1979 Rd50 OEM+ Undertaking

[iwanttobeamole]

Since I've decided I have too much time in my life I've just agreed to puchase this dusty boy.   

It was bought new in ~1979 and ridden to the docks in Napier and back to Onekawa for ~9 years, after which it was parked in a garage and, as far as we know, didn't move for the following 37 years. 

As a result it's dusty, but not rusty. Tank looks good inside and out.  A little surface rust on some chrome, but the wheel, suspension and frame are, as far as I can see, rust free. 

The engine is stuck along with the front brakes.  It won't kick over but I don't suspect anything too drastic. 

The plan is an ~OEM restore, then likely OEM+.  Haven't quite decided on what extent to go to yet.  

Maybe List 

• Nang pipe
• Electronic ignition
• Spokey Dokeys 
• ????

Early days yet.   

I pick it up Tuesday. 

 

A few more pics. 

[iwanttobeamole]

Well there's nothing like 2 months with back to back booked weekends to get a project going. 

Fortunately all madness must come to and end and I was able to spend a bit of time on the RD50 last weekend. 

Got it cleaned so none of the yuck fell into the yum part. 

Everything was pretty dusty/oily so gave it a cursory clean on the coldest day of winter (so far) then got it pulled down to see if I could free up the piston and look into what else needed to be done. 

I managed to get the piston freed up.  It was stuck about half way down the exhaust port.  Got it freed up with a bit of heave jose.  

MUFFIN BREAK!

 

The carb was missing the throttle slide spring so had to make a trip to simply springs here in hawkes bay to pick up some options.  It's missing the clip to hold down the needle but I'll find/make a washer to hold it under the spring for now. 

Carb was understandably gross and gives credence to the concept that it was parked for the better part of 4 decades. 

'

 

The overall engine was good but a bit untidy.  

Fired up the ultrasonic and gave them all a birthday. 

 

 

######## SOUND WARNING ###############

 

 

Even after two rounds in the ultrasonic there was still some treasures. 

 

 

I might also need a new air filter. 

 

Anyway. That's the progress.  The plan is to reassemble now that it's clean and see if/what else is/isn't working.  See if I can get it to run, then put an order together for yambits or the like for all the bits I need to get it really refreshed.  The front brake is seized also so that'll need attention/rebuild. 

 

More to come.  

 

 

[iwanttobeamole]

So.. I got a bit distracted... 

Short version.  I picked this up with a carb issue and dead reg since 1990.  

Have now fixed the carb, and working on re-reg with black plates.  I'll pop in some updates as that progresses.  Bit of a side quest but I'll pop in some updates. 

This is a catch and release so if anyone's interested in a 1983 GSX550E with 25k's on the clock, fire me a line.   It'll be road registered with classic reg and ready to go. 

 

Anyway, back to the subject.. big box of parts for the RD 50 has arrived so I'll be getting stuck into that in the next few weeks. 

 

 

Leftchevronthree

[anglia4]

Thats pretty cool. Is there any muffling in that pipe or does it sounds awesome?

<3

[iwanttobeamole]

For the purposes of getting the thing road legal I'm quite glad to report that it is in fact a muffler.  

Still sounds awesome though.  I'll get a vid this weekend. 

 

[iwanttobeamole]

Presents?

thingsorganisedneatly

So checked off the order and it all appears to be here. 

I decided to look into the front brakes.  They do not look neato. 

 

 

A bit more disassembly of the master

Turns out the ultrasonic cleaner really likes to mess with my phone camera, but this is what under the reservoir looked like.  The brown stuff is dried brake fluid and it came out like very shitty cocaine. 

And the caliper 

 

Into the porridge they go! 

 

 

Side quest has progressed.   I got the carbs cleaned up on the GSX500e and it now runs very nicely on all four cylinders at all revs.   Still doesn't like a cold start very much but it's.. better.  
Booked for VTNZ to get certified on Monday so.. fingers crossed that exhaust isn't too loud. 

 

More soon. 

[iwanttobeamole]

Well..... I wandered back out to get the garage to stir the porridge and but then got a bit carried away. 

The ultrasonic cleaner also heats so decided to try and unstick the piston in the caliper after it had been which I did successfully with some compressed air. 

Inside was gross, 

 

Also took to the master to see if I could get the circlip that retains the piston out.  it's basically impossible to do without destroying the circlip but c'est la vie as the spainyards would say. 

 

As it turns out...  it's a bit of a mess. 

 

I did buy a replacement master piston but for reasons I could never possibly understand the two sizes available were 14mm and 5/8th of three barley corns (ripe and dried laid end to end) 

I bought the 14mm.  

The old piston was not 14mm.  

 

Sooo. I've decided to bench the old master and grab a Chinese one for now.  Maybe I'll revisit it later, but for not we're looking for progress not perfection. 

 

More... less soon. 

 

 

[Lord Gruntfuttock]

Cool bike, I like how the carb slide looks bigger then the piston... 

[iwanttobeamole]

Had some time over the weekend to get into the rd50 again. 

Got the top end stripped down and old gaskets etc cleaned up and the new barrel and piston mounted. 

Reassembled with some help from my best apprentice. 

.. who's also the videographer, complete with commentary of a sort.

 

At this stage I couldn't resist cleaning up some of the easy to reach chrome bits. 

 

 

 

Will look to remove some of these and clean them properly down the line but doing the most visible bits starts to make the bike look less like a barn specimen and more like a motorbike.  Good for the soul. 

Then it was time to strip off the 40 year old tyres, clean up the wheels, and fit up the new ones I picked up. 

The chain was pretty loose but on closer inspection I discovered that the sprockets were in pretty bad shape so I pulled those off. 

On the bright side, if I bolt that rear sprocket to an old axe handle it'll make a handy weapon for the zombie apocalypse. 

 

The area round the front sprocket was also looking pretty grim and I suspect a seal or two has failed. I think I ordered spares so gave it a good kero bath and scrub and I'll see if I can see where it's leaking. 

 

The new front master cylinder/lever arrived so just waiting on the hose which should be here this week and I can reassemble the front brakes, now with less rust.

Side quest related, the gsx550 failed it's compliance on, water in the brake fluid, and front brake light switch not working, so I was pretty chuffed it was only that. 

I've picked it up and already fixed the front brake light by disassembling it, wiping some grease off the contact slider thing, and re-assembling. 

Will bleed the brakes today and head back tomorrow to get it signed off and road legal.   

While I was there we talked about the RD50 and (Inspector) Chris very helpfully provided me with a statutory declaration form (declares that I own the bike), as well as the MR2B form to re-register the bike.  As it's a moped there's no WOF or inspection requirement.  I'll get the stat dec form signed off today so at when I head to VTNZ tomorrow I can re-reg the rd50 also.  I've just heard back from the reuse of plates people and have a reference number so I can reuse the old black plate on the RD too. 

I'll put a plug in here for the Napier (not Onekawa) VTNZ.  A lot of people give VTNZ a lot of stick (myself included) and they're often right, but Chris is an awesome inspector. Really helpful and genuinely interested in old nuggets. If you're in Hawkes Bay and need anything like that done, avoid Hastings and Onekawa, and head straight to the Napier branch and speak with Chris.    Top bloke. 

I'm away this weekend but hope to get some time the following weekend to get the RD50 buttoned up, and back on the road. 

 

 

[iwanttobeamole]

A little epilogue. . I noticed while riding the 50 that the steering coming past the center point felt a little weird, like it was binding up a bit.  Slightly terrifying for a moment when I didn't think it would steer, but no major resistance. 

On the stand I discovered all was not well with the head bearings. 

 

I guess I'll be learning how to rebuild a headset on a motorbike in future. 

 

 

[tortron]

Heck yeah, indexible steering!

[anglia4]

Thats the auto-pilot function

[iwanttobeamole]

Bit of a late update.  Been busy. 

Got the new head bearings in and removed the undesired indexing. 

Paperwork done and she's on the road all legal like. 

Gave it a test around the place and up the peak which she handled like a dream... slowly, but steadily. 

Runs really well.. Sits on about 60kph on the flat pretty nicely.   Really nice to ride. 

Decided to catch and release this one rather than developing it more.  It's such a fun thing to ride just as is I just don't want to change anything, so I'll call this project to an end. 

 

 

I've just picked up an 83 MB100 so might make a thread up about that if anyone's interested?

PS.  The side quest (GSX550e) is also complete now. Was all good after the minor fixes I had to do.  It was struggling with cold start but turned out while I'd cleaned the carbs up, the bowls had a tiny feed into a separate chamber for the enrichment circuit which was blocked up on both sides, so.. cleaned that and it fires up first time every time now.  Looooovely. 

 

I'll still try and get a vid of it and post it here.  Thing sounds wicked. 

 

 

[legendlives]

Great project. I love old two strokes, I might have to add one to the collection!

Thanks for sharing.