1975 Suzuki T500 IT IS ALIVE! First start video 5/7/11

[sparkymoto]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Today the DHL guy dropped off a big package from the UK...WHOOO HOOOO! My expansion chambers are here!

These are from Titan Performance, the same guys who made my rearsets. They're polished stainless steel and look great! MUCH lighter than the stock exhaust too. Can't wait to hear them.

Dude, you're killing me! I need to get my order in. Those look incredible. I'm waiting on my case cover bolt kit and then I'm going to fill it up and fire the bike. I want to see how it runs with the new Uni Pod Filters.

 

[t5001971]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

my gosh those pipes look great you are making a great bike.

 

[JoeTee]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Engines lookin real clean. Did you just clean it real well and paint it? If its paint, what type did you use? Oh and by the way those chambers are sweeeet!

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Dude, you're killing me! I need to get my order in. Those look incredible. I'm waiting on my case cover bolt kit and then I'm going to fill it up and fire the bike. I want to see how it runs with the new Uni Pod Filters.

Be sure to let me know what jetting you use with the pods. I haven't settled on an intake set up yet. The TP guys still have the stock airbox on their bikes with the chambers. My plan right now is to start out with the airbox in place and get it running decent, then maybe go to pods later. Still a long way to go before I have to make any firm decisions on that end though.

Engines lookin real clean. Did you just clean it real well and paint it? If its paint, what type did you use? Oh and by the way those chambers are sweeeet!

So far the engine is just bead blasted, then flushed with air and water thoroughly to remove any remaining blast media. Once the cylinders get back from the machine shop I'll paint the engine. Still exploring options for engine paint and colors. Stock is all silver, but I'm considering doing the cylinders in black for a bit of contrast.

 

[boingk]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Lookin' good there, Wingspan. Those pipes really do look good... would love to hear the engine on song with them.

Running decent with the stock box will probably require some amount of rejetting, and so will pods. Pods will require a bit more effort to get dialed in just right, though. FWIW, I would go pods so you can concentrate your tuning (and finance) on one aspect.

Cheers - boingk

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Lookin' good there, Wingspan. Those pipes really do look good... would love to hear the engine on song with them.

Running decent with the stock box will probably require some amount of rejetting, and so will pods. Pods will require a bit more effort to get dialed in just right, though.

This is what I expect and why I'd rather start out with the stock airbox. I'm not a big fan of running pods on streetbikes and if I can get it running to my satisfaction with the airbox there will be no reason to go any further.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

BTW, here's my inspiration bike:

This bike won the 1970 Isle of Man TT (production class) with Frank Whiteway at the helm. I'm not trying to build an exact replica of this bike. My goal is that when finished my bike might look as though it could have been there along side it. Minus the race numbers and with required street lighting, of course.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Got a phone call from the shop last night. The crank and cylinders are finished and I should have them back by the end of the week.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Dropped off my rims at the powdercoater today, should have them back some time next week. ;D

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

My crank and cylinders came back from the shop today. Everything looks great.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Painted the engine today. The cases, cylinders, heads, and intakes where sprayed with two coats of "cast coat aluminum" and two coats of clear Duplicolor ceramic engine paint (rattle can). Next step is curing. I have access to an industrial oven, so I'm going to bake these before I start assembly. Hopefully I can do that within the next few days.

This might be common knowledge, but here's a tip to make masking engine parts easier. Cover the masked area with tape, then tap around the edges with a small hammer. I use a brass hammer I turned on a lathe a few years ago. The tapping cuts the tape and leaves a nice edge in the exact shape you want.

Everything masked and ready to go:

Results:

 

[VonYinzer]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Wow man. That looks factory! Great job.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Thanks! ;D

 

[sxecafe]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Great job on the paint. Nice little tip too. Thanks for that.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Thanks, and you're welcome. It's a simple thing, but I prefer it to cutting the tape with a razor. You'll still need the knife for places the hammer can't reach though.

I've also started repairing the left side cover. It's got several cracks:

I'm fixing these with a technique a friend showed me a few years ago. I've had success with in the past, most notably after I plowed my VFR into the back of a truck...

First I reinforce the broken area from the backside with wire screen material. Lay the screen over the area and press on it lightly with a hot soldering iron. Don't get things hot enough or press hard enough to distort the part, just go slowly and when the plastic melts the screen will sink into it.

Then use the soldering iron to weld the crack back together on the front side. If you have any bits of broken fairing around you can use it as a filler/welding rod. I'm not finished with this part yet, but that's really all there is to it. Weld,fill, and sand with the plastic until you've got it as good and you want, then you can continue with the bodywork as you would normally.

 

[Ethanol]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Dude that is an AWESOME tip!

 

[tWistedWheelz]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Man, you are full of good ideas! That plastic repair should be in the $50 mod thread!

Great work, it is all looking great and you are doing everything the right way! This should shape up to be a very nice bike when your done!

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Man, you are full of good ideas! That plastic repair should be in the $50 mod thread!

Thanks! I can't take credit for the technique. I used to ride with a guy who had a small business repairing fairings and he taught me how to do it. Unfortunately I gave myself ample opportunity to use it not long after.

My VFR after kissing the rear end of an F-150 (my fault):

Repairs in progress (I replaced the center panel, the original was in too many pieces):

Finished repair:

I put ~20k miles on the bike after the accident and the repaired cracks never reopened.

Great work, it is all looking great and you are doing everything the right way! This should shape up to be a very nice bike when your done!

Thanks! ;D

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Got the rims back from the powdercoaters...

When I dropped the parts off early last week they seemed much more interested in emptying their stock on hand than helping me find a color I'd be happy with. When I said I wanted them red, their response was "That's great, we're shooting red next week here's the color we'll put on them". They were very reluctant to discuss other colors especially if it wasn't something they had in stock and seemed only interested in emptying their gun instead of helping me find a color I'd be happy with. Turns out my misgivings about the shop when I dropped them off were well founded. but not because of the color.

The parts were supposed to be done "sometime this week". I waited until Friday afternoon and called to check. After 5 minutes convincing them that I had, in fact, brought them parts to coat the next question was "did you want them powdercoated?".

Um...yes. That's why I brought them to a #@$%&* powdercoating shop!

Then it took another 10 minutes for them to determine that they hadn't started on them yet and I could expect them "sometime next week". I said that as the parts were supposed to be done "sometime this week" and they hadn't started on them yet, I would just come pick them up and go somewhere else. Then came insistence they had started on them, but if I was really unhappy I could come and get them. I picked up the rims and they look exactly like they did when I dropped them off last week.

Ordinarily I'm pretty easy to work with and the delay wouldn't bother me but it was the sum of the whole experience. I just didn't get a good feeling about the shop from day one. Not a very professional operation. I get the impression that they're in over their heads and don't have a firm grasp of their business.

On the bright side, there is no harm done and I'm not out any $. Now I can take the parts to another shop (that I had originally planned on using) that I know will do a good job.

 

[Wingspan]

Re: 1975 Suzuki T500 Engine rebuild underway

Ok, minor rant over...more news.

In my continuing trend of doing things I previously said I wouldn't, the Titan is getting a disk brake. I got a GT550 fork off ebay last night. Hopefully it's as good as advertised. They're a bit bigger in diameter and will allow me to run a single disk.

How about some home electroplating? I've done some limited plating at work but never for my own projects. I plan to replace most of the hardware on the bike with stainless steel, but for the bits that can't be I'm giving zinc-tin plating a try with a kit I purchased from Eastwood.

I cleaned and bead blasted these bolts a few weeks ago when I did the engine cases. Today I cleaned them again, then soaked them for a while in Evaporust to remove any flash rust that may have occured since blasting.

The plating system is dead simple.

One lead goes to the annode, the other is attached to the part. Submerge the part in the solution and let sit for 3-4 minutes. When the part comes out it will be covered with a matte grey film. This is normal and can be left in place or you can lightly buff the part with polishing compound or a brass brush to shine it up.

Note the gray appearance of the right most bolt. It's just come out of the plating solution, the other two have not yet been plated:

I had some trouble getting a picture that shows the shine, but here's the best I've got so far. All I've done at this point is lightly brush off the gray residue and haven't actually polished the bolt:

It's easier to see the plating on the end of the alligator clip that held the part:

The shine isn't on par with chrome but does look good and adds more factory appearance and hopefully adds some corrosion resistance.