Sten

Regarding spares; to avoid paying top whack for genuine parts, what I do is enter the genuine Suzuki part numbers into the Eblag search box - I've recently bought quite a few new old stock items at way under the recommended retail price. It's a bit of a crap shoot but you may get lucky.

Well done on the forks strip down; these things are sent to try us eh. You should be ok to re-use those washers; always a good idea to have some spares though, just in case Not sure how Gixxers fare with the auto camchain tensioner but on my bike, they have been known to shit the bed - I plan on asking the lads here about this soon. Some oil-cooled bike owners switch to manual chain tensioners like these :- https://www.suzukiperformancespares.co.uk/product/ape-manual-camchain-tensioner/272/

Sorry fella, sold out on aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32252741810.html

Might be easier to find a bellypan for a GS750 or GS1000 - would've thought they could be made to fit without too much drama. A lot of the bellypans I remember seeing in the '80s were sold as universal fitment for big fours. Front end looks killer; really like the fairing with wrap around mudguard

The seller of these is in China mate (see his feedback page) . Also, in the shipping exclusion list, there's no mention of not being able to ship to the U.S; in fact, shipping to the States is free. I'll bet money that these same disks can also be found on the aliexpress website for less money

This might be relevant too; it certainly lists lots of useful specs for fork diameter e.t.c. Again, credit goes to the bloke who put this lot together

Wise words there and had it not been for cash flow being a bit hit and miss, that's the route I would've taken. It definitely cost more to get my fork legs overhauled than it would've been to get a more up to date complete front end These attachments might help you out with that; credit goes to whoever compiled 'em Suzuki Fork Seal Sizes Think this was saved from the old OSS forum; maybe someone here has a larger version they could share?

Thanks fella, always good to get to this stage of a build with the motor painted. Not easy getting the lump into the frame on me own though; I now have more blisters than a schoolboy with a free subscription to pornhub lol

That's exactly why I bought some generic stuff off eblag; juggling the cam cover on to the head while not displacing the "mickey mouse" o-rings e.t.c, would be difficult to say the least. I think a couple of wires got crossed when it was mentioned that this should only be used on the ends of the rubber gasket that drop into sides of the head. To seal against oil leaks that's absolutely fine, but it can also be used to keep things in place. Anyhow, I'm knackered after an engine re-fit so I'm off to park my arse for a bit!.

Pic showing the sealer in place where Jaydee mentioned :- I'm sure it's fine to run without using this stuff anywhere else; Suzuki do recommend on my bike that a thin bead of 'three bond 1207b' (RTV silicone) is used between the upper face of the gasket and the channel in the cam cover where it sits. https://www.techsil.co.uk/threebond-1207b-100g Not sure why - maybe an attempt to get folk to part with more money for something that isn't really needed??

You should be able to reuse that gasket many times before replacing mate; if you mean that you just want something to hold it in place when refitting, this is what I bought for when I check my clearances. https://www.Eblag.co.uk/itm/332588211441 Any high-temp silicone stuff should be ok but go sparingly with it!. The CRC 'peel off' looks good

Thanks mate, that comment makes all the graft worthwhile Too right about the corrosion; I've seen better engine paint on 34 yr old slabbies

Two OSS thumbs-ups; that'll do for me!, thanks fellas. Should be lots of fun wrestling this into the frame tomorrow, the removable cradle should help though. After getting all the mounting bolts torqued up, the new exhaust studs will go in. Next week I'll be dropping the front end (again) as it was only fitted to move the bike out of the way during painting. Got the legs rechromed recently by Dynasurf who did a bloody good job; rebuilt the forks with fresh seals, upper bushes and decent oil. The previous owner had an advisory for steering head bearings on the last MOT so I've bought some SKF taper rollers to replace the genuine jobbies. Can't wait to get the front end back in cos' then things will really start coming together

Just sharing a couple of before/after pics of the GSX motor before it goes back into the frame this weekend. This was taken in November last year; the bottom end wasn't too bad but check out that cam cover - what a mess eh. It's a common problem on these bikes; seen a few on Eblag that have had just the top ends resprayed. After a few hours graft with a rotary wire brush and some scotch-brite pads; followed by a good degrease with some isopropyl alcohol I had kicking around. That blue 3M tape you see blanking off the ports e.t.c. is the dogs bollocks; even the wire brush barely scuffed it and as it's waterproof, it stood up to the degreasing - highly recommended. Cut a piece of thin plastic sheet to shape and stuck it over the gigantic alternator hole with some silicone sealer. Et voila!, one 1998 GSX motor looking a whole lot better than it did before. My only minor gripe concerns the front of the crankcases where if you look real close, you can see what appears to be tiny white spots; this is spatter from the casting process that wasn't cleaned-up at the factory - tut, tut. Wish I'd noticed this beforehand but nevermind; it'll at least do me until the bigger engine Wraith suggested comes along Oh and the paint is PJ1; chosen mainly because the engine paint I normally use is only available in gloss black and I wanted some colour contrast between the engine and the bike's (gloss black) bodywork - the PJ1 is more of a satin charcoal grey and not a million miles from the original. Cheers folks