first rd400 new member saying gday
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:40 pm
Hey lads, just stumbled across this site. Picked up a 77 rd400 a few weeks ago. Been playing with it when time permits. Misses just had a baby. So work on it when im in the good books
Bike is in ok condition overall just needs some sweet lovin and tlc. I started by ripping the tank off and checking its condition. Rust wise just a little surface inside but not too shabby. Fuel was in a pretty rancid state so i flushed all that out. Ripped down the airbox and the filter was chockas with dust and sand and all the foam had disintergrated. Pulled the carbs ofc and checked the reeds. They look to be in good nick as with the carb boots. Internally looked to be ok with no aggrevated wear. I threw my compression tester on it with no reed or carbs, figured thats a close as it will get to WOT. Both read 120ps. i after about 4 kicks.
Pretty stoked bout that so i took lefthand side cover off to reveal one spun out clutch swtup, strippedthat all down and cleaned it, greased it and reassembled. Clutch rod looks good. the whole side was full of dirt sand mud and grass so i stripped seat and covers oil tank and what not and gurnied the engine frame and everywhere else with all the solid shit stuck to it. Pulled right side down to reveal oil pump which appears to have broken its spring but still holds tension and operates with throttle. The tank was dry and both oil lines bunged off to carbs so i am unsure to hook them up again or not.
Striiped the carbys down and had a heap on junk in them. From research looks to be stock jets. When i reassembled them i broke the small white plastic elbow that runs between carbs. Anyone have a solution for that?? i remounted the carbs, put new filters on and new fuel lines, and flushed the tank ready for fuel.
SO anyways, i decided to test for spark, Right side strong nothing on left. Wriggled wires and swapped orange to grey on coils, strong left no right. Stripped back both tension leads, refitted them. swapped coil wires back to normal and made sure connections were ok. Solid spark from both coils so i was pretty confident it would start. Supershit was having 15% of NGKs so i bought some iridium bpr8eix or what ever they are.
Installed them, had good spark from the coil to plug, installed plugs, fuel tank back on, filled with about 2lts of 32:1 premix, opened the petcock filled the filters and gave them a few flicks, and threw another bike battery on it. Neutral light on, finally worked out the kill switch setup that its to be in the middle, gave it some and it started on the second kick!!!!
Pretty stoked!, no bad sounding either, id say i need to repack the mufflers and time the points properly, i just got a dial indicator so im aiming to do that this weekend.
Bike is in ok condition overall just needs some sweet lovin and tlc. I started by ripping the tank off and checking its condition. Rust wise just a little surface inside but not too shabby. Fuel was in a pretty rancid state so i flushed all that out. Ripped down the airbox and the filter was chockas with dust and sand and all the foam had disintergrated. Pulled the carbs ofc and checked the reeds. They look to be in good nick as with the carb boots. Internally looked to be ok with no aggrevated wear. I threw my compression tester on it with no reed or carbs, figured thats a close as it will get to WOT. Both read 120ps. i after about 4 kicks.
Pretty stoked bout that so i took lefthand side cover off to reveal one spun out clutch swtup, strippedthat all down and cleaned it, greased it and reassembled. Clutch rod looks good. the whole side was full of dirt sand mud and grass so i stripped seat and covers oil tank and what not and gurnied the engine frame and everywhere else with all the solid shit stuck to it. Pulled right side down to reveal oil pump which appears to have broken its spring but still holds tension and operates with throttle. The tank was dry and both oil lines bunged off to carbs so i am unsure to hook them up again or not.
Striiped the carbys down and had a heap on junk in them. From research looks to be stock jets. When i reassembled them i broke the small white plastic elbow that runs between carbs. Anyone have a solution for that?? i remounted the carbs, put new filters on and new fuel lines, and flushed the tank ready for fuel.
SO anyways, i decided to test for spark, Right side strong nothing on left. Wriggled wires and swapped orange to grey on coils, strong left no right. Stripped back both tension leads, refitted them. swapped coil wires back to normal and made sure connections were ok. Solid spark from both coils so i was pretty confident it would start. Supershit was having 15% of NGKs so i bought some iridium bpr8eix or what ever they are.
Installed them, had good spark from the coil to plug, installed plugs, fuel tank back on, filled with about 2lts of 32:1 premix, opened the petcock filled the filters and gave them a few flicks, and threw another bike battery on it. Neutral light on, finally worked out the kill switch setup that its to be in the middle, gave it some and it started on the second kick!!!!
Pretty stoked!, no bad sounding either, id say i need to repack the mufflers and time the points properly, i just got a dial indicator so im aiming to do that this weekend.