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

[grcamna2]

The bike looks better with the engine installed Terry.  What brand of ign. points & condensers did you purchase OEM Suzuki ?

[Terry in Australia]

As much as we all love our wives/girlfriends/boyfriends/significant others, sometimes we have to put our foot down. Case in point, this morning I woke up (late) and after bidding her the top of the day, wandered out to the kitchen to cook myself some vittles. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, it wasn't windy, and as I was frying an egg and some bacon, I was making a mental checklist of what jobs I would be doing to further the restification of this wonderful motorcycle.

I hadn't had my first sip of coffee though, when "she" slinked up to me and asked me if I was going to mow the lawn? WTF? NNNNNNOOOOOO!!!! No, no no! I explained that I'd been waiting for this day all week, the weather, as previously reported, has been sh1t, with a capital "S", so today was my day! No, no no no no! I didn't yell, I wasn't rude, and we left friends. I am a man, I am a king, I wear the pants.

Anyway, once I finished mowing the lawn, I got stuck into the bike. The goal today was that I wanted to have the new Titan Performance pipes fitted. Of course, before I could fit them, there was a heap of other work that needed to be done. I removed the ratty old engine covers so I could install the new chain. I'd bought a chain and sprocket kit for it from Cruizinimage, which looked fine, except for one very important thing. It was too fcuking short!! WTF-ing F? The stock chain is supposed to be 114 links, this one was only 100? Fcuk.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Well luckily, I had a couple of new chains in a tub of CB750 stuff so I pulled them out, one was 104 links, and another was 136 links. Obviously the 104 link chain was not gonna cut it, so I pulled out the long boy, and found my old chain breaker, and cut some links off.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I fitted the chain, adjusted the rear wheel and called it good. I was worried that the rear sprocket might not be the right size as the chain runs close to the swingarm pivot with the 33T sprocket, but nope, I referred to the good book, and 33T is the standard size. Once I'd adjusted the chain I could see that there was a bit of space betwixt the chains and swingarm, so was happy.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then pulled out the chain guard that I bought from a guy in the US, along with the OEM handlebars. The chrome is only so/so, but it'll do the job until I can find something better.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

Okay, ticked all those boxes, what next? Fitted the shiny new magneto cover, (might have to get it vapor blasted to match the rest) and as the clutch adjuster assembly is bolted into the inside of the sprocket cover, I degreased it, cleaned it up, re-greased it and reassembled it into the vapor blasted cover, installed a new clutch cable so I wouldn't need to take the cover off again, installed the plastic tube that protects the shifter shaft from the chain, adjusted the clutch, then bolted on the cover, and fitted the shift pedal and kick starter pedal. All good.

OK, time for the main event, the pipes. First problem was that I had no mounting bolts the correct length, so once I'd determined what the correct length was (and wondered why Suzuki didn't use exhaust studs) I cut down some stainless 8mm bolts. OK, next problem, one of the threaded holes was a bit wonky, so I grabbed an 8mm intermediate tap, and using the Titan Performance header collar as a guide, ran the tap in and out carefully, and was happy that I could tighten down the collar OK. Anyway, that all went well, and they're on.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And that was about it. I'd promised the wife that I'd make some spagooli for dinner, so I marched bravely inside and put my apron on. More tomorrow.

T500 Sunday 26 Sep 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

Congrats on your successful day..pipes and other stuff looks good.

[ekpent]

Quote - "Anyway,once I finished mowing the lawn"      Bike is lookin' good !

[Zunspec]

Those Titan pipes do look sweet. 

I often wonder if a video of Terry at work on the bikes would look like a time lapse film, but it would be in real time 

Cheers  Geoff

[grcamna2]

Terry,What brand of points and condensers did you purchase? I was just wondering if OEM stock ones are still available.Those nice/old tires look very decent:I would ride on them myself,at a reduced pace.

I notice that the top-row of the drive chain Is very close to the swing arm pivot area.I think if it was my bike,that would bother me enough to find a one tooth larger countershaft and a larger rear sprocket to raise the height of the chain.How much room does it have now before touching the swingarm ?

[PeWe]

I had promised to do the lawn too. Wife told me to have a ride first, lawn later. 

That order better since it was tall and wet from earlier days raining and could dry up a little.

[Terry in Australia]

Good idea Per, my lawn was quite wet down low, so I mowed it twice, once without the grass catcher just to knock it down, then another complete mowing with the blades lower again, with the catcher on. I still have to do my backyard but need to break out the weed whacker to carefully cut the grass around my son’s deserted backyard gym from last year when he was living here before moving back to Sydney. He bought a crappy tent that fell apart during the storms, so there are tent pegs and guy ropes hidden under the grass, so too dangerous to take the mower near it.

Bill, I bought new points and condensors from an Ebay seller who sells OEM Suzuki parts. I bought a heap of other OEM Suzuki parts from him, in Suzuki packaging, but the points and condensors came in ziplock bags so I’m assuming they’re aftermarket, and considering he usually only sells OEM, I’m guessing that genuine Suzuki points and condensors are no longer available? Krusty sent me a couple of sets of NOS points with the parts manual, but they’re aftermarket as well. I haven’t installed any as yet, the ones that came with it appear to look ok so I’ve cleaned them, and will see how the bike runs before I start throwing stuff away.  

[grcamna2]

Good idea Per, my lawn was quite wet down low, so I mowed it twice, once without the grass catcher just to knock it down, then another complete mowing with the blades lower again, with the catcher on. I still have to do my backyard but need to break out the weed whacker to carefully cut the grass around my son’s deserted backyard gym from last year when he was living here before moving back to Sydney. He bought a crappy tent that fell apart during the storms, so there are tent pegs and guy ropes hidden under the grass, so too dangerous to take the mower near it.

Bill, I bought new points and condensors from an Ebay seller who sells OEM Suzuki parts. I bought a heap of other OEM Suzuki parts from him, in Suzuki packaging, but the points and condensors came in ziplock bags so I’m assuming they’re aftermarket, and considering he usually only sells OEM, I’m guessing that genuine Suzuki points and condensors are no longer available? Krusty sent me a couple of sets of NOS points with the parts manual, but they’re aftermarket as well. I haven’t installed any as yet, the ones that came with it appear to look ok so I’ve cleaned them, and will see how the bike runs before I start throwing stuff away.

Terry,you may have some decent OEM points in there now.
How rough is your points cam w/ the rust you mentioned in an earlier post ?

[Terry in Australia]

It was only surface rust Bill, but I did find a nicer points cam that I bought for the T350 but didn’t use, so if I have any issues I’ll swap it in.

[grcamna2]

It was only surface rust Bill, but I did find a nicer points cam that I bought for the T350 but didn’t use, so if I have any issues I’ll swap it in.

You got a spare from the T350,excellent:it's the same part#.The part is NLA so it's good you have one 
I've even seen some which were slightly bent(the bolt was actually bent..)before on some vintage 2-strokes and the bike ran poorly.

[BenelliSEI]

Nice work. The pipes look awesome!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks John, yeah the pipes are the jewel in the crown, I sold my VFR750 to help finance this build, and I wanted something to show for selling one of my favourite bikes. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me.

[grcamna2]

I want to see some 'smoke signals' 

Where's Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

Well there I was, restoring at 100 MPH, and FOOMP! Sh1t weather. Rain and hail coming in sideways flooded the patio workshop, closing me down, it was miserable. God I hate Melbourne weather right now. I did get a bit done whenever there was a break between showers, but it's been slow.

I really wanted to rebuild the carbs and install them first, but I knew that once I'd done the carbs I'd want to try to start it, and if it started I'd want to ride it, but I also knew that I hadn't done anything about the scabby handlebar furniture which I figured I'd need so I could ride it, so I deviated from the original plan, and decided to do some refurbing.

I had new old stock Suzuki grips and a throttle tube:

T500 Tuesday 28 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The throttle assembly and left switch block are painted black, but after many years, looked sh1t.

T500 Friday 1 Oct 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I stripped the left switch block (the throttle assembly doesn't have any electrical components, not even a kill switch, just like to T350) and used some paint stripper to remove all the paint, then used the wire brush attachment to give them a little bit of a shine.

T500 Tuesday 28 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The switches in the switchblock had all but seized after almost 50 years, and were full of filthy greasy mud, so I scrubbed them out and cleaned all the internals with a nylon abrasive pad, then used some dielectric grease to coat the terminals and lubricate the switches, and I was very happy with the result.

T500 Friday 1 Oct 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Friday 1 Oct 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course, before I could install the left switch permanently, I had to install the clutch perch and lever. I've ordered NOS OEM levers but they haven't arrived, so I found a half decent clutch lever and converted a bent clutch lever into a brake lever (requiring some grinding/filing to make it fit) and once again, gave them the wire wheel treatment to remove many years of corrosion and crud.

I installed them on the bars, along with the clutch and brake cables, and of course, the left grip. Didn't look too bad, and the bonus was that the clutch disengages and the front wheel locks up when I pull in the brake lever at walking pace, who knows how it'll work when it's actually going? I guess I'll know soon.

T500 Friday 1 Oct 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also installed the new old stock footpegs, which looked way better than the poor old things that came off, they were fcuked. New paint on the cast brackets as well, and cleaned up the original mounting bolts, and they looked good too.

T500 Tuesday 28 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So it's getting close. Carbs tomorrow, then the wiring harness, headlight (including the scabby brackets, as my NOS ones haven't arrived yet) oil tank, battery box, and fuel tank, seat, and a few kicks, and hopefully I'll be blowing smoke signals. Sweet.

 

 

[grcamna2]

Terry  you made decent progress considering how awful your weather has been. 
I'm glad your left light switch electrical components are very salvageable !

Does the T500 have an extra engine shaft underneath the right footpeg ?

[Zunspec]

Terry 

Does the T500 have an extra engine shaft underneath the right footpeg ?

The shift shaft goes from one side of the engine to the other, with splines at each end.  This was to facilitate the "almost" mythical Right hand shift/left hand rear brake conversion.  Presumably available to meet specific markets.  Then the world went left hand shift so not necessary anymore.  Terry's is an early shaft with the rubber protector for the unused splines.  Later shafts didn't have the spines.

Cheers  Geoff

[grcamna2]

Terry 

Does the T500 have an extra engine shaft underneath the right footpeg ?

The shift shaft goes from one side of the engine to the other, with splines at each end.  This was to facilitate the "almost" mythical Right hand shift/left hand rear brake conversion.  Presumably available to meet specific markets.  Then the world went left hand shift so not necessary anymore.  Terry's is an early shaft with the rubber protector for the unused splines.  Later shafts didn't have the spines.

Cheers  Geoff

Then the bike could be set-up for right shift if so desired,ok.  thanks Geoff.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, what Geoff said Bill, it’s an interesting set up.

[grcamna2]

I have ridden vintage British twins before:never could get used to that right-hand shift lever 

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, my old Royal Enfield I had when I was a kid had right hand shift and I think my BSA Bantam did too? My little BSA C11G does, but that build is not happening soon, same/same with my 1973 Harley Sportster, it's right hand shift, but can be switched to left hand if I wanted to, but I don't think I'll bother.

[scunny]

i rode an old vincent 500 single wich led to interesting problems happening tootling down the road.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, back in the 90's I met an old guy who had a shed full of British bikes (plus a couple of classic BMW's) and the bike I was drooling over was his Velocette Thruxton 500. He asked me if I'd like to take it for a ride, and of course I did, so he told me that I'd have to start it, but after a couple of prods it fired right up, and I did around 20 miles on some nice twisty country roads, and loved it.

 It was right side shift I'm pretty sure, but I don't remember having any problems with it, what surprised me the most was how highly geared it was, it had a close ratio gearbox but it would do around 60 MPH (or more, I didn’t want to over rev it) in first.

[grcamna2]

How're your T500 carbs coming along Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

Well after a couple of days of work you'd reckon the bike would be running and I'd be posting a vid of it running Bill, but, well, it's not quite there yet. Yesterday I rebuilt the carbs. Of course, nothing ever runs smoothly and I discovered that I have two slightly different sets of carbs. No biggie, except that the carb rebuild kits I bought were for the other set of carbs, the ones that haven't been vapor blasted, so I used what I could, and cleaned up some used parts from these carbs.

T500 Saturday 2 Oct 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was able to use the new float valves, needles and main and pilot jets, so no real reason why they won't run fine. They look good.

T500 Saturday 2 Oct 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yes, I know, "Pods?" well the OEM NOS $118 + $60 USD shipping (ripoff) filter hasn't appeared yet either, so the pods will have to do. I've seen pods on lots of T500's, so they must work OK. Stock main jets are 150's, I didn't have any bigger ones, so I raised the needles a notch and I'll see what it runs like once it's actually running. All I got done apart from the carbs was painting the battery box, which I needed to install today as the oil tank mounts to the frame, and there's a screw that goes thru the battery box into the oil tank, which is a good idea to install before adding all the electrical gubbins, as I found out with the T350, which is just a smaller version of the T500.

Why did I need to mount the oil tank?, well I probably didn't, but I needed to mount the oil pump cable before installing the carbs, and I figured it was a good idea. Of course, the gods were giving me a hard time this weekend, so the first thing I couldn't find was the screw in adjuster, so I modified this thing that was attached to the CB750A (incorrectly) when I first bought it, but as I never throw anything shiny away, I put it in the lathe and drilled a 3mm hole thru the centre, ran an 8 x 1.25mm threading die all the way down (It was only threaded for 20mm) and it works fin.

T500 Sunday 3 Oct 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As you'd expect, that wasn't the end of my problems. At the lever end, there should be a round nipple with a saw cut thru it for the cable. I didn't have one, nor did I have a picture of one, and I didn't want to pull the T350 apart to take a peek. I just found this pic on Ebay. ($30 USD with shipping)

T500 oil pump nipple by Terry Prendergast, on Flic

I bodged this one, which actually works well, I may leave it. 

T500 Sunday 3 Oct 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I did want to connect up the oil line to the oil tank. I'd cleaned the little connector thingy yesterday, and I discovered today that the oil line was bent at an odd angle and was under stress when I bolted it up, so being that it's almost 50 years old, I decided to warm it with my heat gun to relieve the stress (for both of us) before I tightened it in place. I also replaced the clear sight glass with a new OEM lens, as my poor old eyes aren't getting any better, so a new sight glass is cheap insurance against running out of oil. I was happy that after I filled the oil tank and farted around with the bike all day, there appears to be no leaks.

T500 Sunday 3 Oct 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

As you can see the carbs went on no probs, and the new inlet rubbers (aftermarket, I think) seem to be fine, but I've kept the old rock hard OEM ones that will soften up fine temporarily if the aftermarket ones fail.

T500 Sunday 3 Oct 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Again the restoration gods conspired against me. The aftermarket "1 into 3" throttle/oil pump cable assembly is a POS. The plastic flange that the single cable goes into fell apart, and while it may still have worked, it pissed me off as all the cables are at maximum stretch. obviously the feller in China who copied this cable assembly didn't waste money on a new one, but just took his measurements off a worn out one. I threw it to one side and ratted thru my garage and found a crappy old used OEM one, that even though it's probably been in service for 20 years (well, maybe a bit less if it's the original one) it's not as "stretched" as the new one. Anyway the old one was working great, I was twisting the throttle open and enjoying hearing the carb slides snapping back when it suddenly stopped snapping back. Hmmnn, I better see what I've done wrong in the morrow.

I'd started the job of replacing the coils as both of the OEM ones look knackered, one is cracked and they both have seen better days. Like a CB750, the two coils are screwed to a rather nice alloy bracket, and as expected, mine was covered in 50 years of corrosion and crap, so I cleaned it up, screwed the new coils to it, and........ gave up for the day.

By this time it was after 5pm, I'd been working on the ol' beast for 7 hours straight with no food or, more importantly booze, my back was killing me, so I went inside, dropped some morphine and panadol, cracked open a Ginger Joe, and went back outside and sat staring at it. More tomorrow.

T500 Sunday 3 Oct 2021 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr