After a break of 35 years from riding I've bought a motorbike. It's a 70s classic to compliment my 70's classic GT6, a 1975 Suzuki T500 2 stroke twin. It's a T500M model but has been restored with the paintwork style from the earlier T500K model from 1973. When I bought it the previous owner had also fitted the rear light from an even earlier 60s model of T500 but I've changed that for the correct 70s "Dog bone" style light. The previous owner also fitted the handlebars from a 60s version of the bike, similar to the correct ones but with a cross brace like a trials bike. I may end up changing them later.
My intention had been to buy a 70s Japanese 2 stroke to restore as a retirement project, however, having checked the cost of chroming, painting, engine rebuilds and parts I soon realised it would be cheaper to buy one that was already restored. I was actually looking for a triple, Suzuki GT550, GT380 or Kawasaki 250, 400 etc but a nice T500 twin came up for sale at a dealers in Portsmouth, Trojan Cars, who sell a lot of classic cars and motorcycles. I visited and did the deal back in April.
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| Me on my Suzuki T500 |
Apart from running out of fuel on my first trip out to the local petrol station (I knew it was low!) all was great for the first couple of months. However, after a reasonably long 40ish mile trip to visit my son in Eastleigh and also attend a Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club (VJMC) meet nearby the bike played up and started firing on one cylinder. I limped it all the way home on one cylinder which was a challenging journey. I started to investigate, checked for a spark and there was one, checked the ignition timing and it was spot on, stripped the carb and it was spotless inside with no blockages. I ordered condensers, plugs and points and started to replace one thing at a time to eliminate the fault. I also found that the silencer baffle on the faulty side was missing, it was there before so a coincidence that it fell out around the same time as the fault.Chnaging the plugs made no difference, I did notice that a cooler than standard plug was fitted by the previous owner (B8HS) so I did revert to the standard grade (B7HS).
I then changed the condensor on the faulty left hand side. This was not straight forward as the condensors have two wires, one is a flylead that has to be butt jointed to a wire from the generator, the other lead that connects to the pints was too short and the mounting bracket was the wrong shape and had to be trimmed to fit. I soldered the wires with a heatshrink cover. The perils of aftermarket parts for a bike that is fairly rare in the UK. Parts are more plentiful in the US where the model sold well, in fact mine was a US import back in 2013.After changing the condensor the fault was cleared (or so I thought). I also replaced the missing baffle. I went out for a ride and the bike went well. That evening I went out again heading for a local bike meet and it started playing up again, intermittently firing one one cylinder again.
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| The condensors and points |
One other thing I noticed was that the indicators were flashing faster and faster the higher the revs and very fast when at speed. So I had a thought, maybe the voltage is too high, over voltage is one of the things that makes ignition condensors and coils fail. Just checked with my multimeter, and the generator is putting out much to high a voltage, at 2,000 RPM it's kicking out 19v, probably more at higher revs. So the regulator is faulty. I've ordered a modern replacement regulator and alternator unit from Rex's speedshop. One good thing is that the bike started up and ran fine this morning, so it could be that the condensor was playing up as it overheated from high voltage but may have escaped damage. Time will tell after I fit the new regulator/rectifier unit.
