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

[Terry in Australia]

Okay, so no pics of late because there wasn't much to see. The tank is coming up well though, considering that it had a lot of surface rust on the outside (the inside is pretty clean) causing it to look almost unsalvageable when I removed the old paint, to now. Not perfect, but useable.

T500 Wednesday 25 Aug 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

Hopefully I'll get some paint on it in the next day or so. Today was a red letter day, some more boxes of goodwill packages from Ebay USA arrived. A rusty chainguard (that went straight into the acid bath, so no pics for a day or two, sorry) and a pair of original handlebars, complete with an OEM grip and clutch lever. Also a pair of heads, surprisingly the seller had them professionally cc'd and had the gasket surface machined, but only had one bead blasted? Weird.

T500 Wednesday 25 Aug 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I was 'rapt that the handlebars weren't bent, they have a tiny bit of surface rust forming, but I'll give them a polish with some special chrome polish I have somewhere (God knows where....) and they'll be good for another 47 years. I also bought some other things which arrived today, some footpegs and various nuts and bolts, 3 different purchases from 3 different sellers, but I was missing some of the engine's top end hardware, and my footpeg rubbers are knackered, so these OEM items will be an improvement over what I have.

T500 Wednesday 25 Aug 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm teetering on the edge of spending silly money on a complete 1974 engine. It is ridiculous that I'm even considering it, as all I really want is a bottom crankcase with a 72XXX number to match my frame. 140 pounds, $650 USD shipping from Florida, plus God knows who knows how much to ship it from "Mister Monkeyclaw"s place in Wisconsin. Don't get me wrong, it's not a minty "Ready to Install" engine as some PO has painted the engine black, plus it's a non-runner, so will probably need a rebuild. It won't go to waste though, as I need another T500 engine for my T/S 500 dirt bike build, using my spare T500 frame and some TS185 or TS250 dirt bike forks, shocks, swingarm, tank, seat, etc. I know, it's an illness, but wouldn't a 500cc twin cylinder 2 stroke dirt bike be fun? I think so....

But I digress. I also bought a really nice original 1974 T500 owners manual, in it's factory bag, plus a Suzuki "Introduction to riding" pamphlet, which is really cool.

T500 Wednesday 25 Aug 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I love these period handbooks etc. I just remembered that my cousin who used to own a Suzuki dealership gave me a big handful of Suzuki brochures from the 70's and 80's (from memory) so I might have to pull them out and see if there are any T350 or 500 brochures? Hmmnn, maybe I should put the other brochures on Ebay and cash them in, and give my cuz half? That'd cheer him up!

They say "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and reading my new owners manual I've just discovered that I've actually ordered the correct tyre sizes, which are 3.25-19 front, and 4.00-18 rear, how lucky was that? I've just been chatting to a bloke who does vapour blasting not far from where I live, I might drop the carbs, cylinders and heads around to his place tomorrow. More soon.

[Zunspec]

Rocket ship progress as usual, Terry 

I would caution against using mis-match crank cases though.  When manufactured they are line bored as a pair.  A friend in the US who races the T500 engine just had a major g/box failure and indications are it was shaft mis-alignment due to mixing c/cases.  Maybe not an issue for a road bike engine though, keeping cases as a matched pair is the best engineering solution obviously.

Cheers  Geoff

[RAFster122s]

Geoff, I didn't read Terry's post as him buying a partial case to mate to his, but a complete pair of cases/motor...

Nice delivery drop Terry. Hopefully you took a before pic just to have for fun before it dropped into the phosphoric bath.
Makes for a better photo book on the rebuild showing Jekyll and Hyde transformation...

[simon#42]

Rocket ship progress as usual, Terry 

I would caution against using mis-match crank cases though.  When manufactured they are line bored as a pair.  A friend in the US who races the T500 engine just had a major g/box failure and indications are it was shaft mis-alignment due to mixing c/cases.  Maybe not an issue for a road bike engine though, keeping cases as a matched pair is the best engineering solution obviously.

Cheers  Geoff

i would go further than geoff and say never ever use mismatched cases . the Japanese manufacturers are good but not that good 

[Zunspec]

Geoff, I didn't read Terry's post as him buying a partial case to mate to his, but a complete pair of cases/motor...

Hi RAFster122s

I think he has a cunning plan to use the lower case only from the US engine because it has engine numbers that more closely match the year of the bike. 

Cheers  Geoff

[RAFster122s]

Right

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I’ve bought a set of 1971 cases that I’ll use as a set. I’d love a set of 1974 cases obviously, but so far all I’ve found is a complete engine, which I’d love, but shipping alone will be around $870 USD, so too rich for me, considering all I need is an engine number.

Having said that, my mate Fred here in Oz told me last night that he knows a bloke with a complete T500, so he’s going to contact him to see if he’s interested in selling it?

The good news is that the new Titan Performance pipes have just arrived, and look lovely. Way too shiny for my liking as they'll shame the crumbling chrome on the other parts. Oh well, I'll get them as dirty as possible as soon as I can get this old beast running. More soon.

T500 pipes 26 Aug 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[Terry in Australia]

But wait, don't send any money, there's more! Yep, 'twas a red letter day today, the engine cases arrived!

T500 engine cases 26 Aug 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

There was one little crack so I heated the affected part with my MAPP gas torch first, then carefully tapped it back into place, and I don't think it'll need any more work. The seller had removed all but one cylinder stud, which was bent, so I heated the case around the bolt, then squirted in some WD40, and wound that stud out with my stud removing locking pliers, and viola! A stringed instrument!

T500 engine cases 26 Aug 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'm gonna guess that this engine had never been apart before, but there's some rust in the crankshaft area, so I'm also gonna guess that it had a seized crank. No biggie for me, my crank assembly is great, but my engine's been apart before, so it was nice to see all these "virgin" case bolts that came with the new(to me) cases.

T500 engine cases 26 Aug 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I didn't get any more bike work done though. I wanted to go to my local "Supercheap Auto" store to buy some more painting supplies, but when I got there I found out that with the current lockdown I have to order and pay for everything online, then they tell me when it's ready to be collected, then I drive to the store, ring their number and they bring it out to me. Fair enough.

I had a tub full of parts to get vapor blasted. Last night I contacted a guy who only lives a mile or so from my place, he'd posted some pics of bike parts that he's done and they look good, so I took my cylinders, heads and a set of carbs that were already stripped (and very corroded) around to his place.

He turned out to be a really nice guy and he's cheap too, so I'm tempted to take the engine cases around when I go to pick the other parts up. He wants me to rebuild a couple of engines for him, and I said, "Sure, as soon as I've finished my own", and he was happy with that, so we'll have a business relationship, which suits me, I'd like to get my CB750K1 cases blasted as well, so we'll do some "like for like" work. I'm hoping my gaskets, seals and those OEM transmission oil dams turn up soon, so I can think about rebuilding the engine, with luck they won't be too far away. More tomorrow.

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

Don't sweat too much about the OEM Oil Dam (or a repro of such).  The important part is to raise the top the top of the "dam" to be 10mm below the level of the main c/case split face.  I've seen some very neat conversions where this has been achieved by welding in a strip along the top edge of the original "dam".  You can weld alloy can't you ? (with Terry's legendary skills I'm sure he can  ).

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, thanks mate, I appreciate your faith in me, you actually have more than I do! But yeah, I have a MIG with a spool gun that welds alloy really well, I also have an AC/DC TIG that I bought 11 years ago and after I bamboozled myself I shut it off and have never used it again. I frightened myself so bad (I'm not good with uncertainty, I'm a black and white kind of guy) that last year I bought a cheap AC TIG to weld steel with, only because I didn't want to fcuk around with the big AC/DC beast with the 20 different switches.

My "1 percenter" mate Dion, who I bought the T350 from has promised to teach me how to use my big TIG, but due to all of the lockdowns this year, we haven't had a chance to get back together. He's invited me to his 10th anniversary in his MC party, but it's unlikely that the lockdown will end before then, but that might be a good thing, he's got a lot of big scary friends.....

The OEM case dams (I bought 2) are probably sitting somewhere in Oz, as they left the US 4 days ago, so I'm hoping that they'll arrive in the next few days. My mate Geoff can't split my crank as the engineer that he takes them to has apparently gone bust due to Covid, so as my crank has been submerged in fresh oil since 1992, I'm gonna reassemble the engine and hope that it doesn't blow smoke like there's no tomorrow. I had good luck with the T350, I didn't touch the seals and it doesn't smoke badly, so I'm hoping (possibly against hope) that the T500 will be the same. The good things is that if they are stuffed, and engine strip and rebuild is a much easier job than say, on a CB750. I'll have to take the crank to my cuz, he's an ex-Suzuki dealer and has had more Suzuki 2 strokes apart than I've had hot dinners, so he's a handy bloke to know. Fingers crossed though, I won't need to....  

[PeWe]

Those pipes look like made for smoking!!

[MauiK3]

Beautiful pipes! Any idea how they affect the power? Those 500 twin motors are great.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, the first thing I noticed was how light the new pipes are, I was worried about how long they'd take to arrive because Paul only charged me 91 English Squids to ship them to me, so I assumed that they would be coming by slow boat, but no, they only took a week or so.

I think the only baffling is in the "stingers" on the end, so the should sound OK, but I have no idea how well they work, but if they sound good and don't hurt the stock performance I'll be happy.

I only realised last night that the "OEM" transmission dams are actually 3D printed plastic items. No biggie, I had a good idea, my son left a small 3D printer behind when he moved to Sydney, so I might try printing off a few more and selling them on Ebay? We'll see.

I've just received a message from Supercheap Auto to say that my "Click and Collect" purchases (some degreaser for the frame so I can take it to the blasters, they don't like grease encrusted frames messing up their blasting booth) and some paint supplies so I can keep going on the tank, are ready to collect, so I'll take a break from "working from home" and go collect them, and when the day warms up a bit, do a little more work on the tank, which is either starting to look really good, or perhaps my eyes are going bad. More later.

[Zunspec]

Beautiful pipes! Any idea how they affect the power? Those 500 twin motors are great.

The Titan Performance T500/GT500 replacement pipes made by Paul Courbot have a very solid reputation for looks, fit & sound.  However Paul, to his credit, makes no claims for big HP increases.  I believe if fitted to a bike running std. air box/filters he suggests a modest (one size) increase in the main jet.  His pipes are a grand replacement for scraped/dented/rusty Suzuki silencers and you do get that 2-st "crackle" without excess overall sound volumes.  I've not seen any negative quips from his customers, and he also has other other T/GT custom parts. 

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Geoff, I was chatting to him last night, he emailed me to see if I was happy with them, you can't complain about that for aftersales service. I told him about my planned T500 dirt bike that I want to make out of the leftovers from this project because I saw that Youtube vid of the UK grass track racers a couple of weeks ago, and I told him I'll be ordering a set of his "Alpina" pipes for it. Should be fun.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Geoff, I was chatting to him last night, he emailed me to see if I was happy with them, you can't complain about that for aftersales service. I told him about my planned T500 dirt bike that I want to make out of the leftovers from this project because I saw that Youtube vid of the UK grass track racers a couple of weeks ago, and I told him I'll be ordering a set of his "Alpina" pipes for it. Should be fun.

A T500 engine dirt bike;a very knarly looking beast  will you be building a pure dirt-only T500 Terry? or an enduro ?

[MauiK3]

Looks like a CBX on the left at the beginning

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Geoff, I was chatting to him last night, he emailed me to see if I was happy with them, you can't complain about that for aftersales service. I told him about my planned T500 dirt bike that I want to make out of the leftovers from this project because I saw that Youtube vid of the UK grass track racers a couple of weeks ago, and I told him I'll be ordering a set of his "Alpina" pipes for it. Should be fun.

A T500 engine dirt bike;a very knarly looking beast  will you be building a pure dirt-only T500 Terry? or an enduro ?

Thanks Bill, nope, every bike I build has to be able to be ridden on the road, and a 400 pound dirt bike wouldn’t be all that useful in real off road stuff, but as a dirt road capable commuter (street scrambler?) it’d be sensational.

I loved my BMW R1100GS, but it was closer to 600 pounds so if I fell off it in the dirt I’d never be able to pick it up, so the much lighter T500 with a bit more ground clearance would be fun.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Geoff, I was chatting to him last night, he emailed me to see if I was happy with them, you can't complain about that for aftersales service. I told him about my planned T500 dirt bike that I want to make out of the leftovers from this project because I saw that Youtube vid of the UK grass track racers a couple of weeks ago, and I told him I'll be ordering a set of his "Alpina" pipes for it. Should be fun.

A T500 engine dirt bike;a very knarly looking beast  will you be building a pure dirt-only T500 Terry? or an enduro ?

Thanks Bill, nope, every bike I build has to be able to be ridden on the road, and a 400 pound dirt bike wouldn’t be all that useful in real off road stuff, but as a dirt road capable commuter (street scrambler?) it’d be sensational.

I loved my BMW R1100GS, but it was closer to 600 pounds so if I fell off it in the dirt I’d never be able to pick it up, so the much lighter T500 with a bit more ground clearance would be fun.

Oh Ok.
I was looking at those dedicated Dirt Bikes in the picture(those must be a Blast !)and  thinking you were go build one of those Terry 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yeah, they do look great, but I don't want anything that I can't ride on the road. It limits where I can ride to tracks, dirt bike parks, private farms etc, but what I really want to do is explore some of the dirt roads out in the country that I keep riding past when I'm out on my CB750's etc.

I have ridden my K0 and K2 on a few dirt roads, but they're not well suited to dirt roads, but a lighter torquey 2 stroke would be great fun for exploring the old backroads that I haven't spent much time on, as yet.

[grcamna2]

Excellent plan  That T500 engine has all the torque you will ever need for the dirt !
Terry,what type of front and rear suspension will you adopt on your T500 enduro ?

[Terry in Australia]

Excellent plan  That T500 engine has all the torque you will ever need for the dirt !
Terry,what type of front and rear suspension will you adopt on your T500 enduro ?

Well I'm trying to decide Bill, I thought about buying an old TS250 of the same era and transfer all the running gear across to the bare T500 frame, but looking at an old TS250 on FB last night I realised that all I really needed to do is use some longer rear shocks and fork tubes, as the TS items look almost identical to the T500's anyway, the swingarms are pretty much the same, as are the forks, but the T500 has better brakes, so while heavier, they will be better for a more road-centric bike. Anyway, I'll get this bike done first, and worry about the dirt bike after I've finished this one.  

[grcamna2]

Excellent plan  That T500 engine has all the torque you will ever need for the dirt !
Terry,what type of front and rear suspension will you adopt on your T500 enduro ?

Well I'm trying to decide Bill, I thought about buying an old TS250 of the same era and transfer all the running gear across to the bare T500 frame, but looking at an old TS250 on FB last night I realised that all I really needed to do is use some longer rear shocks and fork tubes, as the TS items look almost identical to the T500's anyway, the swingarms are pretty much the same, as are the forks, but the T500 has better brakes, so while heavier, they will be better for a more road-centric bike. Anyway, I'll get this bike done first, and worry about the dirt bike after I've finished this one.

How about a TS400 swap?

[Terry in Australia]

Very rare here Bill, and to be honest, if I found a TS400, I'd be restoring it, the TS400 was one of my favourite bikes.

I was hoping my new vapor blasting guy was going to tell me that the carbs, cylinders and heads I dropped over at his place on Thursday afternoon were finished, but I haven't heard from him yet. He did send me a pic of what he'd done as at Friday evening, and I must say they look pretty good, considering that they were disgusting when I gave them to him.

T500 Friday 27 Aug 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

Being Saturday I treated myself to a magnificent breakfast. Crispy bacon and a fried egg on my toasted home made flatbread, with baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and a hash brown. Of course I couldn't eat it all, but what I did have was delicious.

T500 Saturday 28 Aug 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The weather today was quite nice for the end of winter, although a little bit windy. No problem, I rubbed the tank back after spray puttying it yesterday. I'd done a "guide coat" (sprayed a contrasting color over the putty, then blocked it back today using a rigid block to  make sure I'd rubbed out all the high and low spots. Not perfect, but perfectly acceptable. I did rub back to bare metal in a couple of places though, so I dried it, cleaned it, then hit it with another coat of primer.   

While I was waiting for the primer to dry, I degreased the frame to ready it for taking it to be bead blasted on Monday. We're getting some nice weather on Wednesday and Thursday apparently, so it'll be a good time to paint the frame. Sadly Suzuki went cheap after my T350 was made and replaced the aluminium tag that on the T350 was riveted to the steering head, and replaced it with a sticker. I carefully peeled it off, but it's buggared. No biggie as the engine number is obviously different, but I can buy a reproduction decal from an Ebay seller who'll put my engine and frame number on it, so if I ever find a 1974 engine I'll do that, but I don't need the tag to get it registered here anyway.

T500 Saturday 28 Aug 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

What was interesting is that the other frame I have was originally painted white. Here in Oz the only white framed bikes were cop bikes, so I'm wondering if there were Suzuki T500 cop bikes? I'll have to do a google search. I also pulled my (previously rusty) chainguard out of the phosphoric bath, and it came out looking very nice indeed so I put my handlebars in and gave them a quick scrub with some stainless steel wool, and hosed the acid off both and sat them out in the sun to dry. I just remembered them actually, so went out and put them away as we're expecting rain overnight.

By this time it was time to rub the primer back on the tank, and give it a shot of colour. That was when disaster struck. My first can of paint was a dud. Poofter! (not that there's anything wrong with that...) OK, so I managed to splotch big drops of Metallic Mica Blue paint  on the right hand side of the tank. Fcuk. I threw that can as far as I could and pulled out the other can and tried again. This time it was fine, and I was surprised that a tiny 150 gram (5 ounce) can covered so well.

T500 Saturday 28 Aug 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Unfortunately it'll probably have a couple of lumps and bumps in it from the first can so I'll have to rub it back flat again, then wait for the 2 new cans I ordered on Thursday. Hopefully they'll turn up by Wednesday or Thursday when the weather is supposed to be really nice, and if so I'll give it another coat and clear it. With luck the decals and badges will arrive next week, as well as the special screws to mount the badges on the tank. No biggie, one step closer. More tomorrow.  

[PeWe]

Nice breakfast Terry!
Your tank will be fine after fine sanding your first can's blobs and 1-2 layers more with a fresh can.

Is that paint fuel proof enough for occasional overflow at the gas station?