Topic: Yammy TT600

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, that is a beautiful Kit Bill, but hang on to it mate, here's mine:

Yamaha RT3 Friday 15 Jan 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yamaha RT3 Friday 15 Jan 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yamaha RT3 Friday 15 Jan 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Your pic reminded me that I bought one of these kits 20(?) years ago, and have only used it once, when degreeing a Megacycle 125/75 cam in my K1 many years later. The seller (in the US) wouldn't ship to Oz, so I had him send it to my sister, who then "forgot" to send it to me until her marriage broke up and she brought it out in her luggage (along with a K0 head) around 2010, after she asked me to collect her from the airport and drive her back to my home town. You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family.........

Anyhoo, all is well, I cleaned up the carb and put it back on. (maybe it should have been black all along, I had a couple of other old Mikunicarbs in a box that I raided for a mixture screw spring that I managed to lose while cleaning everything, one was factory black and one was bare aluminium)

Yamaha RT3 Friday 15 Jan 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I re-installed the cleaned and lubed decompressor valve (and I'll tell you now, it doeesn't reduce the compression very much even when it is working) pulled the plug out, kicked it over to ensure I have spark, and shoved it back in. I put the choke on, gave it a couple of kicks, and here's what happened:

Anyhoo, it's a runner now, so all I need to do is get a workshop manual to make sure that the adjustments I've made are close to "Ball Park", and to repair all the crap that the "restorer" didn't "quite" get right. I took it for a lap around the block and it's got tons of poke, wouldn't have been hard to hoist the front wheel, but being as it doesn't even have a number plate attached, I wasn't gonna make any more of a spectacle than I needed to.

I shart myself when I was almost home and a guy wearing blue rode towards me on a big modern dirt bike, and I prayed that he wasn't a cop (we have cops that ride around my place on dirt bikes chasing unregistered dirt bike riders, like moi) but he wasn't, and he hoisted his front wheel as he went past. The "bulletproof" transmission feels like it's full of mud so I'll dump the oil out, and hopefully it won't be full of "Cafe Latte", but after water ran out of the magneto cover a couple of days ago, who knows? This is gonna be a "small budget" build, so unlike my K0, I'll only buy parts when I really, really need them. I will do something with the paint though, it's pretty awful. If anyone knows where I can buy/download a workshop manual (preferably not a Clymer or Haynes) let me know?


 

[dave500]

Man ya should see my grin!!dump the transmission oil,run any atf in it full stop Terry,boy what a dangerous thing they were?

[dave500]

Yamaha more or less pioneered the "torque induction"reed valve on two strokes in the day,the early Honda elsinores lacked that one way flap valve and really suffered a dead flat spot "off the boil"and were no match but had great handling compared,even chainsaws have that reed valve,check if yours has steel or fibre ones Terry,if fibre theyll be you beaut boysen reeds!
bush bashing the DT400,over powered and evil handling,the guy i bought this off,bought it from his brother,who bought it off a mate who used to ride it to university with street rego!

[grcamna2]

Terry,You got the Central Tool dial indicator also  ,it'll be nice to 'dial-in' your Yamaha with it.
The RT360 sounds good:now "You're cooking with gas" !

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I was really stoked that I got it going, apparently the last two owners hadn't. Mine's got the steel reeds Dave, but I don't mind that, I've seen some fibre ones that were badly chipped over time, and parts for these things are silly prices, so one less thing I'd need to buy.

I'll take your advice to use ATF, I know it works well in car gearboxes, I bought a single rail ford box to go behind a 302 cleveland many years ago, and the wrecker (who reconditioned it) said he'd give it a 12 month warranty if I used ATF rather than gearbox oil, and I had that car for years with no issues from the gearbox.

I better see if I can download a manual so I can check/set the ignition timing, point gap etc. I don't even know if it has the right spark plugs.`I was pleased tat it didn't blow a heap of smoke, but that also leads me to believe that the fuel that was in it wasn't premix, so it would have been disastrous if one of the PO's before me did get it running, not realising that the autolube pump appears to be disconnected.

I'd drained a fair amount of the fuel that was in it out, and added 2 litres of fresh fuel, but enough two stroke oil for 4 litres of fuel, so my "guesstimate" must have been close. Anyway, I was gonna take one of my other bikes for a ride today, but I think I'll do some work on the F2 and RT3 instead, idle hands are the devils tools..........

[Terry in Australia]

Well Spotty just dropped by, so I asked him to have a go at kick starting it. Now Spotty must be close to 7 feet tall and 300 pounds, but he struggled with it, and when it kicked back, he rightly gave it the arse. We both agreed that the ignition timing is too far advanced, so I think my next task will be to download a manual (I'd much prefer a paper one, but right now I'll take what I can get) and see what I need to do to set the timing.

I've just been testing my 84 litres of home made ginger beer, and as a result I thought it a great idea to try starting it myself, but broke my foot when it kicked back, so definitely need to do some adjustments before I go any further.

[grcamna2]

Well Spotty just dropped by, so I asked him to have a go at kick starting it. Now Spotty must be close to 7 feet tall and 300 pounds, but he struggled with it, and when it kicked back, he rightly gave it the arse. We both agreed that the ignition timing is too far advanced, so I think my next task will be to download a manual (I'd much prefer a paper one, but right now I'll take what I can get) and see what I need to do to set the timing.

I've just been testing my 84 litres of home made ginger beer, and as a result I thought it a great idea to try starting it myself, but broke my foot when it kicked back, so definitely need to do some adjustments before I go any further.

Terry,sore foot or broken ?

[Terry in Australia]

Just badly bruised arch Bill, but hurts like hell.

[ekpent]

Just badly bruised arch Bill, but hurts like hell.

  Sean was down at my shop one day and a friend and I were trying to start his Kaw 900 Z1A that has a high compression big bore kit. He stores it at my place. The battery was low and puked out quickly so being a good friend I tried kicking it from the wrong (left side) with my right foot.You can guess the rest. A big time kick back when it fired a little and I could feel my boot quickly getting pressure with a swelling foot. I've got some nasty pics around and hobbled for a very long time. Think something got broke inside there.    Those kick starters can really bite back !!

[seanbarney41]

Yeah, earlier this fall,  i must have bruised something in my foot starting my crf450r.  Still bothers me a little after a long day of work, on my feet.  Kick start dirt bikes are #$%*es!

[Stev-o]

  Kick start bikes are #$%*es!

They are!   That is the one thing I dont like about my H1 & H2.

[grcamna2]

it was already chipped when i got it.

Dave,can you blow the rear brakes out with compressed air with that 'chip' on the bottom of the wheel,sort of like an extra port to release trapped brake dust ? I imagine you get some squeal from it

[dave500]

good idea to use it as a cleaning hole!!

[dave500]

well after running those you beaut exxy dual sport Mitas tyres that lasted #$%* all and offered nominal traction i thought id follow the pack and use what works!i put a used but good hand me down rear dunlop DOT 606 and today bought a new pirrelli mt21 DOT  rallycross front,the front was 105 bucks,the mitas was near 180!!,those mitas are a #$%* to break off,man ive done tyres for years by hand,even as a truck owner,and ive got proper levers!im gonna leave the rim over night with lube spray on the spoke nuts so i can tweak em up,ill fit the new one in the morning,i think i can tell the old worn Mitas tyre is heavier than the new MT21 just by hand?

[grcamna2]

Dave,that tire lever just to the right of the hammer is a Beaut,does it help you quite a bit ?

[dave500]

yep,its got great leverage angle,its a michelin brand.

[grcamna2]

yep,its got great leverage angle,its a michelin brand.

I have a few of the same Michelin style,only smaller(16") for use on motorcycle tires;have you used that one on automobiles ?

[dave500]

ha ha #$%* car tyres man!!i used to do my split rim mack truck years ago road side.

[grcamna2]

Dave,I've been told by fellows who worked at truck places decades ago that split-rim truck tires are some of the worst to have to deal with.

A neighbor,Vinny who put the tatoo on my arm worked at Mayflower truck shop Milford,CT. in the 70's:he was very vivid about one he saw fly off !

[dave500]

maybe danger?the tyres come off easy enough?(with some gut busting sweat!)if the clip ring aint secure and seated itll fly off under pressure?id sooner do a split rim than  tubeless truck tyre road side?matter of fact i dont wanna be doing any tyre road side!!

[Terry in Australia]

We had a couple of incidents of guys being badly injured repairing Army truck tyres on split rims (I saw a pic of a workshop with a dent in the roof that was caused by the body of a guy who was launched into it by half a split rim) so we had to have "Tyre Cages" at each army unit's transport section for disassembling/reassembling split rims when they changed tyres. Most of the drivers thought they were a pain in the arse, but I saw one that was quite badly warped after a tyre had let go, so they did the job.

[dave500]

oh yeah!even at only say 50/60 psi if they let go its major!!you can get dead or really #$%*ed up in an instant.

[jgger]

When we did split rims at the service station I worked at as a kid, we put them under the lift to air them up.

[Terry in Australia]

Tht reminded me of when I was a kid working at at gas station after school and on weekends. My school mate, Hughie Bowden (RIP 35 years ago when he rode his Harley thru the grill of a Kenworth) got me a job at the local Shell gas station. The owner, Dave, was in his late 30's I suppose, and he'd get bored on the weekends and leave me in charge, when I was 12 or 13 years old.

One saturday afternoon, a big tough looking guy rode in on his Matchless 500. He asked me if he could use our oxy/acetylene torch to braze a clutch cable? Dave had a strict "No-one in the workshop, and no loaning tools" policy, so I said, "Yeah, sure". I watched him brazing the lug on his cable, and he introduced himself as Ray, and asked me if I was into bikes? I proudly told him I had a Yamaha GT50. He thanked me for letting him use the oxy, and asked me what time I knocked off work? I told him 5pm.

Dave turned up just before I was due to knock off work and asked me how the afternoon was, and I just said, "Pretty quiet", and then we both turned around to watch Ray ride in on a magnificent Vincent Black Shadow. Ray told me to get on the back, and off we went. I remember at one stage looking over his shoulder at the big Smiths speedo that was hovering around the 100 MPH mark, and was impressed. He then dropped me off at my place, which surprised me as I didn't tell him where I lived?

My dad was out the front of the house and Ray gave him a wave, but Dad just glared at him and told me to get inside, as Ray rode off on that beautiful bike. I didn't know for many years later, that Ray and Dad were cousins, but Ray was a member of the Gypsy Jokers MC, and considered by the family as a "Bad Egg". Personally, I thought he was pretty cool.    

[gpzkat]

so I said, "Yeah, sure".  hahaha cool story.  Really cool.  I got nothin like it but it did trigger a memory.

I worked in a gas station off US 10 in Ontario Ca around 77/78 and spent a lot of time breaking up fights, the lines and even/odd days frayed the nerves.

One day a guy came in with his '66 440 Chrysler Newport and he'd had enough of this gassing up business. I missed him giving the car to me for free by seconds.  He just gave the keys and car to the other kid working with me who had a blown (I mean trashed, not supercharged) 383 in a '68 Charger. He was quite happy for the freebie.