If Fowlers blow you out, then maybe try KDI or Clauss Studios.

“Warmed it up with a heatgun, hoping for a miracle, but of course nope. As soon as it hardened it forced itself back into its original, half on half off position.”

I wonder if you could warm it up and then stuff it with something to hold the proper shape as it cools and hardens.

I've had some luck with oil of wintergreen (from the pharmacy) softening old rubber.  We used to use it mixed with a solvent (can't remember what right now...  lacquer thinner?) as a traction compound for RC car tires way back in the 80's and 90's.  I still have a can of "home brew" mix.  I'm sure a YouTube search would find something. 

I am pretty sure the RT100 joint is pretty much identical and is available but under a different part number.

The part numbers for the air filter, the airbox and both joint clamps are the same as the DT.

The 1980 DT100 has the same airbox, clamps, filter and the same joint part number as the RT100 for the joint.

The 1977 DT100 and the 1980 DT100 frame part numbers are the same, as is the oil tank that the airbox shares mountings with.

So no slight relocation of mountings going on.

Equals 1977 DT100 airbox joint part number should have been superceded by the RT100 part number. But has not been.

I will see what Fowlers come up with.  The DT100  1T9 joint is marked down as £6.  The RT100 3A3 joint is £13.
If they do locate the last 1T9 joint in the Europe warehouse, I have saved a bit.  I doubt it though.  The £6 seems like an obsolete price.

But I do have options if they fail to find one.

Wintergreen work well, too well in my case. I got mine from a farm supply, it is used for horses or something like that.

I added the wintergreen to boiling water, well maybe not boiling, but really hot, and left it too long, like 10 minutes so the advice says I found online, and it turned the stiff rubber parts I had, which was all of them, carb boot, kill button, and a few others, ruined all of them, turning them to nearly mush, except the carb boot, it was almost completly submerged so one side did get soft as hoped, but one narrow band on the one side was still quite stiff. So the aftermarket part it was.

I'm sure you're correct Tinkicker...  the RT100 was pretty much a recycled late 70's, early 80's DT100 without lights. 

The RT180 is not quite as similar to the 80-81 DT75 as the RT100 is to the DT100 but many parts are identical...  and some parts have different part numbers that should/could have been superseded.  Oil tank for one... A few years ago I was still able to buy a brand new plastic oil tank for the RT180 and it is identical to the 80-81 DT175 oil tank (the models with swing out oil tank on right side, earlier monoshock DT175's had a different oil tank on the left side)

Meanwhile, despite shennanigans with the pesky parts stealing pixies, I got the autolube pump finished and installed into the case.
I was looking forward to this part of the build, dunno why, but there is always some task you envision doing right from the start.  I guess it does not signify the end, but it does the beginning of the end.

Pump with innards exposed waiting for new seals.  Job was half done when I remembered to take a pic, hence some parts clean and shiny and others a bit on the grungy side. 
All it needed in the way of attention other than cleaning was the plunger polishing with 1200 grit.  Nothing broken or worn out, but the 40 odd year old oil had dried and hardened into an odd blue coloured grease like Putoline bearing grease.


Found the missing end seal I searched so hard for this morning.  It was hiding in plain sight all along, albeit in a different place and different packaging.
Pump built, min pump stroke shimmed to 20 thou ( edit- checked the good book and I need to remove 10 thou). I thought I remembered 20 thou, but it is .20mm.
It had minus clearance to start, someone back in the day had managed to lose the thick shim washer.

Now back in the case ready for action.


 

Well I received my orders from Fowlers. Everything but the joint.

Oh well, I did not harbour great hopes on that one. The price was obviously years out of date. So I ordered the 3A3 joint which is pretty much identical, just cost double.

At least it has free shipping.

As for the rest, the airfilter did indeed have a new cage inside. An idiot on ebay is advertising a new cage, listed as unavailable for £35. It is unavailable because Yamaha now supply it as part of the airfilter....

D- to the seller. Needs to do his homework.

As an aside, having unwrapped the filter and looked at my hands.. The filter is pre oiled as I remember the RT100 ones being. Happy days.

Got my clutch, maybe it will be running this weekend. Or not. Imshallah.

Annoyed enough to chew through nails.  I bought a clutch cable specifically advertised as for a DT100D.


It arrived and it was a heart sinking moment.  Label states for DT100, DT125, DT175.

Aw bollocks.

Nevertheless, I set the clutch arm to the required 53mm as the good book states and tried the cable.

Far too long, it would not route correctly and despite all adjusters wound fully out, it still had an inch of freeplay.

Another garbage cable from another garbage seller that has to be sent back.

Does the US suffer the same problems with aftermarket sellers?  We did not used to have this problem until quite recently.  Aftermarket were usually quite good replicas.

It is one of those days.  A litany of ill fitting aftermarket gasket sets, one size all cables that fit nothing and assorted BS. After a sulk I resumed work on it.

OEM DT100D cable not available of course, but a look at the RT100 fiche revealed an identical looking cable to the old one.  Identical ends, adjusters and external spring heat shield.
An expensive gamble at £35, but even after extensive cleaning and lubing, the original still feels gritty and has quite an internal bind somewhere inside.

I am reasonably confident the RT cable will be the same, probably just dark olive adjusters instead of bright zinc colour.

I got the clutch built and clutch arm adjusted to 53mm as per the good book, removed the garbage cable in disgust and packed it up ready to go back.  It is a £10 cable costing me £3.50 postage to return.
Normally I would not bother in view of the postage, I would mutter some dark epithet and slink off into my lair,  but the garbage supplied for this bike is off the scale.  Feck em, they are refunding me and getting a neg feedback for the postage costs.

Every single cable ordered has turned out to be " multifit" on arrival and of course has been too long in every case.

Throttle cable.  Too long and too much travel for the adjusters.  Ended up joining a variety of different model year OEM cables together to make one that worked and looked as if it was original.
Front brake cable ditto.  Major problems.  
Speedo cable ditto.  Stupid long.  Found a NOS aftermarket one in the end.
And now clutch..

Then we have had the aftermarket seal fiascos.  From the fork seals to the crank seals.

The aftermarket motorcycle part industry in the UK was once reliable, but now it is in a parlous state.  The elephant in the room is that once upon a time, aftermarket parts were sourced from Japan.  Now they come from China.  The land of the second rate knockoff.

The second speedo cable was a very old stock, dusty packaging, aftermarket item made in Japan.  Compared next to the old one, it was identical in every respect.  Chinese one a full six inches too long to accomodate the bigger bikes.

So we have the clutch cover on and and off again to trim the aftermarket gasket to size... One size fits all...

And back on.  Oil pipes connected up to tank, autolube cable adjusted and carb and looking to replenish the fluids.

Dog dish ready to catch the oil from the pump bleed hole.  Just look at the state of the clutch cover gasket.  That is from a Vertex set.  Once a decent quality brand, now a repacker of cheap chinese knockoff tat.  I thought I was buying quality.



Oil tank filled and pump duly bled.  The comment the seller made when he handed over the pump with the bike is now very apparent.

 " I removed the pump and have been running it on premix because the pump is leaking like a b##tard".

I thought it was the missing end seal that was the cause of the leak and that was now cured.  Oh no.

A bit of conjecture... It seems that sometime in the past, someone pulled the pump off and the shaft end shim stayed in the pump.  On refitting, it fell horizontal and as they screwed the pump down, it pushed at the end of the shaft housing, cracking it. 

It drips like a good un.  It is not too bad a probem though.  A bit of Belzona putty will put it right.  Still need to remove the pump and clean the crack up though.

I have had enough crap today.  Time to walk away.

Drips from hairline crack in shaft end housing.  Never spotted it, but then again I was not looking for it.