1969 T125 Stinger

[Insaniac]

Alright so here's my newest bike, a Suzuki T125 Stinger. I never thought I'd have a chance to own one of these, but the price was right so I scooped this up as soon as I got the chance. It's pretty complete, but it was sitting outside for a long time before the guy I bought it from stored it, so everything is pretty weathered. It came with the original tank and an extra. I'll probably use the green one until I can fix up the original.

I took the heads off and put them back on quickly for the pics, I just realized I put them on upside down. Haha. I've been having some trouble removing the exhaust. I got a tool and it bent it. They don't want to budge at all. Would it be safe to apply heat? I wouldn't want to do any damage to the cylinders.

Anyway, I hope to have it running sometime soon. I have to sell my old bike to fund this project (a Honda CL90). But I'm already getting started.

[diamondj]

You might need to see if you can pull the cylinder with the exhaust attached and then soak the whole thing in a 5 gallon bucket filled high enough to cover the cylinder with a 50-50 mix of ATF and acetone.

Jim

[Insaniac]

I was able to get the exhausts off thanks to the suggestions of you guys in my other topic. I'm going to crack the engine case open very soon and clean it out and see what needs to be done, at the very least I'm going to replace the oil seals. I'll post some pictures of the process when I do it. I think the cylinders still look good, I'm gonna get a new set of rings. When I tested the compression it was at 70psi and 80psi.

I was wondering what's the best way to clean out the oil lines, I guess shooting some pressurized oil through the tubes would work. Would something from an aerosol can be fine? Like normal penetrating oil?

I ordered a gasket set but the guy sent me the wrong one (for a TS-250), he told me he's gonna send the correct one ASAP. There aren't really any gaskets for this engine tho', the case is sealed with sealant. I got some hondabond that I'm gonna use unless someone can suggest something better. I don't really like those silicone sealants since that stuff can clog oil passages.

I put together this list of the seals, if anything is wrong on them feel free to tell me. I think I got them all down but if I'm missing something let me know. I determined whether the seal needs the dust lip or not based on NOS pictures. All of them are readily available from bearing/oil seal vendors except the center crankshaft seal. It's double lipped and different from the others. I guess you might be able to use two 20x52x7 seals facing opposite ways, but I'll get a NOS one. I'm not too keen on getting old rubber tho'.

09283-20011 20x37x8 ADL LH crankshaft seal

09289-20003 20x52x14 doublelipped center crankshaft seal

09283-26006 20x52x8 ADL RH crankshaft seal

09283-20015 20x52x7 ADL transmission drive shaft seal

09285-06006 6x19x7 A push rod seal

[Insaniac]

I pulled the engine off and opened up the sides. I'm debating whether I really want to open up the engine or not. The kick starter made some noises before, but it turned out to be because of all the gunk on the left side. The right side is extremely clean and has never been opened before as far as I can tell. Left side is dirty but I'm gonna clean it all around for sure. Both cylinders had oil in them and I can see it on the crankshaft, the left side looks good but the right side's oil is kinda whitish, which I read is what happens when water gets into the oil. This is what makes me want to crack it open. Since it's only on the right side maybe some water got into the oil lines or the cylinder somehow, it was sitting for over 30 years. When I took off the right side cover everything looked extremely clean and fine, no signs of the whitish oil so I'm sure no water was getting in that way.

What are your guys opinions on this? If I wasn't so strapped for cash I would just open it and replace the seals all around, but I have the decide what my priorities are now and where I should put my money. What do you think?

Whoops, I almost forgot to post the pics.


Left side. It was pretty dirty in here. I guess my bike was a spiders' nest at some time, as there were alot of webs and some old egg sacks.


Right side after I got the cover off. Never underestimate the power of a block of wood.


Clutch pieces out..


Clutch off and the side exposed.

Sorry the pics are so big, but I like to see the detail, and a few years from now when resolutions get even higher, this will probably look the size of a pixel.

[Bloop2]

Always liked the Stinger....looks like you're going to need a clutch basket for starters and from the looks of the black goop between the engines cases, it looks like someone has had it apart before. There really isn't much left to take apart, might as well go all the way and split the cases, wouldn't hurt to have a look inside considering the clutch basket is toast.

[Insaniac]

You have a good eye, I hadn't even noticed the broken clutch basket when I first took it apart, these high res photos don't let anything hide. I hadn't looked at the pictures until after posting earlier, the sealant must have really been caked on as there's drips all over the case when you clean away the oil. I spent some time trying to scrape it off before deciding to deal with it when I have the case in sections. After observing some of the previous owner's handywork I guess I'm gonna have to take some more time to look over this closely. I thought the wiring wasn't cut into either but now I'm starting to notice weird cuts and exposed wire soldered together. Sometimes I wonder what people try to do with these things, there's no room for a stereo.

At first I thought this was going to be as easy as my last project, but more and more things keep creeping up. At least it isn't missing any major components, but the ones that I have replaced have been slowly nickle and diming me to death. 10 dollars here, 20 dollars there, it keeps adding up. Suzuki part prices seem to be a lot higher then honda too, especially for this bike, if you're even able to find the parts. Luckily it shares quite a few parts on the frame with the TC120, I sorta regret not picking one of those up and putting on a stinger tank and seat, it would have cost less then half the price and I wouldn't be so scared about damaging anything. I have an extra tank so I'm sorta thinking of playing around with that option in the future.. I like how this engine is built a lot more then my Honda CL90, that one was so simple I lost interest pretty quickly, and it's no fun when things work right. Not that this one is really complicated, but it has much more of a sexiness that I can't describe...

[Alan H]

Complete strip & rebuild in the last couple of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics (UK).
I believe it's available your side of the pond too.

[Insaniac]

Hey guys, I have some questions about replacing the rectifier with a newer 6v reg/rectifier.

The one I'm thinking of using is one of these types:



Here's a wiring diagram for the bike.



It looks to me like the red fused wire would be the yellow wire on the harness diagram. I know where the battery wire and ground go. I was wondering about r/g and y/g wire in the diagram, what do they do? It looks to me like the y/g wire is the power source wire, but what is the r/g for? Unless one of them is a ground, the more I look at this thing I start mixing things up in my head. The whole way the ignition switch is confuses me, every time I think I understand it something mixes me up.

I was also wondering how easy it would be to convert to 12v, I know about the bulbs and all that, mainly just the wiring for the 12v reg and I noticed how the ignition coils connect directly to the horn and some other stuff for when the bike is in "day mode". I figure it'd be easier to just not try for now.

[jabcb]

Your bike has a full-wave single-phase alternator.
The rectifier has four diodes. The r/g & y/g wires are alternator AC wires.

The alternator has a lighting coil that is switched on when the headlights are on. (See ignition switch circuit, SE & C2 terminal codes.)

Your bike doesn't have a voltage regulator -- it uses the battery to regulate voltage.
Upgrading to a modern rectifier/regulator is worth doing.

The rectifier/regulator you have may be for a half-wave alternator. If so, that you can not use it on your bike.
Alternatively their diagram might just be misleading.
What brand/model rectifier/regulator do you have?

For upgrade to 12V, the horn & ignition coils are 6V and would have to be replaced.
Also, the alternator might not produce enough output at 12V.

[Insaniac]

Yeah I was planning on upgrading to a modern regulator/rectifier. I haven't bought one yet, but the one I was looking was an upgrade for a honda ct70, but I don't remember if it's for a newer engine replacement which may be for a 3 phase. I already have an extra newer full bridge rectifier, which I forgot I had until just now, I'll put a picture of it after this paragraph. Is there any real benefit in using a regulator/rectifier to just a modern rectifier? I thought the r/g & y/g were just the stator AC, so wiring shouldn't be a problem, I just stared at a diagram in the manual a bit more and now it makes sense to me, atleast for now. I don't like how the rectifier is exposed on this bike, makes me worry about water damaging the electricals.


This is a rectifier I have, they sell these at radioshack for like $4. I used one on my other bike a little while back.

Yeah I'm not sure if the alternator would produce enough power for 12v, I don't know if anyone makes a replacement that would easily bolt in or not. I was thinking I could rewire it a little so the ignition coils would be seperate and not connect with the rest of the wiring so it wouldn't mess with all of the 12v, but realisticly I'm not going to spend my time doing that, it was just a thought.

[jabcb]

The RadioShack rectifier you have will work fine. Where did they mount the rectifier?

[Insaniac]

Do you see that little square below the seat next to the oil canister? That's the rectifier.

I was looking around and I saw this two prong type rectifier made for some other suzuki's. What can you tell me about it? Is it better then just a radioshack rectifier?



I also see this type for honda, I think they're NOS so they might not be any better then something new. I like the way it looks tho'.



A lot of other options are more expensive (like $40-$60 and up) and I figure won't be much better since I assume this bike doesn't put out the most power.

[dyrberg123]

Complete strip & rebuild in the last couple of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics (UK).
I believe it's available your side of the pond too.

Hi Alan, do you have the exact issue numbers as i can't find them? I would be really helpful!

Cheers

[Sandman]

Summer's about over- any updates or progress on this one?