Topic: The Happy-ish Thread. Share your small wins and mixed blessings.

[Gurp]

Well finished orientation yesterday and worked till 3p.
Talked to the boss man and he swapped my schedule out so I could train on 3rd shift instead of second. So that worked out great for me so I won't miss my kiddos for 3 months.

First night is winding to a close and it's been busy. Between scattered repair calls and setting up scrubbing and organizing my new work box.

Sunday night starts 7-12s till June.
Gotta get them hours in to get out of my probation period.

Sent from my LE2127 using Tapatalk

[BenelliSEI]

Gurp…. Curious. After working 7-12’s, how many days off? Never done that.

[Gurp]

Gurp…. Curious. After working 7-12’s, how many days off? Never done that.

None. I'm going to work everyday till June.


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[Kelly E]

Gurp…. Curious. After working 7-12’s, how many days off? Never done that.

None. I'm going to work everyday till June.


Sent from my LE2127 using Tapatalk

Well damn, ain't you the hard worker. 

[BenelliSEI]

Gurp…. Curious. After working 7-12’s, how many days off? Never done that.

None. I'm going to work everyday till June.


Sent from my LE2127 using Tapatalk

Well damn, ain't you the hard worker. 

+1 to that! Be safe.

[Gurp]

It's union millwrights. I won't claim to have to be a hard worker among their company but it will be easy to be a standout when the bar is set low.
But I need the hours to get out of my probationary period and with everything going on I need the money as well. So it's really a Win Win for me.

Last night I cleaned and Scrubbed the tool box they left to me. 5S aka good housekeeping is not something they have there. It took 3 hours between called to clean that and the random tools I could gather.

Calls are mostly very simple in nature compared to what I'm used to a bit more physical bc everything is big and heavy.
Overall my first night left a good taste for the place

[grcamna2]

It's union millwrights. I won't claim to have to be a hard worker among their company but it will be easy to be a standout when the bar is set low.
But I need the hours to get out of my probationary period and with everything going on I need the money as well. So it's really a Win Win for me.

Last night I cleaned and Scrubbed the tool box they left to me. 5S aka good housekeeping is not something they have there. It took 3 hours between called to clean that and the random tools I could gather.

Calls are mostly very simple in nature compared to what I'm used to a bit more physical bc everything is big and heavy.
Overall my first night left a good taste for the place

 

[Terry in Australia]

Well I’m still chasing some electrical issues on the DT250. Yesterday I went for a ride and once again around town it was fine, but started missing and farting between around 40-60MPH. I brought it back home and waited for it to cool down before I was going to go out and do some work on it.

One other issue was that, apart from the indicator light blinking away in the tach, the neutral light, high beam light, oil level warning light and gauge illumination lights weren’t working. I pulled the gauges for a better look and discovered that apart from a few generations of spiders raising their families inside the back of the tach, everything else looked nice and clean.

All of the connections for everything in the headlight shell are clean I was shaking my head a bit. I pulled the bulbs, and using a battery and a couple of jumper leads I found that all of the bulbs were blown, apart from the blinker globe! I remembered that I had some old instrument bulbs in the garage so tested them, only to realise that because they were out of mostly 12 volt CB750’s, they illuminated, but only weakly. Bugger. Oh well, I ordered some more 6V bulbs on EBay so I won’t bother reassembling anything until they arrive.

No biggie, I need to wait until I finish jumping through hoops to get my club plate before I can ride it, and I think I’ll pull the carb and check the reed valve as Jim has suggested before I get too worried about the miss. It’s annoying, but I’m happy that at least I know that I have power to the bulb sockets (I tested them with my one good bulb) so I don’t need to go looking for some burned/broken wires.

[grcamna2]

Well I’m still chasing some electrical issues on the DT250. Yesterday I went for a ride and once again around town it was fine, but started missing and farting between around 40-60MPH. I brought it back home and waited for it to cool down before I was going to go out and do some work on it.

One other issue was that, apart from the indicator light blinking away in the tach, the neutral light, high beam light, oil level warning light and gauge illumination lights weren’t working. I pulled the gauges for a better look and discovered that apart from a few generations of spiders raising their families inside the back of the tach, everything else looked nice and clean.

All of the connections for everything in the headlight shell are clean I was shaking my head a bit. I pulled the bulbs, and using a battery and a couple of jumper leads I found that all of the bulbs were blown, apart from the blinker globe! I remembered that I had some old instrument bulbs in the garage so tested them, only to realise that because they were out of mostly 12 volt CB750’s, they illuminated, but only weakly. Bugger. Oh well, I ordered some more 6V bulbs on EBay so I won’t bother reassembling anything until they arrive.

No biggie, I need to wait until I finish jumping through hoops to get my club plate before I can ride it, and I think I’ll pull the carb and check the reed valve as Jim has suggested before I get too worried about the miss. It’s annoying, but I’m happy that at least I know that I have power to the bulb sockets (I tested them with my one good bulb) so I don’t need to go looking for some burned/broken wires.

Terry,how's your points/plate w/ condenser ? 
Something might be fouled behind that rotor.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, it’s an electronic ignition in this model so not quite as easy to diagnose as points. New coil and plug, so unless the source coil behind the rotor is damaged or the “black box” is fried, I’m at a bit of a loss. I’ll check the float level to make sure it’s right, because it almost feels like it’s running out of fuel, but I’ve stripped and cleaned the fuel petcock (which was immaculately clean as was the inside of the tank) and it made no difference, so the only things I haven’t checked are the float levels nor have I pulled the reed block. I did stick my fingers in there to make sure the reed bock still had reeds on it, but I haven’t examined them closely.

I also need to trace the ground wire for a break somewhere because I had to make several extra ground wires to make the blinkers work. The bike’s been off the road since 1988 with only 9000 miles in the odo, and I always wonder why some bike's get parked so early in their lives, so who knows? Maybe this was the reason? I also tested the charging system with the engine running and it’s putting out 9.2 volts which seems a bit High for a 6V system, so it’s possible that the rec/reg is faulty? Oh well, if I can’t fix it I’ll take it over to Jeff at Ace Motorcycles and get him to take a look. There’s a very rough 1978 DT250 for sale on FB Marketplace that allegedly has “good spark” going cheap, and I’m tempted to buy it for some extra parts, that I can swap into mine and see if it makes a difference.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, it’s an electronic ignition in this model so not quite as easy to diagnose as points. New coil and plug, so unless the source coil behind the rotor is damaged or the “black box” is fried, I’m at a bit of a loss. I’ll check the float level to make sure it’s right, because it almost feels like it’s running out of fuel, but I’ve stripped and cleaned the fuel petcock (which was immaculately clean as was the inside of the tank) and it made no difference, so the only things I haven’t checked are the float levels nor have I pulled the reed block. I did stick my fingers in there to make sure the reed bock still had reeds on it, but I haven’t examined them closely.

I also need to trace the ground wire for a break somewhere because I had to make several extra ground wires to make the blinkers work. The bike’s been off the road since 1988 with only 9000 miles in the odo, and I always wonder why some bike's get parked so early in their lives, so who knows? Maybe this was the reason? I also tested the charging system with the engine running and it’s putting out 9.2 volts which seems a bit High for a 6V system, so it’s possible that the rec/reg is faulty? Oh well, if I can’t fix it I’ll take it over to Jeff at Ace Motorcycles and get him to take a look. There’s a very rough 1978 DT250 for sale on FB Marketplace that allegedly has “good spark” going cheap, and I’m tempted to buy it for some extra parts, that I can swap into mine and see if it makes a difference.

Terry,I would be certainly tempted to 'jump on' that FB 78' DT250E just for the parts.

What model/year is your DT250 ?

[jgger]

Terry, what does the plug look like? A 2 stroke will present a readable plug much quicker than a 4 stroke simply for the same run time the 2 stroke has fired twice as much. If the plug is unusually clean or white, then you have an air leak. Could be crank seals or a base gasket or torn manifold rubber. If it is leaning out, run it until it blubbers,  then apply the choke at least partially. If it cleans out, then you are sucking extra air. If it doesn't help/change then it is probably electrical.

Will it go into its farting mode in neutral and stationary?  If it doesn't I would suspect possible crank seals. Also check the mating areas between the carb and Reed block or the Reed block and the cylinder.

But all that is just guessing on my end. Have you verified the timing?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, sadly the ‘78 DT250 was a bust. Turns out that the ‘79 was the first model with electronic ignition and the ‘78 runs points. Thought about buying it anyway and seeing if I could convert mine to points, but as it turns out, the seller couldn’t get a spark out of the ‘78 anyway, so I saved myself a 150 mile round trip, as there wasn’t much else on his bike that I could have used.

Pretty sure it’s not crank seals as it’d be blowing smoke as it sucked in the gearbox oil, and now, with the oil pump bled and primed, it hardly blows any smoke at all. I tried putting the choke on as I was riding along, and it immediately tried to die, so doubt that’s the issue. I will pull the carb and the reed valve housing to check the reed valve and ensure there are no air leaks, but, surprisingly, all the rubbers are still nice and soft, unlike the ones on a CB750 that go rock hard after a few years.

I’m leaning towards a suspect CDI box. I’ve been reading lots of posts on various DT sites, and the common theme is that a duff CDI box will still allow a DT to start and run, but the “advance” mechanism stops working. Mine starts first or second kick every time, but starts to miss and fart after around 4K RPM, or about 50 MPH. It’s fine around town when I’m just piddling along with traffic, but cranking on the throttle in 5th gear will do nothing, until I back it off, which could be an incorrect float level, or a bad CDI box.

I’m tempted to buy a new CDI box, there doesn’t appear to be any new OEM ones around, but a company in Britain makes a “New improved” version for not a lot of money, so if playing around with the carb and reed block bears no fruit, I might have to order one. I’ll have another play with it after work tonight. I doubt that it’s a timing issue, the nut holding the flywheel on the magneto doesn’t look like it’s ever had a spanner on it, and it doesn’t ping, or kick back, so unless it’s seriously retarded (can we still say that?) I don’t think that’s the problem.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, it’s an electronic ignition in this model so not quite as easy to diagnose as points. New coil and plug, so unless the source coil behind the rotor is damaged or the “black box” is fried, I’m at a bit of a loss. I’ll check the float level to make sure it’s right, because it almost feels like it’s running out of fuel, but I’ve stripped and cleaned the fuel petcock (which was immaculately clean as was the inside of the tank) and it made no difference, so the only things I haven’t checked are the float levels nor have I pulled the reed block. I did stick my fingers in there to make sure the reed bock still had reeds on it, but I haven’t examined them closely.

I also need to trace the ground wire for a break somewhere because I had to make several extra ground wires to make the blinkers work. The bike’s been off the road since 1988 with only 9000 miles in the odo, and I always wonder why some bike's get parked so early in their lives, so who knows? Maybe this was the reason? I also tested the charging system with the engine running and it’s putting out 9.2 volts which seems a bit High for a 6V system, so it’s possible that the rec/reg is faulty? Oh well, if I can’t fix it I’ll take it over to Jeff at Ace Motorcycles and get him to take a look. There’s a very rough 1978 DT250 for sale on FB Marketplace that allegedly has “good spark” going cheap, and I’m tempted to buy it for some extra parts, that I can swap into mine and see if it makes a difference.

Terry,I would be certainly tempted to 'jump on' that FB 78' DT250E just for the parts.

What model/year is your DT250 ?

Terry?  What year is yours ?

[Terry in Australia]

As per my previous posts Bill, 1979.

[jgger]

Terry would a timing light shed any light ( pun, right back you) on an irradic spark/ missing? Just throwing out ideas.................you can throw out my ideas too 😁.

[grcamna2]

As per my previous posts Bill, 1979.

The 79' DT250F was the first year for CDi in AUS  ?

[Tracksnblades1]

Well I’m still chasing some electrical issues on the DT250. Yesterday I went for a ride and once again around town it was fine, but started missing and farting between around 40-60MPH. I brought it back home and waited for it to cool down before I was going to go out and do some work on it.

One other issue was that, apart from the indicator light blinking away in the tach, the neutral light, high beam light, oil level warning light and gauge illumination lights weren’t working. I pulled the gauges for a better look and discovered that apart from a few generations of spiders raising their families inside the back of the tach, everything else looked nice and clean.

All of the connections for everything in the headlight shell are clean I was shaking my head a bit. I pulled the bulbs, and using a battery and a couple of jumper leads I found that all of the bulbs were blown, apart from the blinker globe! I remembered that I had some old instrument bulbs in the garage so tested them, only to realise that because they were out of mostly 12 volt CB750’s, they illuminated, but only weakly. Bugger. Oh well, I ordered some more 6V bulbs on EBay so I won’t bother reassembling anything until they arrive.

No biggie, I need to wait until I finish jumping through hoops to get my club plate before I can ride it, and I think I’ll pull the carb and check the reed valve as Jim has suggested before I get too worried about the miss. It’s annoying, but I’m happy that at least I know that I have power to the bulb sockets (I tested them with my one good bulb) so I don’t need to go looking for some burned/broken wires.

If your DT250 is like the later DT400 it has a magnetic pickup for the ignition trigger. As well as the riveted flywheel that must be removed to gain access. Your symptoms are identical to my old dt400 when the trigger pickup hole(s) were  full of magnetic crap…It ran perfect until it got to the retard timing rpm an then acted up, missing and backfiring and preventing it from climbing on the pipe…

I had just bought the non running bike and did a top end…ported the jug and picture windowed the piston. I thought I had went to far with the porting, but by chance bought a puller and pulled the flywheel. After finding and cleaning the trigger hole(s) it cost me a new pair of jeans my wife (girlfriend at the time) had just got me…😘 looped it when it climbed on the pipe…😇

[Terry in Australia]

Well I’m still chasing some electrical issues on the DT250. Yesterday I went for a ride and once again around town it was fine, but started missing and farting between around 40-60MPH. I brought it back home and waited for it to cool down before I was going to go out and do some work on it.

One other issue was that, apart from the indicator light blinking away in the tach, the neutral light, high beam light, oil level warning light and gauge illumination lights weren’t working. I pulled the gauges for a better look and discovered that apart from a few generations of spiders raising their families inside the back of the tach, everything else looked nice and clean.

All of the connections for everything in the headlight shell are clean I was shaking my head a bit. I pulled the bulbs, and using a battery and a couple of jumper leads I found that all of the bulbs were blown, apart from the blinker globe! I remembered that I had some old instrument bulbs in the garage so tested them, only to realise that because they were out of mostly 12 volt CB750’s, they illuminated, but only weakly. Bugger. Oh well, I ordered some more 6V bulbs on EBay so I won’t bother reassembling anything until they arrive.

No biggie, I need to wait until I finish jumping through hoops to get my club plate before I can ride it, and I think I’ll pull the carb and check the reed valve as Jim has suggested before I get too worried about the miss. It’s annoying, but I’m happy that at least I know that I have power to the bulb sockets (I tested them with my one good bulb) so I don’t need to go looking for some burned/broken wires.

If your DT250 is like the later DT400 it has a magnetic pickup for the ignition trigger. As well as the riveted flywheel that must be removed to gain access. Your symptoms are identical to my old dt400 when the trigger pickup hole(s) were  full of magnetic crap…It ran perfect until it got to the retard timing rpm an then acted up, missing and backfiring and preventing it from climbing on the pipe…

I had just bought the non running bike and did a top end…ported the jug and picture windowed the piston. I thought I had went to far with the porting, but by chance bought a puller and pulled the flywheel. After finding and cleaning the trigger hole(s) it cost me a new pair of jeans my wife (girlfriend at the time) had just got me…😘 looped it when it climbed on the pipe…😇

Now that’s an interesting point! (Pun intended, as expected I’m drunk as I tap this into my phone) I think I’ve got a puller that I bought for my old RT360, I’ll remove the flywheel tomorrow (when I’m relatively sober again) and take a peek! Thanks mate!

Yes Bill, 1979 was the first year that the DT250 had electronic ignitions worldwide from what I’ve been told on the DT FB page. I just watched a painfully long video on pressure testing a 2 stroke engine for air leaks, fell asleep and woke up to find a moth had drowned in my ginger beer. Lucky moth, that’s how I’d like to go…

Sitting out here in the patio having a cigarette and suddenly a fire truck comes screaming up my street with lights flashing and sirens blaring and stops across the road at the unit where I had to break up a drunken fight a couple of years ago. (Renters, ugghhhh) I told the wife I couldn’t smell smoke but she said she could, but then the lady who must have called the fire brigade apologised to them and they got back in their truck and drove off. It was a bit disappointing, it’d be nice if those units burned down, we’ve had a few incidents with the various tenants misbehaving over the 23 years we’ve been living here. Moths taste funny.

[Don R]

 This morning, I realized tomorrow is primary day here and I'm an election judge. Glad I didn't forget.
 The downer part is my kids are worried about the safety of doing that.

[Terry in Australia]

This morning, I realized tomorrow is primary day here and I'm an election judge. Glad I didn't forget.
 The downer part is my kids are worried about the safety of doing that.

Best of luck with that Don, do you have to supply your own wig, gown and gavel?

[Terry in Australia]

Well they say that “Good things come to those who wait”, and they might be right. I contacted the seller of the (very rough) 1977 DT250 to see if he’d sold it yesterday and he replied that no, he’d been screwed around by some tyre kickers, and was sick of it, so if I still wanted it, I could have it for $300, ($200 USD) half the original asking price.

It was a quiet day “working from home” so I jumped in my little truck and did a quick 130 mile drive round trip and picked it up. It’s rough, but the engine looks to be ok, as does the frame, forks and wheels. The exhaust system’s header pipe was rusted right through, but the end baffle assembly was there, and I needed that piece to cobble together an extension so that I could install a smaller aftermarket end baffle on my bike, as the OEM baffle/spark arrestor is known to be very restrictive, but I didn’t want to chop mine up, in case I need to sell the bike one day.

After a couple of hours I wandered outside and removed the end baffle assembly from the donor bike and chopped off the baffle (which had been gutted) and harvested another section of tube (which had a 3mm thick lining of carbon) and welded up the pipe I needed to reach the shorter aftermarket baffle. I ran out of light/interest before I finished it, but gave it a coat of Rustoleum paint before I put the tools away for the night.

Tonight I’ll finish it and mount the new end baffle, and see how it goes. Tomorrow I think I’ll play with the engine on the donor bike and get it running, then decide whether to keep it for spares for my white DT, or take it to a swap meet next month and move it on. Even in the sh1t state it’s in (no lights, gauges, plastics etc) if it’s a runner I should make a few bucks out of it, 2 stroke bikes here are selling for good money right now, and someone will want it for a restoration project.

[BenelliSEI]

Finished another one. Very happy. If it would stop snowing I’d be even happier!

[Terry in Australia]

Looks fantastic John, was it a full restoration or just a tidy up?

[BenelliSEI]

Looks fantastic John, was it a full restoration or just a tidy up?

Terry….. Check the Projects section, been updating regularly for the past 4 months. It was a very clean, low mileage motorcycle, with the wrong year engine. It was missing one spoke in a rear wheel. I found a motor with just the right serial number and one spoke lead to the full job (you know how that happens). Frame and bodywork are all original finishes, so quite the “survivor”.