New to me '83 (engine that is!)

[mcgovern61]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it! :music:

A few more tweaks and she'll be ready for the road full time! Next, I want to rebuild and install the '82 brake calipers front and rear. I am still using the '81 brakes which are single piston calipers. The front pads do not ride on the '82 rotors correctly and they squeal alot. The vents on the '82 rotors are different than the solid '81 rotors and seem to play havoc on the pads. The '81 pads are just that much deeper that they ride over the vents.

Lastly, next year I want to do a new paint job with original decals. My rattle can paint job isn't looking too good at this point. (IMHO)

 

[AApple]

Congrats on a job well done, Gerry!! You and your helper should be proud!! The engine looks great!

 

[mcgovern61]

Sounds good Gerry, I know it's been a long time coming, congrats on getting the swap done! :clapping:

Your going to love it even more with the new pipes!

Dan, got the pipes today and installed them. What a machine! It actually sounds like a Goldwing now! Thanks! :clapping: :clapping:

 

[dan filipi]

It looks like they cleaned up pretty good, nice! :clapping:

Have you had it out on the road with these on?

 

[carl62cycles]

Well ,after some west coast travel, I finally got a chance to do some more work. When I first got my '82 given to me, it was in really bad shape and the engine was seized. In the process of trying to free it up, we were pushing the bike down hill with the plugs out and banging it into gear. Couldn't free the engine because(as I found out later) it was blown big time! However, in the process of popping it into gear, I bent the drive shaft ever so slightly. When moving real slow in first gear I could feel a little thump-thump.

Well, the '83 engine shipped with a complete swing arm and shaft, so I pulled the shaft and swapped them. The '82 shaft was bent and the universal was showing some real wear. The '83 universal is real tight like new bearings! I decided to paint the '82 final drive while it was out.

I did some carb work, floats were out of adjustment and the float pins were not sealing. All of that has been adjusted and corrected. The carbs were left on the garage floor with a full tank and the petcock left open for two days and no more leaks! (Maybe my gas mileage will finally be normal!)

Today my 12 year old daughter and I popped the '83 engine into the frame. (She worked the jack and spotted all of the bolts for me plus all of the initial tightening of the bolts!)

I finally found out about the neutral wire and harness being different. I had to cut off the connecter and wire in the old connector form the '81 engine. Hooked up the battery and spun the engine, everything works!

Next, I have some more wiring changes (stator wires) and then onto installing the carbs! BTW, I moved the gas tank back as far as the petcock which allowed the engine to slip right in without the spark advancer catching on the tank!

Hi Mc what is the dif... on the stator wires. :?

 

[mcgovern61]

It looks like they cleaned up pretty good, nice! :clapping:

Have you had it out on the road with these on?

Have I had it out on the road????? Are you kidding, I didn't want to go home! It sounds great! Smooth, quiet, gearing right. Honda really did it with this '83! :music:

 

[mcgovern61]

Hi Mc what is the dif... on the stator wires. :?

The plug connector at the stator wires tends to overheat and melt. We have been cutting the connector out and soldering the three wires together. In my case, I had already cut my '81 engines connector so I had to cut the connector on the '83 and solder them any way.

 

[carl62cycles]

Great job Mc :builder: . Bike looks nice :good: . Same thing said with my 3rd engine.Original (82)didn't last long .2nd (80)pretty loose but fast (locked up 1/2 a block away from home coming from a run when downshifting oh2: )pushed it home in neutral (nice excercise)....Now with an 82 back in smooooooth compare to the others (I still owe the carb sinc)and begining to worry about the carbs :beg: ,(never opened since I got her 9+- years ago.Why loosening the tank to fit engine????? Once again great job!!!!

 

[mcgovern61]

I loosened the tank because when the '81 came out it kept getting caught at the advancer. Pushing the tank back 1/2" allowed it to slip right in.

 

[carl62cycles]

Hi Mc what is the dif... on the stator wires. :?

The plug connector at the stator wires tends to overheat and melt. We have been cutting the connector out and soldering the three wires together. In my case, I had already cut my '81 engines connector so I had to cut the connector on the '83 and solder them any way.

Read about that,Had one getting hot ,tinkered with the plug, cleaned and took dialectric grease off from previous maintainace (me)(probably that started loosening stuff up)one plug is a bit rotted dry but no heat now.kinda against soldering but will take a soldering pen torch on my rides from now on.just in case.Find out when bike running rough with volts at 10 showing at the guage.first question came from thinking it had more wires in the socket like 84 or 85 and up(or is that the pulse generator only :headscratch: )

 

[mcgovern61]

first question came from thinking it had more wires in the socket like 84 or 85 and up(or is that the pulse generator only :headscratch: )

I am not sure about the '84 and '85, I have only ventured as far as '83. :cool!:

 

[badorderbob]

Hey Carl62,..not trying to sound smart, but I'd go ahead and solder Those 3 Infamous Yellow wires, otherwise you'll be putting in a new stator :beg: :beg: solder them!!!!! I was going to grease mine up also today but found one wire almost burnt into and casing melted :heat: too close for comfort for me!!! I should have done mine when I read :rtfm: about them instead of putting it off,..hint :beg: :beg: Later :hi: Bob

 

[dan filipi]

first question came from thinking it had more wires in the socket like 84 or 85 and up(or is that the pulse generator only )

The 3 wire plug is the stator, the 4 wire plug to the right is from the pulse generators. I replaced that one with a 4 wire trailer plug because 2 pins were corroded.

 

[mcgovern61]

I re-synced the carbs to the new exhaust pipes (was kinda hard because it was so quiet I wasn't sure the bike was running!) Surprisingly, they were out of sync because of the change in pipes from last week and the increase in back pressure. (That is definately a lesson learned.)

Had her out pretty much all day with my 18 year old daughter (who is up from Florida and who helped to swap out the first engine. BTW Andrew, she said she didn't see you!). Later we rode down to church for praise band practice (35 miles one way) and put about 95 miles on her today. I'm telling you, it is like a whole different bike. Shooting down the expressway at 70 mph, two up with back packs, electric guitar, pedal boards for the guitar (about 20 lbs) and only 4000 rpm vs 5200 rpm on the old engine and trans.

Ahhhhhh.... the joys of a quiet bike! :clapping: :yahoo:

 

[joedrum]

gerry it makes me feel your joy when you express the fun of your team effort in the bike transformation . i know the feeling well i went though it on my bike and still feel and enjoy the difference.

gerry your just as crazy as me ,you could get a trailer and theres no telling how much music stuff you can put in there.

this kind of thinking comes from the fact your not going to take anything but the bike

 

[mcgovern61]

I have this thinking from way back when I graduated high school and thought I was going to buy a car until I found out how much insurance would cost me in Philadelphia! :? :shock:

Two years later, I bought my '81 Suzuki GN 400 new for $1200 and used it for everything. This was my main ride no matter what time of year and no matter what had to be carried. I had a 1956 wooden Chris Craft boat that I was rebuilding and you should have seen the look on the machine shop owners face when I pulled up on my little 400 with the boats propeller shaft, propeller, strut and rudder for repairs. There are all kinds of ways to get things safely on a bike! :music:

 

[Joep]

I had (recently) a GS 550 suzuki that I had a milk crate cord to the luggage rack and sometimes it was my only means of travel, rain sun cold... we would go grocery shopping and put the bags in the crate and cover with a bungee net and go home.. when we wanted to get drinks we would go to the local gas stop and get cups of drinks and then ride home and enjoy the drinks at home..

 

[OldFashioned]

Sorry I just read your post and am somewhat trying to figure the system out. Wish I had joined a few weeks before you started doing your 83 engine swap I could have saved you a little time. Anyway just something I wanted to say in case it wasn't brought to your attention. Which it would have been easier to take care of while you had the engine out or at least the exhaust off the left side. You may have known about this and already done it but if you haven't I would say go ahead and do it especially since you have went to the trouble of putting such a nice engine in your bike. I really liked the photos! getting back to maintenance, there is an engine cover under the exhaust pipes on the GL1100 that is to be removed occasionally to remove all trapped or gunky oil refuse. This cover is at the bottom of the engine left side and was purposely put there for this maintenance. It is pretty straight forward and a lot of dealerships and owners would never bother with cleaning out his area as it should be. I do not have a manual close by so I can't give you a break down on how often the maintenance should be done but if I was swapping a motor I would make sure this was performed. It is nothing hard but you do need to drain the oil and remove this cover and clean out all the gunk. I think a new gasket is all that is needed and I'm not sure if that side exhaust has to come off or not (it has been a while since I did mine) but if you need further manual details let me know and I would be glad to help you.

 

[dan filipi]

there is an engine cover under the exhaust pipes on the GL1100 that is to be removed occasionally to remove all trapped or gunky oil refuse. This cover is at the bottom of the engine left side and was purposely put there for this maintenance.

I think you must be talking about the oil pump pickup screen, that is on the right side (while sitting on the bike)

 

[mcgovern61]

there is an engine cover under the exhaust pipes on the GL1100 that is to be removed occasionally to remove all trapped or gunky oil refuse.

Thanks oldfashioned and welcome to the site! :clapping:

Yes it is the oil pump pickup screen and I did clean it out while the engine was out. The engine that I pulled had a lot of noise and oil pressure drop off which is when I first learned about this from Dan. When I pulled that one (on the '81 engine) I found slivers of metal and large carbon chunks.

Thanks for the advice, we always welcome the experience of others! :thank_you: :clapping: