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

[scottly]

Speaking of which, I've ridden it! Yep, no tank, no seat, no lights, no helmet, I'm a rebel in track pants and moccasins, lock up your grandmothers! I was out the back cutting up heaps of old cardboard cartons that once contained T500 parts when I realised that my (sloping) driveway was clear, so I pumped the old Dunlop K70's up to 30 PSI and pushed it up to the top of the driveway. I pushed the choke on, turned the key on, and rolled it about a yard before dropping the clutch in second gear, and it fired right up. So there I was, sitting on the frame rails with that beautiful engine "Tak Tak Taking" away when it dawned on me that it'd be a marvellous idea to give it the berries up my street and see if I couldn't kill myself.

I had a similar experience, but with a much worse outcome.
Henry's brother had brought me a 250 Kawasaki enduro bike so I could haul it to AZ on my next trip. As it had been parked under a tree for years, I thought it would be fun to see if I could get it running before I delivered it, so I pulled the seat, cleaned the leaves out of the airbox, pumped some premix from my trusty CR480 into the carb floatbowl, and gave it a few kicks. To my surprise, it fired right up, so I decided to ride around the yard, sitting on the frame rails. On the second lap, the bike suddenly turned into a screaming demon, accelerating at a ferocious rate, even with the throttle closed!!! I was headed towards a heavy A-frame hoist, and my only choice was to lay the bike down on the left side and let the bottom of the bike take the impact. This particular Kawasaki motor would go into runaway for a brief time when it ran out of fuel; Henry later used it in a go kart for the kids, and it also happened then. Oh, and remember I was sitting on the bare frame rails? There was a tab on one that very nearly ripped me a new #$%*, as when the bike slammed into the A-frame, I slammed into the frame.

[grcamna2]

Terry,I hope you get the tank and seat on your T500 Soon;you can go for a nice,proper ride and enjoy 'social distancing' on 2 wheels 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yep, I'll get them on this weekend, I can't legally ride it anywhere until after the lockdown (probably the end of this month) so I'll do a few sneaky rides around the block until then. I need to disassemble the petcock and make sure it's OK before I fit it onto the tank, and replace the fuel cap seal too.

[grcamna2]

Terry,do they not allow any private citizens to drive anywhere during lockdown ? Do only delivery drivers get to drive ?

[Terry in Australia]

Initially we were only allowed out for 5 reasons, Essential shopping, care giving, exercise, for work when permitted, or to get vaccinated. (within 5 kms/3 miles from your home) This was then extended to 10 kms/6 miles and currently 15 km/9 miles. So technically, I could have ridden any of my bikes that are currently registered for 5/10/15 Km (well, 10/20/30 Km if you include the return ride) but I'd have to have a reason if the cops stopped me, and I couldn't really be bothered, even 30 Km/20 miles isn't much of a ride as far as I'm concerned. Once the lockdowns are finished (around the end of this month) I'll be able to get a plate for the T350 and T500, after a little government red tape. Currently the DMV here is closed until further notice......

The lockdowns, as mind numbing as they have been, have served their purpose of slowing down the spread of Covid-19. In Australia, a couple of thousand people have died, and while that's terrible, compared to the rest of the world, we've been pretty lucky. By the end of the month or early next month, over 80% of Australia's population will have been double vaccinated, so there'll be no need for further lockdowns. I'm really looking forward to being able to travel interstate and eventually overseas again, I'm planning to do my "Route 66" ride in 2025 where I'll fly to the US, buy an old Harley and ride Route 66 for a few weeks. Should be good.  

[Terry in Australia]

But anyway, I got a little closer today. While almost sunny, and quite warm, it was really windy again, which pissed me off. I didn't wander out too early, instead I made a pizza for a late lunch. Is it just me, or does my slice of pizza look angry?

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once I'd eaten my lunch I wandered outside to see what I should do next. I first tapped out the threaded holes in the frame for the rear indicators, and installed them.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I thought that I may as well see if they worked, so connected up the wires, and was rewarded to see the left side working fine, but the front right (original) blinker wasn't blinking, and when I pulled the lens off, discovered that the thing was full of rust. Poop. Now I did have a pair of aftermarket ones (like the rears) but hadn't used them as the stalks were too long and looked a bit silly when installed. As I didn't have a choice, I decided to shorten the stalks and install them, so I removed the stalks.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And chucked them in the lathe, to shorten them from 51mm to 25mm, like the originals.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once I turned them down I threaded them, and called them good.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I reassembled the new blinkers and installed them, and tested that they worked, all good.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was getting late and starting to rain, but I pushed on, and installed the oil tank badge and decal. The decal's not in the correct spot, but I'm a wild man, and laugh at conformity....... More tomorrow.

T500 Saturday 9 Oct 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Alan F.]

I'm always impressed when one of us can just chuck something in their lathe and modify it like that, even though I've had a small lathe for years it's always cool to see. Terry do you cut threads on your lathe or just use a die? I've never tried and I doubt my mid 80's Chinese lathe could produce good results.

I'm also happy that your angry slice of pizza settled right down and didn't cause trouble for you all afternoon.

[PeWe]

Your pizza look tasty, Terry. But it look like a face of an angry alien!!

You really work hard  on your bike build. Slow pace here.

[MauiK3]

I love the color!

[grcamna2]

I love the color!

I also like that blue 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I made that pizza with calabrese salami and it was angry all night, and I swear I saw smoke coming out of the toilet bowl this morning, but it was delicious. (the pizza, not the toilet bowl) I forgot to answer David's question from a couple of days ago, apart from making my own bread and pizza bases I'm also brewing another batch of "Ginger Terry". I thought I'd somehow killed it yesterday, 10 days after starting the 14 day fermentation as it tasted like crap, but in desperation I dumped another 4 pounds of sugar in the 8 gallon fermenter and all of a sudden it actually tasted good, so I'll bottle it in a couple of days, and in two weeks I'll do my first taste test. Hopefully it'll be ok.

Alan, my 1990's Chinese lathe is a big baastard with a 39 inch bed and 17 inch swing. It's a pretty good old thing, I swapped my restored CB350F for it in 1996 with my mate John Hawkes, who owns a big chain tool shop. It's the handiest tool in my garage I reckon and has paid for itself with the hundreds of oil cooler adapters that I made for SOHC4's and Suzuki GS bikes. It is a thread cutting lathe, but I've never taught myself how to use the thread cutting function, so I just use a tap or a die.   

I love the paint colour too, and have to thanks Per for suggesting it, it looks better on the T500 than it did on the F2, although due to a lack of the colour I used on the F2 (the standard Covid excuse) I had to use a slightly different shade, but it does look magnificent. Today I have to pull the wheels off the CB750A so I can get new Stinko tyres put on it tomorrow, but I'll do some more work on the T500 too, and report back soon.

[Terry in Australia]

Well first job today was taking the wheels off the CB750A so I can finally get the new tyres installed a couple of months after I ordered them. My supplier, and a few others told me that there was a problem with Stinko's supply line, and while they had a 100/90-19 front, there were no stocks of 130/90-17 rears. Anyway, I whipped the wheels off and installed a spare CB750 front wheel on the front just to stop the bike falling off the centre stand.

T500 Sunday 10 October 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I wanted to install the headlight assembly but while my NOS headlight shell and NOS headlight ears had finally arrived, the weird "Square hole" mounting rubbers hadn't, and when I checked my Ebay purchases tracking history this weekend I discovered that they hadn't even left the US, a month after I bought them. Great. Today I made some temporary rubbers that will do the job until the new ones arrive, and I installed the shell.

T500 Sunday 10 October 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Being colour blind is a b1tch, distinguishing between brown and orange, orange and yellow, grey and light green etc is difficult, and it doesn't help that Suzuki use black wires with a white trace for earth wires, as opposed to Honda using them for ignition wires, black for left indicators and light green for right indicators, all arse-backwards to what I'm used to. No biggie, I managed to get the headlight on/off switch, hi/lo beam switch, horn switch working, and extended the front blinker wires as the wires on the front after-market ones was too short, and the connectors were too small, so I snipped the ones off the old front blinkers, joined them using those beaut heat-shrink-solder connectors and called it good.

The headlight itself was the one that came with the bike. The rim had some surface rust and the chrome plating on the reflector is starting to come off, but the 47(?) year old globe is still working fine, which is good, because I'm not sure where I can buy another? I had to re-tap the threads in the rim as the old ones were rusty, but was able to screw in the shiny OEM screws and all up, it looked quite nice.

T500 Sunday 10 October 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd disassembled the petcock as far as I was game, but I got to inspect the diaphragm and test it by sucking on the vacuum line fitting (the things we restorers do...) and the rubber seal looks like it's OK. I didn't have as much luck with the locking cap though, I completely disassembled the mechanism and while I think I've worked it out I'm still unable to make it lock in the closed position, so I'll need to pull it apart (for the 10th time) tomorrow and see if I can make sense of it. If not, I'm buying another one. I'd promised the wife a feed of Spagooli, so I packed up. More tomorrow.

T500 Sunday 10 October 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr     

[RAFster122s]

Wow, action packed day...
Enjoy the spagooli!

[grcamna2]

Suzy looks much better with a seat on her Terry.

[MauiK3]

I wonder how much HP it will be making?
Looks great

[grcamna2]

I hope you're able to sort-out your speedometer.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, no idea if it’ll be making more or less HP than it did originally, I hope that with the 1mm over pistons and the cc’d heads it’ll have close to it’s original 46(?) BHP, but it does feel fast, so should be a fun bike to ride.

I don’t want it to be too fast anyway as the original top speed overwhelmed the front brake. I’m looking forward to a Kawasaki vs Suzuki shootout with Trevor from Warragul in the coming months, his Mach III 500 has 60 BHP, but the same brakes, so it’ll be an interesting duel. I’m just looking forward to hearing two big 2 strokes making some noise.

[Alan F.]

... it’ll be an interesting duel. I’m just looking forward to hearing two big 2 strokes making some noise.

How's the sound on your camera while riding?

[grcamna2]

... it’ll be an interesting duel. I’m just looking forward to hearing two big 2 strokes making some noise.

How's the sound on your camera while riding?

 

[Terry in Australia]

I don't have a Go-Pro, I do have a cheap knockoff that I think is pretty good, I guess I'll find out when I'm allowed to go for a ride again.

[PeWe]

The 2-stroke has a ketchup effect that makes it to feel more powerful.
I have only ridden a Zundapp KS125-73 I owned 1977 and a friends RD350, the latter suddeny woke up in a scary way first time with a little wobble. I was used to my stock engine CB750.
 

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, I rode a Kawasaki Mach III back in the 80's and all I remember was the powerband Per. The T500 has a nice torquey engine, and from everything I've read Suzuki built them to be a good long distance tourer, not a race winner (even though they did win a lot of races) and what surprised me was how tractable the engine was in my very short ride last week. I didn't do any T500 work today, but rather I got new Stinko's installed on the CB750A and rode it, which was great fun. More T500 stuff tomorrow.

CB750A Monday 11 Oct 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[PeWe]

The photo show a beatiful bike!
Extra wheels and you can ride it long after 75 too

[Tintop]

The photo show a beatiful bike!
Extra wheels and you can ride it long after 75 too

+1 PeWe, add a sidecar & he can have races with Bear.

[PeWe]

The photo show a beatiful bike!
Extra wheels and you can ride it long after 75 too

+1 PeWe, add a sidecar & he can have races with Bear.

Then he need to give that engine a 970 kit, ported head and a serious cam to have a very small chance to see the rear end of Bears bike while still possible to see without binoculars.