didn't manage to get into it for valve adjustment today, its been raining on and off and i lost my feeler gauge haha did do a little tidying up and give the rocker cover area and frame etc a good clean so that there is no loose debris which might fall into the cams. also replaced my cable ties holding the speedo with a nice sturdy metal bracket  definetly not just a big jubilee clip.. honest   

another boring update. 6 pots are stripped, cleaned, pistons polished, rubber is all greased with the correct thick red dot hydraulic grease and the slide pins with the clear silicon stuff.  so satisfying to put back together. also surprising how much crud had gathered on the lips of the pistons over just a couple of months, proper thick nasty crusty stuff.

waiting on new brake lines now. doing the carbs today, bought 2 rebuild kits as the needle seat, float needle  and o-ring sets weren't much cheaper. kind of glad because the float bowl gasket has since sprout a leak! good timing! i'm usually the guy telling people not to fuss with rebuild kits but in this instance it made sense but really 9/10 times theres obviously no need for it if you're just pulling carbs for a clean.

i've been reading up on symptoms of burnt or broken valves and it actually sounds a bit like some things i've experienced but the bike is still going strong. i've had a rattle in my exhaust since november, heres hoping its not a bit of valve stuck or something haha i'm probably just overthinking this  i hope its not dying, the plan was always to engine swap it with something interesting when mines died and i'm just not in the financial position to take that kind of job on at the moment. nah it can be broken valve in the exhaust haha i'm being stupid, i would've been able to shake it back out if it were a fragment that small its probably just clearances needing adjusted.

This picture makes me want to buy a second GS to replicate your build. That's a good lookin' rambler. Nice work.

Quote from: iamhiding on December 18, 2016, 01:12:19 PM

Quote from: Suzi Q on February 09, 2017, 07:57:40 AM
This picture makes me want to buy a second GS to replicate your build. That's a good lookin' rambler. Nice work.

Quote from: iamhiding on December 18, 2016, 01:12:19 PM

haha thanks SuziQ great bikes for it. it's a lot of time, work and money even when you're trying not to spend anything. its far too easy to underestimate a project, i can guarantee i've spent hundreds of hours swearing at my gs.

i will say appreciate but don't replicate, gotta put your own twist on it with what's available to you that and largely the way I've done things just isn't the way to go about them, to me the bike is just commitment to a joke no one else is in on... it's just a giggle, something which sums me up pretty well but most things have been done with the quickest, most cost efficient and creative means of making things work whilst still be safe to ride albeit dubiously. keep me posted if you do start a project, i'd love to see it SuziQ

oh where are we? still off the road at the moment, bike seems to be running quite happy again all by itself, had to go buy a new vernier calliper, feeler gauge and picked up the right tool for pushing the buckets down to get the valve shims out but i haven't gotten round to it yet.

had problems with the carb rebuild kit, after cutting old brittle o-rings off things i noticed that the needle seat is a different height and that the float needle was different to what i had. i tried the new seats and needles but just couldn't get the float height in spec due to the different height in the needle and seat. in hindsight i could've used the seat as its shorter outer section shouldn't of made any odds. because i had ruined the old o-rings i would've had to return the kit i had, buy a more expensive one elsewhere and also source the o-rings on top of that so it was going to cost a fortune. had to make the most of a crap situation, always check your parts before fitting folks 





got my fresh brake lines made to spec









line routing is much tidier and like i said before it should allow me to use a high mount mudguard although the left line is slightly too long in the mean time.

left the top banjo unhooked, pushed fluid from the bleed nipple up to the banjo on both callipers and bolted it up again to prime them ready for bleeding. bled the majority of it up through the master using the lever flick and line tap techniques and only had to do minimal bleeding at the callipers. it's not as quick as the vacuum method but it saved me so much time, 6 pots can be hell to bleed.

brakes were incredibly sticky still...



nut and bolt through the floating spacers, spun them all and cleaned with brake cleaner. the disks are nice and floaty again. also pushed the pads/pistons back in and brought them back to the disk with the lever. still stickier than i'd like but i'm hoping they just need worked a bit. also should check the front wheel bearings come to think of it.



fiddly jobs outside in the snow are the best one's... honestly  so cold haha



managed to find my chainguard, almost had to make one from scratch but it somehow wound up in the brothers shed with a pile of his bike bits. cant wait to pull it back off after the MOT.







bit irrelevant but i was playing about with a old broken set of dominators and eyeing up a way of mounting them as flush as i could to the forks. just a bit of experimentation really, i'm not actually sure if i'd use them because dom light output is absolutely awful. awwwwwful. and i ride a lot at night on country roads.
 

got over to my friend with the 100 tonne press and got that copper bush out and new bearing in, still to check if the inner collar from the old knuckle will work with the bearing but its the right dimensions so it should be issue free.

going back to the original GS dogbones to drop the height and hopefully get the thunderace shock in this time now that the swingarm is ground and i've got time to play, the shock will lift it back up to a similar height ie its current 2" lift.

thats my job for today but its a bit of a pain with one set of hands and not the right setup for controlling the back end.




and here's the tool for pushing the shim buckets down LASER 6519

Those brake lines look super cool!!! I hope to get some of them for my bike in the future.

Still loving your updates and pics

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on February 22, 2017, 12:05:26 PM
Those brake lines look super cool!!! I hope to get some of them for my bike in the future.

Still loving your updates and pics

thanks showbiz  with the original forks and brake setup a braided line and half decent pads are basically a necessity, the gs front brake used to scare the hell out of me... saying that it depends how one rides doesn't it  cheap cheap modification as well if you avoid the big brands like HEL. 

wee update //

thats the knuckle back in the bike so i can verify thats a clever way to replace that damn expensive oem bearing the thunderace shock is still a no go, not without removing much more material than i already have so i'm just going to keep it as is until a cheap wp 750 / r6 one or something pops up at the right time. or maybe you really do need to remove more material to compensate the wider spring, i'm not really sure about the spring width comparison between the ace and known fits but it's more than i'm comfortable to grind out for the time being without knowing whats safe to remove.

bike is mot'd, taxed, insured and it's so good to be back on the road after 3 weeks off

still waiting for a half decent day to do the valve clearances though  soon though, i've got all the tools and a pile of shims from a spare wp 750 motor i've got, with some luck i wont have to buy any. either way it seems to be happy to run cold again.

Quote from: iamhiding on February 25, 2017, 08:06:44 AM
wee update //

thats the knuckle back in the bike so i can verify thats a clever way to replace that damn expensive oem bearing the thunderace shock is still a no go, not without removing much more material than i already have so i'm just going to keep it as is until a cheap wp 750 / r6 one or something pops up at the right time. or maybe you really do need to remove more material to compensate the wider spring, i'm not really sure about the spring width comparison between the ace and known fits but it's more than i'm comfortable to grind out for the time being without knowing whats safe to remove.

bike is mot'd, taxed, insured and it's so good to be back on the road after 3 weeks off

still waiting for a half decent day to do the valve clearances though  soon though, i've got all the tools and a pile of shims from a spare wp 750 motor i've got, with some luck i wont have to buy any. either way it seems to be happy to run cold again.

Good luck finding a cheap R6 shock, so far it's cheaper to import from America than to buy U.K. Cheapest eBay I've seen lately was £120, you can pay for the unit, postage and VAT by like £5. You also need to change out the bearing for the new shock too (according to slippery mongoose) which is nearly an extra £30.

Chris

Good luck finding a cheap R6 shock, so far it's cheaper to import from America than to buy U.K. Cheapest eBay I've seen lately was £120, you can pay for the unit, postage and VAT by like £5. You also need to change out the bearing for the new shock too (according to slippery mongoose) which is nearly an extra £30.

Chris

[/quote]

yeah haha they're a bit scarce aren't they, you see them occasionally and at all sorts of prices 50-150+, i was offered an 06' r6 shock which is the earliest that'd work if i mind right for £60 delivered about 2 months ago but the timing just wasn't good for me, ebay isn't always the best place to look and ebay prices aren't often that good, better speaking to breakers for bits that aren't online so you don't have to pay ebay or paypal fees.

always the same with seeing cheap bits in the US isn't it haha

bearings are cheap enough to do it seems but i doubt it would come to that, more likely a case of finding a inner spacer to match the bolt or getting a spacer made up or adapted or so i would've thought but obviously i've never done it

i've got a couple of shocks sitting that i could make work, the thunderace obviously, 2x cbr600f3, emc racing shock for a cbr600f3 and a hyper pro for a gsxr11. was offered an sv shock for free but it's seen better days. thing is i'm eyeing up an alloy swingarm swap so i'm not overly fussed about putting a more substantial shock in this now.

theres a good shock comparison page on customfighters, good for length/stroke but additional research is needed to find things that will actually work.

what it's really going to boil down to is whats cost effective nearer the time i'm doing it as i'm not really spending any money on the thing as such.

I have a Kat shock in good condition...

Quote from: J_Walker on February 27, 2017, 10:07:54 AM


I have a Kat shock in good condition...

ohhhhh tempting, even more so if you're in the uk i really shouldn't right now though

had a good mostly dry sunny day so rather than doing valve clearances i blew out some cobwebs

finally sussed out the tyre pressures that seems to feel right 30/30 psi

i'm really quite impressed with the tyres when its dry though, was smashing the corners and it didn't feel out of place once, still need to keep it in mind that they will never be as good as actual road tyres though haha best not forget, don't fancy another broken back. 

couple of wee things i've done.





made a wee guard to try keep road crap from flinging back to the filter, haven't checked to see if it helps yet.



grommet in the brake cable guide to stop rubbing, p-clip on the line to stop torque arm contact and one to stop the swingarm contact, these will be replaced with grommets when ever i can be bothered, it was just to get it through an mot.



just gave the bike a bath for the first time in weeks, also gave the exhaust a quick rub down with a scotchbrite pad just to get all the salty nastiness off.



this edge on the left hand side of the tank had begun to rub back to bare metal in places from knee wear so i took a sanding block and brought it in all the way along just for giggles, might do the other side as well. kinda dig it. plan on stripping the tank eventually anyway

good news, the guards i made up are definitely stopping crud getting to the filter 



whipped the back wheel off last week to investigate weirdness in the drivetrain. noticed the wheel bearings were staring to go again  left wheel spacer is pretty worn on one side so thats likely the culprit, flipped it around so the wider side sits into the sprocket carrier. it'll do until i replace it. rattled it back together and kept riding it.



whipped it off again to do the bearings. bearings turned up next day so wheel off, fresh bearings in and back together in under 45 mins  :thumb:not bad haha but there is still weirdness in the drivetrain. i suspect its either a worn front sprocket or tight spots in the chain, yet to investigate further but its a clicky sound when rolling the bike.



pulled the six pots off again, pumped the pistons out a bit one by one, cleaned the crud off them and sprayed them with ptfe spray before pushing them back in. the pad slider pins were heavily grooved so they've been replaced. it's stopped a lot of the brake drag i was getting and stopped the pads clicking when first applied, its a common problem on the old nissin 6pots.



pulled a bucket off of my spare wp 750 motor and unfortunately its a completely different size of shim to the gs's, so none to play with.



pulled the rocker cover off and got stuck into measuring the clearance and checking shims.

although three are out of spec i'm only planning on replacing those which are too tight. suzuki recommended tolerances are between 0.03 & 0.08mm. it's the first time i've done clearances myself but this has been my process.

so mines measured as follows:

Left Exhaust - between 0.10 and 0.13   ///    Right Exhaust - 0.08
Left Intake - smaller than 0.03            ///     Right Intake - tighter than 0.03

all the shims measured 2.6mm

because clearances tighten over time the left exhaust will fall into spec eventually and its not too far out, certainly not rattling so its fine by me.

so using 0.02 as the median as i cant measure below 0.03, you add the current shim size to establish the area you're currently working with. 0.02 + 2.6 = 2.62

subtract the high end of tolerance 0.08 to find the shim size you need (2.62 - 0.08 = 2.44)

it looks like i need a 2.45 for both the intakes. the shims come in increments of 5 (2.45 / 2.50 / 2.55) conveniently it falls near a size where the numbers work out for me but... my vernier calliper only measures to 1 decimal point and for all intensive purposes the shims might be 2.48 or 2.54 etc so worst case scenario with the medians i'm using the clearance might fall to the lower end of spec even though i'm aiming to get it to the higher end of it. as long as its back in spec i'm happy and damn shims are expensive! £16.50 for 2 shims! so heres hoping my working is close enough.

i've rattled everything back together so i can ride but hopefully the new shims turn up so i can finish the job midweek.

in all honesty its really not a difficult job, just need to line up the timing mark and have the right tools for the job. the only thing that was difficult was the tool for depressing the buckets at first as theres a knack to it but thats nothing really and running out of daylight. definitely wouldn't attempt it without a magnet for pulling the shims out. theres a good write up on beergarage or a decent walkthrough on youtube.

also considering dropping another tooth on the front sprocket to 13t...  i know its stupid but gearing changes are cheap fun and 13/45 would be hilarious even if the bike no longer hit a gps 102mph anymore. hoping the valve clearances restore a bit of power as up top its been feeling very flat recently.

had to re-grind the steering lock as well as it was starting to stick when turning but its all good now. started making a proper spacer for the stem/topyoke as sometimes it will click and i meant to do it properly ages ago haha. actually done lots of little bits of housekeeping with the gs over the last 2 weeks and it rides much better for it.

quick superglue repair with the old black mudguard, its not the way to do it but if it works it works right. better looking than the random blue one one i'm using so i'll have to pop it on when I've got a chance until i do the high mount one. have to be careful when making quick brackets up as to not make any stress points because it's just a matter of time until something breaks, lesson learned.





old stem spacer vs new on the right, its not perfect but its a better fit than before, even if i had to pad it out with tape to make a couple of tenths back up.



swapped back to my lesser bent bars, forgot how wide they are haha and the r&g bar ends make them look even bigger, trials and mx bars arent really right for the application but i have them and they look pretty sweet and well they're not as bent as the others. i did have to drop the yokes through the forks to gain a little extra brake line room though, about 10mm which given that the forks are already quite shorter than the oem gs forks isn't ideal. cant remember the figures but i'll have written them on here somewhere.



was playing about with an alloy brake torque arm as well as a brace haha but i'll pull it off at some point, was just playing.



proper tight fight getting it through my gate 

Not sure if I've arrived in time, but Z1 has suzi shims for $5 a piece, which is about the cheapest way I've found to buy them new. Only in .05 increments though.

https://www.z1enterprises.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=valve+shim+29.5

Quote from: Suzi Q on March 28, 2017, 05:18:46 PM
Not sure if I've arrived in time, but Z1 has suzi shims for $5 a piece, which is about the cheapest way I've found to buy them new. Only in .05 increments though.

https://www.z1enterprises.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=valve+shim+29.5

thanks SuziQ  i'm not in the US unfortunately so i'd get hit with international postage costs and import tax when they arrived  thats damn near half the price of what i found mines for on the cheap