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

[Terry in Australia]

Nice one John, my dad's is a single speed Dremel, so kind of useless for anything I do, it turns those little cup brushes into wire shredding grenades at 18000 RPM, so I'm not unhappy to leave it. The one I bought is multi speed tool, has a heap of accessories and comes with one of those flexible cable hand control thingies, all in a plastic case for the "Sofa King" low low price of $59.95. Bargain!

And of course Eric was right, if I'd waited another 24 hours I wouldn't have had to worry as my dam damns were waiting for me in the mailbox as I walked past to jump in the car go to Supercheap. I'm a little bit disappointed in them though, they look a tad flimsier than I'd anticipated. They're a repro of the OEM Suzuki item, not rigid plastic as I thought, sort of a thin rubber thingie. I think I'll keep going with mine, but use the rubber one as a guide when I take my (Chinese) dremel tool to shape the JB wall.

[grcamna2]

Ha ha, thanks Eric, I always loved that show, it's a shame that David Carradine necked himself, but like so many folks, he had his own demons. Bill, yep, the JB Weld is amazing stuff, I used it to repair the broken casing on my K0 and have used it on one of the Kawasaki's to "cast" a new fin, so not too worried about this "dam" somehow failing,

I just need to make sure I use enough of it to give it a reasonable wall thickness, and shape it so that the "extension is no more than 12mm high, so that oil still flows into the well, and out to the clutch housing. I broke my Dremel tool a few weeks ago, it was my Dad's original USA made Dremel, but it's weak point is the plastic tube that connects the shaft to the motor, so rather than spend $15 on a piece of plastic, I'm gonna buy another Dremel knockoff.

Terry,When I shaped the JB with tape as you did I found that it would hold it's shape without sagging as much when the temps in the shop were around 50-60 degrees F.(a little cooler would keep it more stable when it was fresh,in my endeavors)and then after it gained some rigidity I would put it in a more heated area to allow the JB to cure better:24hrs. in that respect.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, it’s been 24 hours now, so should be well set. Getting the tap off is usually quite difficult, but I have some Dremel sized burrs that I can use if I need to grind the foil tape off.

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

Yep, the rubber oil dam is a rather unimpressive item. it will do it's job though.  I'm sure the JB Weld will perform equally as well.  An alternative would have been to "weld" an extension using a simple strip of shaped alu.  The welding however could be accomplished using those "Alu soldering sticks", I've hade good results using these in the appropriate circumstances. 

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Bugger, I forgot about those Alu soldering sticks mate, and I have a drawer full of them! Oh well, the JB Weld looks promising, So I'll continue with it and see how it looks when it's done.

[Zunspec]

Bugger, I forgot about those Alu soldering sticks mate, and I have a drawer full of them! Oh well, the JB Weld looks promising, So I'll continue with it and see how it looks when it's done.

Easy enough to take a different tack if the JB Weld proves inadequate for the task

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

The weather today was really nice, sunny but not that warm, but sunny was good. As soon as I could sneak outside I took a look at my JB Weld "Dam", and as it looked like the JB Weld had set, I took to it with my Chinese Dremel and shaped it. Being lower than the other inner walls of the bottom engine case it was a tad difficult to get to, but I was happy with the result.

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The main thing for me was that there was clearance between the kick starter shaft and the top of the dam, so I kept sanding the wall down until I could slide a .50 mm feeler gauge under a steel ruler that I placed in the lowest parts of the trench that the kick starter shaft sits in, and called it good.

The next job was to remove the alternator rotor so I could replace the left side crank seal. Of course I assumed that I had a puller the correct size, and of course, I didn't. I then discovered that the thread at the end of my slide hammer was the correct thread though, so I screwed it into the rotor, and one tap of the slide had the rotor off, sweet.

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

I pulled the circlip off and used a seal pick to remove the old seal. Surprisingly the seal I removed felt just as supple as the one I replaced it with.

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Geoff was saying that the seal most likely to go is the one on the other end of the crank, on the primary drive side. Once again the seal on that side was in good condition too, but I swapped a new one in anyway. 

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

I installed a couple of new seals into the lower crankcase and thought about reinstalling the gearbox but decided that I'd best wait until tomorrow when I have more time, and importantly, more daylight. I plopped the crank back in place and covered it all up, and tomorrow I'll get stuck into putting the bottom end back together. More then.

T500 Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

The outer crank seal on the primary side is no more likely to go than the one on the timing side.  Sorry if I implied this previously.  Of course on the Pri side it will draw in oil from the clutch case causing excessive smoking.

One point to note when laying all the components into the cases is to make sure (and check twice more  )  that the outer bearing locator pins are properly seated (crank and g/box).  I have a set of cases where one of the pins was pushed through the cases because the bearing outer race was not positioned correctly (it wasn't me, honestly). 

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, no worries Geoff, last year I rebuilt a Kawasaki Z1-B engine and a KZ1000 (1428cc) and I saw similar carnage, so today when I dropped the crank in I made sure that all the locator pins were, er, located........

[Zunspec]

Ha ha, no worries Geoff, last year I rebuilt a Kawasaki Z1-B engine and a KZ1000 (1428cc) and I saw similar carnage, so today when I dropped the crank in I made sure that all the locator pins were, er, located........

It's the ones on the gear box bearings that are the easiest to miss. 

Cheers  Geoff

[grcamna2]

Dam,good work Terry. 
How do your connecting rod top/small ends measure-up?

[Terry in Australia]

Thank Bill, I bought new pistons, rings, little end bearings and wrist pins, and the little end bearings are a snug fit in the conrods, so no problems at either end.

[MauiK3]

That dam looks great! Better than factory.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Steve, and I am happy with it, the rubber dams were a bit underwhelming and while I’m sure they’d work fine, I have an irrational fear of one just falling into the gearbox without me knowing it as I’m lowering the top crankcase and being minced between the gears, so I’m glad that the JB Weld idea worked so dam good!

[Terry in Australia]

Yesterday was a non bike fixing day as I had to go to my weekly VA sponsored physiotherapy session, then off to the post office to send the afore mentioned sissy bar that I sold to a guy last week. So today I was hanging out to do some more T500 assembling. All of the gearbox parts have been sitting in clean diesel fuel, which turned out to be an unintentional good idea, as all the parts were nice and clean, and everything was well lubed and ready to go back into the bottom case.

T500 Thursday 16 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I didn't need to refer back to the parts manual to reinstall the shift drum, shift forks, main shaft or 4th and 5th gear shaft, but I almost forgot to install the oil deflector plate, and I had to refer to both the Ebay factory workshop manual and parts manual that Krusty sent me, (for free, thanks again mate!) to work out how to pre-tension the spring on the kickstart shaft.

T500 Thursday 16 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was getting late again when I decided that I wouldn't seal the cases up tonight, but rather, I'll go over everything first tomorrow, before I button it up. I did drop the top case in place though, just to see if everything looked right, and once I realised that I needed to line up the oil pump drive shaft to get the top case on properly, all was good, nothing was binding, and I think it'll be easy to mate the cases. More tomorrow.

T500 Thursday 16 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Thursday 16 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

Looks really good Uncle Terry…
You still brewing your Ginger Joe’s and Ginger Slut ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks David, I haven't made any in ages. Well that's not strictly true, I made about 10 gallons of the stuff and kind of forgot about it, so it's still sitting in a corner in the kitchen several months after I should have bottled it. I did try it a couple of times just to see if it was any good, and sadly it hasn't improved with age. I think I'll tip it out and make a fresh batch now that we're heading into Spring, it seems to ferment better in warmer weather.  

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

Looking good 

The T500 is a really easy engine to assemble compared to the average big CB/Z engine. 

At this stage you might want to look at matching the cases to the barrels.  Getting the transfers channels in the barrels to match those in the cases / trimming the base gaskets to suit.  Get out the Dremel and and smooth any ridges in the transfers channels.  Essentially a gas flowing exercise without altering any of the port dimensions (OK, if you must raise the exhaust port just 1mm, and widen 1mm each side  ).  The Titan Performance pipes and the above attention to the barrels/cases (and a tiny bit of jetting) will make for a very tractable engine which will perform to "Brochure" levels of bhp/torque.

Cheers  Geoff

[grcamna2]

Hi Terry,

Looking good 

The T500 is a really easy engine to assemble compared to the average big CB/Z engine. 

At this stage you might want to look at matching the cases to the barrels.  Getting the transfers channels in the barrels to match those in the cases / trimming the base gaskets to suit.  Get out the Dremel and and smooth any ridges in the transfers channels.  Essentially a gas flowing exercise without altering any of the port dimensions (OK, if you must raise the exhaust port just 1mm, and widen 1mm each side  ).  The Titan Performance pipes and the above attention to the barrels/cases (and a tiny bit of jetting) will make for a very tractable engine which will perform to "Brochure" levels of bhp/torque.

Cheers  Geoff

'Go with the Flow' Terry 

[Terry in Australia]

Hi Terry,

Looking good 

The T500 is a really easy engine to assemble compared to the average big CB/Z engine. 

At this stage you might want to look at matching the cases to the barrels.  Getting the transfers channels in the barrels to match those in the cases / trimming the base gaskets to suit.  Get out the Dremel and and smooth any ridges in the transfers channels.  Essentially a gas flowing exercise without altering any of the port dimensions (OK, if you must raise the exhaust port just 1mm, and widen 1mm each side  ).  The Titan Performance pipes and the above attention to the barrels/cases (and a tiny bit of jetting) will make for a very tractable engine which will perform to "Brochure" levels of bhp/torque.

Cheers  Geoff

Oooher, that sounds interesting! I better check the barrels to make sure someone hasn't already done that, they were bored to 71mm just before the engine fired it's last shot in anger, so who knows? I better do some googling.........

[grcamna2]

How's your oil pump and lines look Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

All good Bill, everything cleaned up really nicely in the diesel bath, the lines almost look like new.

[krusty]

terry, I do what Geoff suggested when I rebuild two strokes. Here's some pics of my 77 DT175E.
Pic 1 shows the base gasket I made to match the cases.

The base gasket is then placed on the barrel and using a black marker I traced out the obstructive metal which I removed using a Dremmel.
Pic 2 shows one side done.

Pic 3 both sides done. The transfer ports opened out to match the cases for improved gas flow.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Krusty, looks interesting, and I do have a shiny new Supercheap dremel knockoff......

[grcamna2]

All good Bill, everything cleaned up really nicely in the diesel bath, the lines almost look like new.

I've always enjoyed the quality of Suzuki factory OEM oil lines/pipes:they install the ends onto them to last for a lifetime.

Terry,Geoff may have some experienced tips for you on improving the power of your engine with porting;I would want that power,if it's just sitting(hidden)there ready to be used.The transfer or boost ports modified to fill the combustion chambers:packed completely w/ the fuel charge?  They wouldn't change the factory powerband of the engine as far as when the torque kicks-in:possibly just a better 'kick in the pants' when it does?