Suzuki 2 Strokes

I'm working at getting a title for a 1976 GT500 of mine. I have a three questions.

1) bike was mfg. in 6/76. It has a 1977 paint scheme (black oil tank, black headlight mounts & headlight). The tank is gold. Do I assume it's a 1976 model?

2) The frame serial number is stamped T500-1045xx. Do you eliminate the T500 prefix when dealing with DMV? (ie.: the serial number is 1045xx).

3) The engine is a different serial number (T500-1048xx). Did Suzuki use different numbers on the frame & engine?

Bob in Va.

Your GT500 is a B qua colour scheme, covers, head light etc. but not with a gold tank, should be blue, red or black.
frame and engine nr; are for 1977 B engine nr; went wrong in about 1974 by Suzuki. What is the color of your clocks?

Andy

So it's a 77? The gold paint on the tank looks original. I guess it was replaced and came of a 76. I'll check the guages/clocks tomorrow afternoon. I need to drive over to my storage and look. Thank you for the info on the year

Mid to late year DOM numbers are usually for the next model year, the motor numbers don't match.

For a list of engine and frame numbers by model year, take a look here.

oldjapanesebikes wrote:For a list of engine and frame numbers by model year, take a look here.

Good chart but my 1977 GT500 is between 1976 and 1977

I guess I will drop the T500 prefix in the serial number in my dealings with DMV. I'm trying to get a title long distance from a PO. It should be interesting.

GT500Andy wrote:What is the color of your clocks?

Andy, the clocks (guages) are definitely brown. 1976 are black and 1977 are brown?

1977 are brown - at least in North America.

Thanks for your help guys. I appreciate it
Knowing the exact year will solve 50% of my problems.

Dynobob wrote:Good chart but my 1977 GT500 is between 1976 and 1977

Interesting - hadn't noticed that so I double checked my own notes, and the two examples I have are T500-1019xx with engine T500-1020xx and T500-1067xx with engine T500-1069xx. The one I'm rebuilding is 1067xx which is definitely a 1977, and 1019xx I've broken 1019xx for parts. It was a real wreck, so other than the engine there wasn't much worth saving. The frame number chart on Jarmo's site shows a 1977 'first frame' of 104422, which if correct would make yours an early 1977.

oldjapanesebikes wrote:The frame number chart on Jarmo's site shows a 1977 'first frame' of 104422, which if correct would make yours an early 1977.

Correct. That chart is better

I also have a 1976 and a junker like yours

Mine is a '76. Clocks are blue faced, '77 clocks are brown. As far as I know, gold tanks for the GT's was not an optional color.