1972 Yamaha AS3 restoration (exhaust & another harness)

[tony2stroke]

Its a similar case to the early 397 RD200 dykes type pistons will work in the newer 1E8 keystone type piston engine, and vice versa, they are same size in every way just have different ring types.

The same for the 125

Also the early crank centre seal with the ears on, they are just a bit longer ears on early seals and can be cut down to fit, as newer type are shorter they can't be used on earlier engine, there seams to be more earlier seals about than newer ones.

[Gr8uncleal]

Graham

When you got a mo, would you be able to post a photo of your wiring loom/harness? I'm particularly interested in the length of the negative earth wire(s) and where it(they) exit the loom.

Mine had been chopped and messed around with (fuse put in the negative wire). I have pretty much repaired it, but the black wires are, I think, far too long.

Thanks and regards.

Alan

[Foy(notFox)]

Graham

When you got a mo, would you be able to post a photo of your wiring loom/harness? I'm particularly interested in the length of the negative earth wire(s) and where it(they) exit the loom.

Mine had been chopped and messed around with (fuse put in the negative wire). I have pretty much repaired it, but the black wires are, I think, far too long.

Thanks and regards.

Alan

will do Gr8uncleal but won't be for a few days as the bike is a few miles away. I do however have an early RD125 loom in my cupboard which is almost identical so will dig that out first.

I don't think I've ever seen a loom from the 70s that hasn't been chopped and 'repaired' and it always seem to entail losing any reference to what the original +ve and -VE connections were like 

[Gr8uncleal]

Thanks Graham.

My AS3 and 1975 RD125 projects (that's two bikes, count them!) came with FIVE looms! One early RD125DX, one late RD125DX, one AS3, one RD125 with part number 396.....and one virtually identical to the 396, but the feking number on the white label is too rubbed to read!

I have used the RD125s as "templates" for the AS3, but before I chop the too long black wires, I was looking for a more period reference.

Thanks again.

All the best.

Alan

[Foy(notFox)]

There were actually 2 AS3 looms, not including any foreign versions.

My Dad helpfully flung out my original in 1986 and I eventually got a new one but it had a different suffix. 70 iirc

[Gr8uncleal]

Thanks - nothing's ever straightforward with these old bikes, is it?!

[Foy(notFox)]

Hi Gr8uncleal

Well I looked out the loom I was talking about and found 2....

One has a barely legible part-no. tag which seems to start 396 and end 31 and I'm pretty sure this is the original off my 73 RD125. It hasn't been butchered 

The other is a bit of a mess and has no tag but I'm pretty sure it's off a 75 (USA) RD125B 

I remember buying a used one years ago thinking it would be good for spares wires/connectors but for some reason thought I bought it from Germany. However the box it is in and the slightly different connections tell me it's a 507 USA loom.

I will clean them up and take some detailed pics later on

[Gr8uncleal]

Thanks Graham.

I have the 396 one, it was the original 307 one I was after photos of. As you say, they are very similar, but the diagrams in the respective parts manuals suggest a couple of differences.

Therefore don't worry if you don't have a 307 one to photo.

On a separate matter, does/did your silver/grey electrical wire covers need replacing? There's a bloke in the US who supplies awesome replacements. Let me know if you'd like his contact details.

All the best and stay safe.

Alan

[Foy(notFox)]

First of all can I say 'sorry' as I completely forgot about the above conversation with Gr8uncleal about the looms and it looks like I mb didn't follow-up whatever i was supposed to be searching for. 

However it is fitting that I have just bought a used loom for an AS3 

We're going back over 30 years here but I have a NOS loom on my AS3, as my dad threw out the original. I can't say for sure but I'm positive that when I got the new loom the part number was slightly different to the one in the AS3 parts-list or it was different to the one that was thrown out. The latter is unlikely tho as I doubt I'd have noted the number on my original loom before it was binned.

I think it was more of a case that every time I got a part in from Rafferty Newman or similar it was a little different to what I ordered on my hand-written order.

So the loom I got today was from Japan. It cost £12.19 but shipping is hard to quantify as it was in with several other parts in one box.

The part number on the label is 307 82590 30A and date seems to be April 1971.

I'm pretty sure the NOS loom I have ends 32. Not sure why I think that or how I even knew it was 'wrong' as I didn't even have a proper AS3 parts list back then. My bible was an RD125B parts list I got mail order from Falconwood Book Shop in and it obviously has the 396 loom in it.

I just bought the loom as they don't exactly come by very often and any NOS ones you see are listed at nearly £200. Also I guess am still trying to find the same loom that was on my bike. If I can work out when my bike was made (date on hubs etc) and compare that with the dates on the looms I'll know which one is correct 

I also be able to tell the World what the differences are.

I've not had much time to examine the loom but amazingly it's intact around the battery connections. As discussed above I've never seen a loom from any bike that doesn't have multiple butchery (cut wires/Scotchlocks/household wiring) there.

This does however have several wires cut which would have been for the handle-controls. These seem to be in big demand judging by the crazy prices they are listed for on Ebay etc so perhaps the seller was in a rush to sell the handle-controls and just snipped them off the loom. 

Anyway it's a good purchase for £12-oddand I can fix the butchered bit I'm sure 



one used AS3 loom as part of a consignment of old Yamaha parts



time for examination




part number 307 82590 30 looks right. not seen a letter (A) at end before



possibly April 1971
 



rear indicator connections?



part of stop-light switch attached to its loom connections




main earth-wire and several other wires around battery location all intact




no butchery at wires that live in headlamp bowl




all good at generator-plug plus horn (?) and +ve (?) connection




all good here. rectifier-plug and other wires (rear lamp?)




only damaged area. think it's for blinkers/lights to handle-switch

[Gr8uncleal]

No problem! I sold my AS3 project quite a long time ago.

The four pin plug next to the horn wires is left switchgear as well. Your six chopped off wires will go into a block - hopefully enough length left to reach the block from the switch, otherwise you'll have to add some extensions. The left switchgear is basically the same set up as your RD125, but with silver/grey outer sleeving instead of black.

[Foy(notFox)]

Thanks for that

Hope the AS3 went to a good home!

[Foy(notFox)]

So it's been a few months and I've got some more bits I don't really need. from Japan.

These will possibly be the last bits as they seem to have really knuckled-down on the prohibited items thing. I bought a petrol tank and rear shocker (for a Honda CB125) and they refused to ship them despite a protracted email conversation. They wouldn't budge - even tho they'd sent items like that in the past. I have another thread on all this (Hot Topics section)

So back to the AS3 bits. I got a very good exhaust with a bad bit at the rear for £7.12

It was in a box with 2 other items and the shipping was £74.95 so lets say a 3rd was for the exhaust. That makes the total cost about £32.

These exhausts are very very hard to find and despite the bad bit it's in vgc. Could mb even be rechromed but afaik prices for that have went insane recently so more likely sandblast the rusty bit, paint it and polish the rest.

Its partner was also for sale but that didn't have a bad bit on it and was about £80 so I didn't go there. Now - they won't ship it so it's stuck in Japan

On to the loom. Just got it this week and it's in better nick than the last one. Only has one cut wire from what I can see and it appears to be the (black) earth lead which would connect to the frame near the middle iirc.

Interestingly this loom has the 32 suffix while the last one had the 30. Mb now, after nearly 40 years wondering, I can see how they differ.

The part-number tag on this one is a bit different as it's not clear what the date-code is. It seems to have something representing a month as it has 31 in the sequence but beyond that I can't see anything tangible

The loom cost £17.66 and again was in a box with 2 other items. Shipping was £33.49 so lets say another £10 or so for postage so the loom comes in at just under £30



AS3 exhaust all the way from Japan




pretty solid up-front


no rot at rear


no broken studs at bracket/mount


battery-acid damage



chrome has peeled away at rear


loom with pukka Japanese packing


looks ok


no obvious damage, laid-out


32 part-number suffix


these digits must be related to days in month produced


headlamp-bowl connections


horn and switch-handle connectors


ignition-coil connectors


flasher relay? (cut) earth-wire and ?


rear-lamp connectors?


rear indicator connectors


stop-lamp?



rectifier plug



rectifier




boot for generator(?) connections