Wanted to test ride the bike this holiday, if the road through the village dried out but the leaking tank has really held things up.  Changed the rear tyre today for the correct type and had a brainwave.  I can kill two birds with one stone.  Fit the replacement tank, shabby paint be damned, fill it with fuel and take the bike on a test ride with that.  It will also test the tank's soundness before I commit to paint.

Anyway, that's not why you called in....

I've started a file of provenance where I am detailing the full history of the bike from previous owners to where we are now and came across a dating letter from the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club.  The bike was found behind a shed with weeds growing through it, no number plate and all the documents had been lost / thrown out.

All it had was its intact frame and engine numbers.


Our  vehicle licencing agency could not match the numbers with a registration number because it had been an inactive registration for so long and the records had been destroyed by a mishap in the late 80s. All they could say was that the vehicle was not on the stolen vehicle database.

Anyway, dating letter from the VJMC to enable the DVLA to issue an age related registration  number.  Hope you find it interesting.

Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club

 Letter to previous owner from the VJMC.  


 Dear Michael 

After assessment of the photos of your motorcycle and close ups of the frame and engine numbers. Research in our official Yamaha frame number list and other contemporary literature enables me to confirm that your enduro 175 with:

 Frame and engine Number 2K4 – 0104@@

 Is a DT175MX 2X2 model that was manufactured in August 1978 for the 1979 model year in the UK market.  Production of this model commenced in August 1978 with frame number 2K4-010101 so this particular machine was manufactured in this first month. 

This information is obtained from Yamaha publication QQ9-CAT-000-191 and is confirmed by our database of frame numbers from the same model of machine. 

I can also confirm from our Yamaha brochure archive that the component, graphic and paint specifications are correct for this model and year in this market. 

It should be noted that Yamaha UK has no archive information on this particular model and is unable to confirm its date of manufacture. 

Under these circumstances, I trust the above information will be sufficient to allow an age related registration mark to be applied to this motorcycle which qualifies for classification as an historic vehicle and is exempt from MOT requirement. 

Yours sincerely Richard Proudman.

VJMC/ DVLA Liaison Officer.

That's really interesting Tinkicker, I was not aware the VJMC offered that service, I may have to contact them to find out what I can about my two bikes. 

Not much to report. Paint really stopping job now.
Was hoping to road test it this holiday, but it is not to be.

I have however, found a car shop that also does classic bikes occasionally and with excellent testimonials.
The bike paint they do looks pretty good from the photos.

I have a quandary, do I wait till February and phone up the guy who has done quality work for me in the past, only for him to say try again in April, or do I give this local guy a chance?

I am leaning towards the latter.

Edit.  Phoned the guy.  Call back in February as he is stacked out with work. Damanblastit.

On the strength of this, I have removed some of the paint on the underside of the tank to check for serious rust and pinholes before committing to have it painted.  Also put a couple of psi in the tank and listened for any hissing or moving air.
Thankfully there are only odd patches of light surface rust, thanks to someone in Germany having the foresight when the bike was probably a couple of years old; to paint the tank's underside with red oxide and then brush paint it with thick black paint.

The tank internally is rust free.


Pic

Very pleased with what I found under the old paint.

 

I would not wait... You have to go out on a limb sometimes.. OR.. Give another shop a chance too... Of course, tell the first shop you contacted.. but don't erase that appointment until you see the finished product from the new shop..
I would also put some sort under coating on the underside again... You don't see it... or do you?
Sneezles61

In view of the fact that it will likely be another couple of months till I see the tank painted, I have removed all the old epoxy crud that the original owner slapped over the holes and leaked on the original tank.
My those ole holes were not pinholes. Bet one was 2mm in dia and the other was 3mm.

Got my dremel in, removed all the paint and rust around them, bored them out a bit bigger so I had clean metal to work with, applied copious amounts of flux and soldered them up.

My electronics use soldering iron was not powerful enough to get the surrounding steel hot enough, so after pushing lots of loosely attached, melted solder blobs down into the holes, ended up heating a 6mm socket head screw up with my blowtorch till it was glowing and used that to consolidate them.

I did not want to use the blowtorch flame directly on the tank for obvious reasons, even though the petrol had long since evaporated.

It's held five litres of petrol all afternoon without any sign of weepage, so good enough for a quick test ride when the opportunity presents itself, but not good enough for a road going vehicle. The tank lining is breaking up and could clog the fuel filters, plus I have no idea what effect long term engine vibrations will do to the solder bond.

When the replacement tank is painted, I may stick the original on fleabay as a display bike only tank with an explanation as to why it is unsuitable for road use. I might recover some of the uninvited distress purchase expense by someone punting £100 for it for a ready painted tank for display use only, or even taking a chance on it.  I wouldn't but....
I have deliberately left the repair unpainted, so when the time comes I can take a pic for fleabay.

No pics today as my camera battery was in need of a recharge.

Well the tank has not leaked, so today I built the bike back up, took it out into the yard and fired it up.  Second kick was the charm.  Warmed it up and set the idle up.  Got it idling at 1400 rpm for 10 mins without cutting out or stumbling, so I'm calling that a win.  No smoke either, but I did not expect it running BelRay Si7 smokeless, despite also adding a healthy glug into the fuel tank for the sake of the new piston and rings.

Of course, the week up to now has been up to 13 degrees C, dry and the roads had dried out.  This morning, pissing it down, 1 degreeC, snow in the forecast and the gritters have been throwing road salt down like it was a closing down sale at the salt depot.  So that's it till the salt gets washed away and the roads dry again.

I just about finished the file of provenance detailing the story of the bike through the years, the rebuild, all the paperwork and receipts.  When I have shuffled off this mortal coil in 20 years or so, it will make interesting reading for the next owner.


Pics.

Quite a weighty tome..
 


Fully detailed story of the rebuild and all the problems I encountered.
 
 

Roads have partially dried out, so I thought to take it out on a quick roadtest. Got the bike out into the yard and started it up.

The last time I rode it when the bike first arrived (and broke down with the dodgy gearbox and fuel issues leading to a full restoration of the "fully restored" bike) I did notice some smoke coming from the front of the engine.

No probs, probably needs the exhaust gasket ring reseating...

New exhaust ring duly fitted during rebuild, no leaks from there. Good stuff.

Today, revving it up in yard, smoke from the front of the engine. Is it the ring?

Looked closer... Can you guess?

If you guessed that the exhaust had corroded through and was sporting a 3 - 4mm hole you would be correct.  . No idea how I missed it when I removed the exhaust.

Thought it sounded much louder than I remembered from the early 80s.

I want to retain the stock expansion pipe, rather than buy an aftermarket one; so I have ordered some exhaust repair putty to plug the hole.

When I named this thread The Trials of the Vintage Motorcycle Restorer, it was supposed to be tongue in cheek. Never suspected what a trial it was going to be.
( Edit. For the Vintage enduro guys. If you are confused by the title, this thread on here is just a partial copy and paste job from a far longer thread on another forum).

Maybe I tempted fate?

Anyway, road test postponed, bike is too loud and absolutely no point doing a sparkplug chop with a hole in the exhaust.  Was hoping to check the midrange mixture this morning to see if the needle needed moving.  

Roads looked like they were just damp this morning so planned on taking the bike on its test ride.  Started it up to see if the exhaust putty had quietened the bike (it had) and took to the roads.

Main road through the village was wet again, looks like the council has been down with the gritter again.  amazing, we can have frost, snow and ice on the road - no gritter.  We have milder nights with no frost,dry and sunny weather the next morning and they throw salt around.  Of course this pulls the moisture out of the air and hey presto, sopping wet and salty roads. 

Test ride restricted to just a couple of miles, enough to get it to operating temperature, before turning back home to hose off the salt.

Man, those brakes... Having had modern sports and sport tourer bikes over the last 40 years, I forgot how poor those small SLS drum brakes are on the road.  I certainly would not feel happy going much over 40mph.  I know they will improve when they bed in, but I doubt I will see a big improvement.

I kept the throttle around half to threequarters of travel in deference to the new engine, just opening it up wide once in first gear to check the power.  It did loft the front wheel about a foot in the air on throttle alone, so it seems to have the punch I remember, but again, its a 175 and after being used to bigger stuff.... its seems a bit flat, well actually a lot flat.  My unscientific first gear roll on leaves me happy that it is actually doing its thing.

Everything else performed as it should with no other problems, it rides like a new one.

Back home I pulled the plug to check the mixture.  It was not a definitive test because I rolled up the drive with the clutch pulled in and engine idling for 10 seconds or so, I should have killed the motor and free wheeled, but still good enough for an indication.

Plug colour is a dark chocolate brown, so it is a little on the rich side at midrange, but is safe for running in.  Once the bike got up to temperature, the carburation was clean with no fourstroking.  Once it is run in, I will do a proper plug chop when I can test top end first, get that dialled in, then I will probably end up dropping the needle a notch to tweak the midrange.
I already know the idle is OK and the primary has not been touched.

Mid range is "safe" with a nice dark chocolate brown colour.

 

Glad you've managed to get her out, even if it was a shorter ride than you wanted.
Our weather is certainly frustrating at times.
The brakes certainly are not confidence inspiring on the road, but off road they're less of a concern for me.
I like a ride on the road and seeing where all the little side roads take me or heading off to a cafe or a pub for a shandy, but the best fun for me is exploring the byways.
AGOP (Bernie) and I have tried a few locally and have been down to Salisbury Plain and the Ridgeway and they are the best days and destinations for these bikes.
We are planning a few days on the Plain when the weather gets better, roll on the spring and some more exploring.

Another one saved.

Tank, panels and fenders are back from the painters.  It took 60 hours labour to pressure test, micro blast, dent pull, fill and paint the tank and panels.  30% more time than the painter bargained for but a quote is a quote.  As he said, you win some, you lose some.
Barry who did the work is a dedicated motorcycle refinisher and does not do other vehicles.  I use to use him when I was "in the trade" for knocking out dented and scraped tanks and panels after our customers had thrown the bikes down the road (on and off road motorcycle training school).

Can't fill the tank with fuel till next weekend to give the paint a chance to fully cure, then it will be impervious to spills.  Tank is as clean and shiny inside as it is outside and he says apart from a large number of dings under the filler, it is in remarkably good condition with no rust.
To exclude temptation, I have decided to throw out the fuel tap, which was clogged with flakes of the failed tank lining and order a new one.  No tap = no fuel and no temptation to fill it and have a ride.  Very small chance that a splash of fuel at this stage could make the clearcoat turn milky.  Not worth it.

So she is finished, all bar the fuel tap.  Next winter I intend to find some new wheel rims and rebuild the wheels as the chrome is not that good, but I spent enough on it for now.