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

[grcamna2]

Terry,it's good to see the engine/cases buttoned-up and ready to run 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yep, I've told myself that I want to be riding it by the 1st of October, and all going well, I'll meet, or even perhaps exceed that deadline, then I need to start thinking about the next one. The weather was marginally better today, still just as windy as yesterday, but it didn't feel as cold. I wandered out around 2pm, and the first thing I did was give the cylinders a quick hone. I was quite happy with the bores, no deep scratches, so good to go.

T500 Sunday 19 Sep 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I installed both pistons onto their conrods, using heaps of redline assembly lube. I bought a tub from Hammer Performance in the US when I bought the first of the two big bore kits that I bought for my Harley Sportster, that I haven't fitted yet, 6 years on. I've used about half a tub on various CB750 engines, not to mention big Kawasaki engines, plus on my T350, it's great stuff. I used to only use engine oil and that's fine if you're gonna fire it up straight away, but if not, the oil runs away and you're left with not much in the way of lube, so not knowing when I'll have each engine running, I slop on some redline, just in case. I sprayed some WD40 into the cylinders, and slid them on, waaaaay easier than on a CB750.

T500 Sunday 19 Sep 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then disaster struck. With the T500, as well as the 4 cylinder head sleeve nuts, there are another 4 8mm bolts spaced around the head between them, to tighten the head to the cylinder. Not sure why, maybe Suzuki thought that the 4 sleeve nuts weren't enough, but regardless, the threaded holes for the 8 bolts were all stripped, fcuk! OK, I quickly helicoiled each hole, so it should be fine now.

T500 Sunday 19 Sep 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

But by the time I'd done 8 helicoils it was getting late, so I'll install the heads tomorrow, and torque them down. I am happy with the progress I'm making though, and I am glad that I ponied up the dough to get everything vapor blasted, it does look good.

T500 Sunday 19 Sep 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I dragged myself inside and the wife reminded me that I'd promised to make my favourite dish, Spagooli. The wife says that I live, breathe and sleep rusty old motorcycles, but I don't know why. Dinner was lovely.

T500 Sunday 19 Sep 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

 

[ekpent]

 Of course you have to use noodles that look like motorcycle mag wheels !!    Your September is pretty much like a Michigan April. Engine is lookin' great.

[grcamna2]

Lol,it doesn't look like you have enough (Lester)Wheels-of-pasta  to go with all that meat sauce. 

[BenelliSEI]

Terry..... I may have told you the fine folks at Revenue Canada charged me $139.01 for duty when I collected the K0 bar end switches you posted to me. I had to pay, to pick up the parcel. I then wrote to them and explained, they were my switches, that I simply “loaned to my friend in Australia”. They asked if I had filled out the correct export forms when I posted them to you....... I had not.

I only had the receipt from the original parcel I sent you, but buried them in Ownership copies, bills of sale for old bikes and responded to every form letter they sent me...... the last one was a request “to deal with someone with the balls to make a decision based on doing the right thing”. Last hand written letter was a month ago. Well I’ll be darned if a cheque for $139.01 didn’t show up in the mail today, EIGHT MONTHS LATER! A reward for being obnoxious? So satisfying!!! John D.

[PeWe]

That  look like a tasty showel in meal!
So easy to prepare and tasty. No problem to eat almost every day. Typical lunchbox to  the job.
Red wine match fine as well as loads of Parmesan cheese and olive oil all over it.

[RAFster122s]

Spagooli looks good! Nice garlic bread to eat it with too...
I think I would choose to have a nice tall iced black & orange pekoe tea with the spagooli!

John, glad you were successful in your attempt to recoup the fee!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, the Spagooli is magnificent, I reheated another bowl for lunch today, and it was even nicer after marinating in it's own juices overnight, like Per says, I could eat it every day. Ginger Joe is my preferred drink to wash it down, but then again, I'd wash down my corn flakes with Ginger Joe if I was allowed.........

The weather outside has gone backwards, 11 deg C (51 deg F) today with hailstorms, rain coming in sideways and wind trying to knock all my trees down. I'll leave the bike engine until it gets a bit better, I don't have much more I can do before I need that missing plate that holds the shifter drum in place, but all going well, it'll arrive this week and I can close the engine cases up and drop the engine into the frame. The new repro wiring harness from France(?) arrived today, which is good, I was sweating on it arriving soon as I didn't want to fart about with the crusty old wiring harness, so I'm happy it's arrived, along with the NOS headlight shell, tail light, etc.

I shouldn't be in too much of a hurry though, I've just read the latest on the Covid-19 restrictions, and I'm pretty sure we'll be locked down until the 26th of October, if I'm reading it right? Oh well, I'll be riding the wheels off all of my bikes once I'm allowed to, which will include some different routes, and food, in preparation for my Route 66 motorcycle and food odyssey in 2025.

[PeWe]

11C must be very low for you Terry.
14.5C was my temperature when I had a longer lunch ride to a friend to get a cylinder block I brought to a shop close to me in a backpack riding my brown K2.

I think we will get an extra cold winter here with lots of snow after a warm summer month (July)

Maybe -10-15C in December, -15-20C Jan-Feb..... and very dark..... brrrrrrrrrr

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, yep, while not cold in countries that have snow and ice etc, anything below 20 deg C is too bloody cold for me. When I win the lottery I'm buying a beach front McMansion in Queensland on 10 acres with a huge shed, and I'll travel between it and my home here in Melbourne, depending on the season. It's only 9 deg C as I type this, and I think it'll peak at 11 again today, so probably not too much bike work today either.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Per, yep, while not cold in countries that have snow and ice etc, anything below 20 deg C is too bloody cold for me. When I win the lottery I'm buying a beach front McMansion in Queensland on 10 acres with a huge shed, and I'll travel between it and my home here in Melbourne, depending on the season. It's only 9 deg C as I type this, and I think it'll peak at 11 again today, so probably not too much bike work today either.

Terry,what temps are the coldest you've experienced there ?

[Terry in Australia]

Well I had to check Dr Google Bill as I don't like bullsh1tting, and it appears that our coldest winter day this year was 4 deg C (39 deg F) and our coldest night was -4 deg C which is 29 deg F. I understand that there are plenty of colder places in the world, but I don't want to go to any of them........

[grcamna2]

Well I had to check Dr Google Bill as I don't like bullsh1tting, and it appears that our coldest winter day this year was 4 deg C (39 deg F) and our coldest night was -4 deg C which is 29 deg F. I understand that there are plenty of colder places in the world, but I don't want to go to any of them........

What's the coldest place in all of Australia Terry ?

[Terry in Australia]

Tasmania Bill, from Hobart you can almost see Antarctica.

[grcamna2]

Tasmania Bill, from Hobart you can almost see Antarctica.

I like that your country is warm,generally. 

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, me too mate. My ancestors were Irish rebels who were transported to Oz in chains as punishment for rebellion against the English invasion of Ireland, but as far as I’m concerned the Brits did the family a favour. I’ve been to Ireland and their summers are about as warm as our winters…..

[RAFster122s]

Friend lives near Glastonbury, England and they complain of the heat in mid 70F days and it rains a ton there. I wouldn't survive in merry ole England as my joint issues and arthritis would have me in near constant pain in their climate.
I keep my temperature in the house around 75f in the summer...

[RAFster122s]

Friend lives near Glastonbury, England and they complain of the heat in mid 70F days and it rains a ton there. I wouldn't survive in merry ole England as my joint issues and arthritis would have me in near constant pain in their climate.
I keep my temperature in the house around 75f in the summer...

In my younger years living in Ohio I could work outside on a car in insulated Carhartt coveralls for hours and even sit in the snow without too much difficulty... Long gone are those days

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, I’ve got bad arthritis in my hands, knees, shoulders and hips David, so cold weather can piss off.

[grcamna2]

Terry,in the title of this thread you say "Boneyard" but this bike came from an owner(seemed to me like that PO cared about it a good bit,imo)who had all the parts to it saved mostly and kept them so he could restore the bike himself eventually? I was just wondering when you name it "Boneyard",it almost sounds like you got it from a junkyard? This T500 looked a Whole Bunch better than your T350 when you originally got that bike 

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, the previous owner, Andy, bought it from a wrecking yard, in pieces, in 1992. It came to me as 2 frames, 2 rusty wheels, all the chrome was rusty, the heads and cylinders were off the engine that had damaged crankcases, the tank was full of dents, it was missing lots of parts, and all the alloy was either badly corroded or covered in a thick layer of grease and dirt. Unlike the T350 it wasn't laying in a field since 1973 though, so more of the original parts could be restored.

I think it would be a huge exaggeration to say that "the PO cared about it a good bit", he told me that he bought it on a whim, pushed it all into one corner of his garage and didn't touch it for almost 30 years. He lives in far north New South Wales on the coast, so the bike parts have been kept in a warm, moist sea air environment, which as you know, is not ideal.

I think the only reason that the engine and gearbox internals were still usable was that the bike, or bikes (the 1972 engine number didn't match either of the two 1974 frames) that the engine came from was probably crashed fairly early in life. Had it done a lot of miles before the oil dam mod was done, 4th and 5th gear would have been destroyed. Someone (maybe Andy, I don't know) filled the bottom half of the engine with gearbox oil, which is what I think preserved the crank bearings and seals, there was a little rust and moisture in the oil, but not much.

Here's a few "Before" pics to refresh your memory. The wheels and tyres on it now came from the US, as the ones that came with it would need to be stripped and rebuilt with new spokes and re-chromed rims etc, and chrome plating here is horribly expensive.

Terry's T500 parts 29 Jul 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's T500 parts 29 Jul 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Sunday 8 Aug 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Sunday 8 Aug 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's T500 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Ah,you're right Terry. 
The way I thought of it was that the PO Andy had ideas that included restoration at some point. 
When I look at those orig. pics it does remind me that the PO had certainly put that project bike 'on the back burner' a good while ago.. I remember now when you wrote about him purchasing all the pieces from a salvage yard.I hate going back in a thread of yours and looking at the 'mess' the bike was previously;I'm more of one to have a vision of what I will be building it into such as you have.I just thought at some point Andy had some better aspirations on building the bike into a nice machine like you have now.That's the way I think 

I'm accustomed to your wonderful restorations on crappy looking machines.
I think in a similar way when I look at a complete machine that's just sitting somewhere neglected.I only see the shining beauty it will be when finished:all the rest of the 'mess' on it that it's turned into is just stuff that needs to be removed to let the original shine-out.

[Terry in Australia]

No worries Bill, Andy (who I keep updating with pics as I proceed) tells me that I did more in the first weekend than he did in 30 years. He certainly didn't look after it, but he didn't leave it outside in the rain or hit it with hammers, so I suppose I should thank him for that.

He also had 3 rare Yamaha 650 turbo's on Ebay, but they were in a pretty bad state, and once again, the humidity and corrosion had not been kind to them either. He sold off all his bike crap to restore his 1970(?) Norton Commando that he bought new, so hopefully that bike will be finished and not go back into a moist warm corner of his garage.....

[grcamna2]

No worries Bill, Andy (who I keep updating with pics as I proceed) tells me that I did more in the first weekend than he did in 30 years. He certainly didn't look after it, but he didn't leave it outside in the rain or hit it with hammers, so I suppose I should thank him for that.

He also had 3 rare Yamaha 650 turbo's on Ebay, but they were in a pretty bad state, and once again, the humidity and corrosion had not been kind to them either. He sold off all his bike crap to restore his 1970(?) Norton Commando that he bought new, so hopefully that bike will be finished and not go back into a moist warm corner of his garage.....

Terry,I would be willing to bet that at some point,Andy had dreams of actually doing what you're doing to that T500 (a right proper full restoration)for himself !  I suppose that fellow has many other 'irons cooking in the fire' projects(Norton)that he would like to accomplish also   

I hope you offer to allow him to take it for a ride sometime 

[Terry in Australia]

I know how he feels Bill, I currently have 19 bikes insured, and several other projects to finish, but unlike Andy I've built from scratch, or refurbished 4 or 5 bikes in the last couple of years. Andy probably had a lot of ideas that came to nothing, and he gave up years ago. As you and I both know, bikes won't rebuild themselves.

Looking at the receipts that came with the T500 Andy probably had the right idea though, buy a bike from the wreckers and do nothing with it, and 30 years later some fool will pay you 7 times what you paid for it, a good investment..........