Anyone working on bikes and not having access to the special purpose built tools for those awkward jobs will have worked their own way of getting these things done. I'd like to get hold of any work-arounds or time savers specifically for the GT. Any ideas on this page come without any warranty or liability whatsoever and are offered purely for information purposes, so use them at your discretion.

WHEELS :

You can get both wheels (and even forks/yokes) off the GT380 and leave the machine is a pretty stable state without the need for any external devices.

FORK SEALS :

I have found that on some bikes the seals are virtually welded to the alloy. It's very difficult to get these out with pressure alone. What I've found is that 1-2 minutes heat from a gas torch on the rubber and surrounding alloy loosens them up so they pull out really easily with a screwdriver. So take the springs and stanchions off. Then remove the seal retainer clip, leaving just the fork bottom with the seal. Apply the heat and remove the seal.

FORK STANCHIONS :

Again, on some bikes getting the stanchion out is more problematic than others. The usual culprit is the allen screw. If he fork is still complete, start to loosen the screw while the fork is in one piece this using the force of the spring to stop the inners moving. If the spring is already out, get an old broom handle (or the like) and taper one end. Push the tapered end down into the stanchion. This creates sufficient tension to hold the inner's while the allen screw is removed. This also works when putting them back together. Being wood, it should;t make any marks or damage the forks in any way.

Gear Indicator

I've not had a GT where the top part of the gear indicator has been a problem, but I have had a few units where the lower part has had issues with specific gears or odd digits appearing on the LED. What I have found has been a combination of brittle or broken wires on the unit attached to the engine and on one occasion the unit inside was worn and dirty. I guess neither of these is surprising given where Suzuki mounted this right next to the front sprocket.

See how close this is and how much hot crap the electrics have to deal with!

There are two slightly different versions I've come across. One is all metal and one is plastic. The unit is simply a set of electric connectors bridged based on a key driven off the engine block. Depending on which gear the bike is in, the key is in a different location and that makes a different digits come up.

Cleaning out the connectors, re-soldering and or replacing some of the wires is all I have had to do to fix these (so far!).

Fitting Boyer Electronic Ignition

First thing to do is to set the bike on the Timing mark for the Centre cylinder. Then remove the points plate from the bike. Then either strip the points etc. from your old backing plate or get a spare to be used as the Boyer kit is primarily for the Kawasaki KH250 and needs to be attached to an existing backing plate in order to fit the casing (see below).

Attach the backing plate to the engine where the points were mounted previously and then attach the Rotor. Do this with the Centre cylinder on the timing mark and set the Rotor so it aligns to the 3 magnets. (see below).

Attached the black box to the frame. I usually stick it just behind the coils and under the top part of the frame.

The instructions are to cut the main harness and splice in the wires. However, I'm nervous about cutting the harness therefore I cut the coil wires and use a connection block to give the same result.

Once all fitted, stick a strobe on the bike and fire it up to tweak the timing.

Link to Another Boyer fitting page : http://www.medial.com/suzuki/ignition/boyer-bransden.html

Alternative Neutronics setup : http://www.medial.com/suzuki/newtronic/index.html