1982 GS450 Refresh

[cowboyup3371]

Glad to hear you got it back out Pete. Updated ride pictures are mandatory......PLEASE?

[pete]

Yeah sorry Scott, my bad! I know pics or it didn't happen

Next time for sure, will be commuting on it today so may even get one parked at work yet although rain is predicted so see how I go.

[Gorminrider]

Nice to see some Love lavished on an old friend, pete! The speedo is good news- and not as small as I'd feared (noted for my own future reference!)

I don't know how you guys can stand lying down on the bike...I'm looking for "risers" for my Ninja! but then...I've seen your vids . No fire will catch you!

[pete]

Yeah it's well deserved lovin', she's a trusty little steed who has served me well so it's only fair I get her back in shape! The speedo is definitely clear and readable and the LED's for me are just right, clearly visible in the day. I haven't ridden in the dark yet but in the garage they're not too bright either.

Hahaha I'm not that quick! But the riding position isn't extreme at all, it's really only a slight forward lean, nothing compared to a modern sports bike. The reach to the 'bars on the 450 is a lot less than the Kat also, and the Kat isn't even all that laid down, or at least not for me anyway. I understand the need for risers though, wouldn't suprise me in 10 years from now if I'm doing the same!

As for a pic, errrr, nope didn't get one at work yesterday... ooops! At this point I'm planning on taking the 450 instead of the Kat for my next Saturday ride, so should have one then.

[pete]

Happy New Year all! First post for 2020 is a good one for me

I didn't take the 450 last Saturday in the end but will get an updated out there shot soon!

I hadn't done any more on the 450 as I've been spending my time off doing a serious garage tidy. This made enough room for a new workbench to do all my bending, drilling, cutting, etc.

Relocating the bench grinder also allows enough room to park both the 450 and Kat side by side.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

As a result, yesterday I got to cut the front mudguard down. I ended up using a metal cutting blade in the jigsaw which made the cutting nice and quick and let me get close to the end result without having to spend ages cleaning up on the bench grinder.

Then I give it and the rusty headlight bucket the satin black treatment.

I got as much of the loose crappy chrome plating as I could off the headlight bucket with a wire wheel then scuffed up the chrome surfaces with some 120 grit wet and dry. Self etching primer then went on along with the satin black, just aerosol acrylic for the moment.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

The acrylic takes 24 hours to fully cure so I should be able to get it reassembled this afternoon or evening.

[pete]

I got the mudguard and headlight installed last night, much better!


Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

[pete]

I picked up a GS500 tacho on Thursday to use on the 450 but when I went to test it I discovered my ignition key wouldn't turn in the barrel. It was getting a bit stiff lately so not really surprised it stopped functioning.

I dismantled it to find three different issues, and it's a wonder it was working at all! The spring holding the little door stopping crap from getting in is broken which I guessed was the case quite some time ago, and of course the graphite I've put in over the years has turned to muck when combined with water and whatever getting in. The third wafer is bent way out of shape and there's no way it was moving at all, and the remaining wafers seem to be worn enough that they don't retract fully.

I'll shuffle the wafers I have around to get the best match I can for the key then I'll have to do a bit of filing on any that don't quite retract enough. Should definitely be fixable though.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

[Gorminrider]

huh! carry on ,Pete! but a little light lit in my brain-cave that you might be able to use the helmet lock as a source of wafers if you get in a pinch....if like me you never use it.

[pete]

Yep, same here, I never use it either! Although fortunately my wafer shuffle included some from a spare seat lock I have that is a little forlorn and I don't have a key for, so it donated a couple. Between that and a small amount of filing all is back in order with the exception of the little flap to keep the crap out as the seat lock uses a completely different spring for that. Now I can ride again, yay!

[pete]

Well I finally got it out for a decent ride yesterday after the changes so far.

Definitely more enjoyable to ride again and I had a blast, although encountered a couple of issues.

First one's a simple fix... my rear number plate had started to crack from vibration likely due to the weight of the reflector bolted to the bottom of it, and yesterday my favourite bit of twisty road was the final straw. At the top I discovered it had broken completely and was only being held in place by the height of the LED bolts I use for it. Ooops! It's cable tied on now temporarily.

The other is going to be a bit more effort to fix... essentially I have no top end power. Not having ridden beyond 70 to 80kph since May last year and only commuting, I've not picked up I have an obvious issue once the revs get up and the throttle is open. It sounds and feels like it's way too rich once I open it right up. I essentially had little to no top end in the faster sections yesterday, and it wouldn't even hold 100kph up a hill which it used to do with no fuss at all.

I guess it's time to look into putting an O2 sensor bung in the pipe finally and being a bit more accurate on figuring out the fueling.

I've never successfully removed the pipes myself yet so it won't be an immediate thing but I'll need to tackle that soon, and probably at the same time I should attempt to do something about the header dent and probably some VHT flameproof paint as well.

Untitled by starpoint73, on Flickr

[pete]

I decided to check the compression last night given the lack of top end and the results weren't good.

Number one has 120 PSI, number two only 100 PSI. Going by the manual 100 PSI is the service limit, but they should be 130 - 170 PSI, and if both cylinders measure under 130 PSI it's time for an overhaul.

So that sort of puts a bit of a damper on the refresh, at least I can still commute on it as it is for a while.

I've been contemplating the GS500 cylinder and piston swap for a while so something like that might be a way forward, but there's no budget for that for quite some time yet at this stage.

I'll still get the GS500 tacho on though as that'll be needed whatever I do.

[pete]

I got the service done yesterday, standard oil/filter change and check valve clearances and so forth.

The only shim needing changing was number 2 inlet as last time I'm guessing I got the clearance a bit wrong as it was way out of spec (over 0.10mm) and had to go up a shim to bring the clearance back down to 0.08mm. All the other three were good.

There's no way too much clearance would lead to low compression though.

I looked down each spark plug hole as best I could with the valves open and the faces looked clean, no significant carbon build up I could see and same with the top of the pistons. Of course I can only see a small section of each that way so it's certainly not a guarantee that the valves are good.

I did a cold compression test and got number 1 with 140 PSI and number 2 with 150 PSI.

Took it for about a 20 minute test ride and did a hot compression test getting number 1 with 135 PSI and number two with 140 PSI.

Now I'm really confused! I did what I could in those 20 minutes to get the throttle open and revs up as much as possible and every time it felt strong, no drop of power like happened when the compression measured low. I'm guessing I have to get the engine hotter again to test this, then stick a bit of oil in to see if it's likely to be rings or head.

[Gorminrider]

burning oil? unlikely to be rings without smoke from the pipes. maybe valve seals but again, more oil burned and soforth. I'd check it again warm and likely you are ok.

...Just a gremlin passing through.

[pete]

Not burning any I can tell, and on the day I discovered the power loss I asked those behind me if there was any smoke, and the consensus was none observable. The Kat has valve stem seal issues with the loaned head, and people who follow me on that confirm blue smoke on down shifts, definitely nothing like that from the 450.

Yeah I think I'll just have to get it hot enough to have the symptoms and check again. Probably won't happen for a bit as we have wet weather starting in today.

[OutbackPhil]

Good read man. That cut down front guard looks the goods too, well done. I ended up mounting my mechanical speedo where the original ignition barrel sat and fits well and nice and tucked away. I'm living and working in Brissy now so I'll keep my eyes peeled for this bike zipping around. I've just replaced a dead stock CDI with a boyer bransden CDI and signal generator kit and the bike runs again so keen to get it back on the road. Cheers