I should have written this all down sooner... and taken pictures... oh well, better late than never

Mid-October I found a 2007 GS500F with 11.5k miles advertised on Craigslist for $800. I went to look at it stored in a storage locker, it was all there but had been left outside for years and then sat in a storage locker for years. I'm a sucker for the GS (this is my fourth), and a sucker for a project, or an "underdog". I sold my last bike 2 years ago, so I was itchin' for a ride.

I hauled it home and started getting a closer look. Could it be that this poor thing has never been washed? Let alone had any real "service". First things first, I decided to tear it down some, and get it clean.

Hello, rusted out tank! Trip to the local paint supply for a POR-15 tank kit. This is my second POR'd tank. Put in the effort and get the results, that simple. Another trip to Walmart for cleaning supplies. Stopped by the local Suzuki dealer and ordered bowl gaskets and o-rings. I've already spent $100 and I haven't even taken the soap to it yet!

I spent the next week cleaning. Yes, it took me all week. Cleaning. And polishing. And more cleaning. And an ALL-DAY affair with my fuel tank and POR-15. Roll the tank around. Do it for 20 minutes at a time, just like the instructions say. Add a few more minutes to that if you've got strong arms.

I started building a parts list for replacing various missing/broken fasteners and new fuel lines. It had been dropped on both sides so the bar-end fasteners had to be replaced. The bar-end weights weren't dinged too bad. Half the cowling fasteners were missing as were all the plastic snaps. Another trip to the local dealer for $75.

Pulled the carbs and what was left of the fuel in there looked a bit like honey. Took everything apart, soaked the bodies in carb-dip. Cleaned and scrubbed carb bodies till I was blue in the fingers. cleaned all the passages I could reach. Then washed everything in soapy water and rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse some more. Blow dry and reassemble.

The right side of the bike had obviously been facing the sun for a long time. The decals were all quite faded and the large decals on the side fairing were curled at the edges significantly. I used a fresh razor blade with some mineral oil to slice off the curled edges. Not too bad looking result. I used lens restorer on all the lenses, but it took much more effort on the right side lenses. The windscreen had a college parking sticker on it and was pretty brown from the sun. Goo-Gone and a lot of elbow grease got the sticker off, but left a permanent swell in the plastic. Lens restorer helped the rest of the windscreen a little, but it was still kind of brown tinted.

The sight glass on the front brake master was yellowed and broken out. After much research, I bought a .98 cent rubber stopper at Home Depot, hammered it in the hole and shaved off what was left protruding.

So now the bike was looking pretty clean. Put the carbs back in and put everything back together and picked up a battery and tender for $50. It started quickly with full choke, but the RPM fluctuated wildly from about 2k to about 6k. I managed to get it warmed up and off choke, and easily set the idle at 1.4k. Out for a ride and the bike felt good and tight. Brakes were good. It seems to surge and/or hesitate at lower RPMs, but runs and sounds great from 4.5k all the way to 10k. Not too bad. Also doesn't seem to catch idle when pulling in the clutch at a stop, RPMs will drop below 1k and stall.



At this point I'd spent two weeks and a little over a thousand bucks and was feeling pretty good about getting back on the road 

Thats looking pretty sweet for a grand - hate cleaning fuel tanks, we get a fuel additive here that turns the fuel to jelly in the tank and carbs if you leave it too long..

Must be great to be back on two wheels after that long

I see we're both quite meticulous about having a bike "ride ready".

I would suggest not losing sleep over the windscreen and actually ordering a Zero Gravity or Puig one anyway ($80). The stock one is really just for aesthetic reasons.

You should look into replacing all fuel lines, too. A spool of new line costs $25 and will last you for many bikes.

You got that for a steal, by the way. I paid $1800 for my 04 with 8k miles and it was an East coast bike with lots of rust I had to deal with.

Thanks, dinky, the fuel lines were part of the first parts order! The molded lines from Suzuki were cheap enough and I'm keeping this in an attached garage, so no gas leaks!

So, Kiwi, that's just what I was thinking, a steal... But it's started to get a little more expensive 

The first week of November I dropped another $150 to get it registered and another $150 on a couple of helmets and some gloves and hit the road!

I put about 100 miles on it around town and it felt just great! Still some surging/hesitation and still stalling at stops, but that seems simple enough to get straightened out. The tires were shot, so I didn't push it very hard. I had convinced myself that there were some miles left in the tires, but that was clearly just a rationalization  . The original BT45 on the back was square and the front was a Maxxis something-or-other.

So I pulled the wheels and had a set of Pirelli Sport Demons put on and bought oil and a filter to do an oil change. That $400 went real quick 

For the rest of November I rode almost daily. One Sunday I followed a mapped route from motorcycleroads dot com called "The Sugarloaf Mountain Run" a little over a hundred mile ride with a passenger. We had a blast! Of course the rides we went on showed how soft the forks were. That damn seat's pretty slippery too! My passenger is a novice so we've had to deal with a bit of bangin' helmets.

I found this great little seat cover on ebay called "Triboseat" for a little over $20 and it ended sliding on the seat. Looks pretty cool too.

So at this point I've spent about $1750 and I'm still feeling like I got a smokin' deal on this bike. 

So one night in the beginning of December I go out for a no passenger ride out to some out-of-the-way twisties I know and practiced my riding skills. They are fully intact. I came home an hour later with a hot motorcycle and a grin that hurt my face. And fork oil all over the front of the bike.

So I cleaned up all the oil to find the right for seal is leaking. I popped the dust boots to have a look and the boots are cracked all the way around and the retaining clips over the seals are pretty rusty. On closer inspection there were some small bubbles on the upper tube in the range of travel.

I read a hundred threads on this board about fork seal replacement and came to a few conclusions. Sonic Springs in a .85 rate and 15w fork oil would be in order. Also, I would need to use the broom handle method for removing the damper rods. And it was time to spend some more money. The Sonic springs, Bel-Ray fork oil, OEM oil seals, dust seals and retaining clips and tax and shipping was right about $250. And took another 2 weeks to collect it all.

I took the bike apart and got the forks off, springs and oil out and went after the damper rod with a broom handle and a wrench. I could not get anywhere near enough grip on the inside of the damper rod with the broom. I tried scuffing the point I made, I tried cutting various grooves in it. Nothing. I took the fork over the the local Suzuki dealer and he put an air tool to the bolt. Spun the damper rod. I asked "Isn't there a Suzuki tool that's meant to hold the damper rod?" "No." is all he said. I took my fork and went home. And ordered the Suzuki damper rod holding tool.

And since I was still having the surging/stalling issues I ordered a couple of carb kits and a K&N drop-in air filter. The bike didn't come with a tool kit or an owners manual, so I ordered those. And I bought some VHT paint for the rusty exhaust. Some shop towels and some miscellaneous supplies and all totaled I spent about $200.  Now I've spent about $2200 bucks and this sunnuvagun is in my garage in a million pieces.

Read on, it gets even better....

I got all my parts in and this magical tool and went back at it. The Suzuki damper rod holding tool was far less effective than a broom handle. In a childish fit of frustration I decided to grab a drill and just drill out the damn seals and not remove the damper rods at all. I drilled out the left seal, perfect! I drilled out the right seal, and gouged the inside of the lower leg. I got on ebay and bought a lower right fork tube.

It came a few days later and it was an older tube without the tab for the reflector. Fortunately I only paid $10 for it, so I just listed it back on ebay for $10. I found a correct bent right fork for $15 an hour and a half away, so I hut the road the next morning to go get it. Now I have 2 forks that need the damper rod removed and a useless broomstick and a not-so-magical Suzuki tool.

That night, as I was recounting my woes to my neighbor, he mentioned a tool he had.  A 1/2" internal pipe wrench. He brought it over, I dropped it in the fork tube, fit a socket on the end of a long T-handle and it held the damper rod perfectly, the bolt came right out. I went right back to work put in the new fork seals with a 2' length of PVC pipe. Perfect tool for the job.

I cleaned the carbs again. Checked float height (no change needed), replaced the needle valves and seats, and replaced the o-rings and bowl gaskets again. Put it the new air filter with the rubber restrictor since I'm not re-jetting.

By the time I've got the bike all put back together, it's after Christmas and it's getting a little cold for riding! A few 30-60 minute rides is all I could really het in over the next few weeks.

Now I've spent almost $2500 and I'm not feeling like I stole it anymore.

Which leads into this week...

On Monday of this week we hopped on the bike for a short ride. Got to the end of the street and the bike stalled (as has been happening) When I hit the button to restart to bike, click click click... As if the battery was dead. I shut it off, waited a minute and tried again. click click click... I pushed it back down the street and into the garage. The battery tested at 11.8v. Crap. I put the battery tender on it and went about reading a thousand posts here about electrical and charging systems.

Tuesday I went through the troubleshooting steps I found here. Voltage at the battery never gets much above 13v through the RPM range. Every other test was within spec until I got to the AC output from the stator. The spec is 75v or above and my test was 58, 58 and 60. What the hell?!? I did all the tests again with the bike completely warmed up and got all the same results.

What I've read here is that a stator failure on it's own is pretty rare. Usually the failure is the regulator/rectifier. Though my R/R tests out ok, I wouldn't want to replace the stator and have the new one damaged by a bad R/R and vice-versa I don't want to replace the R/R and have it damaged by a bad stator. So it looks like I'll have to go with both for about $250.

I should mention here that back in my first big cleaning I unplugged all the harness connectors on the bike, sprayed them all with contact cleaner and put contact paste (dielectric grease?) on all the connections and plugged them all back in firmly. Also, the high-beam indicator bulb was out and I replaced it with a stock bulb.

I'm rapidly approaching 3 grand on an $800 bike. And oh, the countless hours I've spent in the last 3 months gotta be worth thousands....

I almost forgot...

I think the surging/hesitating might be an air leak at the intake boots. They don't look dry or cracked, so maybe just the o-rings. And the stalling at stops is most likely a sign of a needed valve adjustment.

I've ordered a valve cover gasket and o-rings, the intake boot o-rings, the motion pro valve shim tool and a pair of case emblems in the old black to put on my silver engine. The old ones are both scratched from the bike being dropped in its past. Both sides. Looks like it was dropped from standing as there is no sign of any "sliding" or road-rash.

And the beat goes on...  Should we start a pool on what will fail next on this bike?

Hotrod, I wouldn't get too down on yourself and this purchase... I wouldn't even go as far to say you are unlucky with it either.  These things are all game when buying a used bike, and will have to be replaced at one point or another.  I would imagine most people spend all of this on their used bikes eventually (if they keep it in top shape like a good rider should)... it just so happens that all of the maintenance was neglected before you took it in.  I have had my bike coming up on two years, an '04.  It was kept meticulously by the previous owner, though stored for several years before I bought it. And so, I have added another $5-600 on top of the purchase since then in maintenance matters as well - between battery, fork seals, brakes and lines, tires, bulbs, etc...  and I'm always doing the work myself, and always cleaning it.  My cost into the bike went up to about your current cost too.  As I would imagine, anyone who keeps their bike in the kind of shape you and I would expect for a ride, would share a similar cost profile.

Do keep in mind that your $800 bike is worth much more now too.  Maybe worth more to you than a potential buyer, but that doesn't matter.  I don't imagine you bought the bike to make a profit off of it, by your time and money spent on all the right things.  You've really turned that bike around, and should be proud of that...  maybe if that proud feeling returns, it won't sting so much.



- Bboy

Hey Bboy!

Thanks, I needed that! I'm not too down about it, after all, I have a 2 wheeled ride again 

Today I am expecting my new valve cover gasket and o-rings in the mail. This weekend i'll do the valve clearance check. I'm hoping I can find someone local to swap shims with, but if not, I'll order them from http://www.newmotorcycleparts.com/motor_parts/valve_shims.html

Next I'll be ordering a Procom R/R and stator from http://www.electrosport.com/street-bikes/suzuki/gs500f-01-09/stator-suzuki-gs500f.html

I'll post some pictures later!


Mike

The valve shim tool is worth it's weight in gold!

Don't feel bad! I had to first rebuild the top end and then the bottom end on mine! I am in denial and still have not calculated the total final cost!!!

But it feels great to know that the bike is now in top top shape!!! Enjoy it!
Bmf


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