And the darkest hour is just before dawn.

We left off with the battery not fitting the box. When I looked at alternatives they were all the same size so it looked like the box had taken a hit. I had the hardest job putting it in and I really didn't want to do that again but eventually I gave in and pulled it. On the bench it was clear that it was distorted and with some fine tuning I got the battery to fit. So the battery came out and the box went into the frame with just as much nausea as the first time.
I primed the carburetor and fired it up, NOTHING. Then purely by chance I found that the starter is disabled unless the clutch is pulled in. (How things have changed in the 40 years since I rode a bike). Attempt number two and incredibly the engine fired right up.

I live on a private road so it seemed pretty safe to take it on a shake down run even without tags, a license, helmet or insurance and was that ever sweet. I thought that it was a little noisy and but chance the previous owner turned up and she thought so too. Investigation revealed that I had not bolted up the header flange right and with that done the engine became much more bearable although now I can hear the sounds of loose tappets. That's OK though as after a few hours I will re-torque the head and re-adjust the valve clearances. But for now I think there will be a moratorium on blogging because I am having way to much fun.


Two final points. I wanted to keep a log of costs, well just because I like to. The bike was $500 and the parts were $492. I did not charge the cost of the tools to the project because I will probably use them for other things anyway. So $992 and I have a pristine Suzuki Savage (and kudos to Lee for looking after it so well). I also had hundreds of $$ worth of fun in fixing this thing
Secondly this was supposed to be a winter project but just like a bottle of wine once I started I couldn't stop. So here we are at 12/4 and four months of winter left. Looks like I will have to use my fallback of annoying Susie. Wish me luck.

Two steps forward and one back.

Actually several steps forward. When I built the engine I used some special lube that sticks to the cam and rockers so they don't start dry. Then when I had to remove the cover to insert the oil mesh thing I lavished some more lube on all the top end parts. Clearly some made it to the bottom of the engine where it promptly leaked onto the garage floor. It looked like it was coming from the left side cover and when I got it off and cleaned up it seemed like the crankcase had taken a huge hit which had deformed the metal. Being soft aluminium I gave it a tickle with a file and it looks (touch wood) like it is all better. I also got the tank on today and hooked up all the fuel, vapor and vacuum lines. Then the seat went on and bonjour! this is what it looks like.




So now all that remains is to install the battery, fuel up and start up. Except that the battery is 1/4 inch too tall to fit the box. Thank you Amazon thank you so much. It looks like I will have to put a hold on the project until I can get the right size battery but that's OK I have got all winter to play although I will have nothing to blog about for a while. Sorry!

The end is in sight

Well to be more precise the end of the build is in sight. I am fully expecting there to be some many fine tuning issues as well as the inevitable issues that always occur after a big rebuild. Fortunately that is all in the plan as I shall mess with this thing throughout the winter and as soon as I am happy it is solid and as soon as the weather has warmed up I will get it inspected, insured and on the road.
Anyway back to the story. I picked up the 32mm socket and gave the pulley some 80 foot pounds. That done I started to put on the covers and trim and it looked so good I had to put in the battery box and toolkit holder. The battery box proved the old adage that 10% of the job takes 90% of the time and I had the worst time getting the screws to line up. Finally it was done and that seemed a good point to end on. So now to fit the tank and work out where the plethora of fuel lines and vents go (thank you California for caring for the environment). Sometime this week I am going to have to press the start button but in the meantime we are looking good.

More Progress

I have toured this town for 10mm x 1.25 lock nuts to no avail so the engine is held in with regular nuts, lock washers and copious quantities of Locktite. My plan for today was to install the drive system which meant jacking the bike up and removing the rear wheel. I really don't like doing this as it all seems so unstable and I am not buying a lift for one job. In the end I pushed it parallel to my workbench, ran a ratchet strap through the vice and clipped it to two parts of the frame. Things went well until it came to tightening the drive pulley nut. I am guessing that it is 25mm but whatever it is necessitates another trip to Lowes, oh well.


All this progress got me in the mood even if it is cold and damp in the garage. The next step according to the manual is to fit the carburetor and once I thought to warm the rubber couplers with a heat gun to make them more pliable, that job took less than 5 minutes. So I have to finish the drive train, install the guards, on with the battery box, the fuel tank and we are getting scarily close to pressing the go button.

Carburetor installed and below the big nut that needs 85 foot pounds of torque tomorrow.

Moving On

I haven't worked on the Suzuki for a few days now, I could use Thanksgiving as an excuse but the truth is I just didn't want to. After having made so much progress in the last week or so, I couldn't get my head around taking it apart again for the sake of some %^&*# piece of steel wool. Well today was the day and I pulled off the nice chrome bits and the inspection covers and rotated it to TDC and all the rest of it and pulled the head cover. It wasn't that hard to do in the frame but what saved my sanity was having a 10mm 1/4 inch drive ratchet because there is no room in there for much else. So with the strainer in place and it all back together I thought that I should do something that would please me and looking at the manual the next step was to install the exhaust pipe. Now here is the funny thing. The pipe had some strange marks on it and when I lined it all up they were clearly where a boot had rested on the pipe and melted but those marks were completely hidden by the very smart chrome heat shield. So I have to wonder if Lee, or twinkle toes as I like to call her, was riding without the heat shield and if so why. Enquiring minds need to know.

A reversal of fortunes.

I feel that I am on the home straight as far as building goes. Of course whether it will start or not is another matter. The pile of screws and nuts and little rubber bits is getting smaller and smaller and of course the plan is to end up with 1 motorcycle and 0 parts on the bench. However this odd thing confused me, I can only describe it as a neatly folded strip of steel wool.

Eventually I asked the owners club and they told me that it was an oil strainer to prevent oil being blown down the line into the air box and that it goes inside the cylinder head. Oh dear, all that is buttoned up and the engine is in the frame. When I suggested to the club that I could try to run without it they pretty much threw up their collective hands in horror. So the head cap is coming off dammit. I am reliably informed that it can be done with the engine in the frame so it is not all bad news. First job after Thanksgiving.


Edit : Having just re-read the previous post I said that I had used the original left crankcase cover and if I had to get the seized inspection plate off I would work that out later. Well I realized that it had to come off so that I could rotate the engine to make sure it was at top dead center before removing the head cover. Yesterday the judicious use of a cold chisel and an air gun popped that little sucker right out. As the previous owner had already bought a replacement we are set to go. I can hardly wait.

It's starting to look a little like a motorbike.

The workshop manual states that the frame has to be upright (as in not on the side stand) so I used a floor jack to get it up on some wood blocks. Then I thought that I should make sure it didn't get pushed over as I jemmied the engine in so I strapped it to immovable objects and we were set to go. I anticipated that this was going to be a nightmare but the it took less time to get the engine in the frame than it did to type this. That said, fully assembled, it is quite a lump to pick up so I placed a workmate near the frame to act as a landing zone for the journey from the workbench and then a pile of old quilts by the frame. Anyway hats off to the designer who made sure that I didn't need a shoehorn and a tub of Vaseline.
There was, of course, the usual nausea like discovering a switch that needed installing and having to remove the foot pegs again to do it but all in all it was a huge success. I decide to use the original left cover as opposed to the one I bought as the stator was still connected and I was anxious to move on. If I  ever need to remove the seized on inspection plate I will work something out later.
So here we are and I am still looking at the ancillary parts like they are a jigsaw but I think that we can all agree it is starting to take shape.

I realised that I forgot to add the as yet unused crankcase cover to my running total and since the last post I have also bought two oil filters and a battery. So my parts spend now stands at $498.46.