has badges too!

I rebuilt my R5 which was missing the ball between the pressure plate lifter and the rod. I ended up putting a 5/16 ball I had in as a placeholder and ordered genuine Yamaha because the one I had had a bit of surface rust and is probably a POS from a dresser slide or something that works with crap steel 

Question: will ball roll past new rod seal on clutch actuator side, or will I have to remove and reinstall seal?  I put in a new seal so prefer to not mess with it but can if I must. Let me know and thank you. 

sounds pretty bad ass without baffles which are on order. 

Very nice! 

Even with the baffles fitted, my own R5 is a lot louder than my RD400C.

I hate to say but the 5/16 ball has to go in from the clutch side. Hole in the shaft steps down after that to the Rod size of 1/4 or whatever the rod is. Actually I'm thinking of my 360 trail but I'm sure same applies. Bike reminds me of my R5 which I should never have sold 40 plus years ago.

This I'm going to have to eat humble pie there. Just looked up a seal & say 8.8 ID so in theory it should roll through the seal, or good magnet stick as seal will be a bit under size ID to grip the rod. Now I don't know what I'm talking about. Rod must be 9mm if seal is 8.8 I'm guessing. Ignore me lol. I see it steps down into the actuator.

www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/1970/r5/clutch

Sounds great on idle, have you taken her out yet? 

Sounds fantastic!

  Thanks everyone 
I am going to garage now to see if I can get to ball from actuator side and will report back. 
just ordered baffles from a dude in uk with a good reputation on aircooldedrd website and will install as soon as poss to maintain friendly relationships with neighbors!
I did ride her and def way more powerful than DS7. New 1.5 mm over bores nice and tight

if you love these enduros I highly recommend doing up one of these twins.  I lucked out on both having good crankshaft assemblies but still as always ended up spending a couple of k to make road worthy. 

here’s the before pic 
 

Wow.  What a transformation! 

I love the sound of those twins. 

I have a couple project bikes myself...  probably will only build one of them (someday).  The other one is a real "basket case" and came with bins and bins of engines and parts...  a few tanks too...  mostly R5.  Some RD350.  Let me know if you need something someday.

I recon they go better with the baffles in so let's hear it again when they arrive please. What a transformation you've achieved, looks great. Back to the future i recon. Should do another run of them. Wonder what the factory did with everything. Maybe they still make them in India or somewhere. Thought i'd seen RD350's by another name once.

thanks!

I took off the L cover and put on side stand and ball rolled out onto floor so seal def. > 8.0 mm, in went a Yamaha ball so now I don't need to worry about a likely Chinese ball disintegrating.

Mark I grabbed this R5 when I found it, partly because I love my DS7 stock (minus lack of low end) and because you said that a 350 top end would make it much faster.  You were so right, the R5 has tons of low-end and is way faster than the 250!  I took the pilot and main jets up one size from stock on  both because I thought the 250 was too lean at all speeds and they were both 1972 and I suspect jetted on lean size due to new EPA.  I kept the needle at stock 4th richest position and as I think RT said its slightly blubbery.  So after validating  resealed oil pump output I diluted 25:1 premix with additional 2.5 gal of gas and this little bike screams!

My R5 was already on 0.75mm over and had an very large amount of wear...I think the oil pump went out and it wore out the bore, but crank survived.  I ignored the experts who recommended (and sell) forged pistons and instead took a chance on IMD Pistons reportedly made in UK 1.50mm over because they recommended the same 0.0015" to 0.0018" clearance as stock which I like.  I do not like sloppy slappy and I hypothesized that forged pistons with huge cold clearances will wear out bores faster, which I don't want since I am at the end of the road with these jugs.  Only time will tell, but this bike is really quick and fun!