Topic: Don's 81 GS1100e happy Suzuki.

[Don R]

 I procrastinated on buying ebay 2.0 slides and they got away. I think I'll attempt to sell the 29's and buy a set of new carbs. It's running great so I'm in no huge rush. The meter is a treat to tune by, I can see the richer part of the curve at low throttle openings caused by the slides.
  I hadn't ridden it at night yet, I went to the city council meeting and then to my granddaughters' ball game, I like the red gauge lighting. My wife was driving her car home and when I passed her, she said the headlight looked yellowy and dim. It might be the voltage drop showing up.

[grcamna2]

I procrastinated on buying ebay 2.0 slides and they got away. I think I'll attempt to sell the 29's and buy a set of new carbs. It's running great so I'm in no huge rush. The meter is a treat to tune by, I can see the richer part of the curve at low throttle openings caused by the slides.
  I hadn't ridden it at night yet, I went to the city council meeting and then to my granddaughters' ball game, I like the red gauge lighting. My wife was driving her car home and when I passed her, she said the headlight looked yellowy and dim. It might be the voltage drop showing up.

Don,your stator windings may be a bit crispy.. Pull the stator cover.
The other thing to do is remove the flywheel/rotor(get the correct puller for the 80-81')and inspect whether it's been slipping on the taper on the crankshaft;if that happens for too long it will snap the end of the crankshaft off.
Best to remove the flywheel/rotor and use some fine lapping compound and lap the taper between them;clean everything off real good,put some red LocTite on taper of that shaft and lock it down tight with an air impact: Done 

[Don R]

 You may be right. The voltage suggests that it's charging OK. I'm going to look at a volt meter mount to monitor it. I know I need to do some electrical testing at various points, I'm thinking the ign. switch has a huge voltage drop. The fuse box looks pretty good as far as voltage drop but the in-out volts are both low.
 I'm wondering if wiring the V-reg directly to the battery has caused a low voltage problem in the harness. I've been studying the wiring diagram but it takes me a while to get familiar enough to see how it's flowing.

[grcamna2]

I edited my reply #376

[Don R]

 OK What I did was follow a video and hook the 3 wires to yellow and the red and black directly to the battery. I did some clean-up in the wiring sheath and ended up with a red/white female end and a red male end not connected to anything. The lighting system may be back feeding somehow because the diagram appears that the red/white should feed the right control from the V-reg. 
 I'm not seeing where red plugs into red/white but no fuses blow when it is.

[grcamna2]

Don,the recommendations in my post #376, very important.
The stator flywheel/rotor spinning loose on the end of the crankshaft is a common problem with the 1100E. I've owned a few of them.

[Don R]

 I know, I read that and the PM. The PO Drag raced the one he had before this one, when I called to ask if he had found the wheelie bars, (his brother hadn't checked the storage unit) he said he had checked it when he first got it because he suspected it had a kit in it. His puller was lost amongst the tools in his closed diesel shop and as yet he hadn't found it, so I bought one. My APE gasket and air filter order was lost in the ether, so I ordered a single gasket from a vendor on ebay. APE assured me a week on the air filters two weeks ago, no dice there either.
 That said, the alternator and voltage regulator is working great, even powering the O2 sensor heater and AFR meter. The voltage is good at the battery, it just doesn't make it to the lights. With the red/white and light green wires not connected I'm not sure how it had any lights. Connecting them didn't do a lot, but when it is running, there is 11 volts to the taillight. I changed the headlight bulb but my spare was a dud.
 I'll check more electrical later, lately I only take one thing apart at a time.

 I had a personal rule that I broke for this bike it is, no bikes newer than 1978 because that's when the wiring began to get complicated. I didn't like the XS850 or the CB900C that I got running and sold.  This one is worth the effort.

[grcamna2]

I know, I read that and the PM. The PO Drag raced the one he had before this one, when I called to ask if he had found the wheelie bars, (his brother hadn't checked the storage unit) he said he had checked it when he first got it because he suspected it had a kit in it. His puller was lost amongst the tools in his closed diesel shop and as yet he hadn't found it, so I bought one. My APE gasket and air filter order was lost in the ether, so I ordered a single gasket from a vendor on ebay. APE assured me a week on the air filters two weeks ago, no dice there either.
 That said, the alternator and voltage regulator is working great, even powering the O2 sensor heater and AFR meter. The voltage is good at the battery, it just doesn't make it to the lights. With the red/white and light green wires not connected I'm not sure how it had any lights. Connecting them didn't do a lot, but when it is running, there is 11 volts to the taillight. I changed the headlight bulb but my spare was a dud.
 I'll check more electrical later, lately I only take one thing apart at a time.

 I had a personal rule that I broke for this bike it is, no bikes newer than 1978 because that's when the wiring began to get complicated. I didn't like the XS850 or the CB900C that I got running and sold.  This one is worth the effort.

Ok Don 
You've installed the SH775 reg/rect. on this one?
I've found it's best not to use the original harness reg/rect. striped,etc. factory wires(sometimes they melt down inside the harness and the power gets lost),but go direct 3 stator wires to the reg/rect. and the + & - Direct To The Battery.
I hope they finally deliver your APE order.. UPS? 

[Don R]

 We don't know the shipment method on my filters because APE doesn't have them to send as Jegs didn't either. Jegs was waiting for K&N to supply them which I'm wondering about since the prices have gone sky high, I had hoped APE would be able to get a quality set since they weren't K&N's.
 I haven't called to nag APE yet, my Jegs order was difficult to track online and eventually the order even fell off their web site, talking to a human didn't clear up anything since they were unable or unwilling to check on delivery dates. I heard that the Coughlin family had sold out to a conglomerate.

[Don R]

 I'm considering a relay on the feed to the 3 fuse section of the fuse panel, those are the three that are low on volts. I'd likely go to a blade fuse panel also. I could activate it with the red wire and use it to feed battery + power to the 3 circuits on the orange wire. It could mount where the old Rec/Reg was.
 I tested by jumping the battery to the feed side of the fuses, all of the lights got brighter. I really don't want another key to deal with so might not do the switch replacement.

[Don R]

 I sent an email to APE to see the status of my air filter order, I see K&N has the chrome top ovals in stock now, and on sale for the same price as the APE round filters. Just my luck. With a little luck I can cancel the order and get the K&N's. I obviously won't know anything until Tuesday.

[Don R]

 I read Greg Cope's tuning tips on the APE site, I wish I had a method of installing an air box, he posted there is a couple mile an hour difference if you can get the carbs tucked into a still air area, hopefully with a scoop. It says that getting all 4 cylinders the same air temp and pressure is important for tuning. I'm a long way from tuning to that degree of tech but it would be fun to try. Since I have the Mikuni's I've looked longingly at the repro Z1900 air boxes.

[grcamna2]

I read Greg Cope's tuning tips on the APE site, I wish I had a method of installing an air box, he posted there is a couple mile an hour difference if you can get the carbs tucked into a still air area, hopefully with a scoop. It says that getting all 4 cylinders the same air temp and pressure is important for tuning. I'm a long way from tuning to that degree of tech but it would be fun to try. Since I have the Mikuni's I've looked longingly at the repro Z1900 air boxes.

A good,used air box?
I always ran an airbox w/ a K&N filter inside it;it worked better than my pods(my big carbs didn't fit my airbox)for idle-midrange transition smoothness.

[Don R]

 I ordered a new key switch from Japan today, it's too much $$ but in for a penny in for a pound. I'll plug it in for use while I'm busy destroying the old one. If I accidentally fix the old one, I'll put it back on. If not I'll swap the cylinder part so my keys match.
 Now I see there are no returns and it takes 5-6 weeks for delivery. Seller is in fla. and part is in Japan.

[grcamna2]

I ordered a new key switch from Japan today, it's too much $$ but in for a penny in for a pound. I'll plug it in for use while I'm busy destroying the old one. If I accidentally fix the old one, I'll put it back on. If not I'll swap the cylinder part so my keys match.
 Now I see there are no returns and it takes 5-6 weeks for delivery. Seller is in fla. and part is in Japan.

I was very fortunate with my 81' Suzuki ignition switch;the old one had a very corroded contacts assembly.
I looked around on Ebay and found a good seller in NY state who had quite a few choices of used ignition switches;I ordered one with no key,but the pictures showed the base and even the little steel harness band was in good condition.
I received it and used just the good,used contacts base assembly(there's a trick to removing the white cover!)installed into my key/steering lock 'upper' w/ the same key;I'm so glad I found a low mileage switch.

[Don R]

 The joy of old Suzuki motorcycles, not as easy as a Honda. L0L!
  I haven't tried a full-size passenger on the Suzuki yet. My wife's knees have enough trouble with the GL1000.

[grcamna2]

The joy of old Suzuki motorcycles, not as easy as a Honda. L0L!
  I haven't tried a full-size passenger on the Suzuki yet. My wife's knees have enough trouble with the GL1000.

The 81' you have has a comfortable stock(couch?)seat.

[Don R]

 Yes, stock seat. No word from APE on air filters so I sent an email, they are ordered from their supplier. I wanted to call APE and cancel this morning since K&N's are available again. I loaded the K&N site and of course they are sold out already.
 I wonder if any suppliers actually stock the K&N's or do they just drop ship them from K&N when we order? Answer yes, but they all want $40 to $50 more than K&N. 

[Don R]

 I got my puller and gasket sitting waiting for me to get off my dead ask and do the work, is there anything else while I'm in there? I think I read something about starter bolts backing out. Maybe Loctite them too?

[grcamna2]

I got my puller and gasket sitting waiting for me to get off my dead ask and do the work, is there anything else while I'm in there? I think I read something about starter bolts backing out. Maybe Loctite them too?

The starter clutch parts(caps,springs & rollers),although they may be ok.
Yes,use some blue locktite if you need to tighten down the 3) starter clutch mounting bolts #07130-0816A;I've needed to replace them on a couple bikes because they wear-out their threads when they run loose.
I like to run lock washers on the stator mounting screw-head bolts.

[seanbarney41]

I got my puller and gasket sitting waiting for me to get off my dead ask and do the work, is there anything else while I'm in there? I think I read something about starter bolts backing out. Maybe Loctite them too?

Don, carefully loctite all the bolts and screws under that cover.  Stuff coming loose ruined 2 stator rotors on mine...first time was the screw holding the wiring retainer.  Second one (was a chinese cheapie but worked good for several thousand miles) destroyed by field coil screws coming loose.

[Don R]

 Thank you for that valuable info. I'm cleaning gutters and mowing, then it's bike time.

[Don R]

 The puller didn't fit, it's 28mm on the female end, 27mm left on the male end. Before spinning the nut off, it would test fit over the nut but no way would it go over the threads on the flywheel. I re-checked and the list on ebay includes 81 gs1100e.

[grcamna2]

The puller didn't fit, it's 28mm on the female end, 27mm left on the male end. Before spinning the nut off, it would test fit over the nut but no way would it go over the threads on the flywheel. I re-checked and the list on ebay includes 81 gs1100e.

Which seller sold that to you ?

[Don R]

 Autoparts8927 , Now I see that it needed to be M35X1.5. It isn't. It was cheap though. L0L! Shame on me for not buying the motion pro part. I failed to notice the sizes listed on other (brand name) posts.
 I've sent a message that it didn't fit. I noticed the thrust washer in the back of the starter gear had slipped off of the shaft and was propped up behind the gear. Thank goodness, it's back where it goes. The motor looked really clean inside, I was happy to see that.
 I didn't find anything on pulling the flywheel in my Haynes manual, I downloaded the Suzuki manual onto my computer, I'll look there next for torque numbers and such.
  Oops I only downloaded the owners manual, I'm wary of the baggage that comes with downloading the service manual.
  Now on ebay, I see dozens of the motion pro and other 35mm pullers, where they when I was shopping?