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Owner Tips

Several Suzuki enthusiasts around the globe have written handy guides and useful reference sheets, and I've gathered a few together here. As with any such resource, this information is provided as information only, and I accept no responsibility for injury to you, your friends, or to your machine. You are responsible for doing your own due diligence and research as to the appropriateness of the information for your situation and requirements.

In most cases, just 'click' on the link to open, or you can right click and then select 'Save link as'. And if you have something that you would like to contribute, just drop me a line !

Carburettor Linkage Repairs

From Tim Harwood in the UK :

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Gearing Chart

From Richard Nowson in the USA:

Steering Stem Bearings, HT Leads and Brakes

From Keith Rudd in the UK:

* a series of articles on master cylinder, calliper and rear brake service and while written for the GT750, the general instructions apply to most early 1970's Suzuki - please note that if you have any doubts at all, or have never done this sort of service work before - get help. A botched brake repair could prove to be fatal not just to you, but also to anyone you run into.

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Water Pumps:

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Puller

Baffle Removal

There are several tricks you can try for removing the baffles on Suzuki, or indeed any make of two stroke exhaust. The baffles often are glued in with coke, carbon and rust in those cases where the bike has sat un-used for decades.The most important point is to go slowly.

Looking at Suzuki triples specifically, something to be aware of is that the interior bulk head plates inside the pipes are only spot welded to the inboard side of the pipe. The outboard side is just pressed against the outer exhaust skin. As a result, if an internal header has been bent or damaged in some way by a previous owner, removal of the baffle will be very difficult as the damaged plate will jam the baffle. Cutting the pipe open and then re-welding it may be your only option.

In those instances where you are pretty sure the problem is just coke and/or carbon then:

Oil Pump Shaft Seal

Ian Judd in the UK is one of several folks who have come up with a solution for leaking shaft seals on the injector pump. These use a 'u' seal from the factory which seems to be completely unavailable and so other types of seals including o-rings have been tried, generally with poor success. Ian uses an 'x' ring seal and has produced a very good write up explaining what he did. You can download it from here.

Gauge Repair

I regularly am asked about how to repair GT750 clocks/gauges, as well as the clocks/gauges of other models. I have done basic repairs on my own clocks on my daily riders, but for restorations I have generally farmed this work out to someone who I trust to do a proper job. Clock restorers of course are reluctant to share any of their secrets, and deservedly so. They are trying to make a living at it after all, but sometimes the bike doesn't warrant spending a load of coin on the clocks and so doing the work yourself may be an option.

First of all - clocks are very easy to ruin. If you do opt to try repairing your own, then you really are on your own, I accept no responsibility if something goes wrong, and typically you will not get any sympathy from whomever you go to if you need someone to bail you out of an unfortunate error. You have been warned. I do list a few clock/gauge restorers at this link and if you have any doubts at all, then I suggest you select one of them before trying it yourself.

For the 1972 GT750 J model, I had reproduction shells made to replace the cracked plastic ones you normally are faced with on this model. I may have more of the plastic shells made, but I am currently (in 2019) sold out although I do still have a few reset knobs available. I have provided a very high level 'how to' repair guide to just replace the plastic shell which is located at this link. I don't go into detail about adding damper fluid to the dampening pot as this is easily done wrong resulting in a scrapped guage, however for those brave enough to give it a try I have included a couple of photos below showing where those pots are located - tachometer on the left and speedometer on the right below.

The rubber lamp sockets in the base of the speedometer and tachometer perish with age, or sometimes the socket wiring is defective and you need to do a repair. At first glance, the wires seem to be sealed into the sockets as a part of the mould, but in fact they just have a dab of rubber cement to seal for weather. This can be removed (see first photo below) and in the photo I show using a set of pull wires to pull in a replacement socket. If the rubber boot on your gauge/clock is too far gone, then at the time of writing you could order them from Marcel at this link. Excellent quality and service, and also very reasonable prices, and shown in the second photo below.

And finally, the later (1973 through 1977) clocks/gauges had the upper metal shell held in place with a crimped stainless steel ring. This has to carefuly be removed if you hope to re-use it again, which is not hard to do, but hard to do well. For both the removal and the reassembly you need to hold the clock in some way and some people use a large hose clamp (called a jubilee clamp in some countries), but Bjorn in Scandenavia has a neater solution as shown in the photos below. With the gauge securely clamped in place, a small dull ended screw driver can be used to safely prise off the ring, and the same clamping assembly can be used when re-installing it. If you have ruined your old ring, these are also available from Marcel at at this link at the time of writing. For greater ease of re-installing the ring, if you notch the ring (make it look saw toothed) first, you will make life easier on yourself.

Good luck !

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