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1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 5:58 pm
by stampee
Hello everyone. new member here. I have had my T500 for 35 years so I know what normal smoking problems are like.
Last year 2014, my T500 started smoking terribly.
The smoking is not consistent. it may smoke horribly, then stop for miles, then start again. It also is hard to tell which pipe it is smoking from. Basically both of them. It has had some smoke off and on for many years now, but it went to heck last season.
I determined it is sucking oil from the transmission. The oil goes down really fast in the transmission and it definitely has no major leaks or drips. SO from this I presume the center crankshaft seal is bad.
Is Ebay the only place to order seals and parts these days? I am not sure what exactly I need for crankshaft seals.
Would this kit work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381186088466?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

I have the engine apart and everything looks great inside.
Thank you for any advice.
-Stampee

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 7:25 pm
by ConnerVT
I've seen that seal kit on eBay before. Made me nervous, as I could not align what I was seeing in the kit with what was actually needed.

Good news is that nearly all of the seals are available from Suzuki. The one odd ball is the (right side?) seal 09283-35002, available at several places. For the labor and expense of rebuilding the crankshaft, no reason to use parts that you are less than 100% confident with.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 9:07 pm
by Coyote
There was some discussion about that very kit not long ago. A member here bought it and almost nothing fit. You have had a long term relationship with your bike. Treat her right!

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 6:27 am
by Vintageman
Contact Bill Bune. If you choose to use then for crank work ( I have last few times and OK), I think he may have these OEM seals on hand.... ask

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:02 pm
by stampee
Thank you to everyone. I will look for oem suzuki seals then. My friend is a machinist and has done a few other cranks, so he will split the crank and re align it for me.
I greatly appreciate the assistance.
-stampee

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:34 pm
by argo1974
I have a set of OEM crank seals for sell if interested. They are pretty fresh, I ordered them around 8 months ago through local Suzuki dealer. Meanwhile I sold the bike they were intended for.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 7:38 pm
by PippiFyrecracker
OH NO! I just ordered those from ebay, I guess I may have to send them back... @stampee I'm in the same situation, are you taking your bike to a shop or are you doing it yourself? also where did you end up getting your seals from?

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:35 am
by Bloop2
OH NO! I just ordered those from ebay, I guess I may have to send them back... @stampee I'm in the same situation, are you taking your bike to a shop or are you doing it yourself? also where did you end up getting your seals from?
Firecracker.....welcome to the forum. Since you're in Canada, you can still get all four crank seals from your local Suzuki dealer.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:52 am
by Coyote
I would not recommend that anyone try to do the crank themselves. Many years ago, I did a single cylinder 250 Ducati crank. I am a machinist by trade and had access to lathes, centers ,surface plates, v-bocks, a 50 ton press, a bucket full of indicators and a BFH. Even at that it took me several hours to get it running dead true on the crank end (s) bearing fits. If just one counterweight is out it throws everything else out. I would not do it again even with all the equipment listed above. A twin would close to impossible and a 3 cylinder would be impossible. Farm the job out to someone who has all the jigs and fixtures AND the experience to get the crank together right. Nothing else is acceptable.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 12:36 pm
by PippiFyrecracker
good to know! thank you! whenever I tried to order parts for my bike before they said everything was discontinued, I received the seals from bc today in the mail, I'm going over to a friends place who has the crank out of the same bike to see if the kit I ordered looks legit. Also no worries, once I have my engine apart I will take my crank to a machine shop and get them to assemble and press fit it! I just have to do as much as possible on my own because I can't afford for someone else to do the whole job. plus I want to learn so I can know my bike inside and out.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:11 am
by PippiFyrecracker
Just an update, a friend and I successfully changed both oil seals, without a horizontal split in the engine. kept to the min. work. we did the clutch side first since its usually the most common to go. Also the new ones were from the engine seal kit on ebay (somewhere in british columbia)
sidenotes.
we had to jam a piece of aluminum on the right-clutch side to stop the crank from turning while trying to get off some of the peices.
we used the rear axle as a puller on the alternator-left side.

Re: 1974 T500 crankshaft seals

Posted: Wed May 20, 2015 8:50 am
by stampee
Hi all: I used the gasket and seal kit in my first post and had no problems. All seals fit fine. I split the crank and installed the new oil seals. The kit does NOT come with bearing O-Rings however. I had to purchase them from Suzuki, and they were not easy to get. Eay sometimes has the o-rings as well.
-Stampee