Right side cover is dry, and there isn't a gasket.
Cool.
Buddha.

That rotor cover is dry but the engine cover is wet.  So if you're replacing the engine cover you will also need a gasket, otherwise it'll leak.

Yep....that's why there is an oil-seal on the crank 

14th owner?!?

Wow. One of those things you just don't see in the States.

Or a logbook telling you how many owners.

(because that would actually be USEFUL.)


+1K on all the encouragement. The bike's fate isn't dire at all. In fact, you can probably make your major fixes and still have enough to buy those brightly-colored adjustable eBay levers to match your bike 

So I bought a cover for £10 this afternoon but it really looks like trash, considering getting this instead:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2003-SUZUKI-GS-500-K2-RIGHT-HAND-IGNITION-COVER-POINTS-COVER-/182040544203?hash=item2a627643cb:g:c3gAAOSwKtVW1dyI

Went to one guy who said he would need to order in the mounting plate for the timing rotor pickups and it would cost over £130! So I tried to hammer my old one straight and that has not gone well 

Quote from: cWj on March 03, 2016, 06:15:55 AM
14th owner?!?

Yeah man, 14 owners in 17 years...beginning to think maybe I should get that saddle reupholstered 

that cover looks nice, someone on this board produces CNC machines covers that look real slick

Quote from: lucas on March 03, 2016, 06:34:47 PM
that cover looks nice, someone on this board produces CNC machines covers that look real slick

Might cost an arm and 2 legs before it gets shipped across the pond tho.
A jet pack (weighs nothing compared to the cover) cost $15 ...
Cool.
Buddha.

In case its not been laid out to you yet -
You're gonna have to buy the electrical parts new. Keep the old ones for a spare in case later you can straighten that plate. Those things die 20-40k miles. Its not a big deal.
The outer cover is not essential for testing it - just dont stick a finger in there while running.
The advancer is fine. Just clean it with brillopad and paint it. Test it and make sure you're running OK.
Then hammer the brake lever back the right way.
Then before you take it past your driveway buy the round cover made by chuck (billet and beautiful and lot less $$$ than the #130 even with the ridiculous shipping) Or get someone to send you their old one

Nothing, to it - classic case of - that will buff right out.

Cool.
Buddha.

Not sure what year you are but this might be worth getting. If the crash was enough to bend the timing plate then it might have borked the pickups too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GS500E-1993-94-Ignition-Pickups-and-Backplate-Timing-Sensors-Back-Plate-/121842397669?hash=item1c5e5f71e5:g:Ow0AAOSwo3pWcmyn


I'll have a rummage in the garage tomorrow for you and see what I've got.

I have these on my Bandit and they've really saved my bacon (and my right leg) before.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ENGINE-GUARD-HEED-CRASH-BARS-Suzuki-GS-500-89-06-/172089477751?hash=item2811550a77:g:4JgAAOxyNo9Sxcfx

not sure about these though.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-Crash-Bars-GS-500E-GM51B-1989-00-WVBK-2001-07-and-GS-500-F-BK-/191493148864?hash=item2c95e190c0:g:K20AAOSwHPlWfmEw

This is the cover I bought yesterday:



Cost my £10.

Quote from: TQM on March 04, 2016, 04:37:35 AM
Not sure what year you are but this might be worth getting. If the crash was enough to bend the timing plate then it might have borked the pickups too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GS500E-1993-94-Ignition-Pickups-and-Backplate-Timing-Sensors-Back-Plate-/121842397669?hash=item1c5e5f71e5:g:Ow0AAOSwo3pWcmyn


I'll have a rummage in the garage tomorrow for you and see what I've got.

I have a 1999 GS500, I do have my eye on this. There was another on there that was complete with timing rotor and mountaing bolt but someone beat me to it by 5 minutes 

And thanks in advance for checking for a spare. The bent backing plate is now less of a 'U' shape from the crash and more of a saddle shape from my "fixing" it.

I'm just on my way out to see if I can find anything from other scrappys.

Ok, so I decided while Sookie is resting that I would take this opportunity to swap out the broken tach drive. So fuel tank is off, managed to wrangle out the cam cover and now I have screeched to a halt. I don't now how to get the broken tach drive out. Anyone have any suggestions?


from the front of the engine


this one is from the side. To show how flush it snapped. Can't really grip anything to pry out from the front.


inside the engine, the bit that needs to come out is underneath those threads


The bit where the hole is, is where the tach drive fits in so I can't just push it out.

I have a very basic set of tools, and there's absolutely no space for a hammer to help poke it out. 

Just been down the garage (would have gone this morning but it's a 10 minute walk across the village and it's only just stopped snowing) and unfortunately what I thought was a straight pickup plate is actually bent. It's not bent by much, mind, but enough to make it useless. Looks like that set on ebay's prob' the best bet after all. Sorry.

 

Quote from: TQM on March 05, 2016, 10:25:44 AM
Just been down the garage (would have gone this morning but it's a 10 minute walk across the village and it's only just stopped snowing) and unfortunately what I thought was a straight pickup plate is actually bent. It's not bent by much, mind, but enough to make it useless. Looks like that set on ebay's prob' the best bet after all. Sorry.

No worries, I appreciate the effort. Thanks

I ordered replacement bolts for the timing rotor and the case cover because they weren't much more expensive than going to a hardware store, I just tried the timing rotor bolt in the crankshaft to check the integrity of the threads and they were damaged in the crash 

Bike will be off the road for the foreseeable future.

To be clear, you tried a new m6 bolt in the end of the crankshaft and you felt it bind up?

If the threads were damaged you can clean them up again using a tap.  The threads are m6 with a 1.0 pitch, meaning one thread per mm of length.  Here is a link to an example on Amazon.

There is a special handle you can buy or you can just use an adjustable wrench to turn it.

I was pretty confident the threads would be fine.  Good news is that in general though damaged threads can be fixed easily with either a tap or a die.  Taps are used for internal threads, dies for external threads.

Quote from: lucas on March 09, 2016, 08:42:27 AM
To be clear, you tried a new m6 bolt in the end of the crankshaft and you felt it bind up?

If the threads were damaged you can clean them up again using a tap.  The threads are m6 with a 1.0 pitch, meaning one thread per mm of length.  Here is a link to an example on Amazon.

There is a special handle you can buy or you can just use an adjustable wrench to turn it.

I was pretty confident the threads would be fine.  Good news is that in general though damaged threads can be fixed easily with either a tap or a die.  Taps are used for internal threads, dies for external threads.

It should be. I ordered it from the diagram. Tapping new threads will have to wait, bank balance is almost at 0. I wasn't sure the threads could be tapped because the crankshaft is hardened steel. But I'll give it a bash. cheers man

Hey guys,

Thought I'd give everybody a quick update:

The little pin that locates in the back of the timing rotor had some shards of timing rotor fused to it which have now been cleaned up and the rusty timing rotor also cleaned up nicely, my tap set came this morning so I tidied up the threads inside the crankshaft and fitted the timing rotor to see if it would go back together...fits like glove.

Bought the signal generator pickups off eBay for £30 in the end, expecting them in the morning (currently 19:30), also expecting the clutch cover gasket tomorrow (£10) and clutch cover on Monday (£16).

So Wednesday I will drain the oil, pull the old cover, new gasket, new cover, new signal generator, timing rotor install and cover. Also does anyone now if I would need heat resistant paint to paint the signal generator cover?

I am still having trouble with the tachometer drive extraction. I noticed that the gear section on the exhaust camshaft is broken anyway so I've had a change of plans. I now plan to get the old drive gear out and put in the plug from an '04/'05 GS500 and eventually install an electric tachometer.

How easy is it in reality to remove the camshafts? I have the tank off, camcover off, do I need to remove airbox and carbs or can I get away with leaving them situated and slacking the camchain? I only need to get the exhaust camshaft out of the way for an hour, I don't really want to undo and pull bits out.

Does anyone have any suggestions/advice?

I'm so proud of you!

So what is the story behind removing the tach component?

I removed my mechanical tach as well.  I didn't remove the cams though.  I can't remember exactly, there may have been a pin that I drove out and the tach thing came straight out.  There is a little cover on the outside of the engine that comes off with a single boot.  Try pulling on the tang end of the thing with pliers.

I'm thinking about it more and I'm becoming more sure that there wasn't a pin.  Just a single bolt, wiggle off that cap, and pull the thing out with pliers.

I do remember it coming out it very easy once I figured out what was holding it in.

This is the plug I used to close up the hole.  link

I originally bought a plug that had an external hex head but there wasn't enough room for the bolt head.  link  the idea behind this first one was to leave the tach thing in place and the hollow middle of this plug would not interfere...

Parts diagram:
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Suzuki/Motorcycle/1992/GS500ET/CYLINDER+HEAD/parts.html

"Cap" is number 17
"Thing" is number 16