- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,216
- 3
- 81
So an online friend of mine from Utah came by to LA. I drove down from sac. We decided to take apart my 2001 GS500 and fix her.
Sounds easy enough for the list of stuff we had. It turns out it took us over 12 hrs to do so (with a 2 hr break maybe in between).
The 3 things we had to do:
1. Rejet the bike and put on a K&N Lunchbox airfilter.
2. Adjust valves
3. Redo my front suspension.
The biggest two headaches were the valves and the suspension.
The two intake valves were in spec so no big issues with that. The exhaust valves were totally out of spec. That would explain the apparently lack of power. The stock shims in there were 282mm and 285mm. We put in 260 mm in both exhaust valves. But to get the freaking original shims was a bitch even with the Valve adjustment tool. Finally we had to take off the cam shaft bolts and mickey mouse it enough to get the camlobes high enough to pull out the shims.
We the suspension was an even bigger headache. It actually came off pretty fast. Reassembling it with a new fork seal took ages. Turns out my bike being a 2001 seems to have something that the manual didnt seem to have, a tiny little spacer on the bottom. THe haynes and clymer manuals didnt mention it, but then are for the older models. In anycase my bike hasnt significantly changed in the last 13+ years its been on the market. Once we figured out that spacer was the problem, it reassembled pretty darn fast.
The front suspension now is ROCK HARD. I am afraid to take it out because i might just slide out in a turn. I have to adjust teh front suspension rake to because we didnt assemble it right but that's something i can take care of easily.
I also redid my carbs. I put in bigger jets and bigger better air intake. Damn does the bike sound mean now, it has this deep rumble in idle. It also warms up really fscking fast. I think we got the jetting dead on.
I so want to ride it, but its raining here in LA. Bah.. oh well hope it doesnt rain tommorow, i need to take it for a short ride.
TGG is off to bed now.
Sounds easy enough for the list of stuff we had. It turns out it took us over 12 hrs to do so (with a 2 hr break maybe in between).
The 3 things we had to do:
1. Rejet the bike and put on a K&N Lunchbox airfilter.
2. Adjust valves
3. Redo my front suspension.
The biggest two headaches were the valves and the suspension.
The two intake valves were in spec so no big issues with that. The exhaust valves were totally out of spec. That would explain the apparently lack of power. The stock shims in there were 282mm and 285mm. We put in 260 mm in both exhaust valves. But to get the freaking original shims was a bitch even with the Valve adjustment tool. Finally we had to take off the cam shaft bolts and mickey mouse it enough to get the camlobes high enough to pull out the shims.
We the suspension was an even bigger headache. It actually came off pretty fast. Reassembling it with a new fork seal took ages. Turns out my bike being a 2001 seems to have something that the manual didnt seem to have, a tiny little spacer on the bottom. THe haynes and clymer manuals didnt mention it, but then are for the older models. In anycase my bike hasnt significantly changed in the last 13+ years its been on the market. Once we figured out that spacer was the problem, it reassembled pretty darn fast.
The front suspension now is ROCK HARD. I am afraid to take it out because i might just slide out in a turn. I have to adjust teh front suspension rake to because we didnt assemble it right but that's something i can take care of easily.
I also redid my carbs. I put in bigger jets and bigger better air intake. Damn does the bike sound mean now, it has this deep rumble in idle. It also warms up really fscking fast. I think we got the jetting dead on.
I so want to ride it, but its raining here in LA. Bah.. oh well hope it doesnt rain tommorow, i need to take it for a short ride.
TGG is off to bed now.
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