A Disappointing String of Setbacks

Last Sunday was not a good day for the Suzuki GS 425L project.  There weren’t any major setbacks but just little ones, some silly mistakes that If I had thought more about it before doing I would have never made in the first place.  Sometimes those are the most frustrating ones, when you don’t have anyone to blame but yourself.

The day started off with optimism; I had gotten the o-rings I needed for the carbs’ emulsifier tubes so I set about checking the putting the new o-rings on and reassembling the left carb and disassembling the right carb.  I was still amazed at how the littlest thing can bring a project to a stop.

After I disassembled the right carb I double checked all the passages for good flow and checked the gasket on the emulsifier tube on the right carb which did need to be replaced, good thing I ordered two.

Now here is where I make the first mistake, the starter feed tube and jet (circled below) came out pretty easily on the left carb but the right one was really hard to get out.

It turns out that there is a very good reason that it was hard to get out; THEY AREN’T SUPPOSED TO COME OUT!  Long story short, I damaged the starter feed tube and jet and now I will have to get a new carb or set of carbs since they don’t sell replacement starter feed tube and jets because THEY AREN’T SUPPOSED TO COME OUT!

What sucks about that is that they will inevitably have to be used carbs with will have to be went through and cleaned all over again.  These are the times in projects where you have to show some fortitude and keep pushing forward even though you are starting to feel a little beat down.  So, soldiering on I put the carbs aside again and decided that I would clean out the drive sprocket cover and try and use the EZ-Out I had bought to get some of the stuck bolts out from the engine case.

Some parts of a project aren’t; all that glamorous, this would be one of them, just a sticky, greasy, filthy mess.  I got the inside of the cover pretty well cleaned up and successfully  removed 2 of the three stuck bolts I was cruising and then BAM.

EZ-Out not so easy… at that point I was done for the day, I am not sure what the next step is going to be considering that not only is the bolt still stuck but there is now even harder tool steel stick in the middle of it.  I will have to call in a favor (which the quantity I have left are dwindling) from my machinist buddy to try and get that thing out.  That is the clutch cover bolt if you were wondering.

I’ll have some free time this weekend and more free time coming up over the next few weeks so hopefully I will have more steps forward to share next time around!

Thanks (as always) for reading!