1983 GT550ES - my take

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datsunrides
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1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

Here is my take on what a GT550 may have looked like if they still made them into 1983. Kinda cheating here as I am simply (not really) dropping the GT motor into a 83' GS750ES chassis. This idea started about 4 years ago with the thought of crossing a 2 stroke triple with a more modern chassis. I have always like the smoothness of the suzuki triples and the looks of the mid 80's street bikes. I first ran across a GT550 that had sat outside for many years, but supposedly "ran when parked" that I picked up for $75. After a little work cleaning everything up motor wise, it actually did start up and ran fairly well. the rest of the bike was pretty much junk, due to rust and crash damage, so I had my donor engine. Next was the GS750ES. Came across this about 6 months later while looking for any ES model. This was perfect for me as the motor was blown, but the paint and bodywork were in very good shape. Purchased that for $250. Managed to strip both bikes to the point it was ready for the swap, then got sidetracked on car projects and pushed the bike into the shed for the last 3 years. Finally, about 2 weeks ago, I decided it's time to try and make this work. Rolled everything into the garage and tried dropping the motor into the cradle. Not going to work, as the motor is a fair amount longer than the GS lump. Took a deep breath and broke out the sawzall and cut off the cradle from just below the headstock to a point roughly where the kickstand bolts on. Put the engine back in and started lining everything up to start making new mounts. Here is where the pics start.

Cut off the original rear lower tabs and made new ones to match the engine locaton, then wleded them on. One note, while it can't be seen at this point, the engine actually is offset about 5/8" to the left, so as to have the countershaft line up with the rear wheel. I figured the little bit of offset would not affect anything, and I would not have to deal with offsetting the sprockets to match the centered engine.

Image

Right rear upper.

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Engine sitting in the frame with strap holding front at this point.

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In this shot, you can see where I will need to make the new cradle attach. Going to be a tight fit.

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And because I have a short attention span ( :lol: ), especially when I hit a roadblock, I decided to try and fit the GT guage cluster to the GS upper triple. I think it came out reasonably good.

Image

That's it for now. Need to work on the cradle and front mounts now.

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Suzukidave »

Mark , i made the sub frame for my GTX-R project from the stock frame viewtopic.php?f=21&t=776" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
the older i get the faster i was
datsunrides
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

I was thinking of doing that, but the GS is square tube vs. the GT round tube. I know it would work the same, (metal does not know it's shape) but for me, I would rather have it all square in this case. It would have saved me a fair amount of work though!

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Suzukidave »

I wonder if a Katana 750 engine subframe that is steel for easy welding and square tube to look the same and it bolt it . This one has free shipping http://www.ebay.com/itm/Katana-GSX-750- ... 27bd61ebfa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
the older i get the faster i was
datsunrides
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

Looks like it could be made to work. In my case, I just got some 1" x .062 box tubing and am just going to bend them up myself.

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

A year later and its almost done. Got most of the work done this last month. Still need to figure out footpegs/controls then tear her down to do final welding then paint the frame and clean everything else up. Hopefully its all wrapped up and back on the road by spring. I did end up adding a GS1100 rear wheel that is a little wider than the 750 rear and mounted a 130 section Pirelli Sport Demon. The front wheel will be painted to match the rear and get a 100 section Pirelli to match. Currently has a huge 120 section! To add a technical question in, I had to remove the head when I first placed it in the frame, but it has copper head gaskets, not the composite ones Suzuki sells. Is it OK to dress the copper ones to reuse? If there is any doubt, I will just install the new ones I have. In general I thought the copper ones could be reused. Sorry the other pics are down. Webshots shut down and the *new* site does not seem to be working yet even though I was able to transfer the albums there.

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Suzukidave »

Wow .. that came out great , looks like it belongs there :up:
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Zook-e »

Loved my old 750ES. That would be a hoot with a ported GT550 engine. :mrgreen:
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Alan H
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Alan H »

Excellent. I intend fitting GS550 wheels, brakes and swing arm to my GT550 M later this year as it is resto-ed. All easy to put back to standard as it appears the swing arm is a straight swap. Not looked at the details of mounting the rear brake pedal/cylinder yet, but that shouldn't cause too much heartache.
All the bits are currently waiting for the K resto to be completed, which is another tale!
Think of how stupid the average person is, then realise that half of them are more stupid than that.
datsunrides
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

Suzukidave wrote:Wow .. that came out great , looks like it belongs there :up:
Thanks a lot.
Zook-e wrote:Wow .. that came out great , looks like it belongs there :up:
I'll keep it stock for now, but when it comes time to rebuild, all bets are off. :twisted:

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Rassie »

That looks fantastic, almost stock, I had to look twice to see the GT550 motor in there. I bet if you paint it black you will fool everyone until you fire it up.
Rassie,

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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Alan H »

Any more progress Mark? Looking forward to seeing the finished job.
Think of how stupid the average person is, then realise that half of them are more stupid than that.
datsunrides
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

Hopefully soon. The bike has been completely torn down so I can refinish the pieces. I will post up pics of all the work I have done when I start reassembling within the next couple months. I've started looking at my next mad scientist project, T500 in a GS500 frame. Looks to be a better *fit* than this was. 8)

Mark
datsunrides
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by datsunrides »

Here are pics of the frame sandblasted, epoxy primed, and finished painted. (not in order) Sorry, the painted pic is kinda bad, but there should be more in the coming weeks. Haven't taken a pic yet, but I also sandblasted the engine and will be painting the cases VHT aluminum. Not sure what I'm doing with the top end and the side covers. I was working on a polish job on the covers, but it seems the more I sand, the more imperfections show up! :evil: May end up painting those too. Also expecting a new Hagon monoshock this week. May be able to get this in roller form by the end of May. (lots of car shows coming up)

Mark
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Re: 1983 GT550ES - my take

Post by Suzukidave »

Any updates :D
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