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

[grcamna2]

Terry,when do you plan to install that engine ? 

[ken65]

I took the H1 out today for a quick ride. Red oil everywhere.

I read a great piece of advice once about leaking H1 oil pumps.  It was "Remove the cover, place a piece of sponge near the bottom, replace cover. After a few months, remove cover, squeeze sponge, replace cover". 

 Funny you should say that. I have a rag stuffed in under the pump. Where its leaking  from is  the inline tap i fitted to the oil line as a second line of defence. Fixed it today but sometimes I almost forget to open it before a ride.  Sorry Terry for a bit off topic.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, don't worry Ken, I've destroyed my share of topics here, I still get the occasional death threat from the original posters! Anyway, to answer Bill's, question, the engine is back in mate. I had an awful nights sleep after the "Kebab Incident" but dragged myself out of bed at 9.38 (gotta love annual holidays) to greet the day. I had a leisurely breakfast of coffee, ANZAC biscuits and Christmas shortbread before I wandered out to the patio. I couldn't think of anything I needed to do before I shoved the engine back into the frame, so I wandered out and did just that.

Well, I stuffed up and attempted to shove it into the right hand side forgetting that the oil tank wasn't on it when I installed the engine last time, so I managed to chip the paint. Bugger.

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I lifted up that lump again, and installed it into the left side of the frame. I'd decided that like yesterday, I was gonna do it at a leisurely pace as I still have plenty of time to put it all back together, and maybe because there was no stress, everything went very easily. It's a long, roomy bike, so everything goes back in easily. I installed lots of new parts that came in after I put it together but after the kickstarter mechanism sh1t the bed, so it sat in one of Spotty's tubs until today. The NOS battery box door (although I may have to buy the NOS super dooper $150 one with the inbuilt tool box tray to hold that fantastic Cobra tool kit that Bill spotted on Ebay)

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The new horn, to replace the original, that has sadly gone to God.

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The OEM passenger pegs are fixed, pretty much just bolts with rubbers attached, but I didn't like the ones I bought used, so I bought these new el-cheapo folding jobbies.

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I even bought some fetching blue fuel line, to match the paint colour.

T500 Friday 17 Dec 2021 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr         

So the reassembly went off without a hitch, and by around 4 pm I realised that I'd pretty much put everything back together. What to do now? Start it of course! I turned the fuel to "Prime" and filled those lovely blue hoses, put the choke on and gave it a couple of kicks (the kickstarter works again, woohoo!) then turned the ignition on, gave it one kick, and no bullsh1t, it fired right up!

So there I was, just about to take a cheeky lap around the block when the wife came home with a late lunch/early dinner, so I switched it off and went inside for a semi-delicious repast. I wandered back outside and kicked it once, and it fired right up again. I did a quick five miles around the suburban streets, and it went flawlessly. I still need to replace the speedo (won't work) and the tyres with the new Dunlop K70's, but I'll do that after Christmas now. I was happy when I got home to see that the oil lines were full of oil, so that extra day spent fixing the pump was a day well spent. More soon.

[Trevor from Warragul]

Are the expansion chambers rubber mounted at the rear? If not, vibration may fracture the pipes (true of the H1's anyhow).

[Terry in Australia]

No they're not mate, but Paul Caurbot in England who makes them didn't make any mention of them needing rubber mounting, maybe the Kawasaki triples vibrate a bit more than the T500's?

[ekpent]

Excellent !!

[MauiK3]

What a great running T500!
Wonderful job.

[Alan F.]

Good work Terry, have you planned the route for its first long ride yet?

[Zunspec]

Well done Terry, now you have the summer to enjoy it 

Cheers  Geoff

[PeWe]

That was a quick job doing the engine, Terry.
In time before Christmas too!
It sounds and look really good. 
You pump extra oil on the video?

[grcamna2]

Terry, Fire in the hole ! 
You've got'er installed and running again With the kickstart 
Have your airbox parts come in yet?
The bike sounds good,sitting there running Terry.

[BenelliSEI]

Congrats Terry. Nothing better than a successful start up! Looks great and sounds even better. That noise makes me regret selling the one (and only) smoker I ever built......

[MauiK3]

Those Suzuki 3 bangers were great bikes!
If I could find one…………….

[BenelliSEI]

Those Suzuki 3 bangers were great bikes!
If I could find one…………….

Yep.... I regret selling it. Ran like a “900” for sure. It was one of the stash of bikes I bought from the widow of a well known, local collector. His “friends” were low balling the collection and she delighted in telling them they were all gone. Unfortunately I spent enough $$$ they had to move...... the other one I miss was a bike he was building for her. See photo.

[grcamna2]

Those Suzuki 3 bangers were great bikes!
If I could find one…………….

Yep.... I regret selling it. Ran like a “900” for sure. It was one of the stash of bikes I bought from the widow of a well known, local collector. His “friends” were low balling the collection and she delighted in telling them they were all gone. Unfortunately I spent enough $$$ they had to move...... the other one I miss was a bike he was building for her. See photo.

That's certainly a nice,blue CL200 John. 

[Alan F.]

That's a beautiful CL200. The couple I got my CB160 from on Black Friday offered me "Her bike" a CL200. I should probably touch base with them tomorrow to make sure they haven't already sold it.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, don't wait too long Alan, I have no sympathy for these guys that rant about being screwed by a seller when they "Told him I'd take it, and he sold it to someone else" but they don't mention that they didn't pay a deposit and didn't get back to the seller for 6 months. If you want it, buy it, if not, let someone else have it.

[Alan F.]

I just took a look and it's not on Craigslist. I had asked her to give me a call or text before they spend any time listing it for sale anywhere. They're probably busy spending that half million dollar profit from selling the house my 160 was stored in for 30 years...

[Terry in Australia]

Nothing wrong with that mate, the house I bought in 2001 for $205K is now worth $800K according to the real estate app I have on my phone, when I bought the place I was sh1tty with the bank knowing that my $140K loan was gonna cost me $300K over 25 years, but now, for some reason, I don't feel so bad........ Go get that bike mate!

[34barab]

Congrats, Terry.  Bike looks great!  In the video was it the clutch actuator that you were tinkering with?

[Terry in Australia]

Congrats, Terry.  Bike looks great!  In the video was it the clutch actuator that you were tinkering with?

Thanks mate, nope that's the two stroke oil pump. I forced two stroke oil up the lines with a syringe and the oil flowed from the tank to the pump just by cracking the banjo bolt, but of course there was air in the pump, so to get the oil flowing I cranked the lever that's usually connected to the throttle cable to force oil thru the pump and up to the banjos at the base of the cylinders and the outer crank bearings.

I wasn't 100% confidant that the pump was working correctly after I stripped it and replaced all the seals and O rings, so I was playing with the lever to see if it was doing anything, but was happy that all was well, no oil/air leaks, and by the time I came back from my ride the lines were all full of oil. Speaking of the clutch though, it needs attention, it was dragging pretty bad yesterday, so next time I remove the clutch cover I need to file some notches from the clutch basket, it looks like it's had a hard life.

[grcamna2]

Terry,I imagine the clutch 'basket' can use some light filing where the friction discs engage it;it should release to shift much better then.I've also found that dropping the idle screws to lower the idle speed will help.

[Zunspec]

Hi Terry,

Clutch drag is a T500 "idiosyncrasy".  All the usual stuff applies like appropriate adjustment etc. but it seems the T500 clutch, WRT drag, is sensitive to the oil being used.  I changed from Putoline GP10 Gear Oil to some freebie (branded quality) 20-50W oil at the last races and the rider couldn't hold the bike steady on the the clutch for the race starts.  I am going back to the Putoline GP10, although several guys in the paddock use and recommended, using an ATF which can all but solve T500 clutch drag (allegedly )

Cheers  Geoff

[Terry in Australia]

Well that's good to know Geoff, as I have 20 litres of ATF sitting under my workbench that I'll probably never use, unless I substitute it for 2 stroke oil. (no, I'd never do that, probably....) Funnily enough today the clutch was fine, but I have 2 new issues. First, it's geared awfully high (15/33 530 sprockets) so I might gear it down a tad, and second, I need to synch the carbs.

#1 is not doing anything at idle, so when I take off it's awfully weak unless I give it the berries, when suddenly #1 comes in and it wants to wheelie. It reminds me of my twin turbo Subaru, the first turbo comes in just off idle for some good acceleration, then all hell breaks loose when the second, larger, turbo comes in and makes 15 pounds of boost. I'm pretty sure the T500 isn't supposed to do that......

[scottly]

That surge used to be called "getting it up on the pipe" in the 2-stroke world, Terry. BTW, it looks like less smoke is coming from the left cylinder? Might also be sync related, but I would be paranoid with an oil injection system. (Horror stories from a friend's experience with a '60s Suzuki 80 cc that he bought new, and finally took it back to the dealer and dumped it in front of the shop in disgust; first it constantly fouled plugs, then seized after the dealer adjusted the pump, then after the rebuild went back to fouling plugs as the dealer had re-adjusted the pump.)