Gouraami's 400 bandit project

[Squishy]

You couldn't wait till tomorrow to buy some new oil? 

[Gouraami]

  no, the next day was a Sunday and the bike couldn't stay where it was till the Monday. Also by the time I get home from work I  don't feel like working on the bike

I estimate I added around 25ml of old oil, equating to around 5%. I filtered the old oil before I used it, so it should be fine

[Gouraami]

I have some time for a few updates.

I was going to remove the center stand initially, as I didn't like the look of it. I am so glad I didn't, it makes most maintenance procedures much easier to perform. Balancing wheels for example, saved me from making two trips to the bike shop:



The Ebay seller I bought the braided hoses from lied about them being stainless steel, so I covered up what I could with heat shrink. They are starting to rust with the winter rain, very annoying.





The speedo cable had also seen better days, so to keep the elements, out I also gave it the heat shrink treatment. I gave it a good lubing afterwards, as the speedometer was hoping now and again at certain speeds. it did help, but it is not solved

[ventYl]

did you put some kind of oil (or whatever will prevent rust and won't be washed out by water) underneath the shrinkwrap? without doing so you can be  to find a rust underneath the shrinkwrap later.

[Gouraami]

I didn't...but it is quite a tight fit, I'm not too concerned about it. It will take a long time before it rusts through

With the speedo cable there will be oil there, so also not concerned

[Gouraami]

It is a public holiday tomorrow so I have some time tonight to go through photos taken a few months ago:

Around 4 months ago I found a decent gravity fed sintered filter. It flows much better than the original plastic filter that I had on and is reusable.



Then I came across these pictures 





Frustrating times. I was having low down rich issues once the bike was warmed up. One of the things I thought could be the problem was that the rubber grommets blocking the pilot jets were worn. I proceeded to make  rubber disks to permanently block the pilots. The bike become a non runner once assembled. For those wanting to make there own rubber seals - look inside the hole, there is a passageway that comes from the main jet side, if you block it, it essentially blocks the pilot circuit from receiving fuel. If you want to make something make sure the replacement fits below the passageway.

For others reading this having low down (off idle) rich issues, check that you have the correct jet and jet needle combination. I had unintentionally mixed 32BST and 33BST carb jet and jet needles together. If your floats are set to low (below the 14.6mm std setting) this can also cause low down rich issues.

[Gouraami]

The new fork seals arrived. (previously not replaced, mentioned in a previous post)

I ordered these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301695224935?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

It claims these seals are a direct replacement for 400 Bandits. This however, is a lie. They are 1mm to 1.5mm too high, causing the seal to not sit flush on the fork leg. It was easy enough to sort out out, I sanded them shorter. It is also not a very tight fit inside the fork leg, but it is tight enough to not slip out, they are 0.5mm in diameter smaller then the originals.

Removed the front end again to replace the seals, center stand once again proving its worth 



In the process of shaving the seals:



Eventually got them flush with the fork leg:










 

[Squishy]

For those wanting to make there own rubber seals - look inside the hole, there is a passageway that comes from the main jet side, if you block it, it essentially blocks the pilot circuit from receiving fuel. If you want to make something make sure the replacement fits below the passageway.

For others reading this having low down (off idle) rich issues, check that you have the correct jet and jet needle combination. I had unintentionally mixed 32BST and 33BST carb jet and jet needles together. If your floats are set to low (below the 14.6mm std setting) this can also cause low down rich issues.

I still believe those rubber plugs are useless. I ran my GSX600F pretty much without them with no change. (also Mikuni BST33). If you think about it doesn't make sense to have any pilot jet size if the fuel is already metered by the small hole between the pilot jet and main jet.
If your pilot jet is smaller than this hole, it wouldn't matter to have plugs - as the fuel is limited by the pilot jet anyway.
If your pilot jet is bigger than this hole, it's size and function is useless since the fuel is already limited by the small hole if you block the pilot port with a plug.

[Gouraami]

On Fridays I normally use the Bandit to go to work with, a round trip of around 60km. In cold weather the temp gauge doesn't even move on the highway. This really bothers me as I don't like the idea of the engine running cold while at 140kph on the highway. I read about the thermostat change on the factory pro website, here:

http://www.factorypro.com/tech/tecthermosuz.html

I tried to find one locally, but didn't find anything. I then decided to limit the flow of the original thermostat while in the closed position. I did this buy soldering  3 of the holes closed. I left the top one for the air to bleed out the system and the bottom one to try and have an even flow over the thermostat.

Original state:



Sealed 3 of the holes



The engine definitely runs warmer, however at this point I cannot give accurate results as there seems to be a loose connection at the temp gauge somewhere. When the gauge works (normally once off the throttle, less vibration) the temp gauge is not right at the bottom anymore while on the highway.

[Squishy]

Yes the bandit cooling system is a bit overkill for the engine.
A proper fix is to replace the thermostat with a version that opens later. I think CBR600F was a good swap.
The easiest way is to simply ducttape the a part of the back of your radiator. This way you can just remove it once outside temperature gets higher again.

[greg737]

Yes the bandit cooling system is a bit overkill for the engine.
A proper fix is to replace the thermostat with a version that opens later. I think CBR600F was a good swap.
The easiest way is to simply ducttape the a part of the back of your radiator. This way you can just remove it once outside temperature gets higher again.

If you look at the cooling system drawings/schematics for any of the later model Suzuki bikes (and Honda, and Kawasaki, and Yamaha) you'll see that they always have a small constant-circulation line (small rubber hose) of coolant that bypasses the thermostat and runs directly back into the coolant pump.

Here's a link to the parts fiche drawing of the 1999 Suzuki SV650 coolant pump.  On the coolant pump's large inflow (radiator return flow) pipe you can see where the small constant-circulation hose is connected to it.
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Suzuki/Motorcycle/1999/SV650/WATER+PUMP+%28MODEL+K1-K2%29/parts.html

And here's a link to the parts fiche drawing of the 1999 Suzuki SV650 thermostat housing with all of its hoses.  If you look at the hose marked #24 you'll see that this small line is the constant-circulation line that connects from the thermostat housing directly into the return flow pipe of the bike's coolant pump.
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Suzuki/Motorcycle/1999/SV650/RADIATOR+HOSE/parts.html

Suzuki (and other manufacturers of motorcycles and cars) use this routing of coolant.  This configuration warms the engine block up evenly which reduces the thermal gradient experienced by the engine (i.e. preventing the engine from running cooler in the bottom end while being hotter in upper portion of the cylinder jacket and head) which reduces engine stress and uneven wearing of the cylinder walls and piston rings and in general during cooler weather this configuration keeps the engine warmer (in the optimal operational zone).

The GSF400 thermostat housing has an extra (unused) port cast into it which is perfect for modifying into a constant-circulation line (this extra port is there because the GSF400 thermostat housing was also used for the GSX-R400 which used two temperature sensors instead of just one temperature sensor, so when the GSF400s were built/assembled this extra port on the thermostat housing wasn't drilled through into the thermostat housing, it was left solid).  This is what I did to my GSF400, documented here in my build thread:
http://forums.banditalley.net/index.php?topic=13747.15

[Gouraami]

Thanks for the advice Squishy and Greg

Unfortunately it looks like this project is over.

I was in an accident on Saturday, went to the hospital and got released today. A car cut me off and I had nowhere to go,so ended up rear ending the on the highway, at freeway speeds. This led to a lot of rolling for me and sliding for the bike.

I'm pretty sore, but think I got off relatively lightly. Got me some titanium in my hand now (had an operation to fix some bones), a broken toe,torn ligaments in my foot and the usual road rash and bruising.

The bike isn't looking so good. Repairable, but I think i'm over it, I have spent to much time on it to start again. Want to get something bigger.

Will update again, but so far the plan is to get payed out by the cars insurance and let them take the bike. With the money put a deposit down for something larger with fuel injection.

[ventYl]

Crashing in freeway speed sounds pretty serious! Looks that you are eligible for secondary birthday date. It is shame that so rare machine which received so much care from you is down but at least you are alive. Hope you will be fine and kicking as soon as possible and that you never ever experience similar situation again with any machine you will choose.

[Gouraami]

Thanks for the kind words ventYl

I'm despondent about it, but really not in the mood to start looking for parts again etc. It was running the best it ever has been since I got it.

Lets see what the insurance says... maybe I end up fixing it up again.

The front end is twisted, not sure if it is the forks that bendt or the tripple clamps, not really in the mood to look.

I will take pics to end this project thread, if that is the route I go

[ventYl]

Usually the tubes got twisted first. If it was tripple clamp you probably won't be replying to me. Forks and the other internals should be obtainable as that would be cheaper than straightening and re-chroming old ones.