@HOTSHOT-III said in Stevie’s French '98, Mid-90's WR/YZ/DT (An idiotproof guide to building your own DTR):
@Stevie-Wonder “The vacuum bleeder could be sucking air down the bleed nipple threads and into the hole at the bottom of the bleed nipple. I'd forgotten this but I once tried sucking the fluid out with a syringe and it did this, took me a long time to figure out.”
Ahh! I was starting to assume that something wasn’t quite right to be honest, having managed to bleed my brakes myself with no problems I thought it’s only fair to assume it must be getting air in somewhere else. I’d just thought that the seal from the hose to nipple wasn’t enough for the Vacuum against it.
“You can improve this and prevent corroded/snapped bleed nipples by liberally applying copper grease to the threads when you install them. Put a fat O-ring between the caliper body and 8mm hex head with a bit more copper grease when you've finished bleeding as well and they'll crack off with no drama in two years' time.”
That’s a pretty simple fix. Braided lines are pretty cheap for the DT/WR and now I’m confident that I’ve got the hang of bleeding brakes I was thinking of getting some so I’ll take advantage of being able to do that whilst the hoses are off. Only trouble is what colour do I pick? I was thinking blue or orange to match the decal.
“Couldn't help noticing your stock pipe/DEP silencer joint above the battery; is it sealing?”
If I remember correctly, the outer diameter of it is smaller than that of the dep back box and I’ve just left it there for the sake of it however I did get lucky with my dep as it’s a very tight fit (i understand Dep’s are not always the best like that) so I’ve never really had any trouble. Even when I was running the Dep expansion chamber it was such a tight fit the worst I got was a little bit of black soot on the battery tray.
great bit of kit to be honest, for the money I’m very impressed. Cheers for the heads up I’ll be buying one. I’ve been doing a bit of an inventory check with my tool box and noticed a lot of bits and bobs missing.
Despite having a family of mechanics I never got taught about the different tools, drives etc etc so I’ve ended up with a lot of mismatch bits and incomplete sets. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time trying to find the right tool then I ever do working 😂
Having ADHD and Asperger’s is a killer in that respect though, you put something down you was just using to do something and instantly forget what you’ve done with it and if it’s anywhere but it’s usual place I end up having to do a 15 minute search everywhere as apparently I like hiding things from myself 😂. Hopefully I’m not the only one who does this though.
I have found some magnetic socket organisers which go on the side of my toolbox, since having them I’ve spent a lot less time searching for stuff and the fact I can just press the ratchet into the socket and quick change them as they’re stuck on the outside is really convenient
Jake who I bought the guides etc from asked me how I’m doing for suspension/ forks, unfortunately though I just don’t have the spare cash to buy them. Plus they’re one of those things where as much as I’d love to buy them and store them in the loft I know the same will only happen again. Sourcing another pair would definitely be easier than re-chroming them.
I'm not certain but I think those stanchions unscrew from the wheel/brake bosses (they'll need to for chroming). I once changed one on a GSX-R400SP GK76A (I had bent forks but wanted to retain the SP rebound adjuster and could only find standard forks at the breakers) and it required a lot of heat to get it to move, I think it was held in with some kind of industrial strength Loctite. Once undone there was a O-ring to seal the joint and a thin shim underneath the stanchion. I reassembled it with a new O-ring and loads of JB Weld but someone somewhere will know the torque setting for this, maybe fire off a few emails to some of the tuning shops in the States like Pro Circuit etc.?
Understand your point about slight oiling protecting the fork stanchions but it can also "protect" your front brake and for this reason an alert MOT tester will fail you for pitted forks. A bit of GT85 on a rag after every rain/mud ride and after washing should stop the corrosion and give your seals an easier life.
With the alloy swingarm, I’ve already got a DT200WR swingarm and went through a total ball ache trying to find out what it was (info for the DT200WR is nearly always in Japanese and the only real English speaking community for them is in Costa Rica). The person that sold it listed it as DT/Yamaha swingarm and said he was going to use it for his DT. Only issue is before selling it he took it upon himself to raw it all so it needs sandblasting and powder coating. Sounds daft but I love the look of it, by comparison to the WR200 which uses the snail chain adjusters the DT200WR uses a more modern axle block style.
Whilst the snail adjusters are very practical and simple to use. I wanna give the ‘ole DT a slightly updated feel. Like a 90’s/00’s OEM+/Factory works type
of vibe.
“Definitely agree messing about with stuff like this gives a greater high than going out and getting wasted with the "In Crowd". Sat here writing this on a Friday night after spending all day on a wheel build and life feels pretty agreeable”
Agreed. I’ve spent so much money over the years doing just that and now all that money I would’ve been spending goes on bikes.
Speaking of wheels, I think a set of sumo’s and replacing the excel 19” with an excel 18” is what I’ll do next.
A set of DTX wheels I think is my best option as then I can still have a working speedo, if I laced 17” wheels to the standard WR hub the reading would be wayyy out and as far as I know no one makes a converter for when this happens.