Just Tooling Around

I like to have a complete, as per original, tool kit for my restored bikes. While it is possibly true that the original factory tools were not the best quality or the most useful, in my view no restoration is complete without this final touch. While many of the Suzuki factory original tools are fairly easy to find, for the GT750 specifically there are a few specific tools which are increasingly hard to source. Examples would include the contact points tool (09930-20111), the open end 8 mm wrench (09813-00025) which also served as the T handle for the cross head driver and finally the small  10mm box wrench, or spanner which is part number 09816-00001. A photo of the original tools is near here – just ‘click’ to see a larger version. The 10mm box wrench was included in tool kits fitted to the 1972 through 1974 GT750’s plus earlier bikes like the B100P etc., and necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to make a few.

I have two uncles who know a thing or two about making things out of metal, so after getting a few suggestions from Don specifically, I sourced some seamless tube in various wall thickness’s from a company called Aircraft Spruce Canada and did some experimenting. You need to use seamless tubing for this process, as welded tube will split when you try to form the tubing over your mandrel. 

The photo to the right taken by a friend of mine in Calgary by the name of Art, shows what an https://oldjapanesebikes.comoriginal 09816-00001 tool looks like and its approximate size. It measures roughly 1 3/4 inches long and is about 1/2 inch in diameter. What I wasn’t sure of was the wall thickness so to cover my bases, I ordered a couple of different wall thickness’s and also two different OD measure tubes so I had a selection to try. I had never tried doing this before, and so after several attempts using different methods (heated or cold) and also trying the various different sizes of tubing I had to work with, I had a nice selection of scrap as can be seen in the second photo.

The successful solution was to slowly press a thicker walled tube over the mandrel I’d made with the tubing cold but generously lubed with a cutting oil. Some time ago a friend in Calgary (John) gave me a 20 ton press that he no longer needed which makes this quite easy. To finish it off took only a few minutes on the drill press and then a bit of time to dress the edges.

The finished product can be seen to the right below and I am quite pleased with the result. I now just need to get them zinc plated along with the rest of the tools and Ill be good to go !

On to the next challenge !

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1 Response to Just Tooling Around

  1. Volker says:

    Hi Folks!
    I`m also looking arround here in Germany, already longer time, to find those OEM tools. Belive me, … it`s hard to find and if you could get some, they are almost totally destroyed or unusable… So, let`s have a look again and again!
    Ian,.. if you do some reproductions – please let me know!

    By the way: I`m right on for a new reproduction gasket – the upper oilpump gasket to fit for example the GT750 – never was listed each from Suzuki! It`s already in work, samples are done but not in my personaly high qualitiy condition. We need to get some closer to OEM. This will take only some weeks and you guys will find that gasket in my web shop: http://www.hard-to-find-parts.de
    Thanks, Volker

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