I have somwhat of an oddball question........

Outside of machine shop and parts delivery times, how long should it really take to overhaul the engine in a GS500?

I'm no novice to tools or engine work, I've built/rebuilt several engines in cars(mainly Subaru recently), but I've never gotten into the internals of a motocycle motor(outside of a clutch).

My bike is my main transportation, I have a car, but the bike is so much better...........

Thanks,
Don
Shadowhawk
 

Greetings from another SC citizen. Let us hope dgyver, Srinath,  or  our wera  bro from NC can chime the  answer here. I am doing a restore so cannot say beyond the outer cases.  There's probably only 10 or so here that have gone that far into the GS mill.

Here's to a bump for you!

Guess it is a good thing I am wired after working 15 hours on Fridays.


It depends on what you define as an overhaul.....top end work or a complete disassembly of the motor.

Top end work is fairly easy and does not take long. I have swapped out a base gasket on a hot motor and back on the track in an hour. But then I have done this a few times. First time with checking clearances, wear, etc, it should take about 4-6 hours.

Splitting the cases to deal with crank and tranny is another story. Taking a motor apart only requires about 2 hours. Putting it back together takes a little longer....at least 1 year in my case....I have 2 motors that are in need of reassembling. There really is not much to check in the bottom end except for the crank and rod bearings. Expect about 6-8 hours....if you can remember where every thing is and where it goes.


Got a service manual yet? If not, better get one. A digital camera is a good idea to have handy as well.

i did a quick Dirty rebuild of a spare engine i had to slap the frame for my gs when it was my only transpo,  10 hours on the bench for first bolt removed to last one snuged down. already had the gaskets, cleanup was average. very few small diameter bolts broke.  this was not with new rings, or reworked head mind you. deglazed the cylender a tad, made sure all the bearings were within specs and reused most of them. new gaskets and assembled.

Quote from: starwaltGreetings from another SC citizen. Let us hope dgyver, Srinath,  or  our wera  bro from NC can chime the  answer here. I am doing a restore so cannot say beyond the outer cases.  There's probably only 10 or so here that have gone that far into the GS mill.

Here's to a bump for you!

Yea this is a common misconception ... I never have gone past the inner cases on a GS either ... that and the valve cover ... I did get past the valve cover on an eli ... but its not fully back together yet, I also went past that on a savage, but we gave up and swapped out a good motor ... GS ... never ...
Cool.
Srinath.

it's a weekend project at most if  you have any kind of motor experience.

with air tools and a good bench/shop 4-6 hours max

in my storage room with just hand tools and a flashlight and a case of beer, 10 hours to riding the bike, from showing up with the new crank.

Quote from: starwaltGreetings from another SC citizen. Let us hope dgyver, Srinath,  or  our wera  bro from NC can chime the  answer here. I am doing a restore so cannot say beyond the outer cases.  There's probably only 10 or so here that have gone that far into the GS mill.

Here's to a bump for you!

You know what is even more funny ... Shadowhawk came to my house last summer, and was the main witness to my taking apart of my eli 900 ... I wasn't looking at the author of the post ... just the content ... yea need to run narrow windows so I can have 3-4-5-6-7 windows and look at em all ...
Cool.
Srinath.