Caretips for an old GS? (Rust, etc, etc)

[tussey]

Bought the bike and I've never been happier. Best investment I ever made. It has its quarks, though. Sometimes I have to tap the tach to get it to work and recently it doesn't start unless I pop the clutch (not the battery, still investigating).

But I do have some concerns for the bike. I plan on taking it to a Sukuzi mechanic and getting a full run down and inspection. The bike has lots of rust.

What I'm asking from the community is tips and strategies at keeping this old beast looking new. Here are pics for the whoring.

[JamesG]

Well you can doa full tear down and restoration like Patrick did.

In answer to your specific questions. The tach cable may be coming loose or it may be worn out. Try tightening up the connector into the back of the instrument.  If that doesn't fix it. take the cable off and look at the square end parts and see if they are rounded off.
As for the clutch. It might be the clutch switch interlock. Is it not trying to crank, or like its trying to, but just can't turn the motor around?

Nice bike, spend some time and elbow grease to make it even better.

[makenzie71]

Rust you can't fix without a full teardown.  You can get some stuff called rust-convertor by various brands that will serve as a temp fix, but without the pulling everything off the bike and fixing propperly you're just putting a bandaid on it.

As for having to pop the clutch to start her, when shes sitting still and you push the start button:

...do you have the clutch lever pulled?

...do the lights dim?

...any noise at all?

...is the bike in neutral?

...is the kickstand down?  Does it change if it's up?

[Arcane]

Yeah, i'd pull everything apart and clean/rebuild.  Depending on where you're from, it'd make a good rainy day project.  It's pouring out here and I'm heading to my garage to give my bike a fenderectomy.

[makenzie71]

Just to add...a complete tear-down is NOT difficult.  I do EX500's all the time and they're not much different, I was doing it in under an hour to tear down by my second effort.

[The Buddha]

Drifter8844 did a pull apart and send to me routine with his rust monster ... we welded all the annoying gaps in the frame and swingarm shut ... takes in water and rusts like sheite ... and then ground them smooth and sand blasted and powdercoated them ... I will charge ya $100 for weld and powder and blasting will prolly run ya 200 ... or less ... Then elbow grease and neck and swingarm bearings ... sounds fun ... yup ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[starwalt]

Been there, doing that.    You can check the link to my rebuild photos in my signature.

The swing arm mess is usually the result of battery acid overflow and general wet storage. Like JamesG said, Patrick's thread on the rework he did was just super. Real craftsmanship stands out.

That's why I'd have a newer bike to ride while tinkering on the project bike IF I didn't have a daughter in college.  :lol:

Yours is no where near as bad as some we've seen. If you have the resources, maybe you could pick up duplicate parts and clean them up while you still ride. That way you can just swap out the gritty ones with shiny ones when you are ready.

Believe me, when you start into the big tear down you can get absorbed in the details, life will get in the way, and the project can linger (like mine).

A running bike is better than a garaged non-running bike.  :lol:

[tussey]

HAHA! You guys are crazy. First off, while I am mechanically inclined I wouldn't even know where to begin to take my bike apart let alone clean it once it's apart. Second I don't even have a garage so their goes that idea. If anyone was in the Orlando and has done this before feel free to drop me an email to honesttussey at hotmail.com

As for the bike not starting here is the information I've gatherd.

-It consistently will start if I pop the clutch.
-It will start normally after I've been riding it a bit (30+ mins)
-When it won't start it makes a clicking noise like the battery is dead. Battery is most certainly not dead. It's new and I've tested the voltage.

Someone asked about diming lights and I had ever paid attention. I will take note tomorrow. Friend suggested it might be the ignition coil. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

-Tussey

[makenzie71]

HAHA! You guys are crazy. First off, while I am mechanically inclined I wouldn't even know where to begin to take my bike apart let alone clean it once it's apart. Second I don't even have a garage so their goes that idea. If anyone was in the Orlando and has done this before feel free to drop me an email to honesttussey at hotmail.com

I've disassembled bikes in my house...as long as you don't a wife/kids/line-in something or other it's easy to get awy with...and climate controlled. :p

The thing about tearing down one of these bikes is that you don't have to know where to begin.  They're simple and really can only back together one way.  Everyone here's who's done it did it for a first time and I guaruntee we all agree: we were too worried about it when we started.

As for the bike not starting here is the information I've gatherd.

-It consistently will start if I pop the clutch.
-It will start normally after I've been riding it a bit (30+ mins)
-When it won't start it makes a clicking noise like the battery is dead. Battery is most certainly not dead. It's new and I've tested the voltage.

Someone asked about diming lights and I had ever paid attention. I will take note tomorrow. Friend suggested it might be the ignition coil. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

-Tussey

Not the ignition coil and don't worry about your light.  This is a charging problem, trust me.

What you need to do is pull your seat and everything in the way of your battery wires off.  Need full access to them.  Pull the tarminals off both ends and clean them thoroughly, be careful yo look for loose connections and shorts.

What's happening to your bike is one of three things:

A: Battery cables are not making good contact at one or both ends.
B: There is a short in your system.
C: Charging system is at fault (not likely).

[ukchickenlover]

With the clutch pulled in you can start the bike in gear, so maybe you have a bad connection on the neutral switch.

[scratch]

Ordering a Clymer manual from the link at the top of the page wil help you with the teardown. And, Nevr-Dull is some great stuff for getting up the surface rust.

[sledge]

I buy, tatty but sound bikes and  like to renovate and sell them on as a hobby and my GS which I decided to keep after I had finished it was in a worse condition for rust than the one in the pic, it had lived outside under a tarp`and not run for 2 of its 3 yrs but it had only done 1.1k miles. My plan was to do as much as possible at any one time and tackle several issues at once to save work. My original swing arm was just as bad as that one, all the road dirt collects in the "crotch" and causes the rusting. I got another one from a breaker, had it sandblasted then I painted and laquered it so it looked like new. At the same time I replaced all the needle roller bearings in the linkage then swapped it for the original which I sold to someone on GS500.co.uk who in turn did the same thing as me with it. If you do it this way you wont be without the bike for a long period, just a couple of hours while you swap it over. While the arm is off you can remove the chain and properly clean and lube it, or even replace it along with the sprockets if needed, while the wheel is off check the bearings and cush drive rubbers and clean under the mudguard. You can remove the  rust from the pipes using very fine wetanddry paper bfore painting, dont bother with paint on the headers, it always burns off, I use Stove Blacking which looks just as good. I did remove the engine from the frame to tackle the rust and throughly clean it which is a 2 man job to do safely. I just rubbed it down and primed and painted the rusty areas with Suzuki Frame Silver. From the pic it looks like the cam cover gasket has failed, when you replace it I suggest you check the valve clearances at the same time. I spent a weekend taking off the the headstock, cleaning and adjusting the stem bearings, replacing fork seals, replacing brake parts and wheel bearings and again cleaning all those hard to reach areas. Get a manual to help you and with some thought and work its not difficult to bring it back into A1 condition. My GS is 9 years old now but looks like its just left the factory.

[that_guy]

I liked starwalts plasti-dip battery box so much i bought me a can and shall be plasti-dipping all parts able to be plasti-dipped as soon as I get back home.

[tussey]

Interesting little update. Ever since I popped the clutch it's been working fine. I've been driving it everrday for at least 90 minutes. Starts right up everytime. Although one thing that sorta scared me is at a stoplight my RPMS slowly crawled up to 2k then 3k and my hand wasn't on the throttle. I figured maybe the choke cable came loose so I  opened and closed the choke and it went back down to 1.5k (normal) and slowly (within 5 seconds) crept up to 3k. I drove off (I was slow with the clutch and didn't need to add throttle) parked it in a lot, went shopping and came back, and drove it home with no more problems. This bike is very strange.

But I LOVE it!  :mrgreen:  :mrgreen:

[makenzie71]

Possible air leak...the RPM creep, I mean.

[tussey]

Possible air leak...the RPM creep, I mean.

There looks to be an excessive amount of oil (grime) on my engine. A friend suggested I probably have bad seals. Would that allow air to creep in?

[makenzie71]

No.

Look for stuff like cracks in your intake manifold boots and vacuum lines/caps, also check that they are tight.  For an air leak to do this it has to be between the butterfly and the valves.

[RVertigo]

Step 1:  Take that sticker off the rear plastics.
Step 2:  Get a new chain that isn't rusted to hell.
Step 3:  Do a safety check on everything else.
Step 4:  Ride around and have fun.
Step 5:  Be glad you didn't buy a Harley.[/list:u]