82 GS550L - Tracker-ish

Yep, someone had definitely been in there to "repair" the stator before judging by the scratches on the mating surfaces. My guess is that's the reason this bike was benched in the first place.

Cleaned up the cover and laid down a nice grease print. That gasket material I bought for the XL over the weekend helped me out on this job.

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Fresh stator and gasket ready to go.

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I somehow managed to get the wires through the starter cover and pop the rubber seal back into place with a long flathead because I was NOT in the mood to pull the carbs tonight.

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Of course I got it sealed up and then found a thrust washer for the starter motor idler gear on the floor. Off came the cover again to toss that asshat back in. Soldered some bullets on the R/R and calling it a night. Going to fire her up with the original R/R tomorrow and see what happens. Hopefully we have charging and I can get my $20 back for the RR I picked up.


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That stator looks nice n fresh....hope it works out to be the problem.

The old one reminded me of my Beetle alternator windings recently...

 
NoRiders said:
That stator looks nice n fresh....hope it works out to be the problem.

The old one reminded me of my Beetle alternator windings recently...

Yikes. We swapped out the alternator on our Beetle since we did a 12v conversion on it, still having some fuel or electrical problems with it think we've narrowed it down to the fuel pump.

Anyways I rolled her outside and fired her up. Right away at idle the battery read low 13s, where before it would stay around 12.8. Read a healthy 13.5-14v at about 5k RPM and stayed right around there up to about 7-8k. Looks like our charging issue is resolved.

Heading up to NH for some camping this weekend but all that's left is to make sure everything's torqued down, pump up the tires and take her for a shakedown.


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Got everything on the punch list done with the exception of the clutch adjustment.

Seemed like the clutch plates were stuck, since I wasn't having any luck adjusting and getting the clutch to disengage. I was able to rock it a bit in gear and get it to free up. I adjusted everything according to the manual, and the bike goes into first without stalling, but the clutch isn't disengaging until about 1/4" from the lever being all the way out. When it's in first and I go to takeoff, it slips like a bastard and I'm barely getting any power. Even worse, I'm hearing a bit of a clunk coming from what seems to be the bottom end that wasn't there before.

Looks like I'm pulling the clutch basket and checking out what the hell is going on in there.

Sigh...


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Do you have some "slack" in the cable when it's fully out? You should be able to wiggle the lever in about 1/4 inch before the cable tightens.


Try that first, if it's still no good then pull the cover and check the hub nut hasn't come loose / plates are good.
 
DesmoBro said:
These old GS rip especially if the clutch is working

I wouldn't know :eek:

hillsy said:
Do you have some "slack" in the cable when it's fully out? You should be able to wiggle the lever in about 1/4 inch before the cable tightens.


Try that first, if it's still no good then pull the cover and check the hub nut hasn't come loose / plates are good.

Yeah, when I back both adjusters all the way in, loosen the lock nut and back the pushrod adjuster screw out, there's a bit of slack at the lever. I screwed in the adjuster screw until I felt a bit of resistance, then out 1/4 turn. I also tried turning the screw in until it really resisted, and then backed it off 1/4-1/2 turn.
 
Pulled the clutch cover today, the discs are unstuck and all straight. They actually look like they were done pretty recently. Trimmed the cable jacket back about 3/8" to give me more room for adjustment. Clutch is definitely working now, but definitely still slipping. Going to put some clutch springs in it.

Got an odd noise at low RPMs, this hasn't happened at all before the last time I had it running. Sounds like it's coming from the valve train somewhere...any ideas?

https://vimeo.com/175760908


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Always hard to diagnose this stuff via video but sounds like a loose camchain.


Check your tensioner as per the manual - APE made a lot of money selling manual tensioners for GS's.....
 
hillsy said:
Always hard to diagnose this stuff via video but sounds like a loose camchain.


Check your tensioner as per the manual - APE made a lot of money selling manual tensioners for GS's.....

That was my first thought, also. The manual for this bike is tough to navigate since it was the last year in a 5 year run and they made so many changes to the mechanics that it's tough to find where everything is explained. I'll have to do some digging and figure out the cam chain adjustment.

Does one have to pull the entire top cover of the engine to adjust the valves?


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Clutch springs replaced, no more slip there, and the adjustment is working as intended. One thing out of the way.

The bike fires right up but once it gets hot, it starts to bog down at idle and wants to stall out. Seems to have full power otherwise. From what I've been able to find, the '82 had an automatically adjusting cam chain tensioner. Can anyone confirm or deny?


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If the CCT has a "wheel" on it it's an auto adjust.....but they are known for being a bit unreliable / backing out. There should be a section in the manual to set the CCT.
 
I loosened the locking nut on and backed out stop screw on the tensioner to allow it to self adjust, then retightened everything up and fired her up. Idling strong now, no sign of bogging at temp. Only thing left to mess with is the gearshift linkage, there's a lot of slop and it tends to pop out on the shift lever side. I'll mushroom the end over, it may be a bit sloppy but at least it won't pop out.
 
I was able to squash the link end a bit and eliminate the issue of it popping out. Not my favorite design ever, if this was more of a build I'd be modifying that for sure.

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Put an old expired tag I had here at the rents' house on and took it for a quick shakedown in the twisties around the house. This thing is a blast. It's refreshing to sit on a near-stock seat for a bit instead of a thin cafe seat and it sounds mean as hell.

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That 550 must be a hoot to toss around; nice and light but more power than a 450 :) Glad you're out enjoying the thing!
 
Northish said:
That 550 must be a hoot to toss around; nice and light but more power than a 450 :) Glad you're out enjoying the thing!

Yeah it was a fun ride but quick since its unreg'd. I've had a buyer lined up all summer he's been waiting patiently for me to get it sorted, kinda tough since the bike is in MA and I just moved to TX

I still miss the 450 though. I loved that bike.

Edit: Found a pic of the old girl. I sold it to a kid i went to HS with, pretty sure he'll have it forever.




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