B.C. - Beginning a whole new segment in the J&B Motorcycle Restoration blog is the 1977 Yamaha RD400 belonging to a good friend of ours, Jack. He initially approached me with the idea of completely restoring his RD, which he purchased new off the showroom floor back in the day. As you can see from the pictures, it will take quite a lot of work, but hey, that's what we do. No complaints here!
The RD400 is a bike which will undoubtedly turn heads wherever it goes. Many make frequent appearances at the local vintage motorcycle meet, and many people are familiar with it, and can recall memories of riding one that either once belonged to them, or to a family member. The one point that all conversations regarding the bike seem to gravitate towards is the fact that the bike is pure torque. There's no escaping the pull of the twin-cylinder two stroke, especially with a displacement of 400cc's.
So follows all the restoration process of this incredible bike.
After the long but entertaining drive back, we carefully unloaded the bike, as well as various additional parts and such, including the engine, which had since been removed from the bike. The parts were all set out in order as we discussed our intended order of operations.
Our first order of business was to determine what was needed for the bike's initial reassembly, prior to separate modifications. We decided first off that the engine would be sent to Joey's for teardown, inspection, cleaning and reassembly. He figured it best off if we went ahead and replaced the engine gaskets, or seals, which is common practice whenever engine disassembly is in order. A new chain was also ordered, as the old chain had far to much flex to be regarded as safe. In congruence, new front and rear sprockets were ordered, the latter of which came from Japan.
It was around this time when I learned that my girlfriend's father was, at one time, a professional racer who was very well learned in the ways of the RD. He offered his help and his knowledge, both of which came in handy. His knowledge and understanding of the ins and outs of the bike were simply incredible, and we learned a great deal of things about the bike that we would not have known otherwise. He offered to supervise the disassembly process and offered many suggestions as to what should be fixed and/or altered to make the bike better overall.
Initial dissasembly then began, first with the rear wheel/hub assembly, then the rear fender and swingarm.
Here's Mr. M describing the proper way to disassemble the rear hub.
Pictures were taken of every step of the entire process, so as not to forget the way any one piece fits together in accordance with the rest. It's a very long and arduous process, but it's the joy of doing what we love mixed with the experience and knowledge gained that makes it all worth it.
A $40 jack from craigslist greatly aids in the whole process. It's a whole heck of a lot easier to work on a bike when it is raised to a level where you're not constantly bending over the bike, as well as being able to reach under the frame, and remove wheels without having the bike fall over due to it balancing precariously on its front forks.
Oil was drained from the reserve.
Do yourself a favor and organize all the small parts when disassembling a bike. It will make the re-assembly process so, so much simpler.
Joey stopped by to eat all my food. Oh, and to work on the bike. Only because I offered him pizza.
Down to the forks and triple tree assembly, removal is somewhat difficult...
...but has since been completed.
And this is what we're down to, just the frame. Now it's time to begin researching powdercoating, and to clean each and every single part, down to the last nut and bolt. Once we have everything squared away, we can begin re-assembly. The engine will be finished up and installed, tested and tuned to perfection.
Then we begin the process of modifying the bike to Jack's specifications. We already have designs for rearsets in the works, and much, much more. Stay tuned (haha, get it? Tuned? Like an engine?) for the next installment. Until next time...
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