Tinkicker

Has it got a spark? Has it got fuel?

Indeed it was a balls up. However I would like you to define what a restoration is. As a restorer of over 20 bikes, both professionally and as an amatuer doing it as a pastime, I would argue with you that this too was a very challenging restoration and not putting right a "balls up" He had done the easy work and not even got that right. The only part of that bike that did not need to be redone from scratch was the powder coating on the frame and he paid someone else to do that. My job was to make every clapped out part of the bike to as new a condition as possible The very essence of the word "restore". It does not matter if a complete buffoon had made a mess of it prior, or if it was just the passage of time causing the problem. The problem has to be put right just the same. To be sure, if I found the bike before he did, it would have been a far easier proposition. For a start, I would not have deemed it a suitable candidate for a full nut and bolt to as new condition restoration. I would have probably put the mechanicals right with seconhand parts, stuck a lump of petseal over the leaking tank, prettied it up a bit and built it to use as a green laner that could be bounced over rocks and dropped without tears. It was the fact that it did look very tidy that suckered me into putting right the things that I could immediately see were wrong. By the time I had a good idea of its overall condition, I was in too deep to back out. However, a valuable lesson. How many bikes are there on ebay advertised as fully restored or completely overhauled? 100s, if not 1000s and if one sees such a restoration advertised, one immedately assumes that the restorer in question has sufficient skill and knowledge to carry out such a task. Very often not the case. A lot put lipstick on a pig and call it a restoration, some do it right and restore the bike to as close a condition as it was in the showroom and some are downright dangerous. Goes to show that one man's full restoration is another mans deathtrap and there are a lot of blaggers out there. The moral of this sad tale is that some people out there who pretend to be knowledgeable, actually have the technical acumen of a slice of limp toast. You have no idea of some of the dangerous bodges I have seen while "in the trade". Not just on motorcycles, but 40 tonne trucks, cars, buses and 500 ton cranes. I recall one where the customer complained that his brakes were shit. He could not stop fast enough at a junction and went through a garden wall in his ford granada. He had heard that if the pads were squealing loudly when coming to a stop, you had to apply grease to the back of the brake pad to cure it. Yes, you guessed it. If you took a pad out in the correct orientation, the side facing you was the front....and not the back. The guy argued that black was white pretty much, and I as a lowly 2nd year apprentice was wrong. He had sold seven new kitchens that month, so he was sure he could understand an article in practical motorist magazine. First time I ever turned my back on a customer and walked away. These days I am not so forgiving. Back to the thread. I have no idea if this particular seller was in fact a college lecturer at all. I strongly suspect he was telling the truth. He could well have been a compulsive liar but because a lot of ducks lined up just at the right moment and I ignored all my own rules, I fell for it. It was the easiest bike to buy that I had encountered. Send the cash and the bike magically appeared on my doorstep just like buying a new set of batteries from amazon. When I bought the VFR I did a 300 mile round trip to a motorcycle shop to view it before buying. I did a full and very stringent mot check on it as well as giving it a good general look over. Yes I did find a fault, both fork seals were starting to weep because the tubes were slightly pitted. I got a £250 discount bcause of that. The DT would have been a 500 mile trip, just far enough away to force me to put faith in the lifetime of experience, motor industry professional selling it. What sealed it was it was about £500 cheaper than the others advertised because it still had a few ongoing electrical issues needing sorting and he needed the money and space for another project. Perhaps fate was trying to prevent a huge wrong and put the bike in my path and prevent it going to someone else and if I chose to pass on it, someone else was going to buy it and be seriously injured or killed. Who knows. It made it too hard to view and too easy to buy. The deed was done. Caveat Emptor.

At long last the job was as done as it could be. Nothing on a resto is ever quite finished completely, there is always something that could be done better. Still on my shopping list is a decently priced new rear wheel rim. But it is time to get it appraised by a professional for insurance purposes. Contacted a guy called John Glynn, ex glass's guide - motor trade valuation guide editor who branched out on his own and specialises in valuations for the classic vehicle market and is also engaged by the auction houses to set the guide prices on the lots. He read the entire original thread first ( he was highly entertained by it) and looked at about 30 close up pics of various bits of the bike and came up with a guide price that rocked me back on my heels a bit. £7.5k guide price, £6750 reserve price and if a couple of the right collectors were in the auction room, maybe just over £1k more than that. Shocked. It seems that for the first time, I actually have a bike that is worth slightly more than the money spent on it. Of course my time is not factored in. His conclusion was that it was the best he had seen in a lot of years, could be regarded as concours, of museum quality and with the provenance provided; with the almost certainly proven mileage, it was probably unique. Yey. The twist in the tale.. But I could not ride it apart from a couple of miles around the village two three times a year to warm it up and keep everything exercised, or it would lose its uniqueness if I banged significant mileage on it. Boo. I built it because just like my VFR, I wanted to replicate that new bike experience I had on them in the past, not sit and look at it. That is it. I wanted to complete this story before the year was out. Hope you enjoyed it.

Yes. Odd as it was a very long running thread. It was called The Trials of the Vintage Motorcycle Restorer. The DT and the VFR are still mentioned on the new forum. Maybe this will jog your memory: https://airgunforums.co.uk/threads/the-airgunforums-motorcycle-pages.608/page-2

Just a mundane task today. New battery arrived for the VFR yesterday, so stuck it on slow charge overnight, fitted it this morning and fired her up. Stuck the old one on the charger. 12.7v, 90% charge. The slow charge took about 3 minutes to drop from 2A to zero. So it had volts, but not cranking capacity as suspected.

Indeed it would.. So you already know the twist in the tale...

About 150 fairly gentle miles on the clock since the rebuild and maybe 10 hot/cold cycles on it. I judged it enough to do the wide open throttle run. Rode it to a 1 mile straight near tbe house, swapped the plug for a new one and of I went, wide open throttle. Going fine until it suddeny got louder and started losing power. It felt like it had gone lean. Stopped at the end of the road and there was a large hole in the bottom of the exhaust downpipe. Aaaaargh he did it to me again! Got home and removed the exhaust, got a screwdriver and scraped away. He had very cleverly plugged several holes in the bottom of the downpipe with exhaust putty. He had shaped it like you do with body filler. The heat, pressure and vibration at wide open throttle had blown it out. The bottom of the pipe was like lace underneath. Probably because 40 years of condensation had collected there and rotted it through. I was going to have to fit a Fresco Big One pipe as the original was not worth restoring. It was pitted all over and was in fact included on my shopping list if a better one came along, although fat chance of that, all the ones I had come across were rusty, dented, overpriced tat. I kept it over buying a new fresco because it was original and originality is key to any serious restoration, a theme you will have noted throughout the thread. I looked on the internet for a Fresco pipe. £150, not too bad and for a laugh I put in the part number of the original exhaust. Note that my shopping list items are checked every evening for availabilty, including a better exhaust.. I got a hit for an exhaust in excellent condition for $300. It was the same breaker in California that supplied the rear shock. I sent an email enquiring about its condition and he got back saying it came as part of a job lot of spares with a bike fitted with an aftermarket pipe. It looked like it had hardly been used. He was firm on price as it was newly advertised, but knocked me $20 off shipping since I was a return customer. It came with the rear muffler, also in excellent condition, but this was of no use to me as the UK spec muffler is a sealed labyrinth type like a car silencer and the US spec had conventional baffles. Completely different shape and size. The pipe arrived and it was as good as he said, but to be sure, I took it to work to subject it to various cleaning processes before painting it with fresh heatproof paint. old exhaust, badly pitted and bits of putty dropping out. Now the paint has been subjected to heat and faded, and the putty has fully cured and shrunk, his repairs are obvious, but not so before this. New exhaust after being subjected to various industrial cleaning processes. It really is excellent. New exhaust fitted to the bike. The finished article. But there is still an unforseable twist in the tale yet to come..

I got the tank and panels back from paint. Barry had done a fantastic job as usual. Instead of 40 hours labour getting the tank pressure tested, soda blasted, pickled inside to remove any debris or rust, prepping, filling and painting all the panels, fitting and clearcoating in the decals ect, he ended up with almost 60 hours in it. But hey, a quote is a quote. He ended up prepping and repainting the blue basecoat twice because a slight ding was apparent at a certain angle. As I said, Barry is a perfectionist. It looks as good underneath as it does on top. It is also the correct Yamaha blue as it left the showroom. The old paint was a shade lighter, probably because it was matched to faded original paint. Thats why everything needed repainting. Tank fitted and a few finishing touches like the new old stock handlebar pad. Are we there yet? Unfortunately no. The seller is better at setting booby traps than a KGB agent. Anyone want to take a guess where the next one is going to blow up in my face? I could not put fuel in the tank for a week to allow the paint to cure properly. Barry was concerned that any splashes I did not see would leave small milky spots in the clearcoat. After that it would be impervious. While I was waiting, I made up the provenance folder with all the documentation and receipts. I also printed out and included the full restoration thread and included that. I figured that thd next owner, after I have been in my pine box and taken a ride up a chimney would find it very interesting. The original thread spanned six months and over 100 pages long with a lot more pics and a lot more minor ups and downs and gnashing of teeth reported as they happened. A very popular thread that one, a lot of people hanging on for the next installment from all over the world. I was amazed by the interest. The forum site owner unfortunately passed away in July and the forum mods had to start another forum in his memory from scratch, so unfortunately that thread is lost somewhere in the bowels of the internet, or I would have included a link for the interested or maybe this thread would have been a simple copy paste job. This is the cut down and condensed version without going from the thread to the needle. Provenance file. Finally able to take it for a spin and do a plug chop to dial in the carburation. Not too bad in the midrange. Just needed the needle dropping a notch. Needs to be bedded in a bit better before I can test wide open throttle. The wide open throttle test was "interesting".

Took the tank, sidepanels and fenders over to Barry at Image Refinishing. I used to use Barry when I was in the trade, he only paints motorcycles. He always does a first rate job. Real show winning paint. He said since he remembered me from back in the day that he would do the job at trade price. £880 . The full price would have been over £1200. Glad I had that £500 contribution. Barry is in a precarious position, his overheads and costs have nearly doubled and he is in a very price sensitive industry. He fears that owners will start having a go themselves with rattlecans because they cannot afford the prices he is having to charge to make a profit. Turned my attention to the front wheel. I had already changed the front tyre and wheelbearings, but quite by chance I came across a new, old stock front wheel rim at a knockdown price. The chrome was not great on my original close up, so I snagged it quick. A new innertube was also ordered. For some reason the seller had the wheels rebuilt with new spokes, but old rims. How odd. Still it meant I did not need to buy a spoke set. A thick end of £100 saving. New front rim, inner tube and rim tape arrived. New vs Old. To be honest, the old were not too bad, they are not rusty, it is just dried up grease, but in my view 40 odd year old wheelbearings should be replaced as a matter of course. Seller had fitted new tyres. Vee Rubber is the make, I remember those from old. I hated mounting and dismounting them, real finger trappers the beads were so tight and six plies instead of the usual four, so very little give in them. Horrible. A lot of sweating and cursing involved to get them off Of course I had to remove the front tyre again to change the rim. New tyres with the correct style trials type tread pattern and most certainly not Vee Rubber. front end built, but had to come apart again for the wheel rebuild. I have not built a wheel in nearly twenty years. Now I can recall why I hated doing it. The DT is particularly challenging with a complex spoke pattern and three spoke types. Had to take a lie down with cold flannel on my forehead and have a little cry before resuming. Still, all done now. New vs Old Rim. The original chrome looked ok from a few feet away, but close it it was not great. Fro

A week later. Had ordered some tyres of the correct tread pattern as original. They had a trials pattern, not the cheap semi road pattern that the seller had fitted. Also found and ordered a brand new chrome headlamp guard. This was originally an optional accessory, but I never ever saw a new bike in the showroom at the time without one fitted. The bike should have side reflectors fitted at the headlamp, but the seller had replaced the long standoff nuts that secured the headlight bucket and were drilled and tapped for the reflectors to screw into, with bog standard allen screws. Despite months of searching, I only ever saw a single one for sale, in Canada. It was $15 canadian with $60 shipping. I passed on that one. Ended up buying some stainless, 8mm stud connecting nuts, fitting 8mm threaded bar inside leaving one end of the correct length as a bolt to accept a nut and hold the headlamp on, the other end was cut flush to the nut, drilled and tapped 5mm to accept the reflector back stud. Armed with these, the next saturday morning, I opened the patio doors and encountered a strong smell of petrol. Dammit, the tank was leaking again and had dumped a few litres of Shell premium on the conservatory floor. My lining had adhered to the old lining and I assume it to have shrunk as it cured. It pulled the old lining away from the sides of the tank. Large pieces of it in the bottom of the tank. Two choices left. 1. Solder the holes up and try to remove as much of the breaking up tank lining as I can. Not a good prospect for a long term cure. 2. Find a better tank and pay a fortune for it painting. Number two was the only real alternative. I was furious and contacted the seller with a link to a previous thread that this thread is based on. I got a message from his son (allegedly) saying his father had been taken seriously ill a few months previously and was really upset that the bike had so many problems, he really did think it was in great condition. He was offering £500 towards the tank putting right. I am not convinced that it was his son messaging me, or that the seller had been taken ill. It may be that he viewed the thread, had seen my posts in the previous thread moving towards court action and was trying to head me off at the pass. However, I am not a vindictive man and accepted his offer gracefully. I knew I was going to be out of pocket, but the £500 is a healthy contribution and if he really was seriously ill, I did not want to add to his problems. I found another tank in Germany that looked rust free internally, bought that and prepared to get it painted. Chrome guard and reflectors fitted and the fuel tank getting drained yet again. Tank arrived from Germany and was in good condition despite appearances. I stripped much of the thick paint under the tank and found it virtually rust free. If it had not been painted often, probably by kids who ran it as a field bike, it would have been in far worse condition. It was also pristine inside, probably because the oil pump had been disconnected and the bike run on premix. Very common with kids field bikes and prevents internal rust. Tank looks like a dog, yet very pleased with it. Very clean under the paint, light surface rust only. Rare to find 40 year old tanks like this. I was unlucky buying the bike, but karma was trying to make amends. I have been incredibky lucky with my "finds".

Jumping forward about three weeks. The seller was not lying, he had lined the tank but the lining had failed. The tank lining kit arrived with its various potions. I cleaned and rinsed out the tank internally with potion number one, mixed up the resin and hardener and poured it into the tank, tipping the tank this way and that to form a complete skin across the entire inside of the tank. Left it to cure for a couple of weeks and filled the tank. No leaks. Yippee. While I was waiting for the forks to arrive, I looked at the cheapo seat cover fitted to the bike. It fitted, just and that is the only resemblence to the original it had. Ordered a more faithful reproduction and fitted that. Cheap seat cover that came on the bike. No yamaha logo. Got a phone call from my suspension gurus saying they were shipping my fork tubes, so I looked at the lower legs. The seller had polished them. This is incorrect, the original finish is brushed alloy with a coat of clearcoat. So set about the legs with maroon scotchbrite and gave them four coats of clearcoat. Some more heavy corrosion near the tops would not come out, but not a problem as they are covered by the fork gaiters there. Refinished legs plonked in the above pic. Faithful 1978/79 reproduction cover with yamaha logo printed at the rear. 1980 onwards covers had yamaha printed in large letters on the sides where the pillion sits. Fork tubes arrived and fitted into the yokes and rebuilding them with all new seals and hardware started. The suspension guys did a very good job.

Fork tubes away getting trued up and hard chromed, I turned my attention to setting the carb up. For this I needed a better supply of fuel as I had to get the engine to running temperature. Time for the fuel tank to go on and the fuel system finished off. Although non standard, as a nod to 40 year old fuel tanks, I thought it better to fit a wix inline fuel filter just in case there were any nasties loose in the fuel tank. The seller did a great job on the paint, really smart looking and he said he had lined the fuel tank, so great. Starting to look like a motorcycle again. Cock a hoop, I put 5 litres of Shell premium in and went to fuel myself with a ground arabica bean beverage to give my tired old frame a jolt. Came back to the bike and a stong smell of petrol. Yup. The feckin fuel tank was leaking. You recall when I first got the bike, there was barely enough fuel in it to start it? I put it down to the seller being miserly with the fuel, but no, I underestimated the seller. It was just enough for me to start it, but not enough to go higher than the leak point. It was obvious he knew about the leak at the time. You can see the drips just forward of the wing nut on the oil tank. Right over the engine. So even the stuff I grudgingly admired him for getting right was in fact unserviceable and downright dangerous. If I had filled the tank before my test ride and it was dripping on the hot engine with vapours swirling around my legs I would have been riding a ticking time bomb. I ordered a kit for lining the tank again but knew in my heart of hearts it was going to be a very expensive problem to get it roadworthy. So near, yet so far...

Headlamp arrived and fitted. Filled the two stroke oil tank up, bled the oil pump and oil injection line to the carb. Filled the transmission with oil. Filled the carb up with fuel using a fork oil syringe, choke on and kick. Nothing. No fire. Check spark. No spark. Clutches hair. What have I done wrong? Is thst CDI I bought from the US a wrong un? Looked at the original tin covered plug cap. Must be dozens of brand new ones in sheds around the country. They were rubbish in damp conditions and often removed at the first opportunity. I wonder? I nicked the plug cap off the house standby gennie and fitted that. Kick. We have spark! My gamble with the CDI paid off. Plug back in. Second kick and off she went. Filled carb with fuel again and was able to check the lighting coil and wiring were working before it stunk the house out. Running nice as ninepence. Lighting circuit checks out. New years eve 2021. And we have all instrument lights and warning lamps operational at last. When the bike arrived, virtually nothing worked. He said it had one or two electrical issues to sort out, but I was not anticipating to have to completely rebuild the entire electrical system from scratch. Light at the end of the tunnel? Oh no. The old scr#te has left quite a few more ticking time bombs for me to come across.

Be aware that a crankshaft direct mounted generator as found on most bikes will not produce sufficient voltage for charging under load until the rpm reaches somewhere between 1500 and 2000 rpm. It cannot and will not charge at low idle speeds. That is why car alternator pulleys are about 3x smaller than the crank pulley. It ups the gear ratio and speed at the alternator pulley by a factor of 3x crank speed and allows stable charging at idle.

About a month passes by. I ordered various bits of hardware, new handlebars as the old ones were pitted externally and who knows how rotten internally and I had a choice to make. The switchgear felt horrible, was rusted inside and the wiring butchered. I started keeping an eye out for new old stock switchgear and prepared as a last resort, to make up new wiring harnesses for them. Inexplicably, the left handlebar pod with the lighting switches did not match the picture in my official parts book. Pre 1980 and it had both the on and off light switch, indicator switch and the main beam on the same pod. 1980 onwards it had the main beam switçh and indicator switch only. The lights were switched on by different positions on the ignition key. The new ignition switch the seller had fitted was a 1980 onwards type... Confusing. We have the wrong ignition switch but the handlebar switch matches it. The yamaha parts book says that both are wrong. Knowing the bikes history, I can only surmise that the left pod was broken in the crash, the seller bought the wrong one secondhand and had to buy a new ignition switch to match it in order to try get the lights partially working. He then tried to marry these offending parts to the earlier wiring loom, butchering it in the process. He was digging himself into a deep hole and did not know when to put down the spade. I knew reproduction parts were sometimes available, but everywhere was out of stock and I knew where a genuine yamaha new, old stock L/H switch assembly was at an eyewatering price. I bided my time and a repro appeared. I snapped it up along with the correct type ignition switch. Started putting everything together. Had to do a little work on the US loom as certain things were slightly different, mainly in the charging circuit. For some reason the european spec bikes had a two stage charging system with a voltage regulator. Normal with lights off and beast mode with lights on. The US spec just had beast mode. A small crossover loom to the voltage regulator sorted it. I think I mentioned making this harness up on the voltage regulator page. Battery fitted, checked all bulbs were 6v. Yes, he had not thought to change the instrument bulbs to 12v! Ignition on and it is showing the first signs of life. This is always a big deal in any restoration. It lives! Still waiting for the correct handlebar riser bolts to arrive from the Netherlands. A week later everything had arrived, fitted and everything working. The headlight and instrument lights run directly from the lighting coil, so with engine not yet ready to be started, I made a shunt lead to the battery tontest everything. Fork tubes still needed to be sent off for chroming. This was December 2021. Instrument lighting ok. Headlamp lit but looks like it is out of shot. Edit. Correction, the new reflector had not arrived yet. Memory fails me. I just knew I had 6v at the connections at this point.

With access to the industrial cleaning machinery at work (these days I overhaul engines, transmissions and axles for heavy plant and equipment) it makes doing restos a doddle. One lunchtime saw the lower yoke blasted, polished and three coats of paint on it with time to spare for a sandwich. I had the new bearings in stock ready. Bearing cups fitted in frame and lower cone and seal fitted on lower yoke. Ready to put back in. I nicked the cone fitting it, luckily not where the balls run. Everything built back up.

Oh dear. As suspected, the seller deemed totally shot steering head bearings to be serviceable. If he did this at a professional level he would have been fired on the spot for gross negligence. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but this un is sorely trying my patience. If he continues to "restore" old vehicles, he is going to get someone killed. Nothing more than an incompetent buffoon at best, or a knowingly dangerous shyster with no regard to other peoples safety at the worst. When I spoke to him he did seem to be genuinely pleased with the bike. Take your pick. One has to imagine what would have happened if one of the new riders on here had bought it? It needs neither tax or MOT. Best scenario is an expensive, broken down mistake and worst is a pine box, gas mark 10 and a quick trip up a furnace flue. It explains the free play in them. I reckon if adjusted correctly, they would have felt horrible with a tendency to jam. The front end would have been all over the place. The balls themselves were rusty, pitted blobs in the general.shape of a sphere. These bearings are dangerously unserviceable in every universe, parralel or otherwise. Forks pulled apart. When draining them I got an eggcup full of 1970s vintage brown sludge from each of them. This is not looking good. He has not even changed the oil. The fork legs were badly pitted right on the oil seal wiping area. Had to send them away for grinding and hardchroming as new replacements were not available. Of course, one of them was slightly bent and had to be trued up, adding another £100 to the bill. Must have been quite a spill the original owner had in the winter of 1979. Looking at a £380 bill. Tenners have been flying out of my pocket in every direction like confetti on a windy day. Then there are the seals, consumables and other hardware required in rebuilding them.

Oh Lord, let me understand.... Started stripping the front end. Pulled the instrumentation. The tacho just plugs into the wiring harness via a multiplug. Easy right? Just unplug the plug and put the tacho safely to one side. Oh no, for some reason only known to the seller, he cut all the wires and "rewired" it. God alone knows why. He also managed to mix up all the bulb holders, and used his own stock of wire, so the wiring colours were completely wrong. Starting to think the seller has been having some sort of mental issue. I have no other explaination. "Rewired" Tach head. Yet another harness made up. Good job I now had a source of wire of the correct colours and sizes from the old wiring loom. It is pain sourcing the correct wire and the job is held up waiting for it to arrive. Got the front end off the ground and tested the front end. About three inches of slop in the steering head bearings. Another potential killer and dangerous category mot failure. Pulled the front wheel and pulled the forks out of the yokes. The upper yoke immediately flopped to the side because he had not fully tightened the steering stem pinch bolt... I am passed being surprised. Started removing the handlebar mounted equipment and another surprise other than the butchered switchgear wiring and the incorrect ignition switch. On removal and closer inspection of the front brake lever perch, it was found that the he had attempted to repair the stripped left hand threaded mirror mount with epoxy resin and the brake light switch was held in with sticky tape. Sticky tape holding in brake light switch. He must have broken the securing lug off trying to remove it. A brand new one only costs a fiver fer gawds sake. So now, having removed everything, we come to removing the lower yoke and stem.. A daunting prospect.

We move our attention to the headlamp assemby. Glass, reflector and bulb holder. Nothing to go wrong there right? Wrong. The twit in his grandiose ideas about having a 12v searchlight at the front, had fitted a 12v led headlamp bulb. The trouble was that the headlamp bulb did not fit the headlamp. So he took a dremel to the reflector to make the hole bigger, plonked in the bulb and secured it with gaffer tape. Of course a randomly sourced bulb that does not fit its holder will not be at the focal point of the reflector when fitted. The lens will then take this unfocused light and scatter it further... One has to wonder what he is teaching to his stundents. New headlamp unit and bulb added to the shopping list. State of play at the moment. I am viewing removing the front end with some trepidation. I am betting it is going to be an expensive proposition. Despite my grinding of teeth, I have to admit he did a good job of the paintwork. It does look pretty. New 6v regulator arrived, made up a new harness for it and plugged it into the main harness. This one was originally made for some kind of Italjet. So electrical system completely replaced from the rear of the bike to the headstock, it is time to turn our attention to the front end. As I had the front apart, I would be replacing the what should have been a new throttle cable according to his advert but in fact was not. I took the opportunity to remove and look inside his rebuilt carb. Carb was reasonably clean inside and as stated in his ad, was fitted with a new float needle and seat and a new mainjet. Trouble is that the main jet was a #120 and the factory manual stated that the 1979 UK DT175mx shouod have a #130. So he had jetted it lean. Not great for a two stroke. The #120 jet was in fact for the DT125. Cleaned a bit more crud out of the float bowl, set the float height and rebuilt it. Job done. Or so I thought. The hammer is my tool of choice for adjusting carb float heights. It gets the job done very quickly... Kidding. It is there just to weight the cloth down as it would not be the first time I caught something on my sleeve as I turned around and brushed the lot straight off the bench.

Replacement main harness arrived from the US and in the meantime I found a new old stock CDI also in the US. It was the correct part number but the box looked well battered, being in storage over 40 years. The risk is that 40 years ago, someone ordered one to replace a failed one under warranty, the failed one got put back in the box and somehow a mix up saw it put back on the shelf. I could see no reason why a bike shop would keep such a part in stock all this time. I took a punt and hoped it was £80 well spent. The last official price Yamaha posted before it became unavailable was £400. Main harness fitted, the stator harness was trimmed to length and the correct terminations fitted. New old stock CDI arrived. For some reason the mounting bracket was missing, so made a new one and plugged the unit in. Fingers crossed its a good un. Feeling a bit better at the progress being made, I removed the headlamp to view the wiring inside the headlamp bucket. OMG. Why do all this to a bike with less than 2000 miles on the clock. I am betting that in his fixation on a 12v system, he got some wires crossed, blew the CDI and had some burned wires. Complete and utter madness. Crimp on lucar terminals and twisted together wires wrapped in electrical tape everywhere. None of the new additions were of the right colour. In addition he had fitted a new ignition switch (clean bunch of red and yellow wires). There are two types of ignition switch. Pre 1980 and post 1980. He fitted the wrong one, so also butchered both handlebar switch gear harnesses to try make it work. He failed.

Once my head stopped spinning, I looked for the original components. The CDI, the rectifier and the regulator. Nothing, all three were missing. I looked at a wiring diagram to see what colour wires went to them and the type of connection to track down where they were located. I found various wires of the right colour that had been butchered and different wires attached. Finally I ordered an official Yamaha factory workshop manual so I knew exactly where and how they fitted. The official manuals actually give you all the original cable routings, which is incredibly useful. The wiring diagram in the Haynes manual supplied with the bike differed from the factory one. I had more stuff to add to my shopping list. CDI, Rectifier and 6v regulator and a good secondhand wiring harness if availabe. If one had not turned up by the time all the other work had been done, I was going to have to make up my own harness from scratch. You have to run through your shopping list every evening, scouring the internet for parts becoming available and I got lucky; a secondhand harness became available on ebay from a bike breakers in the US within a week. I just hoped it was the same. The CDI was unavailable officially, prohibitably expensive,and those on ebay were all 1980 onwards types. The 80s CDI had six wires, whereas the 78 and 79 models had seven wires. To double check the wiring, I looked for the multi pin connector from the source and trigger coils that connected the generator stator to the harness. OMG. This had been butchered too. I put my multimeter on the wires to check the coils. Only two readings available. The rest were dead. I took off the insulation covering the stator harness and was stunned. Most of the wires had been cut. Why on earth? Wires cut and more general feckwittery involving insulation tape. It was obvious I was going to have to strip out the flywheel, remove the stator, test the pulse coil, the high and low speed source coils and the lighting coil. If they were good, great. If not it was going to get even more expensive. Of course I was going to have to make up a new stator harness from scratch. The previous "restorers" wiring expertese revealed in all its glory. And he being a college lecturer. By this point I was seriously considering taking him to court for gross misrepresentation in his advert. He, as an automotive industry professional, as am I, are held to far higher standards in law than a layman would be where matters like this are concerned. I was seriously pissed off at him. Anyway, wires of the correct size and colours and other harness building materials ordered. The coils all checked out ok. For some reason known only to himself, he had rewired all the wiring to run off the charging coil only. Don't ask. I can't get my head around it. New stator harness made up, correctly connected to the stator coils and getting some sensible readings from all the wires. I cannot put terminations on until the main harness arrives from the US. I have no idea of the connector types nor how long the wires need to be. His butchered main harness dangling down on the left. I dare not even look in the headlamp shell. I am saving that for when I feel brave.

Pushing on. Want to try finish the thread before I go back to work in the new year. So I looked in the tool holder and found an electrical unit of some type. What on earth could it be. Was it a tracking device of some sort? I know that the seller had a bee in his bonnet about doing a 12v conversion for better lighting and one could buy a plug and play kit that just plugged into the wiring, was it one of these? Expensive mod if it was. I pulled the battery... Yup 12v battery... and a cheapo, non automotive rated one. Still, the plug and play 12v conversion was a nice thing to have. Maybe if I eventually decided on putting everything back to the original standard 6v, I could sell it on. I pulled the unit and all the wiring connector blocks fell out. They were not compatible with the unit and were only held in because they were all jammed into the toolholder together. I looked at the unit and a sick feeling started in my belly. Or God, please do not let this be the wrong CDI unit for a 12v system and the wiring harness he butchered to make it fit. Of course, it was the wrong CDI unit and a totally and utterly butchered original wiring harness. Merde and double merde! At this point I wanted to do some physical damage to the seller. Stupid man obviously did not realise that the ignition system was completely independent of the charging and lighting systems. To make matters worse, did he fit the expensive plug and play 12v conversion kit? Oh no, he went the cheap route and butchered yet more harness to make a generic 12v regulator rectifier fit. Now I was understanding how the bike came to have so many electrical problems. This was going to be expensive in time and money to put right. Soddin idiot. Starter course.. Non standard CDI of unknown provenence. Gawd alone knows what timing advance curve it had. Main course...non automotive rated battery with crimp on connections, held on by gaffer tape. Dessert course.. Cheapo, generic chinese reg rec. Butchered wiring harness with wiring to his own mad design. None of the wiring matched what Yamaha designed in either colours, sizes or connections. All nicely twisted together and wrapped in insulating tape. What a headache to put right.

Honda CB250 General Export Parts List. It covers general parts by country fitment. Be aware that while 95% of the parts in this book will be correct, there may well be some parts peculiar to the UK G5 model that are not correct on the list. You will need to double check things like carbs and carb parts, wiring harnesses, exhausts, lights, esp tail lights, and things like fender extensions and reflectors. https://www.cmsnl.com/honda-cb250-general-export_model50695/partslist/#.Y6nfh86nw1I France CB250K4. Same year as G5. Probably the better bet for most parts and you can try cross checking UK specific parts against the general export list. https://www.cmsnl.com/honda-cb250k4-france_model16394/partslist/#.Y6n1F86nw1I

Barrel returned and fitted and the shift lever parts arrived at almost the same time. My rule in restorations is to complete one task per day in order to progress the job and avoid burnout. Some people try to do too much at once and get fed up. The bike sits in bits for a while, then get sold on as an incomplete project. Other people let the job run on for years. I like a resto to last 6 months or so and one job a day tallies nicely with lead periods of parts and services. However, cylinder, piston and shift parts made me a little giddy and in a rare burst of energy, I fitted the barrel and piston, went on to complete the transmission side, and finish off the motor. It looks like loose steel filings around the top of the cylinder, but isnt. Everything was cleaned thoroughly in the industrial cleaners at work before fitting. It is just the reflected light of the LED torch I was using as a lighting source. Shift assembly arrived and fitted. Engine completed. Out of curiosity, I looked in the toolkit holder (triangular shaped container with lid removed by the battery box) to see if the original tools were still inside. They were not. What was stuffed in there after further investigation, was a very nasty surprise indeed.

With cylinder and piston away for rebore and waiting for the new shifter parts to arrive, I stripped the oil pump, cleaned it out and fitted new seals. Also got the clutch cover paint stripped and repainted it. Weeks of research looking at Yamaha parts drawings finally gleaned a rear brake rod that looked to have the correct ends and about the right length, although it had a slight dogleg where mine did not. I thought maybe I could just take out the dogleg and make it fit. No need to worry, it fitted like a glove and the dogleg was in the right place to avoid fouling the frame. It looked like it should have been fitted from new. It is from an Asian market 2020 Yamaha DT125. What often happens is that Yamaha and most motor manufacturers will modify a part from model year to model year, and when that model goes out of production, they will often reuse the part on a newer model of bike to save retooling costs. When this happens, they will change the part number to suit the new model and the old part number becomes obsolete. When stocks run out of the parts packaged with the original number, it shows up as unavailable on the system. This rod is a 40 plus year old design fitted on a newer model of bike. It may have been modified a few times in its life. When the part number changed, it became design number one for that part number as denoted by the 00 at the end of the number. Subsequent modifications such as change of finish or ends would end in 01 and 02 ect.