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

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I’ve been fitting tyes on bikes, cars and even trucks since I was 13 when I worked part time at a gas station, then in my junior years in the military. I ised a spray bottle of detergent to mount the tyres, which really made the job easier. I like those tips about polishing the levers and the plastic pieces, if I ever need to do it again I’ll do that for sure.

I just have to accept that I’m too old to change tyres now, I’m still sore, getting old has it’s benefits, but lots of physical labour is getting harder now so I’d rather pay someone else to do it. I’ll take it to Jeff tomorrow and get him to do it, and book the bike in for a Roadworthy Inspection at the same time.

[grcamna2]

Around here, the shops will only install tires bought from them. Some insurance BS is the usual story. I do my own. Occasionally costs me a +1 tube, but I also know it’s done right. I have a set of three very long tire irons that I keep polished and smooth. I also cut up strips of washer fluid plastic jugs to protect the rims. That plastic is really tough. A tin of tire mounting lube really makes it 10x easier.

John,I like the long,curved Michelin-style tire levers;there's lot's of China reproductions(hardened steel)of them and they do the same good lever-action.They measure roughly 16";all the best curves in all the right places for leverage.
Those levers,together with Murphy's tire bead lube wiped-along the surfaces of both beads when installing a new tire,plus don't forget to use your knees to compress the tire/tyre along the process and no problem.
I tried uploading pics from this phone of mine,but alas was not able to.
They have them for sale on Ebay;there's item# 331863072974 for example.
Motion Pro #08-0007 in black;I prefer the one's that are shiny chrome-looking as they slide better.

[PeWe]

I have 3 curvy tire irons. Work fine after rounding off the square ends to round shape plus grinding them smooth.

They had tube biting corners and rim scratching cast surface.


BUT remove very old hard tires is a real pain.
Fresh tire with lots of tire lube another thing.
Ride bike often so tire will wear quickly and can be changed without professional help.

[grcamna2]

I have 3 curvy tire irons. Work fine after rounding off the square ends to round shape plus grinding them smooth.

They had tube biting corners and rim scratching cast surface.


BUT remove very old hard tires is a real pain.
Fresh tire with lots of tire lube another thing.
Ride bike often so tire will wear quickly and can be changed without professional help.

Yes,most certainly;that's the way.
I first lightly ground/smoothed-off the casting roughness then polished the tips on the ends of mine so they work very smoothly.

[jgger]

It has been a very long time since I have had to change a tire. In fact tubeless were just comming onto the scene, so that dates me! 2 BIG screw drivers were my tools of choice and I don't remember it being all that hard. Maybe tires have changed alot over the years. I don't even remember even pinching a tube, not to infer that I have some kind of super power. I am ALMOST looking  forward to when I have to change out the tires on my FJR  just to see what all the hubbub is all about, then maybe I can join the Club! 🤔

[BenelliSEI]

John,I like the long,curved Michelin-style tire levers;there's lot's of China reproductions(hardened steel)of them and they do the same good lever-action.They measure roughly 16";all the best curves in all the right places for leverage.

I think mine are a large set from Motion Pro. They look just like the pictures above. I have also shaped and smoothed them as you fellows describe. I find if I leave new tires hanging on the shop wall, in direct sunlight, for an hour or two, they get so warm they pop on easily. PeWe is right; really old tires can be a real pain. I’ve resorted to cutting through the bead wire with a massive set of bolt cutters, more than once!

[Terry in Australia]

It has been a very long time since I have had to change a tire. In fact tubeless were just comming onto the scene, so that dates me! 2 BIG screw drivers were my tools of choice and I don't remember it being all that hard. Maybe tires have changed alot over the years. I don't even remember even pinching a tube, not to infer that I have some kind of super power. I am ALMOST looking  forward to when I have to change out the tires on my FJR  just to see what all the hubbub is all about, then maybe I can join the Club! 🤔

Ha ha, nothing to look forward to Jim, modern tubeless fat tyres are an absolute PITA to break the bead, and re-seat, Jeff hates them and swears at me whenever I bring them in, his old tyre machine is fine for our old bike tyres but hopelessly inadequate for anything wider than a 140, but as he’s 73, he’s not going to invest in a shiny new machine.

I take my fat tyres to another shop that does mainly car tyres as they have modern machines. I think your “super powers” will fail you when you try to pry a modern fat tyre off a soft alloy rim with a couple of screwdrivers…..

[grcamna2]

It has been a very long time since I have had to change a tire. In fact tubeless were just comming onto the scene, so that dates me! 2 BIG screw drivers were my tools of choice and I don't remember it being all that hard. Maybe tires have changed alot over the years. I don't even remember even pinching a tube, not to infer that I have some kind of super power. I am ALMOST looking  forward to when I have to change out the tires on my FJR  just to see what all the hubbub is all about, then maybe I can join the Club! 🤔

Ha ha, nothing to look forward to Jim, modern tubeless fat tyres are an absolute PITA to break the bead, and re-seat, Jeff hates them and swears at me whenever I bring them in, his old tyre machine is fine for our old bike tyres but hopelessly inadequate for anything wider than a 140, but as he’s 73, he’s not going to invest in a shiny new machine.

I take my fat tyres to another shop that does mainly car tyres as they have modern machines. I think your “super powers” will fail you when you try to pry a modern fat tyre off a soft alloy rim with a couple of screwdrivers…..

Hello Terry, back in the 90's I purchased a dual,long(the 'bead breaker' measures roughly 32" from floor to the top of it's two handles)handled tire-pincher type of bead breaker which works for all but the 170+ tire rear rims.
I used to take the deflated tubeless wheel to the automotive tire place(before I purchased the 'bead breaker' tool)just so they can pop the bead from one side of the tubeless alloy wheel.
I could then do the tire replacement on those tubeless alloy wheels with no difficulty;popping the beads can't be done w/o one. I understand when you say to just drop them off there because they need to have stick-on wheel weights applied and they are most familiar with balancing alloy wheels.
The BMW 'K' bikes,etc. attach to the rear hub using a 4-bolt flange and I don't have those to attach to a static balancing stand. I got creative with my balance stand adjustable cones on a machined shaft and would fit those very close together through the small center hole of the 4-bolt alloy wheels and use my stick-on weights.
The dynamic balance stands have good bearings and are useful for precision balancing.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, BMW rims are made from custard Bill, and so easy to damage, much easier to take them to a shop.

[grcamna2]

Yep, BMW rims are made from custard Bill, and so easy to damage, much easier to take them to a shop.

Yes,indeed. 

[Terry in Australia]

I drove over and picked my front wheel up from the shop, Ari, the guy I always deal with told me that I hadn't pinched the tub after all, but rather there was a spoke poking  a hole in it, so that made me feel a bit less useless. He charged me $50 (around $35 USD) for a new tube, grinding the spoke down, taping the rim, fitting the tyre and balancing it, so I think that was a good deal.

I went home and quickly installed the wheel, and decided that a couple of laps around the block were in order. The old Suzy started first kick and settled into a happy idle. I let it warm up for a minute while I threw my helmet on, then off I went. I'm constantly surprised at how much "grunt" this thing has, I reckon it'd either stick with a CB750 or even out-torque it. I did a couple of laps, and almost came to grief when a moron didn't give way to me in the roundabout near my house, so I absolutely gave it to him, and he sh1t himself. Fcuk I was wild.

Anyway, I came home and did a little job on Rob's Royal Enfield as he's back to that now that the Moto Guzzi needs a rebuild, and once I did that I grabbed my handy pack of split pins (cotter pins) and installed one each on each brake adjusting thingie, the rear axle and the brake arm retaining bolt, so all going well, it'll fly thru the Roadworthy Inspection on Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to a ride!

[Terry in Australia]

On Saturday morning I did one last check of the old blue beast, decided to cable tie a couple of wires to the handlebars, then I purchased an "Unregistered Vehicle Permit" so I could ride it over to Ace Motorcycles for a Roadworthy Inspection. The bike ran flawlessly on the way over, and I decided that after the inspection I'd take the long way home.

Jeff loved the bike, he said he couldn't fault it, and it flew thru the inspection. One of the other customers there was 'rapt in it, he's an English bloke about my age, and he said he'd owned several Suzuki 2 strokes in England before migrating to Oz, and loved them. That really pumped me up, over here CB750's are really common and while I still get a few thumbs up from guys who remember them, everyone who looked at the T500 had something nice to say about it. I stopped at a gas station to fill it up on the way home and again, it drew a crowd of interested old farts who vaguely remembered them from back in the day.

I was riding on the freeway, when it started to miss and fart. Fcuk. I looked down and it looked like both (clear) fuel lines were empty? WTF? The (vacuum) fuel tap was on, so I turned it around to "Prime", but it didn't appear to make any difference? Hmmnn. Finally it rolled to a stop a couple of hundred yards before my exit, so I pushed it, which was quite scary with cars and trucks roaring past at 60 MPH.

I got it running again, but it had suddenly become a 250, so I nursed it home, and later today I'll swap out the fuel tap for a non-vacuum item, and see if that solves it, and check the ignition etc at the same time. A little bit of a piss-off, but I also remember when it was running well, it went like a rocket, so looking forwards to sorting it out and doing a decent ride.

T500 Saturday 4 March 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was in the 90's all weekend, so by the time I got the old girl home I needed a nice cold drink, or ten....

Ginger beer by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[Terry in Australia]

Well a quick post script, my cuz, a Suzuki 2 stroke expert rang me today and so I asked him what he thought the issue was, and he asked me if I'd installed new condensors when I built the bike? I don't remember, so I'll read back thru the build thread to see if I did, if not, I'll go buy some. Fcuking points ignitions, what a PITA......

[Trevor from Warragul]

I had a condenser fail on my H1A a couple of years ago. Having read the views of Hondaman on the new Chinese condensers, I searched eBay and found someone selling NOS condensers from the 1970's. Problem solved. I kept the box, because I thought it was kind of groovy!

[MauiK3]

What about the maybe empty fuel lines? Was that a mirage?

[Terry in Australia]

I think it was Steve, I fired it up yesterday and it ran on two cylinders again and I could see fuel running thru the lines and filters. I'll swap in another condensor and see if that solves it before I swap out the fuel tap. If it makes no difference, the petcock is next.

[grcamna2]

I think it was Steve, I fired it up yesterday and it ran on two cylinders again and I could see fuel running thru the lines and filters. I'll swap in another condensor and see if that solves it before I swap out the fuel tap. If it makes no difference, the petcock is next.

You'll know it's condensers if when you fire the engine up(especially at night)with the points cover off,they'll be letting-off lot's of sparks/arcing. I hope it didn't crisp your point contact surfaces.. 

[ekpent]

Because of issues like you had Terry I am always on pins and needles for awhile when first putting a new project out there on the road. Here's hoping you get it sorted to build some confidence and then some foodie pictures with it !!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yep arcing between the points is a dead (pun intended) giveaway that condensors are toast, the only problem is I can’t really test it at night because it is pretty loud with the expansion chambers, and my next door neighbours have little kids who go to bed early. I’ll just take a gamble and swap in some new ones, and give the points a clean while I’m at it.

Yes Eric, I’m looking forward to a nice Autumn ride and something nice to eat while admiring the old beast, as we all do.

[Terry in Australia]

Well the worst part of jumping from project to project as I've done in recent years is that I forget a lot. Today after scouring Ebay for an Australian seller of ignition parts for the T500, and posting on two FB pages, I decided that, in desperation I'd hunt thru my many tubs of T500 parts and see if I could find an old condensor or two. After not finding much, I found the honey hole!

Woohoo! I even found these new clutch plates just in case I need them if I can't adjust the drag out of the clutch, I also found my original owners manual and factory workshop manual, just in case I stuff something up. Some days are diamonds.....

T500 new ignition and clutch parts by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[ekpent]

Score !!

[MauiK3]

I do so many different things around the house that when I need to go back to look at something I have to really think about how I did a job. It's like someone else did the work and I'm discovering it.
Uh oh, forgetful.

[PeWe]

I got an idea that I had to install a fuse to avoid risk to get a battery- wiring melt down.
Found the parts needed and noticed that I already had done it, 6 months ago....

[scottly]

Well a quick post script, my cuz, a Suzuki 2 stroke expert rang me today and so I asked him what he thought the issue was, and he asked me if I'd installed new condensors when I built the bike? I don't remember, so I'll read back thru the build thread to see if I did, if not, I'll go buy some. Fcuking points ignitions, what a PITA......

Uh, Terry, when a two-stroke starts running poorly, especially the older ones, the first thing to check is for fouled spark plugs. They used to make a nifty little spare plug holder that clamped onto a frame tube that held two plugs and a wrench, which came in handy.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, with the SP1 sold on Monday I had room in the patio to roll the T500 in, and so I popped the ignition cover off and fired it up. Once again my cuz had diagnosed the problem correctly, the points for #1 cylinder were sparking away with big yellow sparks every few revolutions. I swapped in a new set of points and a new condenser, roughly set the gap and timed it by eye, and away it went like a new bike. I don’t know how to link a Youtube video on my phone so I’ll post it tonight.

I also attempted to adjust the clutch but I’d done it correctly when I built the bike so no improvement sadly, I’ll have to pop the clutch cover off on the weekend and look for a broken/warped clutch plate. What did piss me off though is that the rectifier decided to take a dump and as soon as I rev the engine over around 3K RPM, it blew the main fuse. I don’t have a spare and don’t want to pull the one out of the T350, so I ordered a replacement from the US.

No biggie, I’m gonna be busy assembling my other RC51 to see what parts are missing, and I took my Mach III’s engine cases around to Hussein to vapor blast last night. He reminded me that I’d made a deal with him to take his little Honda CB77(?) engine home and strip it so that he could vapor blast it, then reassemble it for him, and in turn he’d blast my engine for free. That’s a $1500 saving, so I’m more than happy.