No apology necessary... I got the humour... just wanted to clarify pump is more than just convenient.

Yes and I wasn't criticizing your seat choice or anything else... It's just common here for someone to build some sort of modified creation with the expectation that it will be very valuable when completed... and then be disappointed when it's not.

Missing, damaged, and hard to find parts are all very good reasons to delete the pump, change the seat. etc. I would too.

So as long as whatever you build is something you like and enjoy that's all that matters.

My intention is to hoard keep everything in case I sell it The main thing is to at least leave it as an option if someone wants to get all weird about original parts! As long as, at a glance, it looks all original that's good enough.

Actually I'm glad I was "politely informed" of the benefits of the oil pump as I have subsequently snapped up a spare one that looks to be in excellent condition for an absolutely knock down price - I probably wouldn't have looked if it wasn't for this thread

One amusing thing during the "tidy up" I couldn't get the rear flashers working. Took them apart to discover both bad corrosion on the contacts and... 12V bulbs?! Almost flattened the 6V battery testing the electrics and then discovered my charger doesn't have a 6/12V switch. It's like a series of little traps sometimes

Yes, more of the "curse of previous owner's mods"! Never assume anything!

Some chap on another forum is having trouble starting his air cooled RD350 and it transpires that his bike probably has 2 right hand carb float bowls fitted, therefore making the choke useless!

One more point on the oil pump and that is the internals are model specific, even if they look the same externally. Just double check that the one you bought is for your bike. I think that there are some guides in the Tech Library here.

Wow! Colour me educated Just had a nice cup of tea and a read through the Autolube manual buried at the back of the document library. Sounds like 80% of the time premix is wasteful and 20% doesn't provide enough lubrication, eeek!

This ad shows the range in oil dispensing.

One of the best manuals in the Tech Library is the generic 1969 shop manual... goes over the theory of operation on most things

yamaha-enduros.com/index.php/workshop/se...69-yamaha-shop-guide

Another one I missed. Comprehensive but very oddly written!

Had a go at riding around today Couple of things...

I have the clutch adjusters wound all the way out otherwise it stalls putting it into gear. Not sure that's quite right!

Also, I seemed to get it to start the first few times reasonably well - I'm not expecting much from a carb starting dry - but once it warmed up it seemed a bitch to start :( To be fair I have done absolutely zero to it with regards to tuning etc. In fact I don't think I've even stripped the carb for a clean, eeek! So all in all not the worst start seeing as the handling and brakes are excellent (and the electrics all work now.)

Here it is with a spare tank (haven't finished modifying the other one yet)



Could do with putting the heat shield on the exhaust

Looking good!

Clutch could just be the plates sticking, particularly if the bike had been stood a while. One tip that I've seen on this forum is to pull the lever all the way back and use elastic bands or such like to keep it like that overnight, then see what it's like the next day.

Just my observation, but deleting the oil pump and gun grabbing are driven by the same problem and both are overcome with a little education. I cast my own bullets and reload and send my pumps to DEET before installing. Keeping things on target whenever possible.......