Please, look through the bottom of the page to find newer information on the restoration.
'86 RD350 YPVS
These pictures show the bike as was received. Note that there is a fairing part missing, the lateral fairing covers, which have been removed to open the engine.
This completes the dressing of the RD :-)
The bike is not working now; its engine was seized some months ago. Here you have some close pictures of the damage its engine suffered:
This is the current looking of my bike:
I found that the crankshaft is also bad (big end conrod bearing is damaged), so I started looking for a solution. It seems that repairing a crankshaft needs of specialized machinery and it is expensive (US$300-500, depending on damage). As I paid less for the full bike and my pocket is now very low, I decided to find a replacement engine or, at least, a replacement bottom end. After some postings in several local buy/sale WEB pages, I have found one. Supossedly, it was from a RD350R (latest model, made in Brazil) and, apart of the dusty looking, seems to be in good condition (I can turn the alternator rotor easily and the compression also seems fine). But upon further inspection, as it is serial number 1WT010177, looking at Haynes manual it is from a RD350F2 (early)... But it has a plastic cover which clearly says 'Made in Brazil'... Of course, the cover could have been swapped. So I don't know exactly what engine I have. There is a curious thing to note: the choke control is of the remote kind (it has a cable to control it). This feature is only found in brasilian made bikes... So perhaps the carburettors are from the 'R' model and the rest of the engine is from a 'F2' model... What a mixture!
Anyway, the cost for the full engine with the carburettors and exhaust pipes was about US$235 and lots of other items, as the instruments, fork, both wheels, rear damper, part of the fairing and lots of small bits were only US$33. So it _could_ be still a good buying... Time will tell!
Here you have a picture of the spare engine as is now:
And these are some of the bigger parts I also got (smaller parts are spread in dust bags):
One problem I have is that the CDI unit was missing. I just got the YPVS valves servo. As my bike is older than this engine, I will keep all the electronics of my bike (by the way, my 'old' CDI is model 52Y).
As I got also the corresponding carburettors and exhaust pipes, I will use them. In case this does not work fine, I could try the older pipes and carburettors... Any idea about this?
By the way, the barrels are silver color... All the barrels I had seen so far were painted black. Ideas?
Next step is to clear the engine and all the parts, including carburettors...
Wow... a time lap of more than a year!!!. Time really flies ;-)!. Well, due to some different reasons, I have not been able to work on the bike for more than a year. But things have (fortunately) changed lately. I have set up a new 'motorcycle workshop' in my new home and the bike has been moved there. Once there, I have got back seriously in the project and have dismantled the main bike parts almost completely (except for the front wheel and the engine bottom part, which just need one large screw to be completely free). I will take out the engine soon, I hope!
I have also removed most of the electrical devices (CDI, YPVS controller, turn lights auto-cancelling unit, ...) and carefully cleaned the wiring harness, which was, as most other bike parts, really dusty.
Hardest work has been to clean the greasy paste the chassis had in all the rear side. It seems most of the dust came form the chain, which has been lubed a lot (but was not properly cleaned!). Rear suspension unit had so much dust that I didn't notice it was a replacement (newer than the bike as it didn't use the remote adjustment belt) until it was carefully cleaned... Now the frame is shinny again, except for the engine cage which will be cleaned once the engine is out of the frame.
Scheduled work from this point is:
I have already removed the old engine from the frame and cleaned it. This is how the bike looks now:
It is almost transparent!
New engine (1WT) is waiting on the bench. I just need to remove the alternator and swap it with the one in the old (31K) engine.
This is an addition made to the frame by DPO (Dreaded Previous Owner). It seems the bike had some frame troubles, as there are parts which are clearly repaired... but it seems as a good job was done. Let's hope I am right!
Instrument panel was this way originally. It should be from a previous RD/RZ350 model.
This is my current stock of instrument panel parts:
As the original panel was not in great condition, I have reworked it and, with parts from another one, have assembled a nice instrument panel.