Project 74 GT550

[r3tro74]

A little more progress. Been sorting out the wiring harness routing. Not sure if the original gauge cluster is going back on. Might just go with a small tachometer. I am reusing the original turn signals and tail light. I removed the "stalks" from the turn signals and bolted them direct to the bike. The current project is to figure out the final position of the tail/brake light and build a bracket for it. I have a painter lined up, but need to get the final fit of the seat done this week. Also still deciding an a color. I liked the black and chrome, however there seems to be black Harleys everwhere I look lately. I'm thinking to keep it simple with a metallic dark grey and reuse the factory SUZUKI and GT550 badges.

[r3tro74]

Finished the final fitting of the seat and tail light bracket fabrication and dropped the seat, tank, and side covers off to get painted. I decided on Toyota "Magnetic Grey Metallic" for the color. Hopefully I see it back soon. There is a small dent in the tank and the seat has some small lumps that are going to be massaged out. Dark colors show everything ya know.
The oil lines, tank, and pump are installed and bled. I replaced the line from the tank to the pump with a transparent blue fuel/oil line. It was difficult to get all the air bubbles out of this line. I finally filled it from the bottom up by using the baby medicine syringe method on the pump bleed screw hole and forcing oil up into the tank.

One of my ignition coils is open ckt. New coils are on the way.

My battery will be here soon.

The Jemco exhaust is installed.

She is getting close now
.

[r3tro74]

The Rex Caunt coils came in the mail the other day. I ordered them on July 6th and they were here in Michigan July 12th. Quick shipping especially considering a they were ordered on a Friday.
I cut the wires off the old coils and crimped on appropriate sized connectors using dielectric grease and shrink tube to seal out the elements.

[r3tro74]

I rebuilt the front brake caliper and master cylinder and am a little disappointed with the feel of the brake lever. I did figure out that with the bleeder open, the lever will contact the handle bar before bottoming out the piston in the M/C. I temporarily slid the M/C out on the bars so the lever did not hit and bled out a bit more air. The rubber hose moves slightly to one side when applying the brake, so maybe just needs a new SS line.
The tank, seat, and side covers are not back from the body shop yet, so I temp rigged up some surplus boat stuff to get it running. Maybe throw on a couple of ratchet straps and ride it like this to the body shop to ask when my parts will be ready?
I did at least get it running. A few min after starting, it fouled out the right cylinder. Then there was this piercing loud and rhythmic beeping sound. I thought it was some kind of overheat alarm like my outboard boat motor has so I immediately shut it down. Turns out it was the barn smoke detector. I guess the boat gas + the oil injection was a bit much for it.
Hopefully I’ll get to mess around with it some more in a few days..

[Coyote]

RADICAL MAN!! Now that's what I call a bitsa. Love the seat. It actually looks very comfortable.

[bill in okc]

I've also ordered the Rex Caunt coils. I am hoping they arrive tomorrow. As far as the front brake my lever will not hit the bar but stopping power is weak. I've been looking for a better set of pads, but no luck yet.

[desmocat]

I rebuilt the front brake caliper and master cylinder and am a little disappointed with the feel of the brake lever. I did figure out that with the bleeder open, the lever will contact the handle bar before bottoming out the piston in the M/C. I temporarily slid the M/C out on the bars so the lever did not hit and bled out a bit more air. The rubber hose moves slightly to one side when applying the brake, so maybe just needs a new SS line.

Try squeezing the lever full on, then apply a zip tie to it overnight. Many times this will permit residual air bubbles in the system to migrate up to the open master cycliner valve, and create a firm lever. This is what I just did when rebuilding the brake system on my GS1100.

[Madbuffalo]

Sounds like it's really coming along Bryan.

With the performance mods, recliner seat, & high capacity tank you must be going with a sport touring theme.

Is that an automotive lift in your garage? I'm jealous if it is.

Josh

[r3tro74]

Ralph- I’ll try that brake lever trick tonight, thanks. I can only squeeze it to the bars with the bleeder open. It just seems like it should bottom out before that happens. Maybe my lever is bent. I don’t have it together enough to ride it yet it may be it stops fine.

With the performance mods, recliner seat, & high capacity tank you must be going with a sport touring theme.

The old “Cruise-A-Day 6” outboard fuel tank probably would actually last a day on the bike.

Is that an automotive lift in your garage? I'm jealous if it is.

I worked at a GM dealer for what seems like the entire first half of my life. A few years ago, I got a chance to get out of it. I hit the door running and haven’t looked back. I did hang on to my at home workshop that I had put together for “side jobs” that kept me going through the winter months when work at the dealer got spread thin.


I finally figured out the problem I’m having with the right cylinder. Part of the throttle linkage bell crank cracked and caused the slide in the right cylinder carb to sit about 3/16” lower than the other 2 carb slides. I spent a lot of time sorting through the manuals and had all 3 set up exactly the same when checked with a .020” wire. That arm must have snapped after I installed the carbs and started it up.
I posted some pics it the “parts wanted” and am hoping someone has one to sell.
Thanks
Bryan

[pearljam724]

Great work. How did you polish the motor cases ? What did you use and how did you go about it ?

[r3tro74]

Great work. How did you polish the motor cases ? What did you use and how did you go about it ?

Well, I got some stuff from http://www.caswellplating.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; a few years ago for polishing aluminum boat parts. What I found to work for me is a 10” sisal wheel mounted to a bench grinder. (The wheel in the picture is worn down to about 6”) The grinder is mounted to an old cast iron floor fan pedestal. This makes it easier to get an irregular shaped part in contact with the wheel and 10” wheel would contact the bench if the grinder was bench mounted . The grinder works OK, but if you lean into it too hard it’s easy to slow it down. I use their “Black” compound. This is an aggressive wheel and compound. It gets difficult taking it to the next levels of finer wheels and compounds because aluminum is so easy to scratch. It’s like the carpet in my living room- if part of it is brushed in a different direction it looks different than the rest of it.
I sand it down with 220 sand paper, then run it across the wheel a few times. A rake is necessary to have to dress the wheel. They had a motorcycle polish kit that fits a hand drill, but I’m not so sure that would be aggressive enough to work well with old cruddy parts. They really need to be sanded down first and polished with a higher speed that a hand drill.
For parts that are already polished, I would only use a cloth and liquid compound because its easy to mess up a good polish job.

[r3tro74]

Does anyone if a 74 gt550 gas tank has the same dimensions as a 74 gt380? The parts catalog lists different numbers, but they look the same. Thanks

[H2RICK]

AFAIK, they should be the same tank, dimension-wise and fitment-wise.

I see that the '74 380 tank shows as 44110-33100 (or -33101)-XXX where the XXX denotes paint colour. The -33101 is a supersession number....probably because of a new supplier for those tanks or some kind of a slight change that wouldn't affect fitment.
The '74 550 tank shows as 44110-34100-XXX....and also later as -34101 as well.

Changes may have been made to the badge mounting or the cap mounting or some kind of inconsequential detail like that.

[r3tro74]

AFAIK, they should be the same tank, dimension-wise and fitment-wise.

Thanks!

[Coyote]

72 and 73 are the same but the are not interchangeable with the 74 thru 77 tanks which are also the same, The 72-73 tanks had a much more rearward petcock mounting placement due to the carb mounting position and extended fins on the head. I trial fitted a 73 tank on my 75 and the tank hit the frame and lacked about an inch of going all the way down at the rear. The later tanks won't fit the earlier frames, once again because of the petcock mounting placement. It was moved over an inch forward and would hit the head f for the fins that were chopped off in 74.
So, the 72 and 73 380 and 550 tanks were identical as are the 74 thru 77 tanks.