Very nice bikes! With gas heading to the Stratosphere...you are sitting on a gold mine!

the old GS engines are pretty similar, exhaust ports are a little different, lots of subtle differences but yea they carried over a lot to the GS500's.

well my makeshift airbox to carb boots seem to fit perfectly, I'll post a picture of that later, it isn't pretty with the hose clamps but it just has to work. now i just need a filter and a filter cover which I plan to make out of lexan.

About the painting. I know painting. I don't normally do vehicles but if I wanted to I could use one of my larger airbrushes to do a whole tank. If you can't get good results with a rattle can you're probably not gonna get good results with a full on spray system. On top of just getting paint, you have to get the right primer, reducer (urethane's what you want since it'll be gas proof), and hardener for your clear coat if you choose a clear coat. Then knowing how much to thin the paint is just as important if you want it to come out good. A good paintjob will require little if any wet-sanding or polishing. I can get mirror gloss results using spray cans or air guns but the durability with spray paint is not the greatest and it's not gas proof.

The GS500 is a direct descendant of the GS400. They bumped the displacement to 425, then 450, before going to 500. I think they may have changed a couple of castings to use different mounting points for the engine, and updated the carbs. When they put it in the modern (for it's day) frame, they also dropped the polished cases on the engine, for cost savings.

As for the paint, there are a couple of automotive paint stores in my area that can get your choice of paint in rattle cans, I think they may have the equipment to fill them at the store. I would call around and check.

I mean I bought a small spray gun and I'd like to use it, I've used air brushes to do other small jobs in the past with decent results. I just don't really want to spray paint it since I know that in a few months it will no longer look that great. I want a finish that will last.

Quote from: fodder650 on May 21, 2008, 06:14:29 PM
Offtopic but about the old GS's. How far removed our the engines from our modern GS's to these old ones? I thought i had read that the 89 and up engine was a carry over from the older 70s-80s GS's

Modern GS 

Actually the GS500 evolved from the early 80's GS450. Basically the same motor but with increased displacement and different heads.

yup, what he said.  They tried to throw on a more modern exhaust on the thing too.  The vance pipe is much prettier though.

SO here is what I have done up to date:
1. Adjusted valves,
2. Fixed some wiring(bad ground causing the starter to only work sometimes
3. Bled front brake
4. Adjusted valves
5. Changed oil(HOLY CRAP was it dirty)
6. Replaced a ton of missing/phillips head screws
7. Removed sissy bar


I am having the tank and tail painted...found a shop that is going to do it for about 90 bucks. So I figure it is worth it since it will be a whole lot nicer than what I would do.

I might try my hand at recovering the seat, but I am not sure.

well I am well on my way to being done. I am going to get some material to recover the seat tomorrow, I plan to use a marine grade vinyl. It won't look original but the seat has some big tears in it and needs recovering, looks like some foam is missing too, so I will have to figure that out. It also needs a new headlight bucket but I don't think I am going to get one....if it bothers the person I am selling it to, they can get one. I would like to locate the battery sidecover but as of yet I haven't found any, at least not reasonably priced.

Before:



anyway here she is as of now.









As you can see the bike got paint, BMW silver. The bike runs nicely, starts up easily and rides good too. The only thing is that it seems to have a pretty audible knocking when warming up and then after warm it seems to vibrate a lot when idling. I am not sure what this is since I did adjust the valves. I will admit it was the first valve job I've done, but I think I followed the manual correctly. Any ideas what I can do?

Damn! That's a different bike, looks brand new. Nice resto job

anybody have any advice on the knocking? also, the gear indicator, horn, and neutral light aren't working. Brake lights light up when brakes are pressed hard

just wanted to add my name to the lusting list.

great bikes !

maybe the knock is you're using the wrong grade oil, or the engine is just plain loose, showing it's age ?

are you planning a rebuild if it's piston slap or a wrist pin ... or just going to keep it as is ?

I mean, the engine only has 13xxx miles on it. I can't imagine it is anything crazy. assuming I did the valves correctly, it shouldn;t be that. so that would leave what you mentioned as well as timing, carb sync...i dunno what else

it goes away once its warm but I don't want to be ruining the motor. oil used is 10w/40 valvoline motorcycle oil

Try this site.

http://www.thegsresources.com/index.htm

Thanks, already a member over there haha.

Anyway, I gave it another short ride today and here is what I noticed. The knocking did not appear to go away once it warmed up, it had very little power, in fact I never got it over 5500rpms, left spark plug was slightly fouled but right one was perfect, petcock had a little leak from the gasket between the tank and petcock, and it sounded like the battery was still giving off a charge even when the bike was shut off.