Rear Brake Return Spring

[Guest]

1981 GS850GL. I'm not getting it. How is the spring oriented to return the pedal or push it upward? I've tried a million ways from Sunday, and so has my helper who is generally pretty smart.

I using a brand new NOS spring so I don't believe it's the problem.

There's a nub for the spring on the inside of the frame and forward. But when we use that nub (incorrectly apparently) it pushes the pedal down, not up. It seems like the bike doesn't exactly match pics in Clymer either...I don't exactly trust Clymer but still...

If anyone can snap a pic or two for me that would be real helpful. Thanks in advance.

(by the way, I'd post pics of what I'm trying to do but suddenly none of my devices will upload pics. yeah, it's a circus around here today)

[Burque73]

If youre still stumped when I get off work I'll check the one on my 81 parts bike and post a pic.

[BadMonk]

Yep, still stumped. Kinda difficult to see what's going on but here's a pic.

P1000006.jpg

[BadMonk]

One more pic.
P1000007.jpg

[Rijko]

looks like something is missing.
The spring is mounted correctly as far as i can tell.

The rear bolt on your brake pedal should be stopped from moving too far down
by something.
Do you have a model T or X ?
I am not familiar with the GS850GL but the X has large aluminium plates for
mounting footrests and i see 3 holes on your frame those may bolt on to.
Those plates probably stop the spring at the correct position too.


Capture.JPG

[BadMonk]

Thanks for replying.

"The rear bolt on your brake pedal should be stopped from moving too far down by something."
You're right...the stopper bolt does that. It's the smaller bolt at the back of the brake lever/pedal. that will press on a nub sticking out of the rear set. My rear sets are off the bike.

"Do you have a model T or X ?" It's a GLX.

I can't see from your pic how the spring is oriented. If you're saying the spring is oriented correctly on my pics then there's a problem with the spring. Although it may look like it's wrapped around one of the threaded mounts, it isn't. It doesn't reach far enough to make it around the that mount ... or anything else for that matter. It's basically just hanging there...although it is hooked under the pedal correctly, I think. So if my orientation is correct then the spring is too short. Right?

[Burque73]

Well either the L's break is very different from the G or you do have something missing. The 83 and 81 G's have a little nub on the frame that the other end of that spring hooks onto. The 81 is on the outside of the frame, easy to see, while the 83 is inside. Same nub kind of thing on both though.

Photobucket finally worked...

[BadMonk]

Yep, that's what I thought too but also thought I was loosing my mind. There's no nub on the outside. (There's a small nub on the inside of the frame but I believe it's for the center stand anyway.)

[Burque73]

Did you change the spring? Maybe it's for a G not an L

[steveb922]

Have a look at your right footrest bracket. You should see an indentation that isn't on the left bracket. If that's the case, offer the bracket to tyhe frame and see if things become clearer.

[BadMonk]

I thought there should be a nub on the outside of the frame too and there is none.

No indentation on the right rear set for a spring to hook onto.

I did change the spring because the old one was wasted. Schematics show that the G model uses 09448-37002-XCO while the Xs and Ts use 09448-37017. I ordered the right one from an eBay...did he know which one he had, I don't know.

Looks like I need to verify what part I have, to start. Maybe that will tell me more about how it's hooked onto the bike.

[BadMonk]

Thanks everyone for helping me.
Now, I believe Steve nailed it for me via email. He kindly took some pics of his wife's bike which shows the spring orientation pretty well. I'll have to give it a try but it looks promising. I'll report back in case anyone ever runs into this again.

[BadMonk]

A couple of odd ball things were going on. The original spring wasn't correct ... I no idea what it was. The original pedal/lever isn't correct (but it may work yet). The 'new' spring that arrived today isn't correct. It's a comedy of errors.



Research shows differences in return springs across models/years, esp orientation of the hooks on ends of the spring. If not paying close attention, they could look alike. The spring I needed is PN 09448-37017. It's used in: 1980 GS1000GLX, 1980 GS850GLX, 1981 GS1000GLX, 1981 GS850GLX, 1982 GS1100G, 1982 GS1100GL, 1982 GS850G, 1982 GS850GL, 1983 GS1100G, 1983 GS1100GL, 1983 GS850G, 1983 GS850GL.

The easier to find (and often confused with the above) return spring is PN 09448-37002 09448-37002-XCO. That's what I have now and it doesn't fit. The orientation is all wrong.



The pics that Steve afforded were spot on. Seeing how the spring loaded onto the bike immediately told me that a different spring was in order. Along that same line, the pics in the Suzuki Manual and the Clymer aren't helpful. I don't know what bike is depicted but it's not a '81 GS850GLX. Not even close.

i found a couple used (correct) springs on eBay so I hope that resolves everything. It's really incredible that Suzuki would have so many variations of a return spring over the course of a few years...wow...crazy. Thanks for the replies/help.