New resto - 79 RD400 Daytona Special

[Hammer 663s]

A few from today. Clutch throwout with original grease. Again, almost perfect. And the oil tank before and after. Cleaned up just fine and is 100% all original. Nothing needs changed. This bike will be ~85% original when done. Pretty cool.

[Hammer 663s]

A few more photos. Frame and small parts back from powder coating. Stuff off for cerakote should be back soon. Cleaned up the head a bit - next up there is polishing the flats and fins. Cylinders are out for a rebore to 64.5mm. Reed blocks rebuilt with TDR reeds and brake lines redone with Yambits stuff. Tank has been high zinc primed and once I seal the inside will go to paint. I've buffed out the original paint on the other stuff and waxed it. It looks fantastic. Tomorrow if I have time I will start breaking down the bottom end.

[robrd]

It's coming on really good, thanks for your postings, it's good to see a bike project from start to finish. Looking forward to your next post.

[Hammer 663s]

A few shots of recent progress. She's starting to go back together! Swingarm and shocks installed, battery box in, tank ready for repair/repaint, head all cleaned up and polished. Once the cerakote work is done I'll get the front end on her. Still need to finish stripping and polishing the fork lowers - what a drudge of a job that one is!

[Hammer 663s]

Pipes are done. Cerakoted in velvet black with stingers to match the paint. Came out pretty good! Start, prep, finish. Also make a GREAT Christmas decoration!

[Hammer 663s]

Recent work. Been doing a lot of small part polishing waiting for parts to arrive. Some assembly - headset went on. Cylinders back from bore/hone to 64.50mm. I also coated the tank interior with Caswell epoxy.

I have some painting to do but weather sucks and I don't have a heated, proper place to paint. Wife says the shower not "proper".

[Hammer 663s]

Making some really good progress. A few random shots of where I am now. I still continue to be amazed at all the original parts I am finding on this bike. Clutch cover gasket, all the lamp bulbs, cases had never been split and on and on. This one is going to be very very nice when it's done. It will be very hard for me to sell it. Maybe I won't.

[Hammer 663s]

A few more.....

[Hammer 663s]

First update of the new year! In between taking down all the Xmas crap I put up, I made some good progress.

Crankshaft is ready for reinstall. I used some brass and stainless steel brushes on it, followed by some 000 steel wool. Then I cleaned it in some 30:1 premix from my RM125, followed by a thorough degreasing and an air compressor dry. Then into the oven for an hour to make sure it was totally dry. Finally, I lubed it well with Motul 710. Bearings feel very smooth and no perceptible play.

Cases are stripped and I've done an initial clean. They will get another one to make them spotless. I should be getting a few parts deliveries soon so the motor will go back together in January.

[robrd]

Hi Hammer, your not hanging back on the restoration, it's going quite quickly and doing a good job as well, thumbs up to you sir. Could you not convince your wife the shower is a new spray tan booth and give her a nice quick coat, your the first person I have heard of spraying indoors, lol. Keep it up sir and thankyou.

[5port]

Good luck with your 2V0 build.  I think you can see the slightly unusual 2V0 cylinder porting, the exhaust is low at 38mm below the top of the cylinder. This should make the engine good for torque, and notice no decompression hole either.
The normal RD400 exhaust port is about 35mm down, but they made the 2V0 more emission limited.
I guess you are leaving the exhaust butterflies off, looks like they were removed before.
Carbs, reeds and airbox/filter?  With standard (38mm, etc) porting there is not much point in going wild. BTW, remember the 2V0 carbs are weird, with the reversed Idle mixture screw set-up.  We had a member on here a while back with a modified 2V0 and the carbs gave him some trouble.
So, interested what your plan is?

5port

[Hammer 663s]

Good luck with your 2V0 build.  I think you can see the slightly unusual 2V0 cylinder porting, the exhaust is low at 38mm below the top of the cylinder. This should make the engine good for torque, and notice no decompression hole either.
The normal RD400 exhaust port is about 35mm down, but they made the 2V0 more emission limited.
I guess you are leaving the exhaust butterflies off, looks like they were removed before.
Carbs, reeds and airbox/filter?  With standard (38mm, etc) porting there is not much point in going wild. BTW, remember the 2V0 carbs are weird, with the reversed Idle mixture screw set-up.  We had a member on here a while back with a modified 2V0 and the carbs gave him some trouble.
So, interested what your plan is?

5port

5port:

Since I have a 77 RD400 too, I'll measure all the port heights and widths next time I have the jugs off, just for fun, and so I can compare.

I bought 2 modern Mikuni VM28 carbs and have rejetted for use with the expansion chambers and a Y boot with a Uni filter. I'll run TDR reeds and a crossover tube on the boots.  I will use the oil injection (carbs are modded for that too). I will not run the exhaust flap. There will be no port timing or compression changes made. I've no interest in making this a race bike. My goal is solid mid into top, and a bike that will still be running 50 years from now, assuming one can get 92 octane and Motul 710 then!

The original owner misplaced most of the OEM airbox pieces over the years, so that's out. And the OEM carbs are very unusual, with parts being hard to find. I read that they were hard to tune in the best of conditions even new. I do have the stock pipes in very good condition, so I might come up with a jetting spec for those and run them with the flap removed just for fun.

[5port]

Good luck with your 2V0 build.  I think you can see the slightly unusual 2V0 cylinder porting, the exhaust is low at 38mm below the top of the cylinder. This should make the engine good for torque, and notice no decompression hole either.
The normal RD400 exhaust port is about 35mm down, but they made the 2V0 more emission limited.
I guess you are leaving the exhaust butterflies off, looks like they were removed before.
Carbs, reeds and airbox/filter?  With standard (38mm, etc) porting there is not much point in going wild. BTW, remember the 2V0 carbs are weird, with the reversed Idle mixture screw set-up.  We had a member on here a while back with a modified 2V0 and the carbs gave him some trouble.
So, interested what your plan is?

5port

5port:

Since I have a 77 RD400 too, I'll measure all the port heights and widths next time I have the jugs off, just for fun, and so I can compare.

I bought 2 modern Mikuni VM30 carbs and have rejetted for use with the expansion chambers and a Y boot with a Uni filter. I'll run TDR reeds and a crossover tube on the boots.  I will use the oil injection (carbs are modded for that too). I will not run the exhaust flap. There will be no port timing or compression changes made. I've no interest in making this a race bike. My goal is solid mid into top, and a bike that will still be running 50 years from now, assuming one can get 92 octane and Motul 710 then!

The original owner misplaced most of the OEM airbox pieces over the years, so that's out. And the OEM carbs are very unusual, with parts being hard to find. I read that they were hard to tune in the best of conditions even new. I do have the stock pipes in very good condition, so I might come up with a jetting spec for those and run them with the flap removed just for fun.

Ed Erlenbach has the port timings on his site for the USA 400CDE and 2V0 and 2R9.  They are the basic portmaps, but not the angles and full profiles.  You would need to measure your cylinders to be sure what you have, but to me they look to be standard 2V0.
The TDR reeds have a good reputation but, I don't think reeds will be making much difference with your porting, even stock steel reeds work quite well.
VM30's. Do they fit the stock reed rubbers and a Y-Boot?  The X-Over is always an interesting thing.  Some swear by them.  They certainly jet very differently with X-over compared to individual inlets, just compare the weird jetting of an RD 350 LC or YPVS to a RD400C/D. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

5port     

[5port]

Yes, the VM30 needs the big rubbers.

5port

[Hammer 663s]

Yes, the VM30 needs the big rubbers.

5port

I did 28s on this one. I did a few TM30s on recent moto restos and got confused. I saw no reason to go bigger than stock as I am doing no porting or crank stuffing or anything really fancy.