DTR Build Up
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Gave my head the gentle skim, used 400grit wet and dry as that's all i had, just means it takes longer to skim down the high spots if anything.
http://i.imgur.com/9XG04L0.jpg?1
Used the cookers glass top, just because it was a bit more like a workbench lolhttp://i.imgur.com/kRSEAhz.jpg?1
Here's the head in question, as you can see it's looking rather ugly. Did the old straight metal ruler over the head and see if any light passed underneath trick to see if there was any warpage, to my eyes i couldn't see much light. But i suppose a mm is like a mile when it comes to warpage. Haynes states anything more than 0.03mm is buggered.http://i.imgur.com/t41qiAV.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/dVFpdzd.jpg?1
This was after the first pass, looks a lot better, none of those huge scratches and the surface is becoming a lot flatter.http://i.imgur.com/9Oe9qRi.jpg?1
This was the state of the first sandpaperhttp://i.imgur.com/lWPfBO6.jpg?1
This is what i ended up with, i still believe that maybe i should just go a grade higher to get a more smooth finish. But atleast the ring of dirt round where the cylinder meets the head has gone. -
@ConnorDTR you will want to do both the block and head mate since they are both ally.
Nice idea I like that. Can't imagine my old dear would be pleased if she caught me doing that back in the day haha!
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@Calum It's going onto a different cylinder, i've got 2 lol. This one originally came with the engine, i just didn't want to use it because the bottom bolt for the powervalve cover was fudged. But i checked out this cylinder with the ruler and i couldn't see any light coming from underneath the ruler
But yeah i did wait for my Dad to go to work before i started doing that, he'd have actually strung me up if he saw this
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Well it's been a good 16 days since i uploaded my last update where i was on my way to fixing the bike, since then a fair bit has happened.
The headgasket skim and new athena gaskets worked a lovely treat, i'm no longer burning coolant or having any bubbling in my expansion tank. So that has sorted out my overheating problem. However that was actually nothing to do with the reason why my bike broke down, there was plenty of compression even though there was scores on the piston and cylinder.
http://i.imgur.com/njWanLL.jpg?1
*The excitement of my gaskets turning up
*
http://i.imgur.com/uMgOotS.jpg?1
To be fair, working on this engine is absolutely piss easyhttp://i.imgur.com/A64U8GY.jpg?1
First time using this baby, 22nm for the head nutsSo when I put the engine back together and expected it to kick into life i was quite disappointed, kicked as hard as i could but nothing happened, i also noted a new grinding sound coming from my bottom end. So disheartened i decided "Fuck it" and put the bike back in the shed for next months payday to be spent rebuilding this engine. But a few hours later i thought i'd take a more diagnostic approach to it, i'd see why the bike wouldn't start. Decided to have a look at the spark plug see what it had to say, it looked completely fine. So i'd see if i had any spark, earth the plug to the cylinder and kicked to see a spark, however there was nothing. That was a start to getting her back, automatically assumed that it would be the coilpack.
Waited to borrow a multimeter from a friend, but still wanted to know what this new grinding noise i was hearing. Tracked it to the left hand side of the engine lol, guess where this is going. Took the side cover off and found that the flywheel had worked it's way completely loose, how embarrasing. It was just spinning on the crankshaft. I never actually tightened it up properly. So i put the bike in gear, held the rear brake on and tightened the sucker as much as i could. Now that it was tight i kicked the bike again, bursted straight into life. What a relief, makes all the same noises as before, a strange ticking (like a ratchet) noise which i fear are my big ends or crank bearings trying to escape from where they live.
Anyhow i rode off to see my friends at the pub 8ish miles away, made it without any problems to be fair, apart from hitting reserve right outside of the pub. That scared me a bit, not used to a bike with a manual petcock.
Anyways the bike was working all fine so i decided to take it to college, 20 or so miles away. Got there perfectly and all. On break i decided to show my friends the bike and we'd go for a little ride/drive. 2 minutes in and my throttle cable gave up the ghost, however it had only came out of the weird slider thing in the junction box. So i borrowed some tools from the college and just put it back into it's holder thing, however the bike was now idling like a sack of shit. I had no clue what was happening, but it needed choke on to even get it to start and i had to play with the throttle to keep it going. I knew that this meant some sort of an airleak, but i couldn't fix it there at the college i was going to do it at home.
So it came time to go home and everything was going fine, apart from having to ride with the choke on and play with the throttle at the lights. About half way through my journey the throttle cable went again, i would NOT recommend the yambits throttle cables. They had this problem of coming loose in the junction box and also there is no oil pump adjustment. So i'm stuck at using 1l of oil every 200ish miles lol.
With no tools on me i pushed it to my friend who worked about 15 minutes away, got it all fixed and then continued my way home vowing to put the bike away until i had fixed all these problems. Well i got going again then my bloody flywheel worked loose again, bloody thing. Called up yet another friend to bring me some tools, tried to get the flywheel back on however it had at the woodruff key. With no access to a van and towing a bike being the scariest thing i have ever attempted. I decided to try my luck pushing the bike the rest of the way back home. 3 hours later and 5 miles up the road, me tired as anything, in the dark, cold and it was tipping it down, absolutely starving and thirsty i gave up. Finally got a van and got home. Never wanted to see the bike again.
http://i.imgur.com/68Ifl4U.jpg?1
Much preferred the car in the past few days, such a sense of security. Also alot warmerHowever come today i've been rounding up a new woodruff key, a washer for the flywheel, some thread lock and soon a new throttle cable i've got to work. My stator is in one hell of a mess, the flywheel has destroyed most of the coils. But i fitted my new key, put the flywheel onto it, slid the washer onto the shaft, put some thread lock on the nut and the threads. held the flywheel with the correct tool this time and used a 1/2 ratchet and 17mm socket (brother has my torque wrench the only time i've actually needed it) i torqued that baby up good and proper. Couldn't move it anymore with a massive ratchet. The spec on this is 56 Nm if anyones interested.
http://i.imgur.com/tJBFFuH.jpg?1
here's the offender, nicely sat where it will hopefully stay for a whileSo the bike starts again, scared to ride it anywhere now so going to sort out some breakdown cover, still need a new throttle cable and want to give it a bottom end rebuild as it sounds like a bag of nails
Sorry for the short novel
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Oh dear not good.
That's kinda why I prefer the DTRE flywheel. It locks the woodruff key off from ever moving.
I have had the throttle cable go. Had to adjust idle so at least I could sit on it at 3mph home lmao.
I like driving a car, but it don't beat the bike.for me. Even the Starlet. Love it but give me a dt.
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@Calum
I've not really seen the DTRE flywheel, but to be honest this could have been avoided if i torqued it up properly in the first place. Just makes me not trust the bike much as i've broke down twice now in one week.I will have to buy a proper yamaha throttle cable, but i tried to do the whole coast thing but my reed cage had come loose so the bike wouldn't idle at all.
But at the moment i much prefer driving a car, even if it's not a special car. But i suppose that will change when i trust the bike and it's warmer weather
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@ConnorDTR yeah been there lmao. I feel your pain. I will no doubt go through the same problems as you whilst I get my bike up to scratch lol
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Right well it's been 2 months since the last update, and 300 miles later the bikes shagged again. Only conked out on me a mile from home this time though luckily, on a lovely hot day too. The first we've had in ages
so home now and i took the spark plug out, all looks fine there. Did the stupid thumb over the spark plug hole and kicked the bike, it couldn't even push my thumb off. So i put some oil down the bore and kicked again. This time it actually had compression.So obviously need to do a top end and properly this time, but i've also got a horrible clunking sound from the bottom end and without knowing the previous history of this engine i'm going to do a full rebuild. However obviously this takes time and money, something which i'm short on at the moment having just renewed my car insurance, having to pay for uni deposits etc. So this is going on the side again for a while
Right at the beginning of nice summer too! been getting tempted at selling it to be honest, but i've put so much work into this! I don't really enjoy it all to much, scared of it constantly breaking and hardly enjoying offroading. The bike has no low end power and is hard to cruise at a single speed.So thinking of either selling up, breaking the bike or stop being a little bitch and rebuild the engine, fit a 3 wire servo and go supermoto! Sad really i wanted a bike for summer
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Hang in there dude, she's a nice DEET. It feels like a money pit, but it will be worth it. Your project has definitely pushed me starting full rebuild this year, and just saying fuck it to however long it will take, and blowing spare cash a little bit at a time.
I know if I sell mine now, I'll only want another one later on.
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@Darty It's hard at the moment, wanting a nice bike to ride but not be scared of breaking down is the main. Thank god i don't have to rely on it though.
Thing is i don't get much spare money, working all my days off from college and having to save up for uni, pay for deposit for uni room, car insurance and the bike insurance then fuel. It all adds up and i'm left with nothing to even put away for an engine rebuild.But i'm in the same boat, i'll regret selling it after the work and knowing they're going up in value. Just have to put it away for a bit i suppose. Also i'll grab the info for the ignition soon!
also anyone have any recommendations for cleaning the plastics? Brand new and they're stained, doesn't rub off
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@ConnorDTR If your saving up for Uni, maybe sell, it's worth it in the long run if you could get a good price. I've thought about it for while. It's such a big investment, and it's always nice to have a great toy lying about. It's a hard one, makes me sad just leaving mine in the shed for months with all these ideas and no time or much cash to realise them.
For plastics try Contact cleaner, or brake cleaner. I had this silicone spray, can't remember what it was called, but it gave a nice sheen, with a little protection, left a waxy' top layer and kept the bush and branch marks off a little bit offroad.
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@ConnorDTR definetaly try and keep the bike if you can! I was in a similar situation 6 years ago and ended up selling my DT and instantly regretted it and also ended up paying more than double the price for another one a few years later. I think you should rebuild your engine and have a look on good old eBay for a bottom end to tide you over for the summer whilst you save up to rebuild the other engine in the bike, there's a few cheap bottom ends on eBay that are in good condition from reputable sellers so you could just put your top end on one and try put money aside till you have a enough cash to fully sort it out .
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@Darty Thing is though i know i'll never get back what i've put into this bike money wise! It's very nice though to have a toy lying about, it's a good fun bike when i'm going for it. i'll give brake cleaner a go, that think works wonders! My college tutor was using it to clean class tables aha!
@Biker_123 i agree, this would definitely be something i regret through my life. I genuinely think i should just tuck it away until i can afford it again
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We've all been there.
You know sometimes you do have to make the sacrafice for the bigger picture.
I am surprised you're having issues. These engines in stock form are very reliable. Put it this way, you could sell the DT and buy something else as that little toynfor the nice days. But the DT needs to be running else you really will lose out.
Personally I feel that no job is too hard on such a small bike. The most expensive part of the rebuild is the odd sized crank bearings.
The rest is trivial and can be done cheaply. Spread over a few months its like 50 quid a month. And that's if you want it to look sweet. 150 will see a bottom end rebuild stripped and built back up with all new gaskets.
But it comes with its own risks. Gotta do it right and make sure it doesn't fail on you.
