1982 GS1100gl project

[DevilsAdvoduck]

Also the Vin tag was totally faded and I tried to find another GS1100GL to copy but no luck. I came across a GS850GL which is pretty much the same bike other than the engine. I used that tag and just inserted the 1100 serial number and changed it to read GS1100GL. Tires are the same so I assumed the weight info is close or the same. So if anyone can supply me with the correct vin tag for the GS1100GL let me know

That's fantastic! Where did you track down that tag? Hadn't even considered being able to fix my peeled and faded tag.

[craz1]

I had it made by a guy on Ebay who does them. Again i'm not sure how accurate it is but has to be very close. I just wanted something there. He made another set and that is for sale on Ebay. Just search vin tag Gs1100GL and it should come up. You would have to supply him your vin number. Im not even sure if the original was white. Haven't come across another GL model with a good tag.

[GS1100GZ]

I'm in awe! Your work is stunning to me. I've been asking people online with stunning old bikes how they did it and get no replies. How did you get your carb tops so shiny? Was that from rubbing with 0000 steel wool? How do you polish your chrome? How do you polish the painted surfaces? Sorry for all the questions but I would like to clean up my GS. My GS looks good for a 40 year old bike but I would like to make it look better.

[craz1]

Thanks for the compliment Dale. Well I have been doing this for a long time and since retiring 6 years ago I spend quite a bit of time in the garage. As far as the polishing goes I do it all myself. Many years ago I used to buff using an old motor with wheels it works but if your doing a lot its wise to invest into a good system. As time went on I perfected things a bit. I built a small room in the corner of the shop(maybe 4ft x4ft) and use that as a buffing room. I had a filter system made which sits right behind the buffer and draws all the fine particles, filtering and returning the air back into the room above my head. Polishing is a dirty job and I don't want to contaminate the rest of the shop. Now days I use a Jet buffing motor with adjustable speeds. You can do a lot by hand with a good aluminum polish but its time consuming and hard. Here are the covers that I recently did for the GS1100


Here is one of my other bikes I completed last year.

[GS1100GZ]

I could tell from reading your posts that you have worked out all the little details. Seems like you have nailed down procedures, tools and sources. That took a lot of time and work.

[Big Block]

Beatiful Honda four! Ha, ha, when I buff I take my buffer out to the middle of my lawn, wear coveralls and headsock and let it fly. It's just too hard to clean up the mess when doing it inside.

[craz1]

Beatiful Honda four! Ha, ha, when I buff I take my buffer out to the middle of my lawn, wear coveralls and headsock and let it fly. It's just too hard to clean up the mess when doing it inside.

Yes I know what you mean. Even though I have a dedicated room I still wear a full painters hood with mask. After 4 hours of buffing I still come out pretty dirty

[craz1]

As I continue to correct all the issues, I decided to turn my attention to the wire harness. The PO surly made a mess of it so it will take some work to correct all the cut and spliced wires. Some people should not be allowed to have any tools. This guy was supposed to be a 20 year airline mechanic but looking at how he maintained this bike makes me wonder. All the connectors were very brittle/corroded. I decided to replace them all with new spades female and male. To make thing worse I found several things wrong on the wire schematic (in the factory manual) which had me chasing my tail for a bit.

[craz1]

Disassembled the brakes and found that the pistons had some major pits in the pistons. had to order new pistons. Blasted the calipers and mounts and painted with high temp gloss.


Also got the side cover emblems painted

[craz1]

The bike came with a Dyna 2000 ignition which was mounted poorly in a hard to get to spot to read the dials and observe the led indicator for timing. I got my laser cutter programed and cut out a new plate for mounting, ya right. How bout some tin snips / drill / and hammer to straighten it back out. Any way I mounted it between the battery and electric panel where I can get to everything. He had an huge automotive regulator/rectifier in that area which was also badly mounted. I went back to a stock regulator which is mounted under the battery box. There are better units out there but at a cost. I decided to pick up a good used one for the fraction of the cost.

[craz1]

Finally got the harness done and partially in. At least the headlight shell wiring is done

[craz1]

Now that I have 98% of the wiring done I can start to replace all the seals in the lower unit and get that in the frame. I like to install a relay to power my ignition rather than relying on the kill switch for power, the relay gives me full battery power through the relay. The kill switch operates the relay. On this bike I have the relay mounter behind the air box with just enough room. I normally wire in a separate 10amp fuse using a mini spade fuse but the GS has an auxiliary fuse already on the fuse box. With a little thought you can get the wiring nice and clean. I use a 5 pin relay in case I have a major issue and the relay fails or the kill switch fails. Pins 87A and 30 are normally closed. I supply a jumper from 87a and 87 which gives me power from the battery, so if there is a problem I just connect the jumper (the two white connectors to the right of the fuse box) and i'm good to go. You don't even have to have your key on. This bike has a Dyna 2000 which has been wired in.






Only thing left to wire is the reg/rect and the ignition pick-ups for the Dyna 2000. It's interesting that Suzuki only wires two legs of the alternator directly into the rectifier and the third leg goes all the way to a connector which uses a jumper to bring it all the way back to the rectifier. On my factory drawing this was wrong and that third leg was being fed directly into the 12vdc system. I will be bypassing this connector and all 3 legs of the alternator will go directly into the rectifier/regulator.

[craz1]

So there are several seals that seal the transmission from the drive gears which run in gear lube. You don't want these to leak so to replace the seal I needed to make a tool to compress the large spring on the counter shaft.


I cobbled some parts together for a spring compressor. a 12mm bolt with a 6mm hole drilled through, a 6mm bolt which screws into the shaft, some pipe which is notched, an old stem bearing race (I keep a a lot of my old bearings and races as drivers of the new bearings),a driver which fits into the race perfectly and also has a 12mm hole, a couple of nuts, the right is secured to the bolt with red locktite the left nut is used to compress the spring, a large washer which is tac welded to the pipe.




Make sure you have about 3/8 inch to compensate for the expanded spring once you remove the collets and release spring pressure.

[craz1]

Got some of the engine work done and also mounted the brakes so I can order brake lines. I had the discs resurfaced also

[habsdoc]

If you have access to a lathe with a tail stock, you can set the counter shaft up in the chuck and use the tail stock to get that spring unloaded. Works very good, easy and safe too. Your work is very good and is nice to see craftsmanship being used to keep these bikes going.