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On a more life-update note| | Selections from Casting Crown's "Lifesong" album have become the soundtrack for my life lately - unfortunately the title track is not one of them.
I bought a 1972 Yamaha DT2 250. It's considered the first true Dual-Sport motorcycle. [A Dual-Sport is a bike that is both road and trail worthy, and is made that way (not like a RSX regeared, raised, snorkeled and plated, with studded tires to go offroad).] I bought it for $101 on Sunday, October 15 2006. (the $1 was for delivery in the seller's truck to my apartment.) I found it on Craigslist, the asking price was $300 - I offered him $100 and he jumped at it.
...
On a divergent musical note, Superchic[k]'s "Beauty from Pain" album is stellar. About half of that album is also on my life's soundtrack currently.
... and now we return to your regularly scheduled summary: ...
When I bought the bike it didn't run, according to the seller, it had run last summer, and within the last month, but I'm not sure if either one of those was trustable. So the bike (latest bike) saga begins. I immediately got it home and started ripping parts off (in a non-destructive, controlled, be-able-to-get-it-back-together-later fashion). Off came the gas tank, fuel line, carborator, injection oil tank, airbox, rear fender. (... this was all in the first three days, over the three day period - more came off later, but I'll get to that when it comes off in the story...) Bought some carb cleaner, two-stroke oil, a spark plug and an o-ring kit (to replace the shot ring in the carb). Dissasembled the carb and soaked it to clean, bought a Clymer book, and decided to check compression/spark - so I took out the spark plugs. At this point I sliced open my thumb on the gas tank mount on the frame - it's almost healed a week later. {And now for a brief aside on the specs of this delightful bike...}
The 1972 Yamah DT2 250 cc enduro is a single cylinder, two-stroke, oil injection engine. Specs are readily available online, just google it - I've oft found bikez.be to be the best place for this information. There are two spark plug holes on the header, the reason? I haven't figured it out yet, nor can anyone I've talked to give me any good guesses, except for Ian Cooper's gander of a compression relief valve. Why there would be one those was stumping me until I read some reprinted documentation online the other day - something about starting in cold weather. However, nothing I can dig up on the DT2 mentions anything about a compression relief valve. The DS7 (1972) and DT1 (1970 and '71) have them listed, but the DT2 comes up blank so far. This being a two stroke engine, it needs oil in with the gasoline. Standard method of control is oil injection motor. Often these are not trusted by those who do not want their engine to blow up / seize with little to no prior warning. So I have recieved two schools of thought: pre-mix and give up the injection, or pre-mix til I get the injection working, then go with it - they're reliable on the old yamahas of this vintage. I'm going to try to get it working again, but for now I pre-mix and idle in a cloud of white smoke.
{and now back to your regularly scheduled story...}
The spark plugs come out at last, and as it would happen, the first plug I check/take out is naturally the non-in use one, because that is the easiest to get to and the least pain to test. Take it out, set it on the head (to ground the plug for you non-engine-yet-people), and kick the starter. [It was dark at this point, being after 7pm and all.] Zap Zap Zap! Great! Spark! Check the other one which was the one I sliced my thumb taking out ... nothing. Well. Hm - gee, I wonder if that was the whole problem with it not starting in the first place ... eh, whatever - now atleast I can rebuild it right. Go clean the plug up up, get something then, but eventually foul it again later. Someone on advrider [advrider.com] just told me that spark plugs become a disposable item on two smokers (word play on two stroker).
In the mid-time, while the carbs are soaking and cleaning up all nice, I call cycle stop to see if I can get new clutch and throttle cables. Everything for this bike is discontinued. And I mean everything. I went to cycle stop and asked about what parts they might have. They actually found air filters in their system. Guy goes back to get them - and these filters had probably been on the shelf since 1972. They were literally dry rotted in the packaging. They also listed a clutch cable in stock - but there was none to be found. So I started digging through one box of clutch cables, the guy starts looking elsewhere ... and finds one! Well, it was close enough, anyway - whether it was a OEM part or not, it was yamaha, and it fit. Ended up getting gearbox oil, and an air filter while I was there too. [Unfortunately they did not sell replacement faceshields for the THH TS-40 (my helmet, of which the face shield broke while I was out checking out the DT; knocked the helmet off the bike, it hit the ground faceshield first and broke the shield tabs right off), or cut keys for a DT2.]
The trip to cycle stop was Saturday morning. Later that day I finished reassembling the carb, and put it back on the bike, along with the freshly cleaned airbox and manifold, and reassembled everything. In the interim, I had also emptied out the gas tank of all the old gas, and it is waiting for the rest of it to be disposed of from my apartment. I premixed about 3/4C with ~1gal premium octane gas, and filled the tank about half way. (2gal tank) Still off the bike at this point is the oil tank and the rear fender. Neither will be necessary for the purposes of getting it started and starting to clean stuff out. I had also removed the clutch/chain/drive gear cover and begun to clean that area out. I attached the new clutch cable and cleared some of the muck out of the drive cover area, and put that back on, though the chain was off at this point, so I didn't think a clutch would be vital, I wanted to make sure it had it just in case.
After getting all of the essential engine components back together (Engine + Carb + manifold + airbox), I decided I might as well put the chain back on incase the kick didn't work, I would try pop-starting it, and besides, I wanted to make sure 'neutral' on the gear selector was still truely neutral. So all of that got stuck back on quickly, and it looks like I'm ready to go.
Let's see, mental check list: spark plugs = check. spark plug wires = check. spark plugs tightened = check. (the whole point of being very thorough is to make sure that no tiny point is left out, especially since I've never heard it start before, so I have no idea if it works) carb = check. carb connected = check. choke on = check. manifold attached and tightened = check. (at this point I was still missing a circle clamp, but I found it later and put it back on, so check) airbox = check. clutch (and works) = check. side cover = check. chain = check. Okay ... kick lever, out... = check. All righty kids, moment of truth - here we go. Kickstand up, standing in the parking lot in front of the garage straddling the bike (which is really light compared to my motorcycle by the way) .... I recall what one person wrote one time that I read about starting a kick-start bike (zen-style): gather yourself, and direct all motion down onto the starter! So I think: "Well - here goes nothin'." Get set, kick! Wub wub wub.... Okay, that didn't work ... well you can't expect it to work the first time, how long has it been since this thing ran? Okay, try again. Kick! Wub wub wub.... What the? [Run through the mental check list again...] What am I forgetting? Look at the empty ignition key slot. ..... DOH! Go get the key, put it in, turn it with the wrench (you need a wrench to turn it). Reload myself on the bike, poise: Kick! Wub wub - wub wubwubwubwubwub b-deeeedeed-deed-deed-deed-deed-deed-deed-DEEEEEEEE!!!!!
WOOOOHOOO! She's a-runnin!!! [Mentally after all the adrenaline surges through I think to myself, "Man, this thing sounds like I'm riding a weed-wacker."] Turns out that that first time I flooded the carb, and had to drain them, but I got it started again, about a half hour later. This thing smokes like an old man in a hookah bar. I sit in a cloud of white smoke as it idles.
So as I mentioned, I had reconnected the chain. I hadn't mentioned that there is no tach. on this thing. Yes. A speedometer, but no tachometer. (It's on my list of parts to buy) So I figure I'll go tooling around the parking lot, to try to tune the idle, and the fuel mix, and see how it rides, and some various other stuff. Well, it turns out that this thing is either running very lean or very rich - and the throttle cable needs replaced before any of this can be well-tuned either. To short-change you of some details (I'll tell it in person, it makes for a much better story), as I'm riding around, trying to keep this thing from stalling out, I've got it revving high to keep from stalling. After one attempt to get some forward motion in first gear, I stop and put it in neutral, the engine starts racing. Like, RPM limiter racing. I didn't know the kill switch was actually effective at this point, so first thing I do is switch the ignition key to off. .... That does NOTHING. Oh crap. I need to shut this thing off before it blows to bits between my legs. Ultimately hitting the choke ended up killing it, as I had adjusted it far too lean, and the choke put it over the edge.
Currently, the throttle cable is off, as is the throttle twist-grip (for greasing), and the rear fender and oil tank still. I need new oil lines and other stuff like that, but for now I'll continue to pre-mix. The footpegs have been cleaned up, and should be ready to go back on very soon. Next things: New throttle cable, clutch/brake handlebar grabs and chain should arrive in the mail tomorrow or the next day. I'll be installing those and tweaking the carb in an attempt to get it up and going at a consistent level as far as the carb/engine/fuel mix goes. After I get the engine to the point I can ride around reliably, it'll probably be time to pull the engine and clean the frame/piston/cylinder. If not cleaning at that point, then hopefully get it geared up and ready to go off-road. In the mean time I'm working on the electrical system - taking it apart and making sure everything works. So far both parts I've taken off have been semi-normal-ish/working (kill switch and headlight). Obviously the coils work. I'll need to get a battery/check the stator, and find some turnsignals and brake lights for cheap somewhere.
The last thing on my mind is brakes. The rear one is likely some kinda siezed, as it doesn't release as it should after the rear brake is activated. The front one is also sluggish. Well, regardless of what their condition is, it'll be a good drill in both wheel removal and in drum brake maintanence. There's a possibility I'll be able to get it tagged this winter, if I get it running and in condition to be inspected. The hardest part is not going to be getting a silencer for the exhaust - I missed one on ebay a while back, and I should have really gotten it, taken more time. Oh well, such is life.
Don't worry Jon, I won't go above 10 mph til I get rear brakes on it, and the front ones work, they're just not in top condition. | | | Posted 10/25/2006 4:56 PM - 27 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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