Hey all!

Stoked to have found this forum!

I have had a 1996 GS500E sitting in my yard for the last 4 years and I am finally doing something with it.  Originally, a friend of my old roommates left the bike in the yard after it broke down on a ride.  He was supposed to come get it but never did. Eventually, I payed him $100 for the title which I was going to use for an old GS400 I had built into a cafe racer which I no longer have (long story short, a friend in need borrowed that and got it impounded without telling me, so I never got that bike back).  Well, I finally decided to try to do something with the bike and near as I can tell the engine is toast. I tried to bump start it and all I heard was a bunch of ticking and other gross sounding metallic noises. Haha.

It seems it's pretty common for these engines to go bang, specifically with rod bearings possibly?  In any case, I don't think I have the time or money to try to rebuild the engine but was looking into just finding a new one and swapping it out.  Does anyone know a good source for this?  I am in the process of building another old CB750 cafe racer, but I would like this to be my gf's first bike/a bike for my roommate to ride when I go out on one of my CBs.  Thanks for your time and thoughts!

-Chris

Welcome.

When looking to buy or sell parts, it is good to have your location in your prifile. It helps - especially when parts myght be really close to you.

It seems it's pretty common for these engines to go bang, specifically with rod bearings possibly?  Nope. Not at all. If the engine is maintained with oil, they go for 100k miles. Lack of oil is the reason bearings and rods go out - that or really dirty oil that clogs up the oil passages.

Motors show up on ebay or find a motor or parts bike on Craigs List.

Check the oil in that $100 bike. You can hand crank the motor to check things before using the starter and jumping it. Remove the right side round timing cover. Use a 19mm wrench to rotate engine clockwise.

The engine may not really be toast, unless it ran with no oil. These motors are really hard to kill if you take care of them. First things I'd do are change the oil, clean the carbs, pop the head and check the valves and upper internals. If the upper internals (cams, bearings, and valves) are okay, it should be good to go with a little TLC.

Just my $.02.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Edit: ^^What he said lol. You posted as I was typing, adidas.

Thanks for the quick responses and quick feedback! Very much appreciated. I've updated my profile, I am in San Jose, CA

I will look into the engine tonight. I have the battery charging to see if I have any luck that route. The oil level looks good to me...keeping in mind the fact that it hasn't run for years and obviously most of the oil will be in the bottom of the engine, if anything it looks overfilled. I have checked the oil for metal shavings and don't see any, so at least that is good!

Before starting it up I plan to check the plugs, oil (again), etc. I guess first would be to see if I am getting a spark, then make sure I am getting fuel, then give it a go.

Fingers crossed!

eBay you can find replacement engines if that's the route you need to go. If you're lucky you can find one around $400-$500 + shipping. They're usually up for around $600-$700 on average though for a running motor.

Just a heads up (from personal experience), if you've thrown a bearing, the warp on the crank is usually enough to give you a $200-$300 repair bill just to balance the crank and rebuild the surface. Bearings will cost you $100 (all 12 for the crank and connecting rods), and that's not including any other toast bearings or internals. The price can add up quick, so to save you some pain, a replacement engine is usually the most financially beneficial route.

Best of luck, though!