I had posted before about the ‘87 LS650 that I had bought, which needed a lot of work.  Here are a couple of pics to remind y’all how it looked when I got it.





Well, the rebuild has begun!  So far I have gotten the bike stripped down to the frame, and have been working on fixing the engine (old starter gear had torn out the aluminum mounting point in the crankcase).

I was able to get my hands on a 1987 LS650 engine lower half (and a lot of other parts) that is in good shape, much thanks to Ohiomoto!  I just need to swap the clutch from the old crankcase to the new, then put the old top half on it and the engine is mechanically finished.  While doing this rebuild I purchased a torque limiter starter gear and a stator cover from the same year, so the broken crankcase should not happen again.  Engine should be painted and back together by next weekend, assuming I can remove the stupid baked on fiber gasket material from the bottom of the cylinder jug.  That stuff is stupid tough, and using plastic and wood to scrape it is taking a while, but I cannot use other materials to do the job, as I don’t want to risk damaging the jug.

I have painted the new stator cover, and a couple parts of the belt guard.  They look good to go!







Finally, I decided that while I am going this in-depth on the rebuild, I will do a rim swap while I am at it.  Picked up a GS550 front and rear rim, just waiting for them to be delivered.  They are not the standard star shaped wheels, and they are from a 1985 so they are tubeless.





I will keep y’all posted and add more photos as I go.

Cheers!

I like those rims! Looked them up and the front should be a 16x2.15, and wore a 110/90 16 tire.
The rear wore a 110/90 tire, but 18''. Could not find the rim width, but you won't be able to run too fat a tire anyway or it will be too tall to fit the swing arm.
The back is for a disc brake thou. People have converted to a disc rear before, but is not a simple job.
Best of luck with your project, and post pics as you go.

What color are you going with on the wheels?

Is she an experienced rider?

I think the star pattern was 81-82, which would make the front a 19"  
Same year I got.

I like the 85 spokes but you can't find them in the right config.

The set I have are the same as above, the star pattern.  16” rear & 19” front and they bolted right up.
They are early 80’s but just don’t remember exactly the year, maybe ‘81 or ‘83.

I did not need to change spacers on mine.
You gotta check close.

It has been a while since my last update, been busy with life and progress on the bike has slowed a bit visually.  Sanding chrome and other parts takes a lot of time, lol.  I am not going to post pictures of the box full of sanded parts awaiting painting.

Anyway, figured I would give an update to let y’all see where things stand now.

Bike has been stripped to the frame.  Frame has been taken to bare metal and repainted.  Shocks have been sanded and repainted as well.





Additionally, the tank and both fenders were taken to bare metal and repainted as well.  Christina, who I am repairing the bike for, does not like the metal lip at the bottom of fuel tanks, so before painting I filled that area with fiber reinforced Bondo to remove the visual of the lip.







Finally, here is a mock-up of the tank on the frame.



Now I just have to figure out how to remove the clutch basket from my old engine crank case to put onto my new one.

I like the detail on the tank.  Just looks more finished.  

Now get to work on that engine...I'm waiting for the "It's alive!!"