'75 DT400 Resto

[Nfamas]

As im new here im not really sure where to start, im already a fair way into my project as it has gone pretty smoothly so far,

As you can see it was in pretty rough shape when i first got it, from what i was told it had been sitting outside for approx 15 years with out moving, only had 17xxxkms on the speedo, didnt even bother trying to start it as i assumed it wouldnt even hint at starting

the frame was rusted out in the front section, didnt realise until i had it sandblasted, with wanting to do as much of the work myself as i could i welded some bracing together to hold the frame for when i cut it,

here is the results

Currently the bike is sitting with the frame powdercoated, engine fully rebuilt bearings, rings gaskets etc and then high performance coated, all chrome parts rechromed including the forks which had to be hard chromed as the pitting in the metal was so bad, replaced and respoked the wheels and had the hubs water blasted which is an amazing process, found some dunlop tyres which are almost identical to the originals, so really its a rolling chassis, i also have all the parts painted to the original colours of yellow black and silver including both the oil and fuel tanks

Next on the list is to repair the exhaust as its badly rusted in the j pipe from years of sitting outside with water in it

Im currently trying to reassemble the rear brake setup which is causing a bit of hassle as i cant see to figure out how the brak return spring goes, if anyone is able to point my in the right direction of how it goes that would be excellent

will post some more details and pictures soon

[Calum122]

Ha. Quality. I love it when people restore classic bikes. Keeping them alive. I mean it's only going to shoot up in value!

Looks good dude.

[Nfamas]

Thanks mate, thats right, not that im doing it for the money im doing it for the love of motorbikes, well that and any excuse to hide in the shed from the mrs

[Airhead]

Nice one Josh it seems the old DT is in good skilled hands

what about the brake spring then...we did have a similar question about a DT250...perhaps it's a similar issue?

[blackhat250]

Its item 20. hooks to lug on frame . then onto lever,,,

[Nfamas]

thanks airhead but the issue is with item 20 like blackhat has said,

i have the spring over the shaft (item18) with the hook of the spring onto the bolt (item 21) and the long straight part of the spring resting on the frame

when i try and tighten the bolt down to place tension on the spring it seems to pull it tight onto the shaft and not help at all

it is confusing the hell out of my as it seems so simple

[Nfamas]

ok blackhat, i re read what you said after thinking and thinking and realised i should have been putting the hook onto item 18

i feel like such an idiot haha

thanks for the help

also here is a pic from the other side showing the beautiful yellow paintwork (all done by me i might add)

[Nfamas]

Update:

Ok so after sorting out the back brake issue and getting all the connected i decided i may aswell hook the front brake up, which wasnt an issue at all until i had the genius idea to spin the front wheel and test them only to notice that the speedo didnt seem to be working, i knew the guage itself was find as i had it apart to sticker the face plates and also to wind her back to a fresh start of 0, and i knew i had assembled everything in the wheel perfectly

After becoming very frustrated as to why it wasnt working i decided to pull the front wheel off and apart and realised the little plate that has the two tabs that lock against the wheel didnt seem to be making contact, bent them over enough to what seemed like they were going to work and bingo away it went with the cable inserted to test, so after all that reinstalled the front wheel and brake, spun it up and all seems to be working,

Now that i have that all sorted i can put the motor back in which will be tomorrow afternoons job

here are some pics of the brake progress and the guages (sorry for the shitty quaility taken with my iphone)

[blackhat250]

Hey fmas " heres one i did earlier,,,,

[Sacha]

Nice!

[Noise]

Looks like a quality build there mate! keep up the good work