drfeelgood824

I'm restoring my '78 DT250E.. I have some pictures of it on this site. Good luck.. and hold on to it!

I must have popped the fuse... I lost all power now to bike. I just found a used wire harness on ebay, listed as in good shape for a '79 DT250. According the manual, this should definitely work. I'm still gonna be working on the one that is currently on the bike. I'll let you know where I end up. Thanks for the advice.

The wire harness for this bike has been chopped and spliced for a few rounds. I managed to get the harness to what I thought was 100%, however here is the problem: Problem: With key in the ignition, the rear brake light is constantly illuminated. And when I select the right or left rear flashers, from the handle bar switch, both right and left signal indicators have low illumination, if any at all and the rear tail light pulsates. Here is a link to a video of it happening: Video of problem My theory: Now all the lines match, strand for stand. I retraced the lines for continuous match of color code for a second time. There are two brown lines, I noticed that Yamaha designated on this bike. The dark brown lines belongs to one of the turn signals; Dark green is the other signal color. The lighter brown, which I'll identify as TAN, is the power line that delivers power throughout the bike. Now I thought that the brown and tan lines were simply misconnected, but they do not appear to be this way. The bike starts easily, and shuts off with both the key and emergency kill switch. But what also doesn't currently work is the horn. I was able to test it with a 12 volt direct connection, and i know it it works. Now the wire harness within the headlight enclosure are just "plug and play." So there doesn't seem to be a mix up at all going on up there. Here is a link to the wire diagram that I'm currently using. Please discard my original tracing colors. Wiring Diagram So, any ideas? And here are some of the picture of the open wire harness.

I'm interested in getting the '78 up and running within the next couple of weeks. I had a minor set-back last week w/ the carb being gunked up and me inserting one of the jet needle upside down...but aside from all that, that that bike runs smooth. The original fuel tank had severe rust at the lower end. I replaced that w/ the current tank. The fork seals also dried out on me... I had them replaced with aftermarket seals, but I still notice a small difference when I ride. But for it year, its clean. Very little rust. Believe it or not, this bike has been garage kept its entire life. The only water it saw was from mud on a trail. When I purchased the bike back in '98 I received the original manual, and sales brochure to from the original owner. The bike was originally grey, but being 16 at the time, I had a vision of the turning this bike into something similar form Chuck Norris's Delta force days, lol. But its my air cooled time machine. The YZF-400, I built from frame up, courtesy of eBay. I didn't have the budget to buy a new track bike at the time, so I built it part by part. Took me about two years to complete. The only customization I did on this bike was the Edelbrock Quick Silver carb in lieu of the stock Mikuni and the oversized fuel tank and yashimoto pipe + header. The r6, i bought for myself once I got my first job back in '05. I almost lost it last year, when I thought I was going to loose my job. But thank God I didn't find a buyer at the time... I had it listed for peanuts...lol. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep them all. Thanks for the post!

1978 DT250E-Ongoing Restore- 90% there 1997 YZ-250 (Brother's) 1999 YZF-400 -100% fully operation 2005 YZF-R6- 100%fully operational

Okay, i figured it out...I had the float needle upside down. Just had to reverse it. Thanks for the help.

I believe so. The floats just move up and down on the brass rods. As for the needle, there only seems to be one way to have it stay seated...round stock end recessed w/ the needle point resting on the seat lever, that rests on top of the two levers protruding from the floats, right? But I'll take another look at this evening.

My '78 DT250 wasn't flow any gas through the carb, so I took the bottom bowl off, cleaned out the gunk with carb fluid cleaner, dried and reassembled it. However the needle valve keeps slipping out when I slid the bowl back in. So I turned the carb sideways so that the needle doesn't fall out, and set all four bowl bolts in place. But as soon as I turn the fuel petcock on, within 6 seconds, I have gas streaming out of the vent near to the throttle screw along with pipe air vent at the bottom. What did I screw up? The needle valve sits in the recessed opening, just above arm float. And when the bowl fills up, it is supposed to push up the needle so that the fuel doesn't stream in, right? I can post a video in the next couple of days. Maybe it would be easier to describe. Any help would be appreciated.