Finally Finished Up Those Pesky Wheels!

Tomorrow I'm heading to the CHP to get VIN verified, hopefully for the last time. Please Lord, just let Officer Buchannon sign me off! And please let AAA DMV take my verification proof and registration payment, so I won't have to go back to that dreaded DMV line to wait 2 hours!

I don't know why, but I have totally been dreading doing the work on these wheels. Maybe because I don't know what I'm doing and there's a whole lot of guessing going on?

So last week, I had Cycle Gear mount the new tires. When I went to pick them up, they told me that they didn't use the tubes, nor were they able to fit them in anyway. I do know for a fact that they fit, as many others online have done it, but I'm sure it takes much more skill than they have. I didn't argue too much, although I was slightly leery that they might blow off in the middle of a turn one day. But they did seem to be holding air pretty well. I told them I'm sleep on it and if it really bothered me, we'd have to figure something out. Well, after searching around the internet, I think that since the RD400 was literally the first bike in history to come from the factory with cast mags, Yamaha didn't really think about putting an indent around the rim for the bead. Other subsequent models came with tubeless tires and their wheel profiles looked exactly the same. Days later, the tires are still holding air.

So over this Labor Day weekend, I was able to squeeze some time in today to get my wheels painted and polished. Yesterday morning, I stopped by my FLAP and grabbed me a free bearing setting tool rental. Then I went home and pounded the wheel bearings into place. All went well.

This morning, I loaded up my swamp cooler with ice and water and got busy finishing the polishing of the sides of the rims. One of the wheels, I had already done, but it needed a little touch-up love, since the CG guys gave it some scratches with their tire irons. The task didn't take long.

It took me about an hour to mask up the wheels for painting, but it really made the paint job so much easier to do. A little thinner afterwards to clean up the overspray and I was good to go! I cleaned up the brake discs, associated hardware and other wheel hardware parts. Then I installed the new 520 37T rear sprocket. It looks solid. I can't wait to give it a whirl!

Here are some before and after pics of the wheels.

The gold paint was a little brighter than I had anticipated, but I'm good with it. The job came out fantastic and the paint against the polish was tight.

I got the wheels mounted on the bike, so tomorrow morning, I just have to install the exhaust chambers and I good to roll the bike back on the trailer. Wish me luck!!

DMV Woes

So I trailered up the RD this morning and took a short drive to the local DMV. Another swing and a miss! Since my federal sticker was illegible, I got referred to the CHP. Luckily I made an appointment earlier in anticipation of this problem. Now I have to wait another week to get verified! Oh well, I can probably spend some time polishing and painting the wheels....

Trouble in Tinseltown....

I'm trying to get the wheels all situated now, so I can get the bike in for inspection. Yesterday, I tried getting the bearings out of the front wheel. No bueno. That flippin' axle spacer is in there so tight that it won't budge to one side or the other but just a teenie bit and that's just not enough for the drift to get a bite on the inner race. I decided to wait till I tear down the bike again later, then give it another whack. So I figured I'd just do a dry fit on the fork, before getting the tire on there. After I started torquing on the axle, the wheel wouldn't spin anymore! What the heck??! I can't just leave it loose or the forks will twist. I removed the wheel from the forks and checked the bearings. They were frozen! I think that space itself is frozen in there and when the inner race of the bearings got tightened against the spacer, the bearings won't spin any more. Dammit! After doing some research online, I bought a bearing removal kit off of Amazon for $28. I'll take care of that later.

Today I was putting on the front tire. I bought some new 11" tire irons, so the leverage factor will be much easier. I sprinkled some talcum powder inside the tire and filled my spray bottle with soapy water and I was off to the races. Everything was going as planned, albeit tough, as changing tires is always tough. But after I was done and was filling the tube with air, it seems that there's a leak at the stem!! Somehow, the tube must've gotten pinched when I was installing it!

I seem to have a bad luck when installing tube tires. I had to do that twice on the Harley front wheel. Then the tubes exploded two times about a day later. I finally took the wheel into Cycle Gear to have them do it. We discovered that I was recommended, but the Jake Wilson website, to buy the wrong size tube for that tire! That's why it kept bursting. For $15 I had them install it. It's been fine ever since. I think I'm going to do the same thing for both of these wheels. I'm so sick of changing tires having them lose air!! ARGHHH!!!!!

Inching Closer to D-Day

I spent the last couple of days painting a couple of parts. I had purchased a fuse panel a long time ago and although it was in excellent condition, it was white. I'm guessing that perhaps some previous owner thought it might match the color scheme of his bike better or something like that. While I was at it, I gave my battery box a good scrubbing to get the surface rust off, then I shot it with a few coats of black paint. I was finally able to put some of the new rubber parts on the battery box. Check that off my list!

Today I spent some time tooling on the carbs- installing the new pilot jets and mains. The pilot was size 30 and just for a guaranteed starting point, I installed 270's. It'll probably run rich, but better rich than lean. I still haven't adjusted the A/F screw yet.

Then I started assembling the bike for the DMV. I called my local CHP office the other day, thinking that maybe they make house calls, so I wouldn't have to get a trailer. But no, I would still have to drag my bike down to their office for the verification process. But Officer Buchannon did explain to me the DMV inspection process, informing me that I wouldn't even have to step foot inside the DMV building- I just need to drive my trailered bike around back, where a DMV employee will be waiting for me to do the VIN verification, clipboard in hand. As far as completion- the brakes do not need to be operational, nor does the bike need to start up, so I'm going to leave all the main electrical parts off the bike (battery and harness), as well as cables, that way the disassembly will easier and I can avoid the current headache of hooking up the harness just for the inspection.

I made some great progress. First I had to scrub and install the old nasty swingarm back on the frame, since I farmed out the other swingarm for powdercoating. After I reassembled the rear brake and shocks, I got the carbs and intake system on there, as well as the side covers. I had to do a little scrubbing, so the red parts would look nice. I installed the gas tank and lid. Then I put together the rear fender situation. The bike is probably about 95% inspection ready- I still have to remove the cables from the instrumentation, tuck away some of the wiring, then get the tires and wheels on the bike.

So the next major step is to finish up those wheels. I don't know why I've been so reluctant to work on them. Probably because the task seems so daunting. I still need to polish up the outer rims, install the new bearings, install the new tubes and tires, then shoot paint. Yup. sounds like a real pain in the ass all right...

I did take a minute to check out the riding ergonomics on the bike. I know that the position will be slightly different in it's final rendition, since I'll be installing a lower seat. But still, I was thrilled to be able to get on it. It has been over 10 years, since I last sat on the bike! And I have been dreaming of putting new rearsets on the RD for even longer than that! So to actually realize the work that I've been doing was pure awesomeness!!!

Back to the Grind

After a 3-week break, I'm finally back working on the RD with a passion! Actually I was running so behind schedule that the first thing I had to do when I got back from vacation was rework my build schedule with some new deadlines.

At the beginning of the week, I tore apart the carburetors to take inventory of what parts I actually still need. I cleaned and rebuilt these carbs over 10 years ago, then put them in a box for safe keeping. At the time, I did take notes of what was needed, but now looking back, the notes were unclear and incomplete- the only way to be certain of needed parts was to do another tear down and take inventory. Luckily the only parts needed were the main and pilot jets- exactly what Paul told me I needed to order for the newly built engine! I turned to my trusty source, economycycle.com, and ordered a range of Mikuni mains from 250-280 and pilot jets in 30.

For the past 2 days, I've been working on fitting the seat pan to the frame and grinding off unnecessary metal. My final seat pan fixture system was four clevis pins brazed to the frame. That way, I can just remove the clevis pins and the seat comes off. (I still need to access beneath the seat to fill the oil tank.) I also fabricated a license plate and LED brake light mount out of some leftover steel I had laying around from some previous project, then brazed those onto the back of the frame.

I removed the two grommet tabs which used to hold the stock airbox in place. I also ground off the center stand mounts that stick out off the rear of the frame, being careful not to cut too much away, since the right side holds the brake pedal spring mount peg, and both are used as engine mounts. While I was down there, I also decided to remove the stock footpeg mounts. Tons of grinding in a hot little garage on a 100°F+ day!!

The end result was very satisfying! Tomorrow I will take the new unmolested seat pan and fit it to the pins on the bike, that way I can send it out for paint. I need to remove the steering lock stuff (door, pin and lock core if possible), the do a final sand on the ground areas of the frame, then it'll be ready for powdercoating. I'll try and cut and shape the front fender tomorrow, so I can run all the parts out for paint this week.

After all the parts have been prepped for powdercoating and paint, then I'm free to continue working on the DMV build, so I can get the bike registered! One step at a time....

The Heart of the Matter

Today is the day I have dreamt about for a very long time. My RD400 motor was assembled and ready to be picked up!! I arrived a few minute before 9am at Paul's house. As always, he had his garage opened already and was waiting for me. I saw the engine and tt was beautiful!

He helped me install the shift rod and tachometer drive components. Then he went over the break-in routine for the motor. Of course, half of that went in one ear and out the other. We told stories, he helped me to load all the parts into my Jeep, then I was off.

I spent part of the rest of the day cleaning engine mounting parts, mixing and matching with a spare set that I had on hand. One of my front mount spacer tubes got slightly dented, so the mounting bolt didn't want to slide through, meaning I had to use one of the yucky corroded ones. I tried cleaning/polishing it for a while with some success, but in the end, I just wanted to plug the motor in the frame, so the refurbishing will have to wait till the motor moves to the other frame. I also discovered that I am one rear mounting bolt short of a full set! After scouring through my archive of old documentation photos, I noticed that I never even had one in the first place! Thank God for eBay! In the end, I was successful in mounting the motor in the frame, minus one rear mounting bolt.

I fitted the carbs on the engine, then the Y-boot with the K&N air filter on it. (I still have to locate the manifold clamps. I hope I don't need to order more parts!) Surprisingly, the filter sticks way above the frame rails where the new seat will go. Hmmm...I don't ever recall anyone making mention of this problem. I do know that K&N makes a shorter filter. Maybe others have been using the short filters? In any case, I do happen to have a foam Unifilter that I can fit on there if I don't feel like buying a another K&N filter.

This week is going to be hella busy. I'm working a shit ton of hours and weird shifts, due to coworkers taking random vacation days off, and the management not hiring much needed extra help. I'm also shoving off for a cruise to Alaska on Friday. Of course I have to work all the way through Thursday, then take my dog and drop off a second car at a relative's house after work, not to mention that it's actually my birthday that day :(

But if I get the chance, I would love to start hooking up some cables, getting a little closer to a "complete" bike, so I can get the bike VIN verified by my local DMV. What a total hassle!!!!

Learning to Braze

Lately I've been inundated with work hours, plus other shit is going down in my life lately. So work on the RD has been slow lately. I've kind of been dragging my feet- some of it is just laziness, as I've been stuck in my head about solutions for seat mounting and stuff.

I have two RD400 frames and on both of them, the steering stopper tab/button has been knocked off. I was lucky enough to be able to relocate one of the original tabs- it was from my original Marsh frame. Since I will be riding the Primrose frame, the one that I'll be cutting up, I really need to have a button on that one. In case you have no idea what piece I'm speaking of, from the Yamaha factory, there is a small metal tab that is welded to the front of the headstock. It works in conjunction with the bottom triple tree clamp, which has a couple of stopper tabs sticking up. If the handlebars move too far to the left or to the right, the triple tree tab will effectively hit the stationary stopper welded to the headstock, preventing the steering from turning any further, therefore (in theory) stopping your handlebar (or triple tree nut) from putting a dent in your gas tank. Well, my bike has gone down a few times and the force of the crashes were probably strong enough to break the welds. I presume the Primrose frame suffered the same fate.

After putting some thought into how to address my missing steering stopper tab, I eventually decided to try brazing it back onto the frame myself. So I'm stealing the tab off the Marsh frame and brazing it onto the Primrose frame. The first attempt didn't go so good. I was smart enough to know that I needed a hotter flame than propane, so I bought a canister of map gas. But still that steel was way too thick to let the heat penetrate.

I thought that maybe a better torch handle could bring more heat, so I stopped by my local Lowes hardware store. They just happened to have a Bernzomatic kit that came with map gas and oxygen!! For only $70, it was worth giving it a whack. After I bough it, I went home and read the reviews, which were not good. Apparently people were having problems with the flame blowing out and the sensitivity of the controls. I searched a little more and found some helpful videos on how to get the flame to ignite and how to do careful adjustments.

This video is really a life-saver! It will save you from valuable minutes of wasted oxygen consumption.

It really didn't take long for the headstock metal to heat up. I used the bronze rod and after doing three sides, the welds seemed very strong! I am confident this stopper will hold, even after a crash!

 

So now that I have a little bit of brazing skills, I'm probably going to braze some nuts or T-nuts directly to the frame, so I can fasten the seat pan down. I believe that I will also have to braze a cross-member to the back of the frame, so I have somewhere to mount the rear brake lamp. I'm still working out the details and dimensions on these last two points. When these things are done, I can finally take this frame to the powdercoater! And when I finally cut down that front fender, I'll be able to haul all my parts to my Sacramento painter!