92 GS500EN lower end

[Joolstacho]

A:Find the bit that chipped off !!!
B: I think anyone who gets an 'unknown' GS500 -First job?... Fit a NEW camchain tensioner. Not too expensive but could save you a major costly rebuild.

[arnermd]

Bit that chipped is nowhere to be found.....  Looked long and hard.  My guess is it came out with an oil / filter change eons ago....

This is my first 4 stroke motorcycle job, not my first engine rebuild.  I have numerous cars (Volkswagens beetle and fastback, 140 Volvos, etc...)  Chainsaws, lawn mowers, snow-blowers etc.... 

I like working on this bike engine, big enough to take seriously but small enough to put up on my bench and work in comfort.

Chain tensioner on order along with other bits and bobs.... 
- Which reminds me... steer clear of Partzilla, I placed an order with them and paid higher prices because the website said ships in 3-4 days....  not so.
- Order placed at end of November
- for 2 weeks after order the cam chain guide date was TBD
- Then it was Jan 3.
- Now it is Feb 15th

3-4 days my a$$....

When I asked if they would should the parts they had they said sure, it will cost you an extra $9.95 in shipping.  Seriously.....

Never again.

[Bluesmudge]

Yeah I only order from Partzilla when I'm not in a rush. There is always that one small part that delays the whole shipment.
I do like that I can order parts for both my Suzukis and Hondas from them and their OEM parts are usually some of the best prices, but their shipping practices leave a lot to be desired unless you pay the extra $15 or whatever to ship parts as they are available. You do have to remember, that a lot of the more obscure parts are coming from a central parts warehouse or even direct from Japan.  And its not just Partzilla. I waited 3+ months for a  Suzuki OEM differential seal for my Suzuki car from a different website.

[arnermd]

Yeah understood some parts are tough to source, I am OK with that.

What ticks me off is when I placed the order it said 3-4 days shipping, not even close.  If I knew that when I placed the order I could have made other plans.....

[arnermd]

I am stumped.... wondering if someone could explain this to me....

I purchased part number 09321-10017 (cushion) thinking it was a bumper for the center stand so it did not hot the frame when the stand came up.

See #7 in parts diagram here:   Parts diagram

But....  If I put the cushion where I thought it went, the cross member does not line up to contact it.....
You cannot view this attachment.
 
The center stand actually hits the suspension linkage...
You cannot view this attachment.

So what am I missing here?  Is this not the correct center stand?  Does the cushion go somewhere else?

I am befuddled....

[moe_tunes]

The stock exhaust has a mount for a rubber bump stop that the center stands rests against.

Hope that helps.

[arnermd]

Yes!  That is super helpful.  Mystery solved, thank you.

My exhaust must not be stock as it does not have the bracket but I see it in the parts diagrams.

Thanks again.

[MotoMax77]

except for the countershaft left (generator) side.  I saw some wiping and a touch of smearing there.  Is that typically the "problem" bearing?

I ran into counterbalance bearing issues too. About half the used counter balancers I've seen listed online have excessive wear, heat discoloration, and or galling on that exact bearing. I got my bike '04 GS500f,Q as salvage basically but since it was in good shape and all there except the body seat and tank, with 15000 miles on it I turned it into a project bike. The dingbats who owned it before me completely scrambled the electrical system. It took me 2 weeks to fix all their butchery and trace the original problem that parked the bike to the kickstand switch. In the process, for unknown reasons, they had removed the stator cover. They put it back on with silicone rtv. If you didn't notice the oil passage that lubricates the end of the balance shaft and it's bearing passes THROUGH the stator cover. The engineer that thought that was a good design needs to be smacked in the face with a burned up balance shaft. Anyway, either the silicone rtv plugged up the oil passage or it was leaking internally so the Bearing wasn't getting any oil. I only discovered this a few hundred miles after getting it running when it started leaking. When I was changing the gasket I saw that the bearing journal was blue around the edges. Never, ever ever ever, use silicone sealant on anything except maybe a bathtub or aquarium. This is what happens. It's been a good bike though. I haven't fixed the balance shaft yet and I've put 6,000+ miles on it since I discovered the burned bearing. It clatters and knocks like a SOB at idle but smoothes out once you get it above 2,500ish rpm. So now I'm looking for a new engine or one to rebuild. The top end is still good, might need some valve seals and I have found a good case with balance shaft at a nice price and was contemplating putting my top end and crank on the "new"  case along with new bearings and a quick deglazing and set of rings on the top and possibly having the head milled and reliefs cut into the piston to bring the compression up to something reasonable. Y'all have any thoughts or suggestions on this? For what gaskets, bearings, etc would cost by the end of the rebuild I could buy a low miles used engine. However, it would be just a plain stock engine and could possibly have issues of it's own. I've rebuilt engines before many times everything from big block v-8's to numerous motorcycle engines, even teeny tiny model airplane engines, so I'm confident that I can do it properly and easily. I do like the reassurance that I know that it has been done right when I'm scraping the footpeg at 80mph on an Ozark mountain 2-lane hairpin.
 But yeah, like y'all said , new parts are hard to find and\or ridiculously over priced. Is it just because it's a "throw away" entry level bike that no one fixes? Im 45 years old and have been on 2 wheels since I was a toddler. This is my first GS twin and I really like it. It's slow AF as motorcycles go but plenty fast enough to carve 2 lane black top and light enough to really toss around in some curves. I love my GS500. You would think they would be laying around everywhere as many as Suzuki sold and being so hard to find parts for.

[arnermd]

Thanks for the tip....  I will check mine out.  Is this the area you are talking about?

You cannot view this attachment.

[arnermd]

Good news is the re-assembly has begun.  Crankcase halves are remarried and all was going very well until....

I got to the clutch install and found a mess of stress cracks in the hub I missed the first time because it was covered in oil....

So.....  what do the experts think?  Is this useable?  I am guessing not.... looks pretty bad.

You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment. 

[arnermd]

Never mind.....  found a good looking used one from a 1980 450L on ebay....  $20  not worth messing around....

[MotoMax77]

Thanks for the tip....  I will check mine out.  Is this the area you are talking about?

You cannot view this attachment.

Yes, that's the culprit! Make sure the passages are clean and open and put a new gasket on it. It doesn't need any silicone, adhesive, or anything. Just carefully clean the surfaces and torque it down properly and it will oil the bearing just fine. I'm pretty sure the passages for the bearings on the other side of the engine have a similar route through the clutch cover. Not 100% sure on that but it bears checking out.

[arnermd]

Another sad story....  the inner clutch hub I bought on Ebay arrived and it is in good conditions but sadly it is very similar but not the correct fitment....   Documenting here to avoid a future issue anybody might have.

The part I bought was advertised as "80 Suzuki GS450L OEM Clutch Hub 21411-44101 MS58"
The part number I need for my project (1992 Suzuki GS500) is:  21411-44101
The 1980 GS450L original part number was: 21411-44100 which was then superseded by 21411-44101
I think the part I received is actually 21411-44100 which is not forward compatible.

The issue is the screws that compress the clutch springs will not thread in far enough, they bottom.  In 1980 they used shorter screws.  So I think -44101 is backwards compatible but -44100 is not forward compatible.

Always something.....

[arnermd]

So now I am stuck trying to decide what to do.....

One of my options is to use my old hub pictured above.  Although all the cracks are visually alarming I am wondering if they are simply checking from the casting process....  I have seen a few other pics on the web that suggest hubs of this vintage all have some kind of surface cracks.

Partzilla has a picture of what I presume to be a new part that looks eerily similar to mine....

Any suggestions?

[arnermd]

Just for posterity.....

I decided to use the used part I bought on ebay.  I was able to tap the holes (6mm x 1) and make it work with the longer screws.  I had to grind down the shank on the tab because the holes are pretty deep.  But I threaded them all the way through and it fits up just fine.

What i did was take a 21411-44100 and turned it into a 21411-44101

Problem solved.

[arnermd]

Next problem, signal generator bolt yield....

I bought a new Suzuki bolt, (09103-06064) because I snapped the old one using it to turn the crank through.... duh, don't do that....

Manual says torque to 12.5 - 16.5 ft-lbs.   I never got there and felt the bolt yielding at around 9 ft-lbs.  Managed to back it out in one piece and it was clearly necking down... (Wondering if the heat treat was not adequate as it necked down quite a bit)

Internet says torque for a 6mm bolt is

• 8.9 ft-lbs for class 8.8
• 12.5 ft-lbs for class 10.9
• 14.7 for class 12.9

Torque specified in the manual seems kind of high.....  Maybe I got a soft bolt, maybe the manual is wrong?  The world will never know....

Went to the local hardware store and bought a class 8.8 bolt (best they had) and torqued it to 9 ft-lbs.


 

[chris900f]

I ran into counterbalance bearing issues too. About half the used counter balancers I've seen listed online have excessive wear, heat discoloration, and or galling on that exact bearing. I got my bike '04 GS500f,Q as salvage basically but since it was in good shape and all there except the body seat and tank, with 15000 miles on it I turned it into a project bike. The dingbats who owned it before me completely scrambled the electrical system. It took me 2 weeks to fix all their butchery and trace the original problem that parked the bike to the kickstand switch. In the process, for unknown reasons, they had removed the stator cover. They put it back on with silicone rtv. If you didn't notice the oil passage that lubricates the end of the balance shaft and it's bearing passes THROUGH the stator cover. The engineer that thought that was a good design needs to be smacked in the face with a burned up balance shaft. Anyway, either the silicone rtv plugged up the oil passage or it was leaking internally so the Bearing wasn't getting any oil. I only discovered this a few hundred miles after getting it running when it started leaking. When I was changing the gasket I saw that the bearing journal was blue around the edges. Never, ever ever ever, use silicone sealant on anything except maybe a bathtub or aquarium. This is what happens. It's been a good bike though. I haven't fixed the balance shaft yet and I've put 6,000+ miles on it since I discovered the burned bearing. It clatters and knocks like a SOB at idle but smoothes out once you get it above 2,500ish rpm. So now I'm looking for a new engine or one to rebuild. The top end is still good, might need some valve seals and I have found a good case with balance shaft at a nice price and was contemplating putting my top end and crank on the "new"  case along with new bearings and a quick deglazing and set of rings on the top and possibly having the head milled and reliefs cut into the piston to bring the compression up to something reasonable. Y'all have any thoughts or suggestions on this? For what gaskets, bearings, etc would cost by the end of the rebuild I could buy a low miles used engine. However, it would be just a plain stock engine and could possibly have issues of it's own. I've rebuilt engines before many times everything from big block v-8's to numerous motorcycle engines, even teeny tiny model airplane engines, so I'm confident that I can do it properly and easily. I do like the reassurance that I know that it has been done right when I'm scraping the footpeg at 80mph on an Ozark mountain 2-lane hairpin.
 But yeah, like y'all said , new parts are hard to find and\or ridiculously over priced. Is it just because it's a "throw away" entry level bike that no one fixes? Im 45 years old and have been on 2 wheels since I was a toddler. This is my first GS twin and I really like it. It's slow AF as motorcycles go but plenty fast enough to carve 2 lane black top and light enough to really toss around in some curves. I love my GS500. You would think they would be laying around everywhere as many as Suzuki sold and being so hard to find parts for.

If you can do this with your cams, the noise is cam-walk. You can fix it by upgrading the cams, or you can just ignore it (I couldn't take it..lol) since it is not a damage/damaging condition.

https://youtu.be/ek2jihBHYcc

This is my '05 with under 1000 miles (1600km) at the time. The 04's and 05's had a more serious problem with cam-walk noise, although it was also reported in older models. Suzuki fixed it for the 06+ bikes with different cams and wave washers.

[Armandorf]

I am stumped.... wondering if someone could explain this to me....

I purchased part number 09321-10017 (cushion) thinking it was a bumper for the center stand so it did not hot the frame when the stand came up.

See #7 in parts diagram here:   Parts diagram

But....  If I put the cushion where I thought it went, the cross member does not line up to contact it.....
You cannot view this attachment.
 
The center stand actually hits the suspension linkage...
You cannot view this attachment.

So what am I missing here?  Is this not the correct center stand?  Does the cushion go somewhere else?

I am befuddled....

The hole in the bearings assembly is normal, i assume is for the ocassional water going in. mine isnt tapped either

That swingarm link is not the OEM one, thats why it is resting against the centerstand.
It seems to have 2 positions.
As other user already said, in the other side of the frame(not visible in the photo) there is a bracket with a hole for a rubber stop so the centerstand doesnt knock metal to metal, it may be missing in your bike.


Could you make a pic of the crankshaft till the clutch assembly?
When i rebuilt my engine i ended up with a missing thick washer and now my clutch has some knock-play at the end of the travel(when releasing very slow it doesnt happen. i plan to open the side cover and check it but i saw the parts diagram and cant understand what is missing.

[arnermd]

Sorry...  engine is all sealed up now, so no pics.

As I recall the parts diagram and manual was pretty clear on the order of washers on the shaft.  I think item #6 was the thick washer.

If you have a specific question let me know and I will answer best I can.

[arnermd]

Update: 
- Engine installed and running.   
- I took a chance and just bolted the carbs up, threw some fuel at it and it started and ran.  Unable to achieve a stable idle.
- No exhaust system installed so the neighborhood was aware of the milestone.... haha
- Fuel inlet tee is leaking, new seals on order
- Opened up the carbs and the o-rings are hard as a rock, I think the float needles were leaking fuel.  Seemed like it was running rich.....  Carb rebuild kit on order.
- Checked compression warm: Left = 145, right = 125.  In spec but the right side is lower than I would like.  Going to pressurize the cylinder and see if I can figure out what is leaking (rings, valves or head gasket)
- Oil pressure light went out with starter cranking so that seems good.  Hopefully it is not too high (which would indicate a blockage) probably should check it with a gage.....

Project is coming along nicely.