Topic: Terry's Boneyard Barn find Budget Suzuki T500 Reanimation.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, well I've bought new carb kits, new points, condensors, coils, leads, plug caps and plugs, (not all have arrived though) so I hope it'll all be good.

Today I drove around to Supercheap Auto and picked up some more clear lacquer, then over to Husain's place to collect the latest batch of vapor blasted parts, and to drop off my top and bottom engine cases. The clutch cover and sprocket cover came out nice. One day I'll polish them, but for the time being, they'll be fine as is.

T500 Tuesday 7 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The brake plates and sprocket carrier looked pretty sad on the weekend:

T500 Thursday 2 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So I was pretty excited when I took a look at them after they've been blasted today:

T500 Tuesday 7 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

After I finished banging my head against the wall of the ol' virtual saltmine I gave the tank another couple coats of clear lacquer, then decided to leave it alone, lest I bugger it up. I then rebuilt the front brakes. I used the shoes that came with the bike, because they looked brand new, and even better, they're that horribly dangerous asbestos material, that will probably destroy the planet, or kill off a whole species of penguins, but if my bike actually stops, I'll take it. I wire wheeled everything, greased the pivots, installed new O rings, cleaned any rust or corrosion off the brake pivot arms, and found some much nicer stainless hardware. Both wheels looked good.

T500 Tuesday 7 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Tuesday 7 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And before I knew it, it was getting dark, so I packed up for the day. My engine cases might be finished by tomorrow afternoon, in which case I'll think about putting the engine back together, but if not, I'll put together the rolling chassis. Should be fun.

[PeWe]

Your vapor blasted parts make the bike to enter next level without wasting your elbow grease, blood, sweat and tears!
Look fantastic!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, yep, Husain is slowly emptying my wallet, but hey, it's only money and making my job easier, I can understand why so many guys do "Cheque Book restorations" nowadays!

[Terry in Australia]

I didn't realise that I hadn't posted a pic of the combustion chambers, so here you go, you combustion chamber experts, feast your eyes! (I only bought them because one of my heads was missing a fin or three.......)

Terry's T500 heads by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[cb750k7]

http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/t500_files/tech.htm

[MauiK3]

What are the small vertical holes all about?

[grcamna2]

Those heads look Excellent Terry 

[Medyo Bastos]

Those do look good. What is their turnaround time?


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[Terry in Australia]

http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/t500_files/tech.htm

Welcome Jona! And thanks mate, I've been looking at that site a lot lately.

[Terry in Australia]

What are the small vertical holes all about?

No idea mate, but they're factory, my old heads are the same, and the other ones I see on Ebay are the same. Cooling? No idea I'm sorry.

[Terry in Australia]

Those do look good. What is their turnaround time?


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No idea mate, I bought them from a guy on Ebay who had them done.

[Terry in Australia]

But I digress. Today I was actually pretty busy work-wise. I'm also absolutely gutted that over the last few months, three hot young female physio's have left the clinic I have to go to every week (no, I checked, it had nothing to do with me....) so today I had a "Therapeudic Massage" from a young Vietnamese guy. He's a nice guy, but it's just not the same, dammit.

Anyhoo, Husain cheered me up when he sent me a pic of my bottom crankcase and I was happy that I could see such clean metal under the crap that had been coating it for the last 50 years.

T500 Wednesday 8 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course, all of this work is draining my cash reserves, so when someone on the CB750 FB page asked if anyone had a sissy bar for a CB750, I put my hand up, and sent him some pics. $150 plus shipping to Perth, will go a long way to paying for the vapor blasting of the crankcase halves.

T500 Wednesday 8 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I remembered the centre stand for the T500 was still in the phosphoric bath last night, so I pulled it out and was very happy that the rust, and the old paint were gone completely. I gave it a quick coat of Rustoleum gloss black this morning, then after my awkward physio session, I installed it, with the new spring. I also installed the sidestand. As expected, the new spring for the sidestand hadn't arrived from the US as yet, so I reinstalled the ratty old one, but as soon as the new one comes in, the old one is going in the trash.

T500 Wednesday 8 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then I ratted around and found some bolts to install the front fender. As previously mentioned, the fender has seen better days, but it'll do for the time being. While the forks were still up in the air I greased up the front axle and installed the front wheel.

T500 Wednesday 8 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By this stage the sun was setting, so I gathered up my tools, washed the grease off my mitts, and came inside. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find everything to install the rear wheel, fender etc, and have a rolling chassis to push around. Hopefully by the weekend I can make a start on the engine, we'll see.

[david 750f]

Terry, I’m not sure if this has been posted already. It’s a web site dedicated to the Suzuki 500.

https://ozebook.com/suzi/

[ekpent]

  I'm gathering up a cargo container full of 750 sissy bars and will ship it to you Terry and we can split the profits !! Maybe I'll stuff a GT750 in there also under the pile     Good Work on the bike.  As our riding curtain is slowly closing it will be fun to watch and see what your up to in your summer while I,m watching the pretty snowflakes fall.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, I would sell a container full of your sissy bars to get to that GT750 Eric, I was looking at a rough "L" or "M" a couple of weeks ago and thought about it, but I really want a "K", which is my all time GT750 favourite. Sissy bars aren't a big seller here either, I reckon I've had that one for 20 years? After telling me he'd take it he's gone quiet though, so maybe he's changed his mind? No biggie, if he doesn't want it I think I'll put it on my "Rat' K1/2 bitsa, as it matches the decor?

K2 Bitsa Saturday 27 Mar 2021 9b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[PeWe]

Yes, the bar can sit fine on that bike.
A five (or 7) fingered "hippie leaf" on side covers will complete it for an old style free minded hippie style person

[ekpent]

Froggie thinks that's a great idea Per !   

[PeWe]

I can feel the smell and how sticky my fingers are after sqeezing the  stems.
Look like a sativa.... Mexico, Colombia  or similar....

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, I'm hoping that by the time I retire, weed will be legal, and I can spend my retirement growing my own, and by then my lungs should have fully recovered from 40+ years of cigarette smoking, and be good for another 20 of smoking my home brewed varieties.....

[Terry in Australia]

Anyway, weed aside, yesterday I did some more. I painted my oil tank (no left sidecover yet, as it hasn't arrived) in anticipation of having the engine back together in the next few days. I meant to take a pic but I forgot, so I'll snap one later today.

I found all the bits to install my rear fender. As expected, there were some rubber grommets and metal inserts that are now NLA, but luckily mine were in pretty good condition, so I re-used them. I replaced the 50mm bolts with nice new stainless steel hardware as the OEM's were rusty and horrible, as were the flat washers, spring washers, and dome nuts. I mounted the new sprocket and realised that I didn't have the locking tabs for the nuts, so I loctited them, and have ordered new locking tabs. I cleaned the chain adjusters, axle, spacer etc, and installed the rear wheel.

T500 Thursday 9 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Thursday 9 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By this time it was getting dark again, so as it looked like rain was on the way, I packed everything away, and enjoyed a Ginger Joe while looking at the collection of rusty old parts slowly morphing back into a functional motorcycle for the first time in 30 years, and thought that was kinda cool. More later.

T500 Thursday 9 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

[grcamna2]

Roller Reanimation Terry 
Did you paint the oil tank the same color scheme as your fuel tank? or straight blue ?

[Terry in Australia]

G’day Bill, just straight blue mate, which is the original scheme for 1974.

[grcamna2]

Terry,you're lower case looks very nice vapor blasted 
Does it have the two threaded holes under each cylinder to drain excess oil in case the engine gets loaded-up with too much mix ??

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, no idea mate, there are a lot of short threaded "plugs" underneath, that it may well be that some are there to drain off any excess oil, I'll have a look tomorrow when I get my freshly blasted cases back.

Anyway, Happy Friday all, it's funny, when I'm at work at the barracks, I live for Fridays, but when I'm working from home, they tend to sneak up on me. Yesterday we had "R U OK Day" where we all had to ask each other if they were OK (I didn't, because I didn't care that much...) and ironically, today was "Suicide Prevention Day", so I suppose that if I'd asked everyone if they were OK they wouldn't have necked themselves today? I suppose I'll have to wait until Monday to find out?

So while the rest of the world were asking each other if they were OK and pulling each other back from the brink, I was sneaking outside to do some bike work. I sneaked out to the garage a couple of times to clear coat the oil tank, and was happy with the result. Yes, it has a dent, but it's only little....

T500 Friday 10 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By mid afternoon I'd given up any pretence of interest in work, so wandered outside. I fitted the handlebars and gauges, then rolled it out of the patio for the first time as I needed to rat thru some of the tubs at the back of the bench, and was very happy that I didn't have to reach over the frame and wheels as I have been for the last week or so.

T500 Friday 10 Sep 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then just did some little jobs like re-installing the original front blinkers after I cleaned them up a tad. I'll have to polish up the lenses as they're a bit dull, but I was happy to be able to re-use them as I do like to use as many of the original parts that I can. I also sorted the rear brake, so I can stop it if I need to as I have a sloping driveway. The first thing I noticed as I wheeled it around is how long it is, and happily for me, that it's a fair bit taller than the T350. It really is just a bigger T350, or maybe the T350 is a smaller version of the T500? Either way, it'll be better for me on longer rides, I'm sure.

T500 Friday 10 Sep 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And that was it, I wheeled it back into my very crowded patio, and called it a night. Tomorrow I have to do something about the headlight and brackets, if I don't get side-tracked with the engine. More tomorrow.

T500 Friday 10 Sep 2021 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Trevor from Warragul]

Apparently there was a Public Notice in the Herald Sun today stating the Victorian 25 year club permit rule would not be changing. Yay!