Topic: Terry's POS 1969 Suzuki T350 Redneck Reincarnation.

[Terry in Australia]

Well it was another beautiful day on Sunday, one week out from an Aussie winter and I was tempted to go for another ride on one of my bikes, but as I wandered out into the patio (my "Winter Workshop") I looked at the pile of 1969 Suzuki T350 parts that have recently arrived from Keith in Ohio, and realised that I had almost enough bits to put the thing together, so so I decided that I'd spend my day assembling the engine.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back in January I was on a "Wheeling and dealing high" after scoring the F2, K0, CL90 and Yamaha RT3. I needed some bits and spotted an ad for DT1 parts that I thought would work on the RT3 and got into a conversation with Dion, the seller of the DT1 parts and found out he had some Z1 parts I needed, so there were multiple trades done, some money changed hands, and I also "scored" a 1969 Suzuki T350 that had been off the road since 1973 with less than 12,000 miles on it. Dion did alright out of me too, he got a minty GPZ1100 engine and a 1978 KZ1000 frame that I had spare, plus some other parts.

I'd only seen the T350 in a couple of pics, it was missing most of the tins, the exhausts were pretty rotten, rims were rusty etc etc, but it wasn't until he'd pulled it off the trailer that the true horror became evident. The daydream I had that the little Suzuki had fallen over in a covered barn and was probably a little bit seized, was turned into an instant nightmare when I realised that the wheels, which were both rotten, would no longer turn. Yes, the bike had been laying on it's side for many years, but not in a barn, in an open field..........

T350 Misery 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On closer inspection, things only got worse.

Terry's T350 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Misery 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Misery 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Misery 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Misery 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Misery 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

At this stage you're probably thinking, "Well yeah, lots of rust, but probably fixable" yes? Well I need to get some sleep, but tomorrow I'll continue to entertain you with my stupidity as time has gone on. Spoiler alert, it only gets worse.........

[PeWe]

Good luck with your new build Terry!
Like finding an old crashed airplane on a field.
Owner burried under bike, lost on a ride 50 years ago?
A "Fieldster"

I understand your Suzuki 2-stroke interest. I know one guy with a Suzuki T500 Cobra 1969.
It look really nice and its sound wake up very old vague memories from when 2-strokers were running around.

If your T350 will  act like an RD350 its rather quick. I tested one in the early 80's. It woke up very sudden and kicked away surprisingly quick up to 160kmh.
I was used to stock CB750 with 4-1.

[BPellerine]

only one question terry why?,haha

[Stev-o]

only one question terry why?,haha

+1 Why Why Why??!!   

Rusted exhaust on a two stroke?  Nearly every one that I have has original exhaust!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, and yes, I can understand the "Why?" questions, no sane man would ever consider going any further with a bike looking this bad, but no-one I know ever accused me of sanity, and I have a psychological issue where, if I get something in my head, I can't leave it alone, until it has either turned to dust, or is ready to ride. Oh well, things are never as bad as they first seem right? Well..........

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Surprisingly, the gauges look really good!

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[RAFster122s]

You sure this wasn't in a swamp?

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yep, it is without doubt the worst bike I've ever bought David, but as Per has mentioned above, they really are a special little bike. In 1972 a stock standard Suzuki T350 (actually only 315cc) won the "Castrol 6 Hour" endurance race here in Oz outright, beating Kawasaki H2 750's, Honda CB750's, Ducati 750's etc etc. The Honda and Kawasaki teams protested, because the Suzuki had the horn moved to another position on the bike to allow a little more cooling air across the engine, so the Suzuki was disqualified, more to placate Honda and Kawasaki who were major sponsors of the race.

Back in the 70's when I bought my shiny new CB750F0 I rode it around to my mate Pete's place, and he showed me his Suzuki T500 "Cobra" which is just a bigger version of the T250/350. It was a beast of a thing, I've always loved smokey 2 strokes, and it was a joy hearing it making the distinctive ping ping ping tak tak tak ping ping ping etc, note of a big (for the time) 2 stroke. It also had the goods on my CB750, and I spent more time shrouded in two stroke smoke as I tried to keep up with him. I suppose what I'm saying here, is that there was an emotional tie to this little bike, that influenced my decision to rebuild it, at any cost. (which has been awfully, awfully costly......) And finally in my defence, Your Honor, I owned a later T250 for a short time in the late 90's, and sold it as I needed the cash, and am still kicking myself for doing so.

The engine was seized. We've all seen engines that were seized "un-seized" using the tried and (possibly) true ATF/Acetone mix, so I poured some down each spark plug hole and tried to turn the engine over several days, but to no effect. I needed to pull the engine, and to pull the engine I needed to remove the exhausts (or remains thereof, only one pipe was partially complete, the other had rusted off at the header, as per the earlier pics. There was no way the threaded collars were going to come off with no amount of penetrant, heat, or mechanical violence. In the end, the angle grinder came out, and I cut the headers off and pulled the engine.

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The heads came off very quickly, thanks to my big Dewalt rattle gun, so I could take a look at the pistons and bores. It didn't look good.......

T350 Sh1t Sunday 7 Feb 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Tapping/bashing the pistons wouldn't move them at all, so I made a special "pusher" tool, to maintain pressure on one piston or the other.

Sh1tty T350 piston pusher Monday 8 Feb 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sh1tty T350 piston pusher Monday 8 Feb 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sh1tty T350 piston pusher Monday 8 Feb 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was a fantastic tool, and I was very proud of my engineering prowess. (plus I was probably drunk) Sadly it didn't do sh1t, and I actually snapped off a cylinder stud (which are way thicker than CB750 cylinder studs) without moving the pistons one millimetre. Bugger..........

[RAFster122s]

I take that back, a Croc was using the bike as its anchor for the houseboat it took over from its tasty former residents who went missing and no one came looking for them...

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, it's interesting how the human mind works David, I brought home a CX500 years ago that was a good runner (but rough cosmetically) and I've let it rot under a tarp for the last 10 years or so, with no guilt. Well, maybe just a little, but I wouldn't put a CX500 resto ahead of this little smoker. Funny, eh?

Anyway, moving right along, I was still hoping to somehow save this project, as bad as it seemed. I couldn't move the pistons at all, so after some discussion with my mate Fred (5 years my senior, not to mention he's a formally trained tool maker, so knows his sh1t) I drilled through the crowns of the pistons so that I could release the cylinder blocks from the cases, and hopefully the crank and lower cases could be saved. I found a nice sharp drill bit and went to town.

Turd 350 9 Feb 2021 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I then drilled/smashed the top and sides off the piston, and got the cylinder off. Sadly, I couldn't budge the other one. On a two stroke, as you all probably know, the inlet and exhaust ports are cast/machined into the cylinders, not the heads, and the 48(?) years that this wreck had been laying in a field (or a swamp, river, drain, whatever) the pistons had "grown" into the ports, and weren't coming out, no matter what. OK, time to give up? Nope, "not this little black duck" as Daffy would say before the WOKE police decided that's probably racist, and offensive. I tipped the engine upside down and unbolted all the case bolts, and split the cases.

Turd 350 9 Feb 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Turd 350 9 Feb 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Turd 350 9 Feb 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Turd 350 9 Feb 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

There wasn't a drop of oil in the gearbox, so the gears were almost as rusted up as the crank etc. It was safe to say, that the engine, along with the wheels, forks, shocks, fenders, pipes, electrics, carbs etc, were scrap. Time to give up now? Well Dion and I had kept in contact, and after a couple of false leads, he found a seller in the US that had a good complete bottom end, so he paid for the engine's bottom end, and I paid for the shipping. I'd found a seller in Oz who'd sold me a set of good 250 cylinders, I bought new 250 pistons, but when I looked at the carb mounts and much smaller ports on the 250, and checked it's specs, decided I wanted to keep it as a 350.

I did better with other parts. I found a minty front wheel here, with the original 1969 tyre, that actually still holds air, not that I'd be game to ride it too far on 52 year old rubber. Another seller had a minty rear wheel with a brand new Metzler(?) tyre on it, so was worth the silly money I paid for it. I bought a nice original exhaust from another seller in the US that was advertised on Ebay as being for a T350, but it wasn't so that was a waste of the better part of a grand, with shipping........ 

Keith Davis in Ohio really came to the party for me. He found another 1969 T350 with a stuck engine, and sold me the complete top end, carbs, pipes, fenders, handlebars, forks, switches, wiring loom, etc. Needless to say it cost a bomb, especially as it was Fedexed from Ohio to Florida, then Florida to me, but the parts were in exceptional condition.

T350 parts and CB750 cams 11 May 2021 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 parts and CB750 cams 11 May 2021 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 parts and CB750 cams 11 May 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 parts and CB750 cams 11 May 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 parts and CB750 cams 11 May 2021 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd assumed that one cylinder was damaged, so bought a set of OEM 2nd oversize pistons, but when the parts arrived, the cylinders were both fine, so I hunted around, and found that my Japanese mate at Cruisinimage in Japan was selling standard piston kits, plus new needle roller bearings for the wrist pins, for around $100 USD, plus another 20 or 30 for shipping. I bought them too.

It was time to get the rusty, but solid frame, swingarm and centre stand blasted. Luckily for me I got it back on a nice dry day, so hit it with the old standby, Rustoleum gloss black. Looks good.

T350 quick paint job 12 May 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Time to start putting the engine together. More tomorrow.

[grcamna2]

Terry,Keith Davis supplied you with a stash of Excellent parts to jump-right-into your 'T350 Lazarus Build' 
Did the frame seem ok after you had it blasted,no serious rot ?
How's the engine doing now ?

[Terry in Australia]

All good Bill, they are a very rigid little frame, and quite heavy, so no wonder they handled so well, back in the day. No rot in the frame, just everything that was hanging off it. Keith really looked after me, everything he sent me exceeded my expectations, and he's a great guy to boot. I've asked him to find me some 1969 Yamaha DS6 parts now, as that little 250 needs to be back on the road too.

[Short shins]

Great bikes! It was the equal of a RD350. Just didn't have the good press the Yamaha had I guess
Back in 1978 I had a 1972 T350 as my first bike. (Well first bike was really a Triumph Tiger Cub but the less said about that the better)
Had a ton of fun on it, Touring commuting plus general hooning around. Turned it into a GT350 with the addition of a GT250 disc front end
Had a bikini fairing and clip ons for a short time. Sadly the fairing got destroyed after about a week, in a coasting race down Horokiwi hill, A highside and the motor wasn't even running! What finally killed it was stripped splines on the gear selector shaft. It was pushed to the back of the shed and put on the to do list..
I ended up giving it to a friend as a parts bike for his T350 street scrambler restoration.

[grcamna2]

Early Suzuki's were built as heavy/durable as Army tanks,although it looks like a PO seriously tried to test how long it would last while underwater..

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yep, it's a crime against humanity leaving perfectly good bikes out in the weather for so long, but there you go, some folks shouldn't be allowed to own machines.

SS, you're right mate, they were wonderful bikes, I remember reading an article in a magazine years ago about a guy who raced a T350 in the US, He'd ride the bike to the event, race the bike all day, then ride it home again, they were ultra reliable bikes. I've shown you pics of the horrible engine that sadly I couldn't save (but was these bikes are "Numbers Matching" I'll keep the old engine cases in case a future owner decides to refurbish them) so it's time to see the "new" engine. This was just the bottom end that Dion paid for, and I paid the shipping from the US, along with the most valuable document a restorer can have, a parts manual:

T350 reincarnation by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Keith had already sold off the other engine parts, but later down the track he found that he had another engine with clutch, shifter shaft, clutch cover etc. 

T350 reincarnation 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It was grotty on the outside as you'd expect, but like new inside. The hardest job for me was removing the original gasket and sanding gasket surface clean.

T350 reincarnation 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I had a new gasket set so installed the clutch cover gasket once I'd installed the clutch and other bits that Keith sent me in one of the many T350 shipments, and I decided to pretty it up by using this "complete engine screw set" from Britain.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Yes I know, I should have spent hours polishing the cases, but tough, I'm a rider not a polisher, so the shiny screws are my only nod towards a "proper" restoration.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The ignition side was just as bare as the clutch side, so once again I asked Keith for whatever he could find, and was lucky to receive another "care package" full of electrical gubbins, and installed it all.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Sadly, the UK sourced "Complete engine screw kit" didn't fit (pun intended) the ignition or final driver covers. OK, this is where some "Red-necking" comes in. I found a screw kit I bought for my long sold XR500, and found some that were the perfect size for the ignition cover.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

None of these were long enough for the final drive cover, so I ratted thru my CB750 stainless steel allen bolt collection, and found some nice shiny new ones that fit perfectly. As Sean says, "If it works good, it looks good". That'll do me.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

OK, OK, if I can find some nice new JIS cross head screws I will install them, but only so I don't need to carry allen keys and 8mm sockets in the tool kit. Anyway, both covers were on, I had a clutch and an ignition, so next job is the top end! More soon.

Suzuki T350 Reincarnation 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Nice to see a real engine there Terry:is this one a T250 bottom-end ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, the engine is all T350, but I believe that the top ends are interchangeable. I actually bought some 250 cylinders, but the ports are way smaller than on the 350 cylinders, and the carb mounting stud spacing is way narrower on the 250, (350 carbs are physically too large and don't fit) Suzuki pulled out all the stops when they built the 350, and I'd be interested to see how much bigger everything is in the T500 engine.

Anyway, it's Friday evening here, my 100(+) mile ride this weekend is dead in the water thanks to another snap 7 day Covid-19 lockdown, so if nothing else, I have plenty of time. Last night I installed the new STD pistons into freshly honed cylinders, and was impressed at how easy they went in, once I clocked the rings so that the little pegs in the ring lands locked the rings into their correct positions. Having two separate cylinder blocks makes it easier still.

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Today after I'd finished "working from home" I cleaned the heads up on the wire wheel attachment on my pedestal grinder (the "face breaker") and the ultrasonic cleaner, to remove 52 years of crud off them, without removing the patina. I put them in my industrial oven to dry @ 200 deg F while I installed the little oil lines from the oil pump, and was happy that I didn't break any. They look kind of cool.

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I hadn't obviously paid enough attention to the inlet manifold gaskets before I installed the cylinders last night, so I thought I better scrape them off in preparation for some new ones. I had to remove the mounting studs to do this, then use my scraper to cut away all the old gasket material, then sand the mounting surface back to bare aluminium. Oh well, it had to be done.....

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Of course the oil lines wouldn't have lasted so long without some covers, so I fished them out of Keith's care package, and threw them in the ultrasonic cleaner. He must have had a hard time removing the screws as most of the heads had been chewed out, so I went to the "Full engine screw set" that failed me miserably last night, but I did manage to find 2 that fit, and was able to clean up the best of the bad ones and reinstall them.

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

By this time I'd also cleaned up the special cylinder stud nuts on the wire wheel, and then pulled the (200 deg F) heads out of the oven wearing my welding gloves (the ones I never wear when I'm actually welding) as oven mitts. As the heads cooled on the concrete patio floor in 45 deg F temps, I slathered some copper grease on the outside of the "nuts" to (hopefully) reduce the chance of them not seating properly, they go thru the head and are a fairly tight fit through the head and cylinder block top sections.

s-l1600 (40) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyhoo, I installed both heads and torqued them down to 25 foot pounds. Usually with CB750 engines with fibre head gaskets I'll torque them down, leave them overnight, loosen them then torque them down again, but the T350 head gaskets are paper thin aluminium gaskets, so no need to re-torque them, tomorrow I'll shove the engine in the frame, and build a bike around it. Still waiting for a few things, but it should look pretty much like a motorcycle by Sunday night.

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T350 Friday 28 May 2021 9c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[PeWe]

That engine look like an old well maintained one! Old alu look is nice.

If it has severe corrosion another thing. That can be cleaned with a water solution of Caustic soda. Not in eyes! Protect them!!
It reacts very quick on alu corrosion. Let it bubble 1 minute max. Rinse with water.
Oxide is now black, polish with steel wool.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Per, being a 2 stroke it must have had a nice coating of 2 stroke oil mist all over it, because there was no corrosion worth mentioning. Not like it's predecessor..........

[MauiK3]

Great old two stroke. I once rode coast to coast here in the US with a friend on his 500 Titan. I was on my K0. The Titan looks like a straw was put into the 350 and blown up. They were also very stout engines, it cruised through the desert with no complaints. If I could find one I'd restore it, very nice bikes, long, handled well.
Suzuki makes great engines. I had a little car with a 3 cylinder Suzuki engine in it, it was indestructible and I could flog it all I wanted to and it still got 45 mpg.
I also had one of their Chevy Trackers 4wd, great little engine.
I wonder about the oil lines, if they broke, would it be difficult to recreate them?

[schwartzstuart6]

Why, Terry, why ??

Sent from my SM-A107F using Tapatalk

[rb550four]

  And  everyone thought Terry was crazy for trying to resurrect that poor little Suzuki. It's coming along nicely now all the useless parts have been replaced with decent ones and the fact that Terry isn't afraid of spending for them, and seems to know the right people for the right parts , and has the time now that he is "working from home" to put this little gem back together. Congratulations Terry, it looks like you'll be riding this one soon !  Crazy is a very misunderstood term , it's a fine line that some of us can lean over and still keep our balance.  Crazy like a fox is more like it, nothing will hold him back from entering that hen house , but he's coming out with a chicken.
   Well done , I can hardly wait to see it finished.

[grcamna2]

Terry,That fellow Keith really 'came through for you' with all those excellent used parts;That engine looks 'light years' better than the one you removed from the old dead looking bike:a difference of Night and DAY.
I've always enjoyed the vintage Suzuki 2-stroke oil pumps & lines,very Heavy Duty,quality things.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, it was never gonna be a long 100 page thread because I've certainly had some misgivings about locating parts for this thing, but Keith (and quite a few others) have supplied me pretty much everything I need, and the good thing about "little" bikes is that they're easy to put together. I am encouraged by the positive responses here, and as I hate someone stripping perfectly good bikes to sell the parts, and yeah, I do get the "sacrifice one, so many more can live" thing, Keith assured me that all the parts came off non runners, the bottom end is off one bike, the top end off another, etc.

I would love to import an original well maintained T350 or T500 from the US (none here) but there are all sorts of laws here about importing vehicles due to the Oz government going nutso about asbestos etc, and shipping a complete bike is a nightmare, so importing all the parts I needed was probably cheaper and definitely easier.

I love the phrase "Crazy is a very misunderstood term, it's a fine line that some of us can lean over and still keep our balance" and I'll not only remember it, but add it to my signature line, that's one of the best things I've read that describes what I like to do. Thanks RB, I hope you don't mind me using it? OK, it's a balmy 50 degrees outside, so I'm gonna rug up and try and turn an engine and a pile of parts into a motorcycle again.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry.... as usual, immensely entertaining. Fantastic progress. Reading your stuff gets me back in the shop every morning. Keep it up!

[ken65]

I wish I had more get up and go. As soon as I'm near my bikes. I start beering and look at them. If I get bored I'll run a micro fibre cloth over them to wipe off the dust that accumulated from yesterdays wiping down.

Enjoy your little 2t Terrance.