Project 74 GT550

[r3tro74]

Nice website. This has been a real inspiration to get started on my 1974 GT550. This bike has some personal history to it. A friend of mine purchased the bike from someone who had taken it apart and left it in a garage. The friend basically just re assembled it to sell. I kind of liked it because I had never seen/heard of anything like it before, so he sold it to me for $600.00. I had the bike for a few years and rode it often, I ended up meeting the woman who would become my wife on it.
She liked to go riding too and we rode double on it for a summer. The 550, while capable of riding double, was not the ideal bike for this situation. I ended up selling it for $800.00 and buying a Honda Shadow. Fast forward about 6 years- married and 2 kids Iater, the wife doesn’t go riding any more so I sold the Honda that only I used and bought a travel trailer that the whole family uses. I told my wife one day “I never should have sold that old Suzuki” about 2 weeks after I said that, the person I sold it to contacted me and told me he was going to sell it and if I wanted it back I could buy it for what I sold it to him for. I picked it up the next day. It looks like he took care of it, even fixed the starter. I rode it a few times last summer and now it’s back home in my garage.

[Madbuffalo]

A great history there for sure and a nice looking bike! Where abouts in Michigan are you located? You'll find we have a faithful group of Michigan riders here and usually meet up at our state's big events (Baldwin Blessing, Gilmore Ride/Show, Muskegon Bike Time, Flint Bikes on the Bricks, etc.). Welcome aboard.

Josh

[r3tro74]

I am in the South West corner of Michigan, North of Saint Joseph and South of South Haven. Yeah, I had it up to the Baldwin Blessing when I first got it. Rode it there and back, about 150 miles each way in cold and misty rain. I remember lounging aroung in front of the wood stove for about a week after I got back home trying to warm back up after that one! The bike performed perfectly, that 2 stroke just loves the cool spring air.

Bryan

[Madbuffalo]

Cold and rainy... yeah, that sounds about right. Every year the weather's horrible yet each time I think "Maybe this trip to Baldwin will be different".

[r3tro74]

I spent about a day and a half disassembling the bike.. probably will only take that long to get it back together (yeah right). The idea was to take off things that looked ugly and only put back on things that look cool. A lot of this stuff is not going back on

[r3tro74]

More Pics.

[imquattro]

Looks very familiar......
LABLE EVERY FASTENER!
You may find, like I have, that your memory, while promising to recall the order & placement of said fasteners, IS LYING !!!!

[r3tro74]

Yes, there are many different fasteners to keep track of. This bike has been apart and back together before (not by me) and there was several times when the same part had a 10mm wrench size, then an 8mm or a 12mm. Looks like someone raided the spare bolt bucket a few times putting this back together last time. So everything is sorted into labeled zip locks. Specific important bolts like swing arm, shock, and motor mounts are labeled. When I get around to doing the engine, I will keep better track of things. I do a lot of car stuff and things can get messed up with the wrong fasteners, too short and threads pull out and too long in a blind hole will break things. I also took many super high resolution pictures with the wife’s fancy camera to supplement my memory!

Thanks for the advice.

Here is a couple of resized pics interm disassembly

[r3tro74]

Still on the fence deciding which way to go with the front forks, so I started working on the other end.

[r3tro74]

I spent some time today getting the forks back together and cleaned up. My engine gasket set is on its way- no mail today due to President's Day.

[imquattro]

Looking good!
I'm so jealous of you guys who have shiny (albeit dirty) parts to start with!
Makes the cleaning process SOOOOO much simpler.

[r3tro74]

Yeah well, most of the stuff on the rear of the bike is preserved under a protective coating of cooked on grease. I haven't tried cleaning the rear spokes off yet, hard to tell if they are rusty and crusty or just crusty.

I actually did have some time in the forks. They had large black spots all over them. I started out by knocking the casting seams down with a Rol-Loc pad on a die grinder, then sanding in one direction with medium sandpaer followed by sanding at 90 degrees across with fine sandpaper and finally a sisal wheel with compound.

[r3tro74]

More disassembly progress.
Found a previous welding repair job done to the starter roller clutch

DSC01346.JPG

[jabcb]

Its a good time to upgrade to the improved clutch/started clutch used in the A/B model.

Service bulletin GT-26: http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/techb ... 022-26.pdf

used assembly on eBay for $51 with shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-GT550-Cl ... 0785500365

new parts on eBay for $57 with shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-GT550-19 ... 0531295606

[r3tro74]

[quote="jabcb"]Its a good time to upgrade to the improved clutch/started clutch used in the A/B model.

Service bulletin GT-26: http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/techb ... 022-26.pdf

used assembly on eBay for $51 with shipping:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-GT550-Cl ... 0785500365

quote]

Thanks, I'll take your advice.
The hub side of my welded-on starter roller clutch is looks all lumpy and not round anyway. Good additional info in that Suzuki TSB, I'll have to double check the wiring harness on the way back together. I'm pretty sure all the colors match up on the connectors, but the bike VIN tag is dated early in 1974 (MFD 2/74)