1972 GT550 Indianapolis parts

[racerxnico]

A few months ago, a friend of mine contacted me to ask if I wanted an abandon motorcycle found at a site slated for demolition. I went out to investigate and found a partially disassembled 1972 Suzuki GT550 Indianapolis. In spite of its rough shape, I was tempted to take it, but it really wasn't practical with the room available in my garage (the exhaust system & top end of the motor were missing and the bottom end was a lump rusted solid).

I hate to see old bikes die and was sorry I couldn't offer this one a home, but I did get my friend to allow me an hour on the site to strip the parts I wanted off the bike. I've been slowly making my way through the parts I took and generally doing a little cleaning and assessment (first baby means it took quite a while and frankly didn't get quite as much done as I wanted).

The parts I have available for sale are:

-Fuel tank. Overall decent shape, but has a few dings and will need the interior derusted and I'd recommend lining it. No evidence opin holes or anything and it feels solid all around. A big positive is the fact that it has both tank badges.

-Petcock. I didn't get around to stripping this part, but the knob turns and appears to be in decent shape.

-carbs. I completely striped and dipped these. Two of the three are in really good shape (gaskets are still in tact). Third carb has issues. The bowl was filled with corrosion and float pin was completely seized. I tried to use heat and learned that you shouldn't do that near brass floats (one side popped open). Also, one of the tubes (can't recall if it was the idle jet tube or main jet tube) broke off. Still some decent parts.

- seat pan. I scrapped off the seat foam and any loose rust that I could and the pan is nice and solid. The plastic edge trim and rubber bumpers remain in place.

- right side cover. Looks like someone lost the original blue one, replaced it with a gold one and put a rattle can black paint job on it. Needs a repaint.

- rear fender. Not perfect, but very nice.

- tail light. Chrome has some imperfections (not quite pitting - more like raised linear splitting) along the top and rust where the license plate bracket attaches.

- stock handlebar. good shape

- right and left switchgear. Need some restoration. Some rust on interior bits. One wire connector end missing.

- throttle and choke cables. Mostly kept these for the aluminum junction boxes (throttle goes from a single cable to 4 and choke goes from 1 to 3). Upper cables are cut, but lowers are in tact and may be serviceable.

- instrument cluster. Gauges were completely clouded white when I got them. I took them apart and spent a little time wet sanding them and the cleared up a lot. I imagine a little more time and effort could get them even clearer, but they do have a little crazing too. The trip reset knob is missing.

- quad leading shoe drum brake and front axle. spins nicely, but will need drum to be surfaced. Linkages have some rust and one spindle bolt on each side is broken off.

- front brake torsion bars. Not sure if these are supposed to be completely flat, but they have a slight bow. Chrome looks good.

- Brake lever and perch.

- Ram air covers. I started hitting these with a brass wheel and they will clean and polish great, but need dome more elbow grease.

Happy to provide more detailed pics of individual items upon request. Please email me directly at j_counter@yahoo.com with offers for anything you're interested in.

thanks

jason

[Alan H]

Such a shame that an early 550 has been left so bad.
Pity the engine casings aren't OK, I might be interested in the bare top/bottom cases?

[racerxnico]

Agreed. I hate to see bikes like this neglected and abandoned. but hoping saving some of these parts will help others keep theirs alive. If I would have had more time, I might have tried to pull the bottom end out of the frame, but it looked like there was a good chance the cases wouldn't be salvageable. There doesn't appear to be much pent up demand for the parts, but I'm not in a hurry to sell so I'll probably wait a while longer to see if anyone needs anything & if not, maybe I'll try selling them on ebay.