1993 re-hashed

[Sporty]

I might as well blog this. It's becoming a complete rehash on the cheap.

I paid too much at $500. USD and should of left it were it was. I had missed out on two other low priced GS500E's and I'm sure there are more.

This is how it looked when I brought it home. 


The obvious things kind of distracted from the rest of the issues. I figured chain and sprockets, tires, and a few used parts from eBay and weekend of work...  it turns out as I get into it, almost every thing that was repaired before, was done badly with plenty resultant issues.

This is getting the bike running. I was a little stumped on why I couldn't get gas to the carbs. Then I discovered the "hidden petcock"  on the tank was turned off. After that it ran, but not that well. A compression test showed 135 -140 PSI for both cylinders.



Pulled the carbs and the front forks. The seals were leaking so badly, it had an oil cooled front brake. There were only pinch bolts in the top triple tree.... no bolts in the lower!
By this photo I rounded up two bolts. They are 10mm x 1.25, 40mm long.



The bore where the seal rides was all messed up as seen below.
I polished as smooth as possible, it might leak though


Measuring the fluid level with a vernier caliper (the tool I had)



Back on the bike.



The front wheel was painted black over white (and peeling) I stripped off most of  the black with a pressure washer. Then Sanded and painted with silver wheel paint and clear coat, installed new bearings, a new tire. Cleaned up the old rotor.



Look close and you can see the wire tie method was used to mount the tire... I didn't want to chip the new paint.



The Michelin Pilot Street balanced with 14 grams (1/2 Oz) of weight... not bad.

[SK Racing]

Good to see your progress. Seems like you know what you're doing. 

It would have been nice to be able to click on the pictures to zoom, but instead it goes to the image host's website.

I use the "BBCode" for pasting pictures added from my image host, which happens to be imgur, but it should be available at https://freeimage.host as well. And then I add "width=400" after the "[img]" tag.

[Sporty]

Good to see your progress. Seems like you know what you're doing. 

It would have been nice to be able to click on the pictures to zoom, but instead it goes to the image host's website.

I use the "BBCode" for pasting pictures added from my image host, which happens to be imgur, but it should be available at https://freeimage.host as well. And then I add "width=400" after the "[img]" tag.

The photos are supposed to link, but I see a bit of code is missing.

As far as knowing what I'm doing.... on some days.

[Sporty]

Onto the rear wheel

[cbrfxr67]

"it had an oil cooled front brake" 

This is a great thread!  Actually these are my favorites,...  doing good work!  What are those washer thingys on the peg wall?

Can't wait to see more!

[SK Racing]

How difficult is it to separate the part that holds the sprocket from the wheel?  Can it just be pulled off?

[Bluesmudge]

How difficult is it to separate the part that holds the sprocket from the wheel?  Can it just be pulled off?

The sprocket hub is held onto the rear wheel only by friction between the sprocket hub and the cush drive rubbers. You just pull it off. If its a little hard to pull off, that's a good sign. If it falls off easily when you pull on the rear sprocket, your rubber cush thingies are probably worn out.

If you ever replace your rear wheel bearings, there is a bearing in the rear sprocket carrier to replace in addition to the bearing in the actual wheel.

[SK Racing]

I guess it's a good sign that I couldn't get it separated. I pulled a bit, but didn't realize it was only held in by friction.

Thanks for the info and for the heads up on the bearings.

[Sporty]

Carbs are rebuilt/reassembled now waiting to be installed and tuned.
I went with the suggested jetting from this forum for a K&N lunchbox and a slip-on muffler.
40 Pilot Jet, 140 Main Jet, 1 washer under each Jet Needle clip. If it's too rich, I'll change it.

The carbs were another hack job, with mismatched, mangled and modified parts.

Mismatched and bent needles



Modified, trashed slide..




(It was assembled with a good used slide from eBay)



Clean and ready to assemble.





One of the covers was broken at the screw hole and other side damaged. I re-purposed a bit of tin bracket found in my junk drawers. Cut and bent to help stabilize it.







Ready to go




I read on this forum that the inlet boot O-rings were a problem.  I pulled to check and sure enough they are!  The local hardware store has metric O-rings. I think they're  getting a little suspicious of my frequent trips to rummage through all the little hardware drawers and then just buy a few dollars of small items.

[Sporty]

What are those washer thingys on the peg wall?

Those are valve seat grinding stones, for re-machining valve seats in cylinder heads (valve jobs). They go with the driver motor below them and other tooling.

[cbrfxr67]

Nice!  I bet your shop has all kinds of goodies!

That bent metal reinforcement was a cracking idea!

can't wait to see how it runs!

[Sporty]

Yesterday's output... I'm trying to do some work everyday.. at least a couple hours.

Everything cleaned up nice with a soak and power wash. 

I tried a set of "Pivot Works" bearings.   The new bearings are all double sealed and lubricated. The old bearings were not. The drive hub bearing was open, and the same grease that lubricated the bearing also lubricated the seal.  If I put the seal in dry, it would burn up quickly, so I put some bearing grease in the cavity between the seal and the bearing. The other option would have been to just leave the seal out, as it's not really needed with a sealed bearing, but then that space would be a big "dirt catcher" Hmmm???



















The Dupli-Color wheel paint lays down nicely.  About an hour of hand sanding for prep. The wheel washed with dish soap and water before and after sanding.  Then three coats (two light, one medium wet) of silver color, followed by three coats of gloss clear.

[cbrfxr67]

[SK Racing]

This thread is so satisfying to watch. Keep going, please.

[ShowBizWolf]

+1 !!!

Very satisfying

I like that way of thinking too, about getting some work done each day. I've been using that mindset this past week as well.

Great work so far IMO!

[Sporty]

+1 !!!

Very satisfying

I like that way of thinking too, about getting some work done each day. I've been using that mindset this past week as well.

Great work so far IMO!

Thanks all!

[Sporty]

I went to re-install the carbs and still had to reseal the other intake boot.  What a nasty mess!
I stuffed a piece of rag in the port before cleaning to keep all that crud out.










You'd think the carb install would be hassle free, but the clamp screws philips were stripped out. I had some new stainless 4mm screws, but then found the clamp didn't really tighten very well and could still rotate them.

I wasted some time looking for other clamps and/or things to shim them, eventually settling on lining the clamps with a couple layers of aluminum foil tape (used for ductwork)







I need to find more jobs on this bike like I need a hole in the head. However, rusty battery boxes and frames are an issue for me. Every time I work on the bike, my eyes are drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I figured now was the time, so out with the battery box. Then a quick sanding of the rusty fame areas and an application of rust conversion treatment. Tomorrow those areas will get painted with the silver wheel paint. I'll sand blast and paint the box.... and keep moving.






Oh and I noticed this beauty...  largish nuts  (about 19mm wrench size) used as coil mount spacers... and pressing on the terminals.

[Sporty]

[Sporty]

I've been working on this front fender. The fender was originally  red, had a bad black rattlecan paint job and a crack. The crack would open when Fender was flexed. I repaired the crack with plastic weld epoxy and fiberglass tape (drywall tape) I've had good success with that on other bikes plastic parts.

I put a puddle of epoxy over the crack, flexed the fender and let it run through the crack. Then added the tape and a little more epoxy.





Kind of disappointed in the rattlecan finish. Usally I can get a better job without wet sanding and buffing.

The color didn't lay down well. I wet sanded that and applied clear and the clear left a lot of orange peel.
I have spray guns and can get by with them, but didn't feel like buying the paint, clear and the putting in the effort for one little fender. Maybe Ill wet sand and buff the clear...IDK.

[Sporty]

I've been working on the gas tank for a bit.  It had a modest amount of rust.  First I drained it and then put in a couple pieces of light weight chain and some mineral spirits. Shook that up every time I walked by it for a few days. Drain it and then pressure washed it.  It looked pretty good where the pressure washer could get too, but this is tough tank to clean.



I fished some objects out, vacuumed, etc...   but there was always stuff moving around when I shook the tank. Finally I see this "thing" come into view. I pull it out with mechanical fingers... but WTH is it???  Its like a rolled up cigar full of little black beads and rust!






Frame touched up (where it was rusted by battery acid)



Broke the chain and removed it. Pulled off the sprocket cover to find a big mess there.  Curious was two orings. One fell on the ground and the other setting in the gook. I looked up the parts and there is no oring.  Then I figure it's o-rings from the chain that look whole, but are not.