Does anyone have the physical dimensions of the Progressive Springs for GS500?
- Diameter and length.
Cheers.

If it is the camshaft, the noise will quiet down when you lean the bike to the left.

If that doesn't work,there is a keyway for a screwdriver in the tensioner (under the rubber plug) You could try winding it in all the way and then quickly pull out the driver, allowing the tensioner to snap back. This is the std procedure for installing the tensioner, but it might work to un-stick it as well.

The best course is to remove the valve cover, so you can inspect lateral play in the cams as well as the chain tension--if you are lucky you might just have a bad/stuck tensioner.

You have to separate the engine to change the cam chain. Try to listen with a large screw driver , put the  sharp end of the screwdriver on the engine where you want to listen, and the handle end pushed to your ear.  You can then try to identify exactly where the sound is coming from. There are videos of the cam walk "rattle", check them out to see if it is indeed that.

i have a gs500 from 91 that started "clicking" from the engine it started a few months after i bought it
i have done a little bit of research and im pretty sure its either from the cam chain or the camshaft being able to rock from side to side
if it is the chain do i also need to replace the tensioner if i also replace the chain

At general type stores (Candian Tyre equivalents?) you can get what they call "cavity spray", its an aerosol with a waxy anti rust content. It comes with a long hose with a jet at the end and you can feed it in and coat the inside of cavitys. I've used it quite a bit. Might be good for this application.

Keep up the good work.

I have a replacement rear wheel. The local bike wrecker made it too hard for me to give them my money so it came from ebay...

Anyone know what years had silver wheels? It must be from last century.
One bearing is super crunchy and the other only turns about 20 degrees but knowing I was going to buy a second hand wheel I had already  bought an All Balls wheel bearing kit. A couple of years ago i went to my local Suzuki dealer and asked for steering head bearings and was suprised that they gave me an All Balls kit. The bearings were Japanese made so I was ok with it. This wheel bearing kit has a sticker on it with large print, almost like a warning, MADE IN CHINA. Anyone used bearings made of Chineesium?

The same ebay seller also had a swingarm so he has more of my money now.

Inside the arms was very rusty, they all are rusty but this was pretty bad. I did my best to scrub the rust with a scourer on the end of some fencing wire, blew the rust out of the arms, filled them with vinegar and let the acetic acid do its' thing for five days. After emptying the vinegar out I filled each arm with a warm water and baking soda solution to neutralise the acid and scrubbed them with a scourer on a bit of fencing wire again. I gave them a couple of flushes with hot water and sat the swingarm in the sun to dry. It is summer here in Gods_Own_Zone so within an hour the swingarm was too hot for me to pick up so it stayed there until the sun started going down. I brought the swingarm in and sprayed a bunch of fish oil in each arm a couple of times for some rust protection. With the way the arms are shaped I have no idea of the coverage at the pivot ends but I sprayed enough fish oil to be somewhat confidant.
The bearings seem fine so I greased them and have penciled in replacing them in the winter if needed.

I am mobile enough now to flail around on the ground like a beetle stuck on its' back so the suspension and swingarm should be out this week.

Cheers

it was the starter relay.
it was new, so Ive no idea.

I am starting to be a bit more mobile now. I can walk a little bit without the crutches which means I can carry things again. On Wednesday I thought I would do some simple maintenance tasks on the GS like lubricating the cables. The clutch cable was easy: I move the plastic cover out of the way, turn the adjuster so the slot is facing up, pull the lever in and as I release it I drop oil on the exposed cable. I do that a few times and repeat the process in between doing other things.  The switchblock has to come apart to oil the throttle cables which I have done 5 times on this bike and I have had to pull it apart twice to service the starter button. I just couldn't get the JIS scewdriver to engage the screw heads at all this time. I grabbed the RD400 mirror I have been using as a mirror_on_a_stick for thirty years and couldn't believe what I saw. It looked like someone had taken a drill to the screwheads! Why? Since it is only me that works on the bike it was my problem to deal with...
I added some more oil to the clutch cable, took all the fairings off, loosened what handlebar controls I could and rotated the bars forward as much as I could. It then occurred to me that maybe someone had used a phillips head bit in a drill or impact driver to wreck the screwheads. Why? Hotwiring a motorbike doesn't happen at the killswitch...  I could use a vice grip on one screwhead and luckily it was when whoever was tryng to undo the screw that it was wrecked but the other screw is in a bit of a recess so no getting a vice grip on it. I hammered a screw bit from a variety pack I have in as best I could and with a 3/8th socket on it, pushing as hard as I could, I got it out.

On Friday I went for coffe and pastries with a friend and on the way home dropped in to my favorite nuts and bolts store. I showed the lady behind the couter the two butchered screws and asked for 4 zinc socket head bolts in each length and ten nuts saying the shanks can't be longer but if I have to cut the thread to length that's ok, fully expecting to have to cut them. Ten minutes later she came out of the dark recesses of the store room, plonked a plastic bag of shiny bolts on the counter and asked if it was cash or card. I told her cash and while she was putting my purchase into the system I checked the bolts out. It had taken her ten minutes because she was looking for a perfect match for each screw. I don't know how they make any money with people like me shopping there which is why I always buy more than I need, it came to four hundred and forty five cents. As always when I shop there I was very happy.

I'm off to add more oil to the throttle cables now.
    Happy holidays

I'd think that the started button has got stuck. I recently took my switches apart (delaing with a non start issue when hot, was the trigger coils) And I has surpised how manke the switches were , grease all gone etc etc. BEware sml balls to be lost if not carefull

I know I replaced it, but starter relay?