-blasted the bodies, then ordered a new o-ring set and spent a night installing them. When I bolted them all back together, I pre-set the slides based on another forum tip - hold the carbs up to a light source and adjust the slides until you can see just the slightest crack of light under each one. It was AMAZING how close this was once it was all together - see below!

      The bike had been missing the airbox lid ever since I owned it, and not until I got onto the forum did I realize how critical it was to proper running! Using a chunk of 1/8" ABS plastic sheet, I fabricated a replacement lid, then used sticky 1/2" tall foam used for sealing door gaps to seal the lid to the airbox.



      Also since I've owned the bike, the right side cover has been missing and the left side cover's retaining post was gone - the previous owner just drilled a hole in the left side cover and used a screw to hold it on. My son actually found a replacement right side cover (with "GS1000L" emblem even!) on EBay for $50 so we snapped that up, but it was missing the retaining post as well. Once more the forum bailed my ass out as I read up on fixes for the posts. I ended up using a 3/8" oak dowel to fabricate new posts, but used different methods for the right and left sides: on the right side (covering the rear master cylinder), I figured this cover was not going to be off much, so I decided to make it a semi-permanent assembly rather than chance it flying off like I'm certain the original did. I removed the original rubber washer that was in the frame and cut the oak dowel to length to extend 1" or so beyond the frame hole when the cover was in place. I super-glued the dowel in place on the cover, then added two layers of epoxy to make the bond MUCH stronger. I marked the dowel and drilled a hole for a cotter pin about 3/4" on the inside of the frame hole towards the tip of the dowel. Adding a stack of O-rings and a washer to the dowel on the cover side to space it out properly, then a washer and the cotter pin on the inside of the frame keeps the cover completely secure - you have to remove the cotter pin to remove the cover. I printed a small label and stuck it to the inside of the frame under the seat (DO NOT PULL ON RIGHT SIDE COVER! REMOVE AIRBOX FIRST, THEN REMOVE COTTER PIN), so anyone in the future will not attempt to remove the cover in the normal way.



      CONTINUED---
      Last edited by Guest; 06-02-2017, 02:29 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        PART 4---

        On the left side cover, I used the same oak dowel method, but since this cover will need to be removed more frequently and there is no easy access to the rear of the cover like on the right side, I chucked up the dowel in my drill press and machined TWO grooves in it so when removing the cover, there are two detents instead of one. Hopefully this will act as a better method to keep the cover in place if it ever gets grabbed by the wind - it's a pretty tight friction fit now.




        Here's the way the dowel is glued to the back of the cover:



        I hot-glued the dowel to the cover to locate it, then mixed up some two part epoxy to make the attachment much more secure. I poured the epoxy onto the base of the dowel (and also fixed a crack in the panel - shown in the upper right) and waited for it to cure, then mixed another batch and built up the joint. At this point, the dowel is MUCH stronger than the panel itself and will never break off...

        The seat was re-covered by my wife and her grandmother (who did upholstery for a living) many years ago, but I never appreciated what a great job they did at the time! Now that the restoration was under way, I was overjoyed at not having to find a new cover or get one sewn up! The seat pan was another matter: it was rusted and generally pretty ratty looking, so I stripped the cover and pad off, then went after it with the sandblaster. Black paint and clear made it look brand-new...



        Bottom:



        After reading in the forum about all of the issues with the electrical systems in these bikes (and as a 40 year radio installer), stripping out the wiring harness and cleaning up all of the connectors was very simple. This meant also replacing a few factory connectors, but since they are all available online, this was easy too. Every connector was cleaned or replaced and every bit of the factory tape wrapping the main harness was removed. I re-wrapped the entire harness with Scotch 3M 33+ electrical tape. This stuff is the best - it's as good or better than factory stuff, stretches & holds great and lasts forever. I removed, rebuilt and re-painted all of the handlebar controls (including stripping them COMPLETELY to clean all the electrical connections inside):



        All the turn signals were completely stripped, cleaned & rewired and a new lens was ordered (only $7.00 on EBay!). Ordered three sizes of all new vinyl tubing for every place it existed for the handlebar switches/lights/harnesses etc. Now all of the handlebar controls look brand-new, the main wiring harness looks factory fresh and there aren't any voltage drops anywhere.



        Since the chain/sprocket combination was stock, it had the old 630 chain and 15F/42R combination for a 2.80 ratio. This had to go, so once more the forum taught me about the 530 conversion. I wanted to lower the gear ratio a bit and ended up with Sunstar steel 18F/47R sprockets (2.61 ratio), a 6mm spacer and a 116 link JT X-Ring chain. I removed 2 links and used a riveted master link.

        The factory shocks were toast. When I disassembled the bike, the left shock mount acorn nut came off with about half of the threads of the mounting stud! I thought I was screwed when this happened, but the forum fixed it! I re-threaded the stud to fit a 10X1.25 acorn nut and it now works like a champ. Looking at the old shocks, there was literally no damping left at any setting. Although I realize they're not the best, I ordered a set of EMGO classic chrome shocks, which gave me the right look and better than nothing action. Not ideal, but they were only $90 shipped. After stripping and cleaning up the front fork lowers, new seals and air valves went in (the old valves were broken and wouldn't hold air). Yet again, the forum instructed me how to make the tool to pull the bolts out of the bottom of the forks, allowing them to come apart.

        I wanted to keep the color of the bike as stock, which was a fairly dark blue metallic with a slight touch of green base coat and clear coat. After a massive search for any information on factory paint color (which came up completely empty except for a chart which listed the factory colors in German), I figured the only way to get anywhere close was to simply hit my local auto body store and start digging through paint chips. The girls at the store gave me a stack of books and I started matching colors. I narrowed down the selection to about six or seven different options then waited for the sun to come out so I could see what each one looked like in the sun. If you have been following the weather in the Seattle area, waiting for sunshine this year has been an exercise in frustration :- ). It took almost a week to get a day with sun to get a good comparison between the paint chips and the gas tank/side covers.

        The best match ended up being for a 2008 Jaguar: Indigo Pearl Metallic "JJX" which is a spectacular blue metallic that is so close to the factory color that I would defy anyone to tell the difference. An added benefit is that it is slightly more sparkly (but not gaudy) and it absolutely pops in the sunlight! If you have the same bike and are thinking about shooting your tank, you cannot go wrong with this color!

        The problem came when they quoted me the price! Over $400 for all the stuff necessary: quart quantities of primer/reducer/activator, base coat/reducer and clear coat/reducer/activator. HOLY SH*T things have gotten more expensive since the last time I painted a car! I backed out of the store in shock and went to the internet. I found a company in Missouri that provided all of the materials and mixing cups/strainers/stir sticks, etc. for just over $200 shipped to my door! I was a little uneasy about the no-name brands of the primer, paint and clear they sent, but they guaranteed me a good result, so I accepted it and got to work on the prep.



        CONTINUED---
        Last edited by Guest; 06-02-2017, 01:56 PM.

        Comment


          #5
          PART 5---

          Now came the part I was dreading: doing body work and repainting the gas tank and side covers. The tank was in pretty sad shape, having been outside where it was exposed to a lot of sun (kinda - remember this is Seattle!), which broke down the clear and ate the gold pinstripes. The side covers were not looking too good either.

          However, the gas tank looks like the day it was made inside! No rust anywhere, so I didn't have to coat it. Outside, there were a couple pretty major dents in the right side and one on the left. To complicate things, underneath the Suzuki badges on both sides of the tank, it was pretty rusted:



          The first step was to strip the tank to bare metal, so I pulled out the petcock and the fuel sender (rebuilt both), then taped every opening up. After applying the paint stripper, the old finish started peeling off incredibly easily, and within 15 minutes I had the tank completely stripped:



          After taking a sandblaster to the rust, I was ready for bodywork. O
          ne of my friends runs a "Dent Wizard" type business, so I gave him the tank to remove the big dents to minimize the amount of Bondo. A week later he gave me back what looked like a brand new tank! It was just about perfect except that one dent came out a little too far - "just" enough to feel it if you rubbed it the right way, but you could only see it when it was wet. This meant I had to bang it in a little bit to make it level with the rest of the tank. A little more pounding gave me room to use just the slightest amount of Bondo to finish it perfectly, and it ended up being far less than I would've used had he not removed the dents. In order to avoid the rust issue again, I filled in the gaps around the mounting bar for the badges so there would not be any ability to get water in there - it's now completely sealed and the only way for water to get in is through the little 3mm badge screws - not gonna happen because it will never get wet again!



          Since the side covers were plastic, I was not going to chance paint stripper on them, so I spent an afternoon sanding these down to bare plastic and filled in the hole that was drilled in the left side cover. I also measured the spacing for the factory stripes in order to get them laid out correctly:



          I last painted a car using an old siphon style gun, but this time around I wanted to use a modern HVLP gun to shoot everything. $79 on Amazon for a three piece set of guns was a GREAT deal and they worked fantastically well! I laid down three coats of high build catalyzed primer on the tank and side covers, then wet sanded that smooth. Four coats of color went down (with NO WET SANDING before clear coat - there was no guidance with the product and I almost made the mistake of sanding the basecoat), then three coats of clear. I let this dry for a couple days before wet sanding and adding new adhesive gold stripes (I matched the factory style - not painted on). This was a little nerve-wracking, as it took many tries to get them to lay down straight and to get the tight corners not to bunch up.

          Four more coats of clear finished the job, and the build on the clear almost makes the stripes completely smooth! I am waiting for the clear to cure (maybe a month or two before I pull the badges and wet sand for the final buffing. Right now, the paint looks a foot deep and is FAR better than factory! The brand of paint ended up making no difference - I could not be more pleased with the way it turned out! It is absolutely fantastic for a DIY job painted in the garage with no special tools or a booth...





          Now to reassemble everything: obviously, I wanted to minimize the damage to the frame getting the engine back in, so I cut up an old inner tube and wrapped the entire frame. Using my overhead hoist, I used straps adjusted to precisely match the angle that the engine needed to be in order to slide into the frame - up a little at the back. Amazingly, I had the engine in by myself within 15 minutes! I wish I would've taken photos of the setup I used, but it was just a matter of using some regular tie-down straps to cinch the engine to the proper angle and all of them connected to the hook on my hoist. Between all three straps, the engine literally slid into place - I don't think I would have even nicked the frame if the inner tubes were not in place!

          Once the engine was bolted in, everything needed to be connected, which was a whole lot easier now that it was clean and new! I purchased a set of MAC 03-0509 "Classic" chrome 4 into 2 pipes, which are okay, but certainly not the highest quality I've ever seen, especially for the price - $500! They allow the use of both the side stand and centers stand, but end up being INCREDIBLY close to the factory case saver bars - it is literally about a .010 clearance on the left side bars. The chrome also turned brownish blue at the exhaust port within 5 minutes of running:-(



          After all the electrical connections were made, hoses were run and a temporary fuel tank made from an old vinegar jug was connected, the moment of truth had finally arrived: starting it for the first time. I choked it (with my cool new choke cable, BTW:-) and literally within 10 revolutions, the motor fired up AND EVEN IDLED AT 1200 RPM WITHOUT HESITATION! IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE! I have never rebuilt anything that ran this good on the first crank! It was amazing that almost 6 months worth of work came down to this one moment of absolute enjoyment and satisfaction! Honestly, I almost started crying...

          I had ordered a Morgan CarbTune Pro to synch the carbs and a Gunson Colortune to set the mixture, and doing both operations took about an hour. The Colortune is badass - it allows you to set the idle mixture by actually monitoring the color of the flame through a replacement sparkplug that has a glass to view the combustion in the cylinder. Using this tool showed that if I set the idle mixture screw to the factory recommended setting, it was too rich and resulted in a lumpier idle - every carb was identical: about 7/8 of a turn out. Next up was the CarbTune, and it revealed that setting up the slides using the "light" method when I reassembled them was amazingly effective: the CarbTune uses stainless steel rods instead of liquid to monitor vacuum and these rods were within four tick marks of each other for every cylinder without any adjustment whatsoever! I only had to adjust #1 and #3 at all, and both of those came right by simply cracking the locknut and re-tightening it! Could have done without it, but it's really nice knowing they're all spot-on:



          Once everything was readjusted and reassembled, I finally got to ride it three days ago. THIS IS A NEW BIKE! Honest to God, it feels like 1979 all over again! I bought a 1979 Yamaha 650 Special brand-new when I was 19 years old, and jumping on this bike literally took me right back to the experience of driving that 650 off of the dealer's lot in the summer of '79! Compared to what I was used to for the last almost 30 years, THIS THING IS A ROCKET SHIP! There is NO hesitation anywhere - it idles smoothly at 1100 RPM and pulls cleanly from there in ANY gear. It's truly amazing what a difference there is - obviously, the bike was in sore need of a freshening up, but I would never have imagined how much of a difference there would be...



          The total investment into the restoration now stands at $2377, but I have purchased some tools that will most likely not be used again on anything else, so if you wanted to add those in, it's closer to $2700. I think my wife is trying to make me feel guilty about the expense, but it's not gonna happen - I now have a BRAND-NEW MOTORCYCLE for $2400 and I know every single screw, nut and bolt that went into it! Literally, there is not a single fastener ANYWHERE on the bike that was not removed, and EVERY SINGLE PART was refreshed in the build. EVERYTHING is now new or refurbished!

          This has been one of, if not THE coolest projects I have ever undertaken and it turned out far better than my best expectations! This forum deserves all of the credit for keeping me motivated and reducing the possibility of stupid mistakes that would have torpedoed that motivation to keep going. I truly appreciate everyone that has contributed their experience and expertise here, and I look forward to sharing more of my experiences in this project with others that may want to accomplish the same thing. Please feel free to ask any questions or make any comments.

          Thanks again to the GS Resources Forum!!!


          Walt Ottenad

          CONTINUED---
          Last edited by Guest; 06-02-2017, 02:25 PM.

          Comment


            #6
            PART 6---

            I have to give a shout out to the following vendors:

            • Parts Outlaw, with their "BANG" code for GS Forum members that gives you $1.99 shipping - I ordered almost all of my OEM parts through them and they were great to work with!
            • Sean Morgan of Morgan CarbTune: he makes a great product and was kind enough to ship a replacement package that got held up in shipping
            • Vintage Connect for electrical connectors and OE style vinyl tubing
            • AutoPaints4Less.com: Tim Vick was very patient in answering questions regarding paint applications and best practices
            • Motorcycle Superstore: initially ordered the wrong size rear tire and with a single phone call was able to make it right. Gotta love it when you can actually talk to a person who takes an interest in making it right!
            • AlloyBoltz.com: Great finish on all of the replacement stainless Allen bolts!


            Here's what went into the rebuild in order of purchase:

            Carb boot O-Rings
            Rear Brake Master cylinder
            Cam cover gasket & plugs
            Buffer wheels
            Clear paint
            Engine paint
            K&N oil filter
            Fork Oil
            F & R brake pads
            Air filter
            Fork seals
            Paint & sandpaper
            Acorn nut for shockmount/paint stripper/tubing
            Soda/air gun
            Left case Suzuki decal
            Carb boot O-rings
            Points cover gasket
            Choke Cable
            Front caliper kit
            Shinko 203 F & R tires
            Carb gaskets & new screws
            Clutch cover gasket
            8 Viton valve stem seals
            SUZUKI 1978-1980 GS1000 CHAIN DRIVE POLISHED ALLEN ENGINE KIT
            Rear wheel bearings
            Exhaust Gaskets
            Carburetor O-Ring kit
            Sandpaper 600/800/1000
            Stator gasket
            Light switch/screw/right DOHC emblem/cam adjuster gasket/speedo o-ring
            Front wheel bearings
            Electrical connectors & tubing
            Crank seal, main shaft seal, shifter seal, gaskets
            Turn signal lens
            Valve shims
            Valve lapping tool, compound, assembly lube
            Replacement Main shaft
            Piston rings
            Full gasket set
            VHT Primer
            Yamabond
            Blue Threadlocker
            Circlips
            Engine paint
            Carb tubing/paint
            Speedo Cluster
            Case bolts
            17T Front/47 Rear sprockets/116 link X-Ring chain
            Shave .007" on head and cylinders
            O-rings/gaskets/dowels
            11mm tubing
            Front fork valve/o-ring
            Frame Cushions
            Valve Stems
            Frame Sandblast
            Frame powder coat & other pieces
            Vinyl tubing
            Head nuts/bolts
            Chain tool
            NGK Caps
            Plug wires
            Turn Signals
            Paint gun & mixing supplies
            Epoxy
            Paint/Primer/Clear
            6mm Spacer
            Gold pinstripe
            Shim Tool
            Morgan Carbtune/Colortune
            Seat/frame rubber
            MAC Pipes
            Front Master rebuild kit
            3 Piece Spray guns
            Sandpaper block/320/multi-pack/scotchbrite
            Rear Shocks

            Comment


              #7
              An excellent post about an excellent restoration.
              Congratulations, Walt.
              The paint looks great!
              2@ \'78 GS1000

              Comment


                #8
                Geeze Louise, that's gorgeous! I'll have to read through when a rainy day(or week) comes.

                Looks like a good candidate for B.O.T.M to me!
                Roger

                '83 GS850G Daily rider
                '82 GS1100GK Work in (slow) progress

                Comment


                  #9
                  Congratulations on a superb job! This should be an inspiration to many others out there who would like to restore their bike, but are nervous that they do not have the knowledge or experience.

                  You have shown that it can be done! Excellent photos of the finished bike as well - looks good enough to be on the cover of a sales brochure!
                  1981 GS850G "Blue Magic" (Bike Of The Month April 2009)

                  1981 GS1000G "Leo" (Bike Of The Month August 2023)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    My compliments on the narrative/novel!

                    Everything can be restored and your efforts have paid off. Life's​ priorities change and I'm glad you were able to complete this restoration project. Thanks for posting.


                    Ed
                    GS750TZ V&H/4-1, Progressive Shocks, Rebuilt MC/braided line, Tarozzi Stabilizer[Seq#2312]
                    GS750TZ Parts Bike [Seq#6036]
                    GSX-R750Y (Sold)

                    my opinion shouldn't be taken as gospel or in any way that would lead you to believe otherwise (30Sep2021)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Awesome work dad!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by rmottenad View Post
                        Awesome work dad!
                        And I second that!!!
                        GS750EC, GS1100E, GS1150EG, Harris Magnum 2 (GS1170E motor), GSXR750F, Mk1 GSF1200, and finally Mk1 GSF600.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by rmottenad View Post
                          Awesome work dad!
                          You see what the old man can do when he puts his mind to it!👍 I can keep them looking good and running good, but I never tried a full restoration. My hat is off to you. Beautiful motorcycle ☺
                          My Motorcycles:
                          22 Kawasaki Z900 RS (Candy Tone Blue)
                          22 BMW K1600GT (Probably been to a town near you)
                          82 1100e Drag Bike (needs race engine)
                          81 1100e Street Bike (with race engine)
                          79 1000e (all original)
                          82 850g (all original)
                          80 KZ 650F (needs restored)

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by rmottenad View Post
                            Awesome work dad!
                            Pretty cool, huh? Ever thought it would run that well? Now we have to duplicate the photo on the highway - that will be funny considering you have 4" on me!

                            Now I'm ready for another one...

                            :- )
                            Last edited by Guest; 05-09-2017, 01:35 AM.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Truly inspirational. Bike is gorgeous. (Betcha you'll never leave it outside again....LOL)
                              PB
                              Central Jersey
                              82' Suzuki GS750T


                              "Old school is the best school"

                              Comment

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