RD 250 D 1977 re build

[Mally]

Thanks gents for the comments ,

WD40 and Scotchbrite pads then wire wool…..and a load of elbow grease .

Started off with the Green ones then the Red , then wire wool ,make sure you polish following the concentric direction around the disc and spray with the WD40 often otherwise it leaves noticeable scratch marks .

Don’t have to say clean off the WD40 when finished  . I used white spirit on a soft cloth.

[Mally]

Not really an update but just to show the quality of work a fellow RD enthusiast did, Stephen Calvert via the NERDOC club. He does them as a pastime and puts them up for sale now and again for RD & LC models. Luck had it I saw them as he put them up for sale, genuine Yamaha switchgear all parts renewed, springs/ball bearings etc . The action on the switches are super positive , like new. A first class job.

[Motty]

Not really an update but just to show the quality of work a fellow RD enthusiast did, Stephen Calvert via the NERDOC club. He does them as a pastime and puts them up for sale now and again for RD & LC models. Luck had it I saw them as he put them up for sale, genuine Yamaha switchgear all parts renewed, springs/ball bearings etc . The action on the switches are super positive , like new. A first class job.

I've always admired Stephen's restoration work when he posted it on here, I very much miss his posts
Richard

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[twostrokelooney]

Not really an update but just to show the quality of work a fellow RD enthusiast did, Stephen Calvert via the NERDOC club. He does them as a pastime and puts them up for sale now and again for RD & LC models. Luck had it I saw them as he put them up for sale, genuine Yamaha switchgear all parts renewed, springs/ball bearings etc . The action on the switches are super positive , like new. A first class job.

Holy crap, those are superb. Agree with Motty, used to love seeing My Precious (Stephen) working his magic. SFBrain and Panuno to name a couple of others too.
Happy times......

[Mally]

He has just posted a C/D right hand side ( Kill switch assembly) for sale on the NERDOC Facebook site , same stunning quality for £70 . Has some A/B switches and LC he says.

[Mally]

A bit further on today, got the front and rear master cylinders assembled , just need some new Banjo bolts and washers. Got stainless ones coming tomorrow from Powerhouse Automotive via their EBay shop. Then get the brake hoses etc on the bike and bled. Going to use DOT 5.1 fluid, any thoughts on that welcome.

Checked the tiny breather hole one final time for clearance using a wire gauge I have , proved the holes were clear.

I had bought kits from SaxMoto in Germany for both front and rear master cylinders, the rear one requires reuse of the original piston and the retaining lug that is held in with the circlip. Used some red rubber grease they supply in the kit to put the seal onto the piston which I was pleased with that it was a really tight fit and not too easy to get on to the piston groove. Spring in , shim and piston all went in snugly but the circlip they provided was to me not a solid enough fit , I reused the original one which is totally serviceable. Got a new "orange" reservoir hose and spring cover from Yambits, just need a couple of jubilee clips ( should they be jubilee clips?) to link reservoir to master cylinder. Original rear master cylinder reservoir, seals and cap all good , a dip in the ultrasonic cleaner brought them up great, still a bit yellow on the reservoir tank but good to go.

Same scenario with the front although the kit comes with a new piston with the seal already fitted. The circlip this time was a good fit , and overall action of the assembly was good. New OEM brake lever from RDJames , spring and reservoir cap /seals etc from Yambits. New Stainless pivot bolt via Bob ( Dieseldoc) and original lever pressure adjuster screw.
I was hoping to re-use the original reservoir tank and cover but the lid I have has road rash and in poor condition so had to in the end used the new Yambits one. The Yambits reservoir and lid are slightly smaller dimensions from original    so cant mix old with new. Will keep a lookout for a good original lid or maybe one printed from Steve Burgess (SFBrain) to try to keep originality as the Yambits one is a bit too white. A couple of bullet connectors required to go on the front brake light switch which I had to cut back wiring to get rid of years of corrosion , but tests ok , works & fits good.

Handlebars are now on with new rubber bushes from Sumo Rubber (RIP) , new plate washers and circlips on the holders. OEM bolts for the bar clamps from CSMNL. 

[Mally]

A bit more on the brakes and progress so far. Wasn't really happy using the Yambits front master cylinder reservoir and cap, looked too white for my liking.
So thought to have another look at the damage on the original front master cylinder reservoir cap, it has had contact with tarmac at some stage but not too bad and was on the mirror side so not that visible when on the bike. Rubbed it down with varying grades of wet n dry until I managed to remove the scrape marks, it changed the profile of the cover but not too much. Moved on to using some 3M Cutting Wax that I use to take any scratches out of my campervan plastic side windows ( works great on fairing screens too) and my newly acquired Aldi sonic scrubber ( a big toothbrush ), used this to finish where the scratches were and used it overall to clean the lid and the reservoir tank. Came up great and gave the lid a coat of black wax. Think I will leave the cracked lacquer on the label also for some character. Fitted to the bike and a lot happier with the result and look.

So brakes are now completed front and rear ready for fluid, got some DOT 5.1 , thought I would give this a try , plus and minus using this stuff but with everything freshly painted I like the idea of something that wont strip the paint. Will have to wait until I get on the road to comment on braking performance.

Only just noticed I welded the swinging arm brake hose holders that I made,  on the wrong way around, should have the gap on the outside not the inside but look ok and would need a real rivet counter to spot. 

New wiring harness on and in the process of sorting out the rear light assembly , think I can keep all the original parts except maybe the Lens as its cracked. Old wiring and and bullet connectors binned , have new rear light harness.

Engine in next !! 

[Mally]

A bit further on today.

Engine is in !! had a wobbly moment and thought I needed engine mounting dampers , but after posting on the forum was put on the right track by Gr8uncleAl (cheers Al) . All bolted up with original mounting bolts that I got re plated and brackets powder coated. Very pleased with the result.

Finished off putting new wiring harness in which was relatively easy to do with the routing diagrams downloaded from the Club manuals and downloads section. 

Moved on to finishing the electrics, had bought a reg/rect unit from Electrexworld as my original rectifier tested out with limits and thought I would update rather than replace with new individual units.

Mounted this onto the original electrics bracket , used one of the original mounting holes and had to drill and tap a new one for the upper mounting. Used rubber spacers to give it some protection from vibration and the wiring from it routed easily into existing socket hole and to rear of plate, comes with plugs that fit into existing wiring harness so hassle free to connect.

Mounted the original fusebox after a thorough clean on top of the reg/rect unit but used some plastic spacers as standoffs to allow some airflow through the reg/rect heatsink. 

So its rear footrest/exhaust hanger brackets and test fit my new shiny Allspeeds to see if they clear the main footrest hangers, if not a bit of welding to do. 

[Motty]

Thank you for posting, it's coming along nicely

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[mts]

looking really good ,ive done 2 x 25D s and a 400E and its very satisfying ,,, but can you stick the centre stand on even if temporary as that jack and strap makes me nervous looking at it and theres a bit of weight on her now would be heart breaking if it went over off the bench 

[Mally]

Been a while getting a chance to get more done, too much sun and great weather not to be out on a bike ( and in my case around Europe in my campervan) 

Got some time in the garage this week, rear footrest /exhaust hanger brackets on ( after realising I need to take the swinging arm spindle out to fit them)  ...doh!.

Rear brake lever assembly on after working out how the return spring went on. Can get the rear brake bled now. A bit more of the wiring done, gear shift lever that I got re plated ( Bright Nickel ) that my plater wouldn't give me back until it was perfect (took 4 runs for him to do) , pleased with how it looks with a new Sumo Rubber damper fitted on it.
 
Got my shiny Allspeeds out the box , been in there from 2 Christmas's ago !! Test fitted them to check for clearance to front foot peg hanger bracket. I could leave the foot peg bracket with the hoops intact but think they look odd without standard silencers going thro them, think I will mod them as per shown on the forum previously to a straight bar to remove the hoop. Some bits including the hanger to be powder coated that I missed in my first batch, so another trip to the coaters soon once I weld up the footrest hanger. ( photo from Stephen Bailey, cheers mate,  on how the mod should be done )

Got the rear light stripped down and was surprised to find the bracket that holds the rear light has been repaired with fibre glass and filler, a tidy job and only spotted it when I rubbed it down to get some of the poor black paint off it , will need to repaint as can't get it powder coated. 

Got the bike on paddock stand now ( yeah it looked a bit dodgy on the jack but to be honest it was stable) but point noted MTS, agree a lot of work to have it fall over. Don't have the centre stand unfortunately,  the bike had spannies fitted when I got it, probably binned way back in the late 70's 

[Mally]

Whilst waiting for the mild steel round bar to modify my foot pegs to arrive, I finished off cleaning the rear light and painting the bracket that fixes it to the rear mudguard. Need some bullet connectors to fix the original wiring on the light to finish it off, some on order. Chrome work on the light back is a little tarnished but not so bad as to need a re-chrome thankfully. Got on with the wiring harness ( Yambits one, some wrong colours and wrong connectors , males when they should be female connectors). Cleaned and fitted the coils.

Painted the seat/helmet lock that I got for an XS650 from the USA ( a lot cheaper than RD ones  ) which to be honest was in great condition apart from some wear to the black paint, fitted on the bike now.

Cleaned up the air filter housing , a coat of WD40 to remove the years of grime and finished off with some black wax that I put on with a paintbrush to get into all the hard to get at areas, added new nuts/bolt and screws from my Mr Megapack stainless kit, looking great. Got new clips to fit on the housing for the carb connections. The hose attachments have been broken but been replaced reasonably well with a metal pipe in one and a plastic in the other, got some small bore aluminium pipe that I will put in their place to tidy up and ensure a good seal. New Air filter fitted. Will then get the air filter housing fitted on the bike. 

[Mally]

Got round to modifying the foot peg hoop. I didn't like the look of the hoops with the Allspeeds fitted and not having standard silencers going thro them, so decided to modify them as per others have done.

Started off by taking as many measurements and photos of the standard set up , taking note of the finished vertical position when fitted to get the actual peg location and angle correct. Also the distance between the pegs to compare when finished.

The markings in blue was where I proposed to cut the original foot peg bar. 

Ground out the old welds that held the foot peg bar onto the frame brackets, then cut the bar half way along the bracket , this left the bracket spacing and fixings in situ as per standard. I cut the bar where the hoop begins and removed the bar with pegs from the brackets.

I then welded ( apologies for my Electricians welding !!!    ) the cut off hoops onto new 17mm mild steel solid bar. I laid the hoops flat and tag welded them in place , this allowed the angle of the peg holders to be in the correct position relative to the bar connecting them to the frame brackets. I then cut off the bottom of the hoop and dressed up my terrible welding.

Then it was a case of putting the frame bracket onto the bike and measuring up where to cut the new 17mm bar to weld into place on the frame bracket ensuring the vertical line I had marked for the pegs was correct relative to the position on the frame bracket

I cut the new bar to size, then tag welded them and test fitted before final welding in place onto the frame bracket.

Finished job looks great on the bike, just need to final dress them and then off to the powder coaters. I have new peg rubbers from Sumo Rubber with new Yambits pins and springs to fit thereafter.   

[robrd]

Thanks for the update. I totally agree, the straight footrest hanger bracket looks far better than the looped. Getting on well with it now and wont be long to the finish line, well done.

[Mally]

Thanks Rob , kinda stalled progress getting this done ( had to buy welding kit , got a great deal locally on Gumtree , then have a few goes getting my welding “skills” up to speed  ) but yeah now hopefully get on with the next stage ( Airbox & Carbs ) .