Taillight assembly question

[NAB]

Greetings All,

My first post here. I've been lurking for a bit since my son bought himself a '77 GT500 several weeks ago, just trying to get up to speed with the Suzuki two strokes. Personally, I'm into Kawasaki triples and have a garage full of those projects. My son's username is "22Garnet22".

As he's said his bike is very close to original. One thing that isn't is the taillight assy. Can anyone tell me if the taillight on the GT500 is model specific or do any of the brackets from the GT triples bolt right on? thanks.

Neil

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Welcome NAB we may convert you yet to some Suzukis,
The actual light consisting of the lens and backing plate for the GT500 B is shared with a few other bikes such as the GT750 B model of 77 but the light unit assy is no longer available.
The GS 400 model also uses the same light unit and it is still available, but the backing plate on that model is black and not chrome as the GT ones were. At least you can get one of those new and rechrome the backing plate as I did.
The bracket that holds the light unit onto the fender is another story, that was changed over to the square topped type when the bike first used the dogbone style light unit in 76. This was an upgrade from the older and smaller round topped bracket that was used from back in 68 on previous T500 models.
You may need to do some ebay searching to see whats out there for sale or someone here may have one to spare.

[NAB]

Thanks for the reply.

Do you know if the entire assembly off a '76 GT750 would fit the GT500?? I've got a line on one of these and it might do until an original can be found if it uses the same mounting holes. Thx.

N.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

That I do not know, its possible, but then again the holes may not line up or the top may and not the bottom.

[GT500Andy]

The holes in the rear fender should be the same seeing that there was no change in fender for the 77 model according to the parts book anyway

Andy

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Andy that's a valid point, but the ones from the GT750 have a pressed slot for the wire harness to pass under the front portion while the GT500 ones do not. There are some differences but unless you have them all in front of you its hard to say exactly what they are.

[NAB]

Thanks, guys. I may send a template of the hole pattern to the guy with the taillight just to make sure it's going to fit before any $$ changes hands.

N.

[Suzsmokeyallan]

Now thats a good way to make sure the holes will match. Let us know if they are the same.