Q: Hello dudes and I hope your New Year is going sweet? Mine is, because my uncle has just given me his old Suzuki GS850 (1982 I think) with a shaft drive, that hasn’t seen daylight or ran for the past 15 years.
It seems to be all there but it has been painted a very unattractive gloss black sometime in the past, and it has a four-into-one exhaust, obviously the bike doesn’t run.
So I thought I’d ask you dudes, where do I begin to get this thing running again? And will it cost me a fortune because I like to convert my hard earned cash into ‘social activities’ rather than spending it on things like this?
Arrie Corsova
A: The first thing to buy will be a new battery for around R600, because then it will at least turn over, or should, and the old one will be useless by now. Then, I’d drain the oil but don’t change the filter just yet, then fill it with some detergent type oil.
The carbs will have to come off and be thoroughly cleaned by a professional mechanic who knows what they’re doing. Then take off the points cover on the right of the bike, as you sit on it, and check, clean and adjust the points and set the timing, all of the settings and how to do that can be found on the Net. And a new set of plugs is a good idea and make sure the air filter is clean and in good condition or you’ll need one of those as well.
Once the engine runs take the bike for a ride to make sure the clutch and gearbox are Ok. Then when you get back drain the oil again and replace the oil filter and fill with a good 10W40 oil – Motul is a good choice here.
That should get it all going but you will need patience and time to get it running ‘sweet’ as you would say. Also the shims will need to checked and a compression test will show you how things are inside, and don’t forget to change the diff’ oil too. So it’s not going to be cheap or quick –your choice?
