Fixing Up the 2008 Suzuki GS500F

[WDHewson]

I didn't really intend to buy this bike in Fall 2023. I was having my car undercoated nearby and had some time to kill.

But I sat on it, and I generally fit and was comfortable on it.  It started right up, but my test ride was short as the farm dog was attacking the front tire.

The seller was highly motivated and was open and honest about wanting the Wee Suzy gone.

Here are a few pictures that were copied from the ad.

I'll add to the story over the next several days.  Please comment

[WDHewson]

These pictures are on pickup day with my generous friend's truck and trailer.

The Wee Suzy looks pretty good in the photo, but the camera hides lots of faults, mostly corrected by cleaning.  Her stock winsdhield was included in the deal, but so far I've left the "Zero Gravity" in place.

The yellow bike behind the GS500F is, I think, a Hayabusa.

Zooming might show that the GS500F has zero to little air in the rear tire.

[chris900f]

Looks pretty clean, the taller windshield is a nice upgrade--can you give us a pic of the front?

[WDHewson]

Here she is with a mostly frontal shot a few weeks back when our farmers were planting.

The windshield is mostly stylistic rather than functional,..... BUT the sides of the fairing protect my legs better than expected, which allows more comfort when the weather is cool.

[WDHewson]

When I got the bike into my garage, I did some minor disassembly, a lot of cleaning and inspection, and just making sure thing were in good order.

The first thing was to get the tank out of the way and cleaned up.  The interior of the tank was perfect.  There were two or three "safety decals" marring the appearance of this top of the tank, which offended me.  So I peeled them off.  It was tedious work, but was accomplished without any paint damage.

[chris900f]

I think that's the Zero Gravity "touring" shield". I'm looking at getting one, should be quite a bit better on the highway. Nice bonus.

[WDHewson]

I think I have the fairing removed at this point and will show that later.

This series of photos deals with getting the mouse nest out of the K&N air filter.

The filter washed up nicely with warm water and a dollop of dish washing soap.

[Armandorf]

Was a real mouse there?maybe they clogged it up a bit to restrict air and fix carburetion, that filter requires a rejet

[WDHewson]

Was a real mouse there?maybe they clogged it up a bit to restrict air and fix carburetion, that filter requires a rejet

I think the mouse escaped when the previous owner started the bike up for me in his sales pitch.

Some carb pictures coming up, and I think it's all original OEM jetting.  It seemed like I was the first one into those carbs.

She is a cold blooded scoot, but I can take the choke off after about 1/2 km, and in about 1 km she's running fine.  If it's below 10°C, the choke needs to stay on a but longer.

I'll dig out some more pictures.

[WDHewson]

I took all the fairing segments off for cleaning inspection, and for the left front turn signal, a bit of repair.

She's had a low speed tip over at some point with some resulting cracks around the signal stalk, and a few paint abrasions.

For the plastic cracks, I use a squirt of superglue, and back up the cracks with some malleable aluminum sheet.

More later.......

[herennow]

Nice work. Dump the k&n and go stock. It affects jetting (look up 5k rpm stumble)besides being a second rate filter.

[WDHewson]

Thanks herennow,

I recently did a plug check on the Wee Suzy after a run of about 200 km.  Not city, not highway, but back roads with a lot of gearbox use.

The plugs look great.  It's what Id expect from a lean low emission set up.  Never a stumble.  Granted, our police are active in Summer so sustained WOT has not be done.

[WDHewson]

After getting the mouse nest out of the K&N, I was worried that the carbs may have swallowed some feces etc.!!

So I stuck the Phone lens into the airbox and got these images of both carb mouths.  The K&N seems to have done its job well.

[chris900f]

After getting the mouse nest out of the K&N, I was worried that the carbs may have swallowed some feces etc.!!

So I stuck the Phone lens into the airbox and got these images of both carb mouths.  The K&N seems to have done its job well.

I have used K&N filters for years and there is never any gunk in the intake. They do flow more than paper filters, so they will affect jetting. From the photos it looks like yours has the rubber "restrictor" in place so you don't need to reject.

[WDHewson]

To make sure the carbs were clean and correct, I got them out of the bike. 

Much emissions plumbing etc needs to be removed as well as fuel lines and airbox.  All a bit of a nightmare, but lots of pictures help with reassembly.

The carbs had stock jets, were reasonably clean, with correct float levels, and I removed the no-tamper brass plugs should I want to adjust the idle mixture from its OEM position.

It fired right up when I got it all back together.

Generally I've found that a very thorough carb draining for Winter storage, means that I'll never have to clean them again.

Gasoline is filtered countless times and has to be very clean so not to clog very fine injector orifices.

My fuel filter inside the tank was very clean.

[WDHewson]

And another picture with the float.

[WDHewson]

Beautiful day here.  I was out on the Wee Suzy for about 200 km.  A lot of that was with a good tail wind so I wasn't getting tossed around.

When the Suzy was being cleaned up, I renewed the fork oil, which from it's fishy smell, was the OEM fluid with the stinky aminic antioxidant and fricton modifiers.

As shown in the bottle, the OEM fluid was inky black, being dirty and degraded.

The Trademark symbol on the forks is Paioli.  At first I thought, "Great" nice Italian suspension components, but the Italians also manufacture at the economy end.

I put in the specified volume of damping oil using ATF, which works well enough at Canadian temperatures, but a bit thin in July.  These Paioli units could use a bit more preload.

I did enjoy finding that the sliders had those little front shields, which I have found very effective for stanchion and seal life.

More later...........

[chris900f]

These bikes handle well from stock, and even better with a few upgrades. If you find the front end is diving too easily, try backing off the rear-shock preload by one click. I already had fork springs ordered and in the mail when I learned that trick.

Also, I clean the exposed fork tubes with 3-in-1 silicone spray after riding, It keeps bugs etc. from sticking and doesn't collect dirt like an oil. The seals in my old bike have over 50,000kms on them with no issues.

[WDHewson]

These bikes handle well from stock, and even better with a few upgrades. If you find the front end is diving too easily, try backing off the rear-shock preload by one click. I already had fork springs ordered and in the mail when I learned that trick.

Also, I clean the exposed fork tubes with 3-in-1 silicone spray after riding, It keeps bugs etc. from sticking and doesn't collect dirt like an oil. The seals in my old bike have over 50,000kms on them with no issues.

Thanks, I have the tool for adjusting the rear shock. I'll try softening it a notch.

[WDHewson]

I'm a big fan of the shim and bucket valve system.  The clearances seem to stay stable for great distances.

But with the carbs and other plumbing out of the way, it was time to have a look at the valve clearances.

3 of 4 clearances were on spec at about 3 thou, but the right exhaust wouldn't take a 2 thou feeler, though the bucket rotated.  So down to about 1 thou.

With 27,000 km on her, I think I was the first one having a look.

Our local Suzuki dealer had the right shim size to bring it to about 4 thou.  Shim $20 CDN

Does this group have a shim exchange?

I re-used the rubber cylinder cover gasket, with a bit of goop, and have not had leaks so far.