What a shame about the little Yamaha, Terry. How far did you get? My record for shortest distance after reassembly is about 40 ft, hope you made it a bit more than that.
I also would like to thank all the participants/posters/ lurkers in this thread. It has been enjoyable to see and read about not only different parts of my country but different parts of the world. I think that because most of the rides posted have been solo, Frank's Challenge has given us two wheeled hermits an opportunity to bring others along on each trip. I'm ready for 2024!
To all of you:
Ride safe, ride your own ride, and ride often.
HAPPY NEW YEAR & R.I.P. Frank, thanks for the memories and encouragement you have given us.
Jim/ jgger/ he/ him/ what/ why/ if/ maybe/ whatever.........I'm going for a ride!
Thanks Jim, the little Yamaha is a beaut, started first kick again yesterday and once we discovered that the “off” position on the petcock (which no longer leaks after installing CB750 petcock seals) is the opposite of CB750’s it started right up again so Spotty put an old number plate on it while I put my helmet on. Took off up the street and was really impressed with how powerful it is (for a 250) and did maybe a mile or so riding around the streets near his house, when suddenly I lost all gears! Bugger!
My first instinct was that somehow the chain had come off, but no, it was still there in place and the bike was still rolling. Simon said that I could remove the transmission cover and get a look into the workings of the gearbox so we removed the cover, which necessitated removing the kicker, gearshift pedal, oil pump assembly etc, but actually couldn’t see much. We’d dropped the fresh oil out of the gearbox and no chunks of metal came out, so we were getting more confused.
I thought that perhaps there was a way of looking into the gearbox from the sprocket side, so undid the 4 screws holding it on, and, there it was(or wasn’t…) the front sprocket nut and lock washer were both missing and the sprocket had slid sideways off its splines and was just sitting on the threaded portion of the output shaft. No damage, just no nut. Bugger. I only had to push it a couple of blocks back to Spotty’s place so no biggie, but of course it’s a weird super fine thread.
I googled it and can buy a new one from CMSNL for $65 AUD (or around $40 USD) for the nut and lock washer, so not unhappy with that, but when I got home I ratted through my leftover Suzuki T350 parts and found a nut that might fit so I’ll take it over to Spotty’s today and see if it does, but if it doesn’t I’ll just order one from CMSNL.
A guy was advertising some DS7 parts on FB which included a speedo, damper rod assembly and correct 26mm Mikuni carbs. I contacted him a few days ago to see if he’d sell them separately and he got back to me last night and said I could have them for $150 (100 USD) plus postage from Brisbane which I thought was very reasonable. I won’t bother installing the Mikuni carbs as the Ebay knockoffs seem to work fine, but I’ll throw them in with the bike when I sell it.
Apart from the above, the little blue beast runs like a charm, so I’m pretty happy, and after all the crap I’ve been eating over Christmas, the exercise pushing it home probably did me some good. Thank God it’s a little Yamaha DS6 and not a Triumph Rocket III!
