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D's GS550


Toucan

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Bought this sight unseen while I was still over in the UK, got it shipped to parents garage to await my return. Was keeping an eye out for next project and was stoked to find an early model GS with wire wheels, non cv carbs and a kick start.

Original auction photo
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Fast forward a few months and I finally got to see it in the metal. It was obviously in worse condition than the pics showed, but I'd been craving something I could spend time tinkering with so it still fit the bill. Somewhere in its past life it has had the back end cut off and the seat modified, which wasn't done as tidily as I'd like, the side cover clips are all broken, the wiring was a mess, and to top it all off, the whole thing has been sprayed black with little to no prep work, so I have paint flaking off here there and everywhere whenever I touch it.

First things first I opened the headlight and fixed numerous bad connections and melted wiring
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With a new battery, most things were working, still some trouble shooting to do here.

 

Ripped the valve cover off and checked that the valve clearances were in spec.

Put some gas in the tank and fired her up without too much trouble, she didn't want to rev nicely but idled long enough for me to grab my helmet and so I took it for a quick ride down the end of the road and back, man was she loud! Time to take off the exhaust wrap and see what was hiding...
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Many exhaust leaks! These aren't even all of them. I gave them a wire brush and took to a friends place to see if I could weld them up, but with the thin metal and my amateur welding the holes just kept on getting bigger. Next option...

Next up I wanted to get the carbs apart.
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Gave them a bath in simple green and hot water to start with
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Boom!
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Took note of jets and whatnot as I stripped them, all looks standard
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Borrowed mums jewellery ultrasonic cleaner, splash of vinegar and simple green with hot water did a good job on the brass bits
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Before & after, only 5mins to get them clean. New set of orings installed thanks to cycleorings.com
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Sat like this for a bit while I waited for overseas parts
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Before I left the UK I also picked up a Dyna S ignition so I could ditch the points.
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Had to take 0.5mm off the top of the rotor to allow the mechanical advance to work, its all in and running now
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Picked up a second hand reg/rec off a wrecked polaris, they are a series type and meant to fix the burnt out stator problems the shunt type causes on old bikes. Its physically huge but also one unit rather than seperate regulator and rectifier which I had before.

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Made up a bracket and wired it in, added some fuses as there were none before. Seems to be charging still, win I hope

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Still waiting for bits etc so polished the cam end covers on the drill press
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Carb bodies didn't come up as mint as I had aimed for but good enough for now, soaked them in gun wash then ultrasonic bath in simple green & hot water.
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Carbs back together, went up a size on the main jets, bench synced
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And after heaps of waiting, exhaust arrived. Great look and sounds vastly better.
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Had some issues with it running on 3, so have had the coils off and cleaned up some more dodgy wiring there, all back together and running on all 4 again.

 

While I was trouble shooting I had the plugs out to clean them up and realised I have some 6's and 7's. Is it normal to have different heat ranges on an aircooled motor? I didn't take note of how they were before, but I put the hotter ones on the outside cylinders when I reinstalled them as I figure they get better cooling than the middle two


Also petcock rebuilt and refitted with a new gasket. Extended the fuel and vac lines to the tank as they were barely long enough before, lots easier to get the tank on and off now.

 

Thats mostly up to date. Starting and riding quite nicely now given I just threw the carbs together. The hard part now to fine tune them, fun fun!

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Def keen to do a flatter seat and change up the rear end, I have an original tail fairing that might make its way on. Old superbike style.

 

Haven't really thought past that, just been focused on getting it running reliably for summer dorts.

 

Cheers for the offer I will keep in mind if I ever get stuck

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Still need to grab 4 matching plugs but I went for a hoon an did a plug chop just for interests sake, sooty!

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Manual asks for 8's, the left there is a 7 and the right is a 6, so should be at a better starting point to tune once I have a matching set of correct plugs in there

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So I read on the internets there was such a thing called a colourtune, made by Gunson. Its a spark plug with a sight glass essentially which lets you see the colour of the flame. I was pretty interested so I had a play last night and made myself one.

 

Smashed all the porcelain and other innards out of an old plug. Taped over the top and poked a bit of wire through the tape that will be the new electrode, then mixed up some epoxy and filled it up to what I thought looked right. I let it cure overnight then put some heatshrink over the electrode and soldered the old plug top to the end. Just put it in one of my cylinders before and what do you know I can see the combustion. Pretty far out concept and I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before now.

 

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Vid: http://tinypic.com/r/16i5q9/9

 

Only tested it for a tick, you can see the spark is arcing across the top a bit but I already have ideas on how I'd make version 2 better. Main problem now is I need to get a screw driver short enough to actually get under the carbs and adjust the pilot screws while it's running hah

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

This post is for Joe :wink:

 

Awhile ago I began cutting up seat pan and making mounts for the tail fairing to go on. Recessed tail light into the fairing a touch etc. Got just beyond the point of no return before I realised I have no idea what I am doing. Need to shape the seat foam a bit lower then cover it all up. Will likely paint side covers black and tail fairing the same? or white.

 

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Also carbs have been off and on a heap of times trying to determine why fuel is leaking out one of the overflows, have put a new needle valve and seat in that carb and checked float height but its still pissing out which makes me grrrr. Also stick with fiber gaskets cause the silly plasticy ones I got last time which are meant to be very reuseable shrunk like crazy.

 

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Despite the leaking it starts real easy on both kicker and starter motor, idles smooth and revs well. Haven't played with colourtune plug thing any more but that is on the cards for fine tuning later on once carbs are not leaking and on "for good".

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