In Februari '98 I bought my '75 Suzuki GT 550.
This is a two-stroke three cylinder 550 cc or 33.5 cubic inch
and 50 pk, top speed about 185 km
I bought it quite cheap because it was broken, BIG HOLES in two of the 3 pistons.
Only the piston in the middle wasn't damaged. All the cylinder and cylinder head nuts and screws were missing
and one silencer from the exhaust system was also gone.
I still have to find what caused the holes in the pistons. Wrong (too hot) spark plugs, ignition timing or too lean fuel
mixture due to wrong carburator adjustment or leaking intake rubbers? As soon as I found out you 'll hear from me.
I needed new pistons, piston rings, gaskets, intake rubbers and other stuff and the local suzuki dealer
could arrange that for me, everything brand new is good but it would cost me more than DFL 900,- to get it all.
I knew the week after The Vehikel Beurs in Utrecht would happen and decided to wait buying new stuff for
the GT 550 because maybe the whole engine might be worn and good for replacement.
I better try to get the thing running cheap, and if when the rest is 100% buy new pistons.
At the Vehikel beurs I bought one good (not oversize) piston for 40 guilders and i met someone, Paul from Velp,
who also has 2 GT 550's and he had some old original pistons for me for 50 guilders all, so now i have some spare.
A new Gasket set was no problem to get.
It was difficult to find the nuts i need, I needed M10 * 1.25 and I didn't see them on the vehicle beurs.
The second day I also went there and i saw two nice girls who are always on the Vehicle Beurs, they have a Company, Hester Bagijn and sell all kind of tools and technical equipment and also lots of different types of nuts
screw and washers, that's what i realised later.
At the end of the day i still hadn't found the nuts and walked towards the exit along the girls and asked them if they
had M10 * 1.25, Thousands of them, they said, but at home, They would take them along the next day and when I
asked what it cost, they said they were happy to give them to me, So I was very happy and i am very thankful to:
HESTER BAGIJN Bevestigingstechnieken, Etten - Leur
for giving me the nuts, screws and washers I had been looking for so desperately.
Update 6 August '98, I put it all together with new ignition points, (F 43.50 a piece, quite expensive for such a small part)
spark plugs, new oil and got it tuned and adjusted by Sjaak Lam, my local motorcycle expert.
It's a bit noisy because it still misses one silencer.
This is how my GT 550 sounds now(167 K, click the left part):
