Rd r r - the tale of 3 RD400's - More of a saga than a project.

[DirtyDT]

I have heard about him and that his work is quality but last I read he wasn't taking any more work on for months. He may be the person doing the ones I have first offer on. The quote I have is from a localish bike painter - not cheap. The paint is shown on RS site but I would want the proper decals, so Uk spec. I could just run it as a rat bike, it would be so much cheaper!

[Cynic]

Thats what you get with all the new stuff.

Should have got a tidy one and just wa... sorry.

Left it out in the rain and rode it. Instead of sterilising it.

[DirtyDT]

Thats what you get with all the new stuff.

Should have got a tidy one and just wa... sorry.

....

Wheres the fun in that?

You should know that I don't mollycoddle things. The FZ only gets Wa,, when it rains but I did oil the chain for the second time this week.

I encourage everyone to save a few strokers,

[DirtyDT]

Old rear wheel on



Old rear wheel off


New rear wheel is on with new bearings, seals, locking tabs etc.

Battery box and new air filter in.

[DirtyDT]

I had a successful bid over the weekend for a 400C seat from the land down under. The guy brought it from the States as it was advertised as a 350 seat. When he got it it was not for the 350 and he thought it was a 400C one. It arrived today after being posted on Monday. It has traveled from the USA, via Australia, to the UK.

I have a quality cover for it given to me by Paul Dawkins.

RD400-2 as it stands today.

[DirtyDT]

Well, not done much with RD400-1 for quite a while. With Squires coming up, this is the bike I want to take so I had better get a wiggle on.
Latest “before” picture. As you can see it needs a little reassembly. So much for a quick tidy!

Before I start putting it back together I need to remove the right hand crankcase cover. I have a different one which I sprayed a while ago. The new one has a cast spigot in the oil pump area to keep the oil pipes away from the oil pump cable so time to get the oil pump and cover off. Looks clean and good!

Ready to fit the painted crankcase cover I opened up my Athena gasket set. I tend to oil gaskets before I fit them so the gasket had a covering of engine oil. I swapped out the oil pump drive, this was slightly different to the one on the old crankcase which had me scratching my head for a while.

Before the cover goes on there is a rubber square plug to fit that the oil pipes go through. Pipes fed, block fitted. More about the oil pipes later.

Gasket on, cover on and replace the old allen bolts with some stainless cross head ones. I brought a “dedicated RD400 stainless cross head bolt kit but it isn’t right!!! Don’t forget to copaslip where alloy meets steel.

After a quick clean it is time to fit the oil pump. Back to my Athena gasket kit; no oil pump gasket! I make do with some instant gasket but oil the 2 surfaces first to make it easier when I fit the gasket. Pump fitted. Oil pipes fitted. Oil cable fitted.

At this point it is time to refit the sump plug and fill with oil. Quite important this! I use Rock Oil gearbox oil. When I drained the oil there seemed quite a lot. There was a lot more in there than there should have been and, unlike many bikes of its age, it has a dipstick so only a dipstick could overfill it (not me).

Barrel base gaskets on. I oil these with 2 stroke oil. I give the barrels and quick check for anything untoward, and give the bores a wipe ‘round with some 2 stroke oil. Barrels on making sure that the rings are correctly seated and the ring gaps correspond to the pins in the piston ring groves. It is a fiddly job.

With the barrels on I had a quick check to make sure that the engine span correctly and had a visual check of the squich by seeing how high the pistons came to the tops of the barrels. New head gaskets and heads fitted.

Those amongst you who know these engines may be wondering why the rear of the heads are chamfered. The short answer is; I don’t know, the heads were like that when I brought it. I would guess that the engine is easier to remove and fit as one unit with the chamfer though.

Head bolts in and initial torque down. It I brought a digital torque wrench and it is the dogs danglies. Clarke Pro236 digital one for those interested.

Time for the induction side to be built up. I haven’t changed the reeds but gave them a good clean and checked them for any damage. They appeared good. I assembled the reed blocks and inlet rubbers, gasket etc. and used an instant blue gasket between each part. The inlet rubbers are new, just in case.

Time to fit the carbs. Both carbs had been ultrasonically cleaned, new genuine jets fitted and rebuilt to standard specification. Fitting the rubber are always a pain to me. Even old tricks like warming the rubbers never seem to make fitting them much easier. I decided to go new all the way so airbox to carb and clamps are all new. Right hand side fitted.

With the right carb fitted it is time for the left hand carb. Just a repeat of the first one….. not quite, I had put down the carb inlet clamp and couldn’t find it. Half an hour later it was still a mystery where it had gone! Until it comes to light, I have fitted one of the old clamps. Connect up the oil pipes and bleed the pump.

Time for the header pipes, new gaskets of course.

On with the main pipes.

On the left hand side, the left hand crankcase cover is fitted. With the clutch cable reconnected. The 2 stroke oil tank fitted with the main tube renewed. Some 2 stroke oil glugged into the tank.

New air filter fitted - a proper 400 one with the baffles in the middle. There was a bloke who had 3 of these so I brought all of them.

Old plugs, cleaned and gapped fitted. I have new plugs but now is not the time to fit them.

Earlier I mentioned that there was more on the oil pipes. At this point I come across a set of new oil pump to carbs pipes and fittings. I have a drawer of new and NOS parts and these “appeared” at the top of the pile after I fitted the other ones. These are a smaller bore that the ones I fitted. I check these and they are the correct 3mm bore so the ones I fitted are wrong and are about 4mm bore. I am not sure if it will make a difference but I am tempted to swap the lines – the problem might be feeding them through the rubber block – damn.

Not deterred, fuel tank loosely fitted and a small quantity of pre-mix fuel into the tank.

Battery fitted, turn the key……………………………………………………………..nothing, no lights on the idiot board. Oh dear!! So far this has taken many hours of solid work. Check the fuses, they are fine. Take off the headlight to see if I have messed something up behind there, all fine. The battery has loads of power. I can’t find my mutlimeter.

Battery off, battery holder off and check the connections from the battery to the harness – there is a short lead that joins these. The fault is with the earth on this sub harness. A quick rub and some contact cleaner on the bullet connectors and I have power. Battery holder back in, battery reconnected.

A few kicks and she is running. The revs are high and the throttle cable seems to be sticking where I temporarily fitted the tank. Turning the bars seem to prove this.

It has been a tough day and I have had enough for now. I decide to call it a day and my lower back is stiff which reminds me what an old bloke I am!!

How it stands at the moment, slightly different from this morning but still a fair bit to do.

Still to do:
Change oil pipes – This is a possible as although the ones on are the wrong bore it may not matter.
Improve the battery to harness wire – I am looking to get a new one. or get one made up from a guy on the ACRD forum, but this will be looked at again before the bike goes back on the road.
Fit rear caliper, rebuild and fit rear master cylinder, fit rear brake line – there are no rear brakes at the moment.
Oil pump gasket – It isn’t leaking but it isn’t right.
Set up carbs and oil pump – Obviously
Refit tacho and speedo cables – just a quick knurled tighten. I have a new cable somewhere.
Fit seat and tank correctly – 2 pins for the seat, 2 bolts for the tank. I need to make sure the throttle cable is free and the tank is a bit of a pain because there is a connecting pipe under the tank that needs to be removed to remove the tank. Fuel can, and does, go everywhere. Some people run the connecting tube over the frame but that is not for me.
Adjust chain, fit rear torsion bar bolt – Standard stuff but I need to remember that there is a nut and split pin tucked away here.
Refit headlight – I took this off when I had electrical issues, it shouldn’t be too hard, should it?
Refit gear lever – having more than one gear may improve the enjoyment of riding this.
Refit the front footrest bar – This is a one piece unit with 4 nuts holding it on.
Fit engine rubbers – I have new ones in a pack, somewhere. I know where the old ones are.
Re-torque head bolts – once the bike has been run hot a few times.

Shake down – The plan is to do all of the above next week, then get some tax to start in September. The bike is insured and MOT’ed so the shake down should start on 1st September cutting it fine for Squires.

I may run it with a small amount of pre-mix for the run the Squires and back. My initial thoughts are at around 100:1 in the tank as the pump seems fine and will be taking up most of the lubricating duties - not sure yet. The bores have been honed only and will need sleeving next time it needs work. The bores are on +2.00. I do have 2 other sets of barrels with the best on +.50.

More later.

[DirtyDT]

Ordered a new AGM type battery.

Arranging for some sub-looms to be made up before Squires.

Ordered a few oil pump gaskets.

[jimmy]

Great work mate..very well done. I never bought into 2 smokes when I was young, but reading all the RD stuff on here, I feel I've missed out

[DirtyDT]

Thanks Jimmy.

The smoke and smell does it for me every time. Even though they can be a pain the proverbial.

[drewpy]

yep, they are a love hate relationship. but worth it.

need to get another now Gillys gone

[DirtyDT]

Well RD1 has developed an oil leak and a 3k idle. I suspect it is the L/H crank seal. I will check everything first but it looks like the engine will be coming out soon and be split .

Pics and commentary to follow.

On a better note I had a call the other week from the previous owner. When I brought the bike he said he had a wad of paperwork that he couldn't find. He called to say he had found it and was going to post it to me. It arrived a few days later. Really pleased, loads of junk in there including all MOT's going back to 2000.

I need a couple of days to clean up the workshop and test to make sure that nothing has rattled loose or tight but there may be lots of pics to follow if the engine needs to come out.