New Member, Old Zuk

[Bigshankhank]

Howdy everyone, just joined up having finished a little horse trading on my first Suzuki, a 1970 TC90. It is currently riding on the cargo rack on the back of my Jeep waiting for me to take it to its new home. I was told it runs, although for the grand sum of $50 I am happy to find that the engine turns, the rear tire looks like a recent replacement and based on the new-ish screws on the carb and ignition covers it has had at least some measure of recent work done (for better or worse I don't know).
Anyway, could someone confirm something for me as there is kind of conflicting info on the web. Between the TS and TC there appears to be different seats, this bike has the shorter seat, and chrome vs painted fenders. This bike has a painted rear fender but no front one. Some sites tell me it is a TC, others say TS. The frame is stamped TSxxxxx but I read that they were all stamped that way. Also, it has a large "T" handle on the left side above the primary sprocket but does that absolutely confirm the dual range tranny? I just want to be sure of exactly which model I have.
Sadly like most bikes this size and this age there's no title or key, the lights are gone but otherwise it appears to be all there.
I'll be asking more questions in the coming weeks.

[jabcb]

For general info & pics of just about all of the Suzuki models look at:http://www.suzukicycles.org

US Suzuki sales brochure for of 70 TC90:


US Suzuki sales brochure of 70 TS90:


VIN for Suzukis back then started with the model.
So the VIN for a TS90 would be TS90-xxxxx.
Motor will also have a VIN. Most bikes were sold with frame & motor VINs that did not match.

Have fun with your new project.

[Bigshankhank]

Thanks, well it appears I have a TC90 Blazer after all, awesome. However this one has a chrome exhaust guard and black pipe per the TS version, and has lost its luggage rack somewhere along the way.
Anyway, good starting point, thanks for the brochures.

[Fritz500]

My first bike was a brand new TS90 Honcho. Them were the days....

[Bigshankhank]

A little backstory. The guy I traded this bike from works for a classic car shop about two hours north of me. According to him, he made a deal last summer on a 68 Mustang somewhere in Arkansas, and while picking that car up he noticed this bike sitting in a scrap metal pile. It looked complete enough and the people there let him load it on his trailer with the Mustang and back to his shop he went. He told me he did manage to get it running and riding while he had it, but wasn't really a bike-guy so it sat in the corner of his shop unused. Finally he put it on craigslist and I had actually seen it for a few months, and the price kept slowly going down to the point that I thought I had a shot with a trade. Anyway, now the story continues with me...
So giddy like a small kid I hustled through work waiting to get home to tinker on this bike. I finally got home, pulled the plug and checked for spark and sure enough, good spark! Next up I plugged in my compression gauge and bammo, 140psi in four kicks! I was thrilled. Poured a little mixed gas in the tank and no leaks, but despite my best efforts I couldn't get it to start. Well if it had sat for a while thats no surprise. I shut off the petcock, rolled it back into the garage and took my dogs for a walk. Unfortunately the petcock did not respond to the lever and stayed open, and the float valve must be open also because when I got home I found a large puddle of gas/oil on the floor. Quickly back out into the driveway, drain the tank and decide tonight is a good night to clean a carb. Having had several rotary valve bikes the setup was familiar and with the carb cover removed I realized two things; A-The carb cover gasket seals very well and B-The carb chamber drain was plugged. Another cup of gas must have poured out when I broke the seal on that cover. That also means that the crank flooded through the rotary valve, which I pumped out as much as I could by kicking it over several times. Also, while breaking down the carb I noticed the air screw was almost completely closed, so that's no good. Anyway, I've got compression and spark which means this thing should run once the carb is flushed out. Very excited!
OK, so picture time.

[Bigshankhank]

Hey and it runs! Took a little bit of fiddling with the contact breaker, clean the carb and sure enough it fired right up. The CCI pump is packed full of crap, so currently it is sitting in the carb dip (minus gaskets and o-rings of course) waiting to be reassembled.

[Sandman]

That's aaaaamazing! So cool that it runs. I've never had to disassemble a CCI pump on any of my Suzukis, but have a 1975 TS100 barn find that I am now worried about. Was it obviously clogged? Difficult to take apart?

[Bigshankhank]

Well, with the engine running I could not get oil to pump through it. Basic disassembly is pretty simple, just remove the caps on either end of the pump. Bt to answer your other question, once I removed it I could tell it was obviously packed full of mung, old slimy white gunk built up in the oil lines and passageways of the pump. After cleaning, I went at it with some small dental picks and a can of spray cleaner to get the heavy deposits out. Alas it was all for naught, as the pump itself had been without clean oil for so long that the main shaft had seized and stripped out its internal gears, rendering it useless. I picked up a spare from eBay to replace it.

[Sandman]

I really appreciate you taking time to reply with the great info. My TS100 isn't as rough as your 90 was, so maybe I'll get lucky- our motors are pretty much the same. But it's certainly one of the most critical things to check on restarting any Suzuki that's being out of action a long time. Hope the rest of the work goes well for you, cheers.