My GK76a winter service/tidy-up project.

[wullie3xv9]

Now then lads (& lassies ??). Yet another month has been & gone since my last update, not helped by working up in Morayshire for 2 whole weeks & various other distractions!

Anyhoo, here's what I've managed to achieve since last time ...

Firstly there was the saga of a new rear disc. I'd discovered that the "wavy" fitted was too small as only the inner half of the rear pads were in contact wi' the disc! I'm not a fan of wavy discs anyway so I went lookin' on Ebay for a replacement & bought a quality Chinese copy that was listed with the correct specs.
But ... on receiving the disc the mounting hole was only 81 mm's in diameter when it was listed as 84 mm !!
At least the 4 bolt holes lined up...
Thankfully a mate, Mike, came to the rescue & was able to mount the disc in his lathe & open the hole up to 84 mm's. Took 2 attempts tho ... Seriously tho, a big Thank You, mate.

So, here's the offending item finally fitted to the refurb'ed wheel.


Then, on checking the rear sprocket carrier bearing it felt notchy, so I ended up replacing it. It turned out the dust seal was so knackered the L/H wheel spacer could pass through it without touching !! The result? Water & dirt had gotten in & shagged the unshielded OEM bearing! Sourced & fitted a correct sized, fully shielded bearing & greased up & fitted a new OEM dust seal. I also gave the spacer a good polish to help the new seal last a bit longer.


Then this lot ...


...was serviced with this lot ... (The set of Goodridge hoses were "won" on Ebay for 30 quid )


... but then I discovered I needed this too ...


..which meant I didn't finish the front brake service 'til I got back from Morayshire! (Tour Max overhaul kits/seal sets are made in Japan so they probably supply all four of the Big Four bike manufacturers/sub-contractors?? My 3XV's front brake system was overhauled with Tour Max kits & seals & has been problem free since done 5 years ago ).

Other jobs done included tidying up both L/H engine covers, (still have the R/H cover to do), refitting the rear wheel & serviced rear & front brake systems, both riders pegs & (now polished) mounting plates, (took them with me to Morayshire as "homework" ) & started refitting various bits & pieces relating to the engine.

Talking of which, before I could think of refitting the motor I had to buy a pair of front rubber mounting bushes as the old 'uns were so worn they'd fell out their housings when I removed the motor back in December! Thankfully the new OEM ones had to be helped in with a bit of Hellerine Oil & a couple of taps with a wooden drift & a hammer.
That should help to smooth out any vibe's! (Old one's are on the left).


So folks, here's how the old girl looks at the mo'.










The front sprocket's been treated to a new OEM washer & spring clip. (The old spring clip was looking iffy/tired!)


Finally, I've got some homework to do again this weekend ... checking & cleaning up the water pump.


I won't get anything done to it this week as I'm having to do a Company training coarse down in North Yorkshire.
So, slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

Till next time, cho the noo.

[4hundread]

Keep that rear disc wullie! Will take that too, think I have another bike lined up in edinburgh, cheers, si

[wullie3xv9]

LOL, OK Si, will do. Bare in mind what I said above about the old rear wavy disc being too small tho.
Only half of the rear disc & pads are in contact with each other so effectively halving the braking effort !!

Good luck with the bike in Embra.

[wullie3xv9]

Well folks, since last time I haven't gotten anywhere near as much done to the ol' girl as I'd hoped to, what with having to do a Company course down in North Yorkshire & work getting busier lately as well, but I've been slowly chipping away at it

The first tasks I needed to do, after getting back from my course, was to fit a new oil filter, re-attach & route the single wire from the oil pressure sensor on the front of the engine, re-assemble & refit the water pump & refit the lower cooling hose that goes from the water pump outlet to the front of the cylinder block.
Once all that was done I refitted the detachable R/H lower frame tube. I replaced the rusty OEM Allen cap fasteners with half a dozen new stainless M10 X 40 mm X 1.25 mm pitch Allen cap bolts & Nyloc nuts. Liberal dollops of copper grease were applied to the fasteners & also where the mating faces of the frame tube mountings butted against each other.

With that lot done I could now fit new gaskets & exhaust downpipes/headers. I've "splashed out", (hit the credit card ), & treated it to a new set of stainless headers. They feel about a 3rd of the weight of the my rusty OEM headers, which needed media blasted & repainted anyway as they were solid, but scruffy.

I bought the stainless headers from Sandy Bike Spares in Bedfordshire. (They list their GK76a headers on Ebay).
It took a fair bit of trial & error, (& cursin' & swearin'!! ), but I eventually managed to get all the cyl. head & collet mounting holes to line up!
Once happy I refitted the Scorpion end-can & link pipe that came with the bike & gave them a good polish with Solvol, which came up a treat.





I was working over the weekend just passed so took advantage of an early "knock off" on Saturday afternoon & did some work on the carb's. I had ordered some new seals, (X4 jet holder seals & X4 float bowl seals), last Tuesday via the local Suzuki dealer. Was stunned when I got a text two days later saying they'd arrived!! I was even more stunned when paying for them though! Would you believe the total came to £63.89!! FFS !!!!!
They're made of rubber for Pete's sake, not gold or platinum!!!

Anyhow, I grudgingly payed up, (my credit card took another hit! ), as I need them so that I don't have a set of badly fueling, leaky carb's ! I know "4hundread" had treated the carb's to new circular O rings made of VITON rubber, as recommended on here, but I don't know if he replaced the jet holder & float bowl seals. If he didn't, I now know why!



As well as the less restrictive headers, I've also got a suitable K & N filter kit to fit to help the engine breath easier, intake wise, so I've got some new jets to order.
I've been advised by "Stripes1976" to replace the stock 100 mainjets & 47.5 pilot's with 120/117.5 mains & 52.5 pilots & to lift the needles by moving their clips from the middle slots to the second from bottom slots. I'd have ordered them today, but Allens Performance was closed due to the late May Bank Holiday! I'll try again tomorrow.
Hopefully they arrive before Friday so I can fit the new jets & finish putting the carb's back together, or else that will have to wait 'til the end of next month when I get back from three weeks working in North Yorkshire!

That's all for now, folks. Till next time.

[donk]

Your doing a tidy job there mate keep it going . The header pipes look good

[wullie3xv9]

Thanks, Donk. Hi all, finally found some spare time to log-on & post another update. As some of the regulars on here know I was down working in North Yorkshire for 3 weeks last month so took some "home work" down with me to do if I got the chance, which I did. I managed to rub down, degrease & paint the 3 engine side covers which were all very scruffy. They were re-painted with VHT grey primer & "Cast Iron" Engine Enamel, as nobody seems to produce "off the shelf" GSX-R engine grey any more! The VHT cast iron is lighter & has silver metallic flecks in it, but looks fine from a distance. I followed VHT's instructions to the letter & as a result they all look superb now, far better than they were!





Before trundling down to Yorkshire I thought I'd better check all 4 choke plunger seals. Glad I did as they were all so worn they barely touched their respective plungers, especially on No. 1 cylinders carb., as that had a bent plunger so had worn an oval hole into the seal !! So it was yet another trip to the local Suzuki shop to spend another 22 quid on 4 choke plunger seals ! Jeezo !! Luckily a spare bank of carb's came with the bike when I bought it so was able to "rob" a straight choke plunger, plus I also swapped the plastic choke operating slide, (that the choke cable connects to), as one half/side of the slides cable-nipple retainer was missing/broken off. Once back from Yorkshire I was able to collect & fit the new plunger seals, so now the carb's should be "as good as new", as they have a full compliment of seals & gaskets in good/as new condition now so I shouldn't have any fueling issues. Time will tell .....



The last thing I did with the carbs was to get a short length of 0.8 mm locking wire & used it to check/set the gaps between the bottom of the butterfly valves & venturi's, (a basic carb balance). I only had to do a minor tweak to one butterfly. If/when I get the motor running I'll do a proper carb balance with a set of gauges.



With the carb inspect./service now complete they were re-fitted to the engine & air-box with the aid of some HELLERMAN Hellerine rubber lube on all the carb. rubber's. Getting them onto the intake rubbers was the easy bit, but re-fitting the air-box rubbers was a struggle though. For the benefit of GK76 newbies/others, they're 2 rubber plates, each with a pair of intake holes/rubbers, which are fitted through their respective holes from inside the airbox, then onto the carb's. I got them on & clamped up ... eventually , only to discover that when I went to refit the 2 fuel hoses to the carbs that I couldn't! (Which I should have done before re-fitting but I'd forgot to! Muppet).
So off they came again to fit the 2 fuel hoses! Then there was another fight with the carb. to air-box rubbers & clips!! At least I'd remembered to refit the throttle cable to the carb's before re-fitting them, as that's Mission Impossible otherwise. (It was hard enough with them on a bench!).



With the carbs finally back on & connected up I could fit the new K & N filter kit I bought back in the winter for 30 quid all in from a bike shop in Portugal via eBay. It came with 2 different sizes of intake rubber's, of which I've fitted the large one, hence the carb. re-jet earlier in the thread.



Next on the "to do" list was repairing two fastener holes on the L/H side of the upper engine case. One was "stripped" & the other had a chunk of the hole/case broken off as a result of a low speed spill the bike suffered sometime in its past. They were filled/built-up respectively with JB WELD, then, after a couple of days to cure, drilled & M6 X 1.00 mm threads tapped into each hole. (My mate Mike let me borrow his set of M6 taps). Instead of stock Allen cap head fasteners I've knocked-up & thread locked in studs instead, as theoretically that'll spread the stress when I refit the metal coolant pipe that mounts there. The pipe will be held in place with a pair of black dome head nuts which I've ordered from a vendor on eBay.





Now I was starting to get exited as I was now close to being able to fire the ol' girl up again. After replacing a couple of male/female spade terminals that had come off their wires, (thanks to my mate Mike again for the loan of his wire strippers/crimpers), it was time to refit the battery tray, complete with new OEM rubber gromits & metal spacers, & freshly charged battery.



After a quick double check that everything electrical was connected up properly, especially any earths, I turned on the ignition switch .....





..... and nothing !! No dash lights, no horn, no head & tail lights, no starter! WTF NOW!!!!
(The switch was working fine before I started the project !)

Anyhow, after fiddling about with the key a few times ... still nothing, so I disconnected the switch from the loom & dug out one of my works multi-meters. There was full battery voltage to the looms switch connector, but I only got resistance through one of the two main lecky feeds, the orange wire, but got no resistance indication between the red & grey wire through the switch. I mentioned it to Mike the other day & he says it'll be the contacts at the bottom of the switch needing a good clean & lube, which is do-able yourself. Needless to say I'd already ordered a "quality" pattern replacement switch the night before talking to Mike!! Ah well, fools rush in .....
I've managed to drill & easy-out the two M6 security shear bolts holding the switch to the top yoke, in readiness for fitting the replacement, which was delivered today so I should be able to fit & try the new one tomorrow.
I'll have a go at removing the bottom cover on the knackered switch at some point, (which are held in place with 2 small security shear bolts), & see if I can get it to work again.

What's missing from this picture ....



Ah! There they are.



Well, that's all for now folks. Hopefully I'll have better news next time!

[jipsang]

Top jop there fella. Inspirational post.
Keep it coming!

[wullie3xv9]

Thanks Jipsang. Yep, I'm nearly there with the ol' git but it's started to put up a bit of a fight! The new ignition switch duly arrived last Tuesday morning so was fitted the next day. Got everything plugged in again, turned on the new ignition switch .....




..... & STILL NOTHING !! AAAARRRRGGGHHH !!!!!




After a cuppa tea & a calm down, I went back & started going over all the connections ... yet again! When I got to the fuse box area, behind the battery, I unbolted the fuse box from the mud-guard, pulled the connections off, refitted them ... still nothing! Next to the fuse box is a 2nd relay to the right of the indicator relay.
In desperation more than hope, I gave the aforementioned relay a couple of taps with a screw driver handle &, low & behold, there was a click & I had a neutral light & low oil pressure light! At last, progress!!
I switched the lights on, they all worked. Checked the brake lights out, they worked. Horn? Yep. rear indicators? Yep. Starter motor? Yes! So, the problem all along was a sticking relay!!

I've left the new ignition switch fitted as it feels smoother/slicker than the old one. Plus the steering lock & park functions work too.



With that problem resolved I could now bash on to see if the engine would fire up. Before I did though I turned the motor over on the starter, with the plugs removed, to prime the oil pump & get some oil around the engine, especially the top-end. Glad I did 'cause when she finally decided to fire up on full choke, the motor went straight to 6-7 thou. which resulted in me frantically hitting the Kill Switch !!
( I hadn't refitted the coolant system in case there were any engine / fuel related problems post refit, so I only ran the engine for a couple of minutes at a time, allowing it to cool down between each short run).

Once I'd got the idle sorted out & down to a more normal level, I noticed that No.3 cylinders exhaust header was blowing! Chuffed with myself that I'd decided to refit the radiator AFTER I'd checked if the headers were gas tight, (you cant get to the header bolts with the rad. fitted!), I ended up having to take the whole exhaust system off so & could bend the No.3 header around a bit & elongated the holes in the No.3 collet with a round file, as I discovered that the original top bolt hole had been sheared off sometime in the past & been drilled & tapped off centre, causing the fit issue with the collet!! With that resolved & all four headers now gas tight I could go back to playing with the idle rpm & mixture settings.





After a bit of playing around with the main idle screw & adjusting all 4 mixture screws slightly "richer", (from 1.5 turns out to 2 turns out, (Mikuni CV carb mixture screws work the opposite way from their 2 stroke slide carb's), it's starting "straight off the button" whether stone cold or warm & responding nicely when I "blip" the throttle from idle, so chuffed to bits so far. (Once the coolant system's refitted a filled I'll be able to do a proper carb balance / set-up).
The plan is to also take it to the local DYNOJET rig to get the fuelling checked out properly so I don't burn the valves & seats out!!

So, that just leaves putting coolant & brake fluid into their respective systems, a couple of "shakedown" runs, refit the bodywork & it's finally finished!
So, it's a pity that I'm currently up in Morayshire to work for 2 whole weeks! Bummer!!

It's gonna be tight getting it finished for the Practical Sportsbike trackday at Cadwell Park on August the 2nd, but it's do-able .... just!

Bye for now, folks.

[gsxrscotty]

Great write up with good pictures! Really enjoying the read/

Just wish i had the time and know how to do this to mine!

Your break leavers are not standard, do you know what they come off?

[wullie3xv9]

Thanks Scotty. The levers were bought by 4hundread, the previous owner. He said they were Chinese made levers (& bar end weights), bought from an eBay vendor. See if they are listed for VJ22 RGV's, as well as the early 90's GSXR 750's, as they are the same vintage as the GK76 so will fit. .