Girder Install on a 2000 LS650 Savage/S40
Okay guys and Gals gather ‘round the ole camp fire I’ll spin ya a yarn about the day yer ole pappy Yonuh Adisi swapped a stock front end with a Girder on his motor sickle.
Step 1: Get yer sef a Girder front end.
Step 2: Get yer sef a front wheel that will go on that thar Girder ya got in step one.
Step 3: Remove yer stock front end from yer motor sickle. Yer ole Clymer’s manual should show ya how ta do it. (I really do recommend getting a Clymer’s or Service manual before beginning this kind of operation, and keep it open in front of you the entire time)
For those who do not have a Clymer’s or Service manual, you first need to raise the bike up where the front end is off the ground/floor. I used a car ramp. I had my brother lift the rear of the bike high enough for me to slide the ramp under the frame just below the engine. It was very stable and it kept the front in up in the air just high enough to remove it.
To remove the front end you will need to remove the handle bars and at least drop the fork tubes down out of the top triple tree by removing the bolt caps that are right on top of each fork tube. You will also need to loosen up the turn signals.
After that is taken care of remove that chrome capped nut sitting right on top of the upper triple tree. Remove tree and take loose that funky looking nut under it. Front end should then slide right out of the neck.
Pic of chrome cap nut and funky looking nut.
Remove top bearing and clean it up real good and set it aside out of the way. The bottom bearing is pressed onto the steering stem itself and will need to be finessed off with either a press or liberal and careful use of a hammer. What we did was placed the lower tree with stem facing upward onto my vice, put a nut on the threads and tapped it down and out of the tree. This removed the tree and bearing from the stem. Now clean up bottom bearing and set it aside as well.
Inspect both bearings and bearing races for wear. You don’t want boogered up bearings and races going back into the neck to screw things up.
Step 4: Now the fun part begins. The Girder front end I got off that new fangled thing called e-bay had a 7/8 inch neck stem, however it was ornery and didn’t wanna work, so we used the motor sickle’s original stem. The top of the Girder where the top of the stem went through was too dang busted small for the Savage stem so I whipped out my do it all tool (also known as a dremel) and wallered out the hole with a sanding drum so the stem would fit. And by George if that didn’t fix thir problem.
Step 5: Now ya need to git yer sef a spacer 1 an 3/8 inch inside diameter washers work right well fer this next thang. Ya can git them the correct outside diameter size but my local hard war store had done runt out of um so I got a slightly bigger outside diameter ones and grinded ‘em down to fit just inside the bottom of the motor sickle’s neck.
Pic of washers I used as spacers as well as the set screw area.
Step 6: Yer gonna hafta re-pack them bearings. Thar is a hard way and an easy way. Hard way is ya go out inta da woods and shoot yerself a bear an cook ‘em down to ketch da grease, wait fer it ta get hard and smear it all over da bearings. Easy way is ya go ta yer local parts store and git ya some of that thar new fangled canned stuff and use it to pack the bearings wit.
Step 7: Place yer bear greased bearings inta tha races then slide that Savage stem up the hole. Screw on the funky looking nut to hole it up thar.
Step 8: This next part can git a might tricky. Ya can take of the bottom pivot bars and completely remove the bottom tree from tha Girder er ya can leave it on an curse to high heaven whilst ya fight wit it to git it ta work. We took off the bottom tree. Slide tha top tree over that thar stem thatsa stickin’ up and place the chrome capped nut on it. Then with those washers I tole ya about place dem underneath as spacers fer between the lower tree and the lower bearing. Bring up that lower tree and run in that little set screw to hold ‘er in place and then ya get to put the lower pivot bars back on, they jus’ bolt on.
Step 9: Now you git yer sef some shorter bolts to throw into yer risers, bolt them through the holes and put yer handle bars back on.
Pic of risers
Now my Girder wasn’t wide enough to use my stock front wheel with disk brake so I bought the matching wheel from e-bay which had a mini drum on it. I needed a new clutch lever any how so I got one and put it on. For the brake side which now was a cable, I used my old clutch lever by mounting it on upside down. The brake light switch I just used my knife and shaved the bolt hole a little bigger to fit onto the lever pivot bolt and extended the wires. Works perfectly. The cable I used is for a Honda ATV. (don’t remember the model) It works perfectly.
I will provide close up pics of the points I mentioned as soon as I get my camera back from my brother’s house. I am sorry I didn’t get any in progress pics but I do believe I can get some shots to show ya’ll what I did and to clarify some of what I mentioned.
I had cut some threads inside the steering stem and ran a bolt with a large flat washer and lock washer.
There was a tab welded to the front end that I bent up a little to mount the headlight.
Relocated speedometer. There was a tab on the tank that was originally used to secure the Road King instrument panel. I used it to mount a coffee can speedo housing.
Overall view of the neck with Girder installed.
Pages: 1
