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LG's 1985 Yamaha TT250 Thumper


Lord Gruntfuttock

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I always start quick. Completion rate not great however... :grin:

Anyway, spent this morning on the TC. Thought I'd check the front brakes as there was bugger all there on my high speed runs. Pads looked like they were varnished. Luckily I had a new set in my box of random bits, so thought it'd be a 10 minute job to swap out...
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But drum was full of oil. Scratched my head where it was coming from then discovered fork oil leaking from the bottom allen head screw and tracking into the drum. Bugger, meant I had to open forks up, I wanted to avoid that as they seemed to go up and down semi-ok. The muddy state of the remaining oil meant it prob wasn't a bad idea anyway...
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And disassembled. I just take pics so I can remember how it goes back together, thinking it would be a few days till I get some seals...
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The old ones were fairly well stuck, (45 odd years in there) but came out ok with a tyre lever...
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And bugger me, local Suzuki shop had seals in stock. :thumbleft: Grabbed some oil too, spec says 5W but I went 10W cos it's a wee bike and I'm a wee fatty...
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And all assembled again, a good day's work, and they do feel much better. Can't put brakes back in unfortunately cos need new oil seal, ordered one in bike shop while I was there...
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Good practice for checking the TT forks anyway...

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Back to the TT.

Steering stem lower bearing was a bastard to get off, came pretty close to giving up and getting another one. Tried gentle heat first cos I wanted to save the lower seal, no go...
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Then welded some blobs on, usually the heat loosens it and some decent whacks on the weld will shift them, still no go. Actually bashed the welds off, fractured the bearing metal beneath...
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So out with the Ali diamond cutting disc and dremel...
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This worked, cut a decent slot then smacked a large screwdriver into it and it cracked loose. What a lot of effort for a small job...
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Rim

Nice new bearings, rim and spokes all ready to go, how hard can it be...?
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Fucking hard, forgot how tricky this can be. :grin:  Had a few goes at getting the under/overs right...

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But got there in the end. Only loosely fitted, I've gotta lube the spoke threads before truing it up yet (cos I was doing it inside didn't want to get messy anti-seize everywhere)...
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Actually did it twice, first time looked right, but the spokes were going a different direction to original, Good pics of original wheel helped get it right...

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TC again.
Had a go at making an air filter, must be cheaper than buying obsolete real ones...
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Not too much science in it...
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Used a JB superglue that came with a brush for applying to the foam. Next one I'll oversize slightly as pinching it together while the glue set made it a bit snug...
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And oiled up. never used proper foam oil before, used the plastic bag and squeeze method...
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Man that stuff is sticky, usually just squirt some 20W-50 on, but the blue sure makes it easier to see where it has covered. Seems to have worked ok, will prob make one for the TT similarly, although that's a harder shape... :)

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And hooned the TC tonight. Hit 90kph going round to a mate's place, plus it has brakes (dropped it during brake test and snapped off original suzuki mirror). :sad:

Pretty sure I'll make the metric ton if I give her a few tweaks. Really trying to find some service manuals online but haven't had any joy. Tried to join a TC forum but having difficulty registering. Might have a Barry-blocker...

Sent one of the moderators a message so will see how we get on... :)

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In the middle of pissy rain shot down the beach for a run on the TC and a mate's old TS250...

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Only got to 85kph but it felt like a lot more. The old farm bike suspension was bottoming out on the humps left by the tide. It's bogging at full throttle so I've since adjusted the pilot mix screw (shouldn't make any diff at WOT) squeezed excess oil out of the filter and tightened the carb fixing. might give it a run on the road this week to fettle, but riding the Nevis next weekend (hopefully) so won't need a top end speed, just want it to keep going... :)

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So with that parked up did a little more on the TT. Checked out the m/c I got from eBay, looks in good shape...
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Got the tricky little circlip out without the right tool after a bit of swearing fiddling...
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And gave the caliper another go, the pins were pretty well stuck with dried grease, but got them apart. Boots look ok but think there are some clips missing...
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And gave it a good cleanup, cleaned the seal grooves with some cheap Ali brushes. Worked well enough but shed a lot of sharp little spines...
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Then had a go at putting steering head bearings in. Failed miserably. so gave up and had tea. Then I wanted a clean job, so pulled each wheel spoke to lube threads. Quite like jobs like this, esp with Jon Toogood's 'Planet of Sound' going in the background - really enjoy that, the bloke has great musical taste...
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And it spins pretty true. Prob needs another 20 mins to sort properly, will ping each spoke to check tension by tone and re-true...
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Had a bash at making a bearing installer thing, threaded rod, coupla nuts and some big washers, around $10 all up. Sort of worked...
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Went a bit skewiff trying to do both sides at once. Was trying to get it done at lunchtime so was rushing things a bit, and the bigger lower bearing shell got a bit angled, so I knocked it out again and put it in the freezer. Got top one in anyway so will have another go after work...

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  • 3 months later...

Back on deck and having lost momentum spent some money on new tyres to get back into things. Then thought an engine stand would make life easier/tidier...
Cut some 100 x 10 flat into bits and grabbed some scrap RHS from the tip...
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and shaped the tabs to fit around the engine cases...
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And badly welded together, wish I could do it with less grinding... :)
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  • 3 months later...

Mate bought a TT225 the other day so thought I'd do a bit more on this, finished trueing up the front wheel, then tidied bench...
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Engine was a greasy mess so I dragged it out in the sun and spray degreased/water blasted the crud off...
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Need to re-wrap the wires and will clean up cases and throw some paint on when it's warm enough...

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Forks feel ok, drained some very muddy looking oil out, will clean properly and put new seals in when they arrive...
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Noticed one of the air valves in the fork caps was squished...
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Thought no bother, will only be a couple of bucks. Fraid not, they're a M8 fine thread valve that are rare as fuck now, only used on certain bikes in the 80's. You can get them, but expensive, plus stupid cost postage...
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I looked on Ali and can get 1/8 NPT schrader valves for $3.50, could use a metric to NPT adapter but that will be bulky, and a suitable tap on Ali is only $2.39, so will look at drilling and tapping fork cap to suit if I can't bend the valve back into shape. Annoying how little things can cost so much...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was waiting on my Ali impact hex bits to arrive before I tackled the allen bolt in the fork bottoms, as they weren't moving with normal keys. First one whizzed out perfectly with the battery impact driver, then second one rounded off to a very neat circle. At least I know the Ali bits are hard metal...x1Cjz1n.jpg

So no option but to drill out...
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And worked well. The copper washer was a good indicator how deep and true the drill bits were...
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Can move on now, good clean up and new seals, not sure if I'll paint or just rough polish the lower fork legs...

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  • 1 month later...

Cold out, cbf going to get paint, so polish it is. Plus it's a toasty 5 deg in the garage so paint would struggle to go off.
Began with a 180 grit cross hatch sand to remove worst scratches, it's a dirt bike so has lots of dings and I'm not after a show finish...
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Then went over with 400 grit, again varying the pattern to show up areas that need attention...
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Then the buffer wheel, so satisfying...
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Told you it was cold, got diesel heater going though so cosy indoors..
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And a before and after...
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Leg # 2 just before polishing, few more tabs on this one so a bit trickier. Worst bit was getting old sticker residue off...
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And done, came out bloody well, glad I didn't faff about with paint now...
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And just a close-up to finish, Waxy polish should last ok, easy enough to re-apply if it gets a bit scody...
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Never tried this before, was a good job to get out of the way, been putting it off but can rebuild forks now... :)

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Sunny again so cleaned plastics up. I'd water blasted them earlier and they were pretty yellow and scuffed so didn't have high hopes. Just a bucket of hot water and a scotchbrite sponge with some Jif cleaned them up pretty well...
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Bbefore and after side panels (top and botom)...
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And hosed off they look surprisingly ok...
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Rear guard was the worst one - stained with rust and exhaust fumes, so left it in a hot water and bleach solution, will see if we have a tide mark after work...
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Tank to go, plus some repair work on the cracked plastics, will try epoxy resin and glass tape probably...

[Edit] No miracle bleach solution, but at least it didn't melt into a puddle. Looks like sanding the only option on this piece...

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