T500 Crank seals

[A.Holley]

Ok, the time has come.
I am sick of topping up the gearbox oil and have decided to replace the crank seals on my T500.
Apart from the oil loss, the bike starts and runs well but is a tad smoky.
I figure OEM parts, if available are going to be at least 40 yrs old, and no matter how well they are stored, they aren’t going to be optimal.
Does anyone know of an alternative, aftermarket suppliers?

Regards
Andrew Holley

[Zunspec4]

Hello Andrew

The inner crank seals are still available direct from Suzuki (OIL SEAL p/n 09283-30003) . I don't believe they would be selling 40 year old stock so the likelihood is that they are of much more recent manufacture. I would always go for genuine over aftermarket if at all possible.

Cheers Geoff

[dollydog]

left hand seals also availible from alpha sports - part number 09283-25014. $14.18c plus post
cheers, dd.

[dorT500]

I too have had my doubts about buying the crankshaft seals from Suzuki.....but I have the last two times I had a T500 crankshaft rebuilt. At the time of the last rebuild, not all that long ago, there was an ebay seller in Canada listing T/GT500 crankshaft seal kit....all four and I almost bought them. I did wonder if the seals were reproductions or the product of tracking down generic seals the same size/type and putting a kit together....I dunno. I did not want to gamble and went ahead and bought OEM.

Yes, we can get the center and leftside crankseals from Suzuki America here in the states but we still have to order the rightside one from overseas.

Why is that? I have to assume that the Suzuki Company no longer makes or farms out the rightside seal and maybe has not made them for many years. Just a finite number of those rightside seals left?...... and we are buying up to 40 year old rightside seals also?

Unless there is another application, another market, for the center and lefthand seals that I am not aware of, then yes, I think it is possible that new old stock seals were/are being repackaged by Suzuki. I have always meant to ask a dealership if there is a certain number at Suzuki America I could call and get a difinitive answer about this and several other rubber parts.

Buying old 'new' rubber can be very dissappointing sometimes. An example, many years ago I bought a new old pair of T500 front foot pegs that had been sitting on a shelf collecting dust, still in the original packaging from a very old Suzuki dealership I had walked into in Houston. Long story short, maybe a couple of months later, the rubber started disintegrating. My original pegs were in better condition than the new ones. I tossed the new ones.


Same sort of deterioration goes for, from a couple of posts I have read, NOS GT500 fork boots.

hhmmmm.....just now found this stumbling around the web...in Canada...

https://www.diablocycle.com/Suzuki-T500 ... l-Set.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

Looks like they invite questions and it says made in Japan to OEM specs....

cruzinimage??

[A.Holley]

Thanks for the responses guys. Much appreciated.
I might look further into the set of seals from Canada, they are cheap enough to take a gamble on.if you know of any other suppliers, I’ll look into those to.
I am just glad I don’t need to buy bearings.
Funny thing is, I just rebuilt a Jawa 250 two stroke, nearly all the seals and bearings including gearbox are standard ones purchased from local bearing service here in out back Australia for under $80.00
And how about a piston kit for $35.

Regards
Andrew

[dollydog]

all i can add is: be careful when i have my cranks rebuilt by sep in kegworth, their seals are always spot on, but i don't know where they get them from - but they are as good as original, perhaps they are original?
one day, i bought a fully rebuilt crank [not done by sep] and fitted it. the engine ran perfectly the first day and went downhill soon after. i stripped the engine and both centre seals had virtually disintigrated, there were bits of black rubber everywhere. after getting in touch with the seller, the outside seals [which were perfect] were suzuki and the centre seals were repro's and obviously didn't like petrol with ethanol in it. like i said, be careful what you buy and where from.
cheers, dd.
p.s. i just phoned sep in kegworth and they get all their gt and t seals from either crooks in barrow in furness or robinson's foundry [google it], and they are genuine suzuki parts hope this helps. you might have to wait a bit longer for them, but it will be worth it for peace of mind.
robinson's foundry have the full set for the t500.
r/h - £10.81. - 09283-35002.
middle - £15.05 each. - 09283-30003.
l/h - £10.39. - 09283-25014
plus postage of course

[dorT500]

Ok, I just now happened to come across this. These are the ones I mentioned seeing sometime ago.......I recognize the listing from the picture of the seals. Since then they have added that gasket set. Just thought I would throw this into the mix. Degree of quality? I don't know. I think I would want to confirm they are at least double lip seals and ask what type of rubber are they made from.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-T500-Ti ... Sw7I5TwCNT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

[jabcb]

Those are aftermarket seals. I’ve had good luck with aftermarket gasket sets but prefer genuine Suzuki seals if they are available.

Paul Miller has several set of genuine seals listed on eBay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-T500-GT ... 2292295884

[Alan H]

all i can add is: be careful
p.s. i just phoned sep in kegworth and they get all their gt and t seals from either crooks in barrow in furness or robinson's foundry [google it], and they are genuine suzuki parts

That may be so on the 500, but a good friend let sep do his 550 crank and as 550 rods aren't available any more, they used aprilia rods that are 1mm longer. Yes it did cause issues and the pistons hit the head(s). When he complained, sep denied all issues and would not help. Good job it wasn't me as the fire brigade wouldn't have left yet.
Anyway, he had the crank redone by Chris Applebee. He really does know what he's doing and sorted my GT750 crank out nicely.

The story if anyone wants a decent read - CLICKY LINK

[dollydog]

alan, i've never had a problem with sep. everything they've done for me has been bob on, including crank rebuilds. they did the barrels for my gt285 and crank for the big bang gt250, they've moved nock pins too. everything perfect
cheers, dd.