I had a nice 68, 70 and 71 DT1 all at the same time. Now comes along a 69. This bike is close to the 68. Has the 2 bolt ignition cover, long threaded dunlop rim locks, square swingarm, same paper air filter ( still good) and painted engine. ( which i like). 

I guess i will never be able to retire and stop working on these bikes. I have said I'm done 3 times now. Came across this 69 DT1-B 250. Looks good from 10 ft away. Looks to be all there and pretty much original which is what i like. The owner said it hasn't run in about 3 years. Has no spark, No battery but the gas tank and carburetor were drained and pretty much clean. 
I plan on making a nice rider out of it but i know how that will go? Money pit!  Paid to much for it but Oh well. Don't see many 69's around these days. 1st thing i did was pull the flywheel. what a mess on the condenser. Looks like someone tried to replace it. They didn't even bend the tabs over or down to hold the wires then solder it? So it bent the condenser mt and looks to be touching one of the coils or the flywheel hit it. Re-soldered the wires and straighten the condenser in place. cleaned the points and set the gap to 14thou. Nice spark at the sparkplug now. 

Took the Carburetor apart. The things you find with these old bikes! Look at the needle & seat. *(see picture) Never seen anything like it! plus the float arm was upside down. Look like someone modified the needle? I Installed a new set and cleaned the rest of the carburetor. Also was missing the setter jet o-ring and the pilot jet was plugged.  



Then i took the gas tank off and notice this strange looking long coil mounted to the lower frame bar under the gas tank. has 2 yellow wires connected to the 2 blue wires on the bike. Never have i seen something like this? Almost looks stock but i doubt it. Anyone seen one of these or knows what it is or does? see picture below.





Fuel Petcock was leaking all over the place so i have all new seals coming tomorrow so will see if it lights up and runs. Engine cranks over good, crank bearing has no play in it. Engine turns over nice and smooth. Hopefully top end is good. Feels like it has good compression. I do notice the clutch plates are stuck, hopefully they will break loose. Just want to get it running and test drive before taking the engine out and replacing clutch plates, all engine seals and gaskets. Also will vapor blast the cylinder and head. someone painted the cylinder, should be bare metal like the 68. Installed a battery, horn and brake lights work. That's a good thing. Until next time. 

 

Nice find!

I believe that "choke coil" is Yamaha's early attempt to help prevent bulb blowing. 

I just looked and found the service bulletin...  choke coil looks like it was standard on DT1b and bulletin gives instructions on retrofitting to DT1a.

Two bolt ignition cover is also correct if VIN is below 34176.

(71 DT1E manual in the Tech Library has a nice section showing model changes in the back.)

Mark, your correct. Its a Choke coil. Bill ( 1971dt250) just text me a picture and description of it. I never seen one on these bikes. It's also shown in the parts list for 69 so it is indeed a factory installed part. From what Bill sent me and what i read is its primary function is to block high-frequency signals. Radio interference? 

Vin is 247XX and is matching frame and engine so that's correct. Came with the original A title with a purchase date of 06-25-69. I am going to use the form here in Michigan to get a new title and keep this original A title. 

A choke coil does reduce higher frequency AC...

Service bulletin has a graph showing how adding the choke coil reduces the lighting coil voltage at higher rpm so that's what I always thought the purpose was...  keep voltage down and bulbs from blowing.
 

Thanks for the info, That's a good thing too! Of coarse there not much to these early bikes as far as light go. Replaceable headlight bulb and 2 meter bulbs. Plus the tail light. easy peasy. 

So lucky or fortunate to keep finding these models. They've all dried up down under where I am. I remember the first one i un-crated & assembled at work in "68. Same color & all. DT1-20090. DECEMBER 20 1968 it was registered. Be interesting to compare numbers. I'm guessing yours is earlier. Ours would be for Oceania if there's a difference.

That's a great find 

Nice looking bike.

Very nice looking bike . The barrels were painted on the 69 , only the 68 's were unpainted .
I guess it's an early production model , as they went to the 4 bolt ignition cover mid year .