1979 Suzuki GS850: Shaftie revival

[jorge0136]

Ladies and gentleman I have been shopping for a new motorbike project for some time. I finally found the trick. I have been riding on two wheeled machines for a few years but this will be by far the oldest, most beat up ride I have been brave enough to drag home.

I bought a 79' GS850 shaftie from a guy that was getting married, his lady decided it was time he stopped riding. His loss is my gain, along with the bike comes a unknown year GS650 parts bike! The guy bought the parts bike for $50. Per the PO, this bike has a new stator, regulator/rectifier, forks were just gone through and resealed, the carbs were rebuilt by a pro shop in June. I have yet to check the charging system myself, seems tons of resources here to follow up on that. The fellow that sold it to me seemed someone I could trust. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me.

The bike runs, starts up pretty easily cold but is a little wild until it has warmed up. Too much choke it'll rev, too little it dies, it seems to take an awful long time to warm up compared to bikes I have had in the past. Is a somewhat long warm up normal? After it is warm, I still have to rev up to 3000RPM or so in order for it not die on starting to move forward.

I am hoping the issues with running will be fixed after a valve adjustment, new plugs, check the airbox over.

After the engine is running right it will be time to address which tank I want to put on the bike, I have three. The stock 850, the 650's and a random one that is currently on the bike. I also am going to redo the seat, turn signals.

I too have been eyeing those sexy Benelli Mojave tanks, I love the lines. However the capacity certainly isn't nearly big enough for a bike of this size. Anyone have suggestions for similar lines in a much larger capacity? (Stock is 5.8 gallons.)

Thanks for reading!

 

[hotrodcharlie]

Good looking start! I also have a '79 GS850. Yes, they do take forever to warm up! Seriously takes a good 15 minutes before you can ride. Mine has been updated with Dyna ignition, new regulator and rectifier as well. I also went through the carbs. Great running bike, and silky smooth as a stock bike.

Here is a video of mine, even though it is not a cafe bike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tiAsbyyMjs

Check my other videos too, as I did one on how to properly clean the GS carbs. Good luck to you!

 

[Montag]

Great deal, mate. Looks cool.

 

[jorge0136]

Your GS sure does run a awful lot nicer than mine. When I do finally get mine warmed up I have been impressed at smooth the engine is, I really like it. I watched your video on carb cleaning, good advice for separate tubs for each carb. I have always just had a mess of carb parts sitting around. I am impressed with how well Pinesol seems to work on that varnish. I'll have to do that next time I break open some carbs. Also WOW on how nice the polish is on those carb covers just from a quick scrub and a little time under the wheel. I'll have to be picking up a wheel here myself soon.

Unfortunately the shop were the project is and myself are separated by about 90 miles, I can only work on it during my weekends. Any further progress will have to wait till Saturday. I am hoping to get the head off, valves readjusted then.

 

[andrewmac805]

Hi jorge0136! Congrats on the new project! I also have a GS850 that I'm attempting to Cafe!

There is a ton of great info about GS's on the internet and there are great support systems too. For specific GS problems theGSResources is an amazing site!

It's good that the rectifier and stator were done cause that's a common problem for the GS's and one I had to endure too.

Here are some great areas to find info on your bike to get a solid foundation for your cafe project, these websites really helped me to get everything in order (which I am still trying to do!)

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=171846&highlight=airbox+boots

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/images/GSR_Greeting.html

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

Best of luck!

 

[jorge0136]

I have been lurking on the gs resource site, great information and community over there. Lots of great information on those bikes specifically. How comes your progress?

 

[andrewmac805]

Here's my project:
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=54144.0

It's going haha! Normally I fix one thing and break something else! So in a constant state of repair! Just got a set of mini speedos and tachs from Dime City Cycles. Installed them and now none of my lights work haha! Just figured out it there is a blown fuse so hopefully that was the problem!

Just trying to work out what size fuse I need now!

 

[jorge0136]

Howdy folks I wrenched on the bike some more this weekend.

This weekend was primarily spent stripping the 650 of useful bits.

I don't like the exhaust on my 850 and am looking to swap it out with something else. The current muffler/end exhaust is some random bit someone welded on there. I noted the pretty looking pipes on my 650 and as you can see in the photo it appears at least the latter part of the exhaust are from a 1100. Do you guys think welding that on my 850 would give it anywhere near the stock back pressure? Good idea/bad idea? It seems to me it can't be much worse than what is on there now.

I bought the bike with a fiber cafe seat on it. Which when pulled off was found to be covering the fact that the PO has chopped off the frame, right behind the rear shocks The rest of the weekend has been spent fabricating a rear hoop, reinforcing the rear shock mounts. I finished all the fabricating off the bike, it's all welded together. It just needs final fitting, to be welded welded onto the rest of the frame.

Oh come on!

On a different front, while working on the project this weekend I realized I had yet to try the kick start on the bike. I figured such a fine mechanism shouldn't just be going to waste. I better do the right thing and test it out. Upon doing so I realized that it was very easy to kick over. To the point where I questioned if I had pulled the spark plugs or something else funky. This was not the case. Following that I preformed a compression test. The results are as follows.

1-90
2-85
3- Could not for the life of me get the gauge to thread into this one. It always felt cross threaded and I have not been brave enough to have it meet my friend Mr. Leverage just yet.
4-120

Granted all of these readings were preformed with a cold engine, carbs and exhaust on and I have yet to set the valves. The service limit is 100.... How worried should I be? Is it being "easy" to kick over even vaguely indicative of a problem?

Also I have my parts 650 that I would like to check the compression on but alas the threads on the spark plugs are different than my gauge. NAPA didn't have the fitting, any suggestions for hunting one down?

I hope you got the lights figured Andrew!

Thanks for reading, till next time ride safe.

 

[andrewmac805]

I did a compression test when I first got mine and it was kinda low like yours. A trick I was told to get it up higher is to pull all the spark plugs and spray some Marvel Mystery Oil straight down into the spark plug holes and let the oil do it's magic. I'd spray it in plug all the holes with a torn piece of kitchen roll and bump the starter so the cylinders fire and shoot all the marvel up and down and out. And repeat.

I would squirt it and actuate it a few times. Then just squirt some more in and let it sit overnight to let it work the crap out the cylinders. I did it over the course of the week days. And by the weekend they had maybe gone up at least 30psi and all were in the 120-130psi. Just keep doing it till you see no more increases I guess! Worth a shot!

As for the compression tester, I borrowed it from Autozone and they had 2 attachments for the tester, a smaller and larger. Think my Honda needed the smaller one and the Suzuki took the bigger one. Make sure they are both in there before you leave the store! Someone had stolen the small one out the kit they lent me.

I also cut my frame, but not so extreme! I left the mounting points behind the suspension for my turn signals. I sprayed the bare metal with some rustoleum paint to hopefully prevent rusting up in there.

I'm nervous about messing with the exhaust too! I guess for you it's returning to stock tho. Maybe cut that stupid cone the PO put on the end of the exhaust and it might be almost the same as the stock GS850 exhaust? Worth a shot first.

I got some harley bullet pipes, but I don't want to have to rejet the carbs and stuff if I start messing with the exhaust.

Yeah stupid me, just blew a fuse! All hunky dory now!

Good luck!

 

[CupidsDeathDay]

Hey man. I will be watching this build. I also have a GS850 shaftie i just crabbed for next to nothing but its a heap!.... >.> But with i title i don't mind.

I do have a question though, do you have any plans for that extra set of carbs? If you plan on selling i would like to know. After tearing these apart, they look somewhat recoverable but with a LOT of work, but i could really use the carbs if you end up selling.

Keep up the work. Can't wait to see it transform!