My DT125R Project/Restoration

[AndyDtr08]

Oh one other quick on. Brake lines. Anyone bothered upgrading to braided and if so how much and where from? The front on this looks pretty bad and will be being replace with something.

[2 Wheels]

Oh one other quick on. Brake lines. Anyone bothered upgrading to braided and if so how much and where from? The front on this looks pretty bad and will be being replace with something.

Yep, put braided on the front but not worth it on the back,,,,,again i just have normal lines on mine.

[NEV]

Have a look at HEL braided lines Andy, a fair amount of choice on colours,stainless steel fittings too, prices are decent too, had mine extended by 2" on the front to allow for the twin wall converters, and raised bars. Cost around about £50 front and rear, grey carbon look I went for.

[AndyDtr08]

Will do! I'm looking exploring the avenue of tank decals now. It'll be the 3 "squares" as on the 1999 model.

http://www.yamahamotorcyclespares.co.uk/spares/epc2.asp?modelID=9132&PageiD=26&m=YAMAHA+DT125R+++1999+FUEL+TANK&uID=0

From that it looks like they'll be 80 quid for the 2. About 40 each side. Bloody expensive and I'm not sure I want to spend that much on them. I'm going to see what other options I have. I could buy some from Yamaha dealer, take them someone and get some made up then get a refund!

[NEV]

I'm sure that Filipe chap from Portugal, sells the tank decals much cheaper than that, Filed 7071 on ebay is his member name, I bought my scoop decals of him.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YAMAHA-DTR-125-BLACK-STICKERS-/200623601607?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2eb61937c7

[AndyDtr08]

Unfortuantely he only sells the stickers for the plastics as apposed to the decals that are needed for the tank. I bought my stickers from him. I did enquire when I ordered but he can't get hold of them. If I do find I can get them made up. I'll get a load done i expect as it will be cheaper. Boretech rang today to say my barrel is done. I was exploring the world of Harry Potter at the time though at the studio tour and so didnt answer.

Going to pick up a bike for my dad tomorrow. He's bought a Triumph TR6 C and we need to go to collect. Hopefully I'll be back in time to pick up the barrel before they close.

[AndyDtr08]

I've had an Idea. When I'm up at boretech tomorrow I'll ask if I can measure up the sizes of one of the DT125's tank stickers he has in. He has a 1999 with 100 miles on the clocks thats been left there by a customer for 5 years. I'll measure them up and take photos. Get a friend to design them well and take it to a sticker printing shop and get some made up.

[AndyDtr08]

An update.

The barrel was rebored. I got a Mitaka piston kit with RIK rings with it. That has been re fitted with my 3MB head. The barrel is a 3MB y-1 also. It appears there are varying barrels too, 3bn y-2 etc. I'm guessing they will also be restricted in some way. Glad i got the 3MB one re bored now!

When fitting the piston I made a big boo boo. I removed the wadding from the crank and dropped a piston circlip down the crank. An hour or so later after what looked like 3 men operating with torches and mirrors and hooked wire we managed to get it out. Lesson learnt!

The engine is now back together and appears to have a lot of compression.

I tracked down a 30mm piston and seals for the rear caliper to Wemoto and ordered the front (35mm) online from ebay as it was cheaper and wemoto still havnt got them in stock.

http://www.wemoto.com/bikes/yamaha/dt_125_r/98-00/picture/stainless_steel_piston_and_seals_rear_caliper/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YAMAHA-DT125R-DT125RE-DT-125-BRAKE-CALIPER-PISTON-KIT-/230739697058?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item35b9285da2

I started dismantling a set of forks ready for a rebuild. Managed to bid and win a set of seal on ebay that someone never got round to fitting to a bike before they sold. Paid 7.50 including delivery so saved about 12.50 there.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120925653682?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I can't get the large allen headed bolts undone on the underside of the fork legs. The manual seems to say that they will turn the inners of the forks but I cant even get them to budge yet!

On the exhaust front. The 2 spare standard ones I have, one ha a big hole and appears to be scrap. The other looks like its been chopped and welded and has been welded wrong so the mountings dont line up. I'm going to try and repair the DEP for now until I can get hold of a decent condition standard to chop myself. There are a few holes in the DEP so will either get it welded or try some GUN GUM.

Have cained my funds at the mo so a new exhaust will have to wait until I've sold some of the spares or servo's I've accumalated.

Got a load of my stuff returned from the DVLA too because I didnt fill out the check correctly. The problem with being young. I've never used a check before. cheques 1 and 2 in my book are both 25 quid to the DVLA for replacement log books! I don't understand, do they sell the cheque for money to someone else becuase it has my autograph on?

Next step is to fit a battery and the powervalve kit back up. Then hopefully we'll be ready to fire up the engine. Rebuild brakes and it'll nearly be there. Only thing holding me back now is time constraints. Watch this space!

[AndyDtr08]

Ok so I had the day off on Saturday and had planned to make some real progress. I left work at 22:00 on friday and was forced to go out for some birthday drinks for my brothers 24th. I ended up in a club drinking Jager Bombs and so Saturday was less than productive.

I did manage to get over to WeMoto to pick up a brake piston and seals kit. They told me on the phone that if its online its in stock. They lied....it was out of stock when i got there and they have ordered one in. Can't get a 30mm piston and seals kit anywhere so reluctantly ordered. I also got a battery from there too.

When I got home I re fitted the powervalve kit wrapped up the fuse in foil and connected car battery with jump leads to test the servo and wiring. The servo ran its setup which was like music to my ears! At this point my hangover seemed to kick back in again and I had to pack everything up and go and lie down.

...still no more progress on the forks front...

Tomorrow is my only day off until next monday so hope to make some good progress ( no alchohol tonight so should be ok). May nip the exhaust over to a local garage and see if they can weld up the couple of small holes in the DEP. Will report back tomorrow evening with photos and updates

[AndyDtr08]

Lots of Fun and games today!

Went out into the garage and first off was to notice the temperature sender unti in the top of the cylinder head was missing. Ok... no problem i'll just take one off another head. Oh it appears the thread in the cylinder head has been destroyed!

Removed the 3MB Y-1 head and replace it with another 3MB but this time a y-3 for some reason. I'm not sure the differences. Might call Yamaha europe and ask for someone to clear it up.

Well with the head back on I connected everything up and went to buy her a round of drinks.

Filled her up with all the neccesary fluids and re fitted the exhaust. I still havnt sourced a good condition standard pipe to de restrict yet so am going ahead with the DEP full system for now. I put some Fire Gum on the holes in an attempt at a quick fix.

I bought a spare tank on ebay for 10 quid including delivery (too good to be true). Although the seller claimed it was cean inside and only had surface rust on the underside of the tank, it was full of rust and a bee =/ and the surface that the tap bolts to was bent and so had to bend it back into place just to fit the tap without it pi55ing fuel.

It was worthing it when this happened though! (Long video, not exciting, just to show it running.)

I wasnt sure if the 2 stroke pipe was full and was too eager to bleed so chucked some 2 stroke oil in the tank with the fuel. The fire gum didnt stay and blew through when it was running.

I also made good progress with the forks. I bought a "drain plug" key...

...meaning i could get a long bar on it and with the axle through to hold it still against the ground the bolt in the bottom that was holding me back came out. Had to stick a block of wood down the fork leg to hold the inner still whilst i undid the rest as stated in haynes manual but am all clear and ready to start re building now. Will be taking back the fork legs and re spraying them before the re build though.

Got a Brake disc cover to re spray black soon too.

Ordered 2 new clips for the rear hose where it hold to the swing arm.

Oh also managed to test all but 1 of my 3 wire servos. All worked and the one i couldnt test was because it has been modified to a different connector.

Next stage is to rebuild forks and calipers and get everything ready to go back on the bike. I'll be swapping the wheels over for my better set as seen in the photos. Work will be slow for a while as I'm working 2-10's for the next 5 days and I generally don't get up early.

Working around this in the garage too at the moment and I have to get it cleared each night to get the car in so me being messy is unpopular!

Night for now!

[Sacha]

Nice! I'll bet progress feels good. I better get going on mine before hubby starts objecting to my un-finished projects.

[AndyDtr08]

Oh it does indeed. With the issue i had with the last DT (86 LC that wouldnt spark) It's like music to my ears to hear it running. Hopefully it won't be too long where I'm in a position to get the plastics on. Thats my weakness. I want to see it completed in blue! Whats you current project?

[Sacha]

I have a 76 DT175 (I think) that I started to tear apart years ago because the clutch was seized. Then I moved out of my folks' house and it got left behind. My pops said he was going to keep it (tithing to the church of the dad )... but I was able to get it back last weekend. So now it's going to be a matter of finishing the tear down and rebuilding. It's been sitting a long time. Plus I have a little Kawasaki dirt bike to rebuild... good times. I'm quite looking forward really. My husband not so much... I think I need a bigger shop, or just sell the car so I can have some room in the garage. As soon as I get going on it I'll be sure to post it in the projects. I'm sure I'll be begging everyone here for help.

[AndyDtr08]

Sounds good. I do quite fancy restoring an old aircooled DT but think that will wait until it is just that in the shed aside my running bike. Too many projects to take on another at the moment. It would be very "un dude"

[AndyDtr08]

Progress update...

Re sprayed the fork legs. I have to admit I didnt do a fantastic job as can be seen up close but it'll do the job from a distance.

I have finished re building the Rear caliper with genuine new yamaha seals and piston. Am still waiting on the aftermarket kit for the front from ebay. It got lost in the post...

I abondoned the nitromoors and went to town with a wire brush attachment on a drill and it proved far more effective. Thanks Nev I was viewing your thread!

The seat was tired and tatty so I had ordered a replacement seat cover from Portugal with my plastics. Stripped the seat back and cleaned the base and dried out the foam in the sun ( water had got in through the tears).

Then I glued the foam back onto the base and began an attempt at stapling the cover in place. I found that it needed a lot of stretching. I messed it up the first time as i lined the Yamahas up first and worked from there. I have found the best way is to line the front up, staple that in place and start working down the sides, stretching as you go. I then stretched and smooth it all the way to the back and put one staple in place at the back. Then I worked my back to the back putting "marker" staples in place and working in between them. Sucess came eventually but I have a couple of small holes now where I didnt line it up right the first time. Dissapointing but I will leave as is for now and if it causes issues I will order another for 20 quid and have learnt from my mistakes. Overall im pleased with the result. A few creases as to be expected which may settle.

I resprayed the disc guard I had from spares. I cleaned it up with soapy water and then used panel wipe (alcohol) to prep it. Then i Primed it and wiped again with panel wipe and sprayed with Satin Black paint. I wasnt too bothered about the finish as long as it looked black.

I also sprayed the side panel in the same way. The R/H side rear panel should have the front black but the ones from portugal are all blue so I sprayed it to match. Both this and the disc guard are awaiting laquer at present.

Forks need to be rebuilt now and fitted onto the bike replacing the ones that are on there at the moment. I'll do this and the wheels at the same point. Hopefully the caliper will be ready by then and all can go on. Looking to get a blue covered braided front hose but am tempted to just go silver goodridge. I will take the advice and put 15 weight oil in the forks when they are re built.

Enjoying every minute and can't wait to build one from the ground up with everything being clean! This one will be sold to pay for that next one. Have had 2 cheques cashed by the DVLA for the 2 logbook applications on the frames I bought so they should be here soon!

Thats all for now guys.

[weimieman]

Blimey Andy, I'd not read you project for a while and it was like reading War and Peace catching up! Far more interesting though

Oh on another note regarding the disc cover, you didn't sell me the best one you had did ya you bugger!!!!!!

[AndyDtr08]

When was that? That must have been years ago? I cleared all my DT bits since then and got the RD350 and havnt dealt with them again for a while. You must have skipped a few chapters of my novel then, i said at the start that I bought loads of parts off ebay at the start of this project. That disc guard came from the front end in the photo below that I got off ebay for 30 quid all up i think.

[weimieman]

Aye being absent from the forums for a while,theres a few projects I've fallen behind on including yours so I think I'm going to catch up on the lot at the weekend and start from the beginning.

And don't worry about the disc cover!!! You don't have to justify where you got your new one from!!!! You sold me one you had lying around last August-ish as it was the final piece to my DT. In fact, because of your disc cover, I had to buy new forks as the previous owners had ground the bloody lugs off the forks so I had nowhere to attach it to!!

Never mind, it's all great fun isn't it

[AndyDtr08]

Ah no sweat just didn't want you thinking I'd been deceptive. Why on earth you they ground those lugs off I've no idea. I like the disc cover personally. It's nice and subtle compared to some of the big heft Kawasaki full disc guards.

Just cut open one of the early exhuasts to check for restricting plate. None found. Photos to follow!

[AndyDtr08]

As promised, photos of the pre 99 exhaust cut open to find no restrictor in the expansion chamber. Good news, meaning the one I have that is in a useable condition can be stripped back and re painted, may give it a de coke before that though. anyway, pics of a hack job exhaust post mortem!