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1973 T500 motor rebuild.

Discussion in 'WERA Vintage' started by Repeater, Nov 7, 2018.

  1. Repeater

    Repeater USCGRR

    Anyone know of motor rebuilders? Just wondering what it would cost to make it a mildly tuned motor. Nothing fancy It still runs drums.

    I had illusions of doing it myself, but I'm an electronics guy.

    Thanks fellas
     
  2. CharlieY

    CharlieY Well-Known Member

    Ron Raven (CanAm) to the white courtesy phone.....Ron Raven...:)

    Ron is having a pretty fancy one built right now, but he could probably help with "mild".

    If you want to convert to disk front.....I'll take that pesky drum off your hands if its in good shape.;)
     
  3. Can-am

    Can-am Well-Known Member

    Ron Grant published 2 articles in 1972 about building a T500 "street sleeper". It was an attempt to make the T500 a little faster to compete with the H1 which was cleaning their clocks at the time. I have a motor with his street sleeper porting as per the article, a slightly milled head, a period set of Jemco "Street chambers" (which they still make to order), stock carbs with different jetting and pods. It is significantly stronger than stock but still with a wide power band and good torque. It is still slower than a stock H1, but a lot of fun on the street. The articles are available on the T500 facebook page.
     
  4. jim weaver

    jim weaver Well-Known Member

    check out the aussie site there is instructions from mild to wild. also a gt 750 front end will bolt right up. single or twin disk , your choice. cases split top to bottom not side to side. i:ll look up the recomended head mill amount and i think i have the port specs, on a app on this computer. have to look/
     
  5. jim weaver

    jim weaver Well-Known Member

    just looked head mill spec is1.5 mm, factory race spec,
     
  6. Repeater

    Repeater USCGRR

    Thanks
     
  7. Can-am

    Can-am Well-Known Member

    Street Sleeper head mill spec is only .5 mm. Porting for street sleeper is also much less radical than factory race specs. See the articles for details. Good luck.
     
  8. CharlieY

    CharlieY Well-Known Member

    Holler at me if you are going to trash the front drum setup.

    Thanx
     
  9. t500racer

    t500racer Never Fails To Fail

    I wouldn't mill the stock heads. They are prone to cracking. We had a pile of cracked ones when I first started racing the 500.

    Crooks Suzuki in the UK used to make a set of heads with a proper squish band that made all the difference, no idea if they still do.

    Throw away the small head bolts and only use the four large ones. Torque properly and keep an eye on them.

    The last I knew crank seals and crank bearings were NLA, extinct, unobtanium, but occasionally Paul Miller would post some on ebay for ridiculous amounts and maybe he would ship them out.

    It's never going to be close to a mildly tuned RD or H1. The only stock part we used in the race bike was literally the engine cases. Everything else was custom, crank, tranny, carbs, even the frame. Not a road I would ever go down again!
     
  10. motoracer1100

    motoracer1100 Well-Known Member

    These are the type of informative posts that I enjoy .. we need more of these .. thank you :beer:
     
  11. Rich Graver

    Rich Graver Well-Known Member

    Just order it out of the catalog
     

    Attached Files:

  12. jim weaver

    jim weaver Well-Known Member

    i dont know where my mech got the stuff but seals and bearings and complete gasket sets were available. pistons are available, have to fix the tranny to hold more oil to prevent gear wear do to lack of tranny oil.
     
  13. ahrma_581

    ahrma_581 Well-Known Member

    Didn't that also have cut down flywheels and big, circular crankcase stuffers? Or was that just the race version? Would certainly make a difference in the ability of that engine to spool up.
     
  14. Linker48X

    Linker48X Well-Known Member

    You might try Chuck Quenzler in Clearwater FL or Scott Clough in California, or Lyn Garland.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2018
  15. Danny boy

    Danny boy Member

    I have almost everything to build a tr 500 if anyone interested! factory race cylinders and heads plus a ton off other engine parts. Aluminum race baffled gas tank and tail section, expansion chambers
     
  16. Can-am

    Can-am Well-Known Member

    What frame does your tank fit? I have a Grant street sleeper with his frame mods to the production frame. It has the period airtech fiberglass tank, seat and fairing.
    Are your race heads the ones Grant used to sell? Essentially they were production heads that had been milled 1.5mm with the spark plug still at an angle. Crooks cast some back in the day with a center plug and a squish band, but I don't believe those were ever available in the US.
    Ed Toomey is currently building me another bottom end. This one will have the lightened crank, stuffers and close ratio 5 speed. The engine in it today (which ran last week) has the street sleeper porting and heads with the period Jemco pipes.
    How much of this stuff do you have? Are you sure you don't want to build a complete bike?
     
  17. K51000

    K51000 Well-Known Member

    Like this one?

    A couple of summers ago, Quaker Steak and Lube in New Berlin WI had some huge Wednesday night Bike nights. I often took pictures of the rarest bikes there.
    Check out this Gem!! The Trident 500! This thing was MINT, maybe not all OEM, but better!
    I was there when he started it up and left- sounded AWESOME- 3 expansion chambers!
    Enjoy the Eye Candy

    [​IMG]
     
  18. K51000

    K51000 Well-Known Member

    Oopps, I called it a Trident, It's the Titan!

    Anyways, I found by accident a Really nice write up describing this bike, what's custom, how it uses no battery, etc. Awesome quick read!

    https://silodrome.com/suzuki-t500/
     
  19. Banditracer

    Banditracer Dogs - because people suck

    I've got no pic.
     
  20. DougBowie

    DougBowie Well-Known Member

    Pretty bike for a 2 smoke
     

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