Showing posts with label GS673 Conversion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GS673 Conversion. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Suzuki GS673 Conversion — The Road Test.

 What'll it do mister?

There are no certainties in this life. All we can do is work with the best we've got, and to the best of our ability. When you work with old vehicles, you are left with a hell of a lot of choices. Replace everything for fear of something breaking down the track, or use experience to decide what will keep going, and maybe rely on a little bit of luck. It's probably fair to say we use all of these methods without a second thought.

It would be nice to change every bearing, gear, thrust washer, bolt, moving part etc., but that generally isn't viable. Instead we check, measure and work out what we can get away with. Lots of parts aren't even available anyway so sometimes we are stuck with far greater tolerances. When there is wear in vehicles, we immediately feel it when we ride or drive them but, as human beings, we automatically adjust to cope with the discrepancies. Some better than others.

Sure it's nice to be on a brand new bike, where everything is perfect, but they also leave me feeling somewhat robbed (not just with the cost of them either:). They let you get away with things, incredible brakes, plush suspension, tyres with more grip than you know what to do with. You may even think you're better than you actually are (oof, perish the thought!). 

But with old stuff you feel everything that is happening, hold the bars too hard through the bends and the weaving starts, fight it and things get worse. But relax and let it work everything out for itself and they usually settle down quite nicely. You feel that you're achieving something, that a living being is out for a blast with you, stirs the soul don't they say? (It does get tiring though...)

So ladies and gentlemen, just once, get on an old bike and be amazed at what they will do if you're just prepared to put in the effort...


Saturday, October 3, 2020

Suzuki GS550E — GS673 Conversion Progress.

 Finally getting there...

Once painting of the cases was done, I put the crank and gear clusters back in the crankcase. Turning everything over, something I hadn't noticed originally was pitting in the teeth of one of the gears. It turned out I needed sixth drive gear (obviously unavailable from Suzuki now), but a search on eBay came up with a NOS one in Cyprus. With a delay on postage due to COVID-19, all I could do was wait. 

The pitting is visible in this pic. The largest gear in the top cluster.


One NOS gear from Cyprus. Whoop!


Monday, June 22, 2020

GS673 Conversion — Cleaning The Crankcases and Painting Engine.

The 673 kit.
The next step for the GS550 is to relieve the crankcases slightly so that the bigger diameter liners will fit inside. I'd just ordered a new Dremel as my old Draper version was getting a bit tired. That thing has been amazing and I've had it almost twenty years — it's done lots of porting and polishing. Anyway, i was in the process of grinding out some of the casing when the Draper tool finally gave up and spat chunks of plastic out the side. The Dremel came just in time!

If you're wondering about the quality of the deburring tools, sandpaper barrels etc., the Dremel ones are superb! I've always bought the cheaper versions and they wear out in seconds, The Dremel ones are worth the extra cost. 

But on with the job. 
I found it easier to slip the cylinders over the studs, turn the case upside down and mark where the liners were touching. Then remove the cylinders and start grinding. Bit by bit, they went lower and lower.