It's alive. Put on a longer piece of fuel hose to give it a bit more capacity. Could only run it for a a carb full, or it would stink out the house. No front end meant it was immobile and even with the conservatory outside doors open it was going to be very smokey.

Gave it a couple of kicks and away she went.. Need to quickly try the lights to see if the lighting coil is doing its thing.

Headlamp on and we have dip and main beam, main beam indicator light, instrument lights and everything else.


A sight to gladden the heart. Nice and bright even at a fast idle.
I was pleased with the way the wiring went, no glitches, everything worked first time without needing any rework.  
Definately not what I was expecting.
Filled the conservatory with rebuild oil smoke very quickly though. To keep married life running smoothly, it was not possible to get it to operating temperature and set the idle.

You can see the twist in the rear light from this pic.  On this thread, for convenience, I am tending to clump the pics together into areas of the bike, rather than the absolute historical timeline.  I tend to address the big stuff first, then attend to the small stuff.
I am using the pics to jog my memory and broadly put a narrative to them.



It is time to send the fork legs away.  Time would be around November 2021 and I am 4 months into the rebuild.

Fitted the tank and it is really starting to come along now. The fork tubes are away for rechroming and I need to crack on with the front end reassembly.

Got everything in place but front wheel, fender, forks and hardware.

It is really starting to look like I am close to the finish line. Tank with 5 litres of Shell's finest premium fuel in the tank and a wix fuel inline filter fitted, the peace of mind it offers with a vintage bike fuel tank far outweighs the lack of originality.

Getting there! Proper fuel.supply so.I can get it to temp and set up the carb.  Have to admit he did a lovely paint job on the tank.


Wix 5 micron filter to sift out 40 years of crud in the tank and save blocked jets and oil tank filled to the brim with Bel Ray Si7 synthetic injector oil. Same oil as I used in my brand new DT and RDs back in the day. Excitement is on the rise!




AAAAARRGH! The old Bstard has done it to me again. I am going to string the old git up from a tree by his scrawny neck.....

Uh oh.. suspense…. I can hear the theme song of Jaws as the shark is lurking close at hand…. Dah Dump..
Sneezles61

Whistling a happy tune, I felt the requirement for the invigorating effects of my favourite French, ground aribica bean beverage; and toddled off into the kitchen to make it.
In my minds eye, I would sit on the sofa with cup and saucer in hand, sipping away and gazing fondly at the bike before recommencing battle.

The missus was working the weekend, so I could run the bike to my hearts content and still have time to open the living room windows and ventilate any fumes that leaked past the doors into the room.

As I sipped, I smelt a growing smell of petrol, and thinking the carb was overflowing, put down my cup and went to turn the fuel off.

The fuel was off..... The blasted fuel tank was leaking. He said he had lined the tank in his ad, which he had.
Obviously the lining had failed.

This could turn out to be very expensive.

I then thought back to when I first got the bike. Was it leaking then?

No it wasn't because it only had enough fuel in for 600 yards of riding and it ran out of petrol on the test ride.

The smoking gun. The old devil knew about the leak and only put enough fuel in it to start it.
The paint and bodywork being about the only thing I was able to give the old ball bag any respect for, was in fact duff.

I had three choices.

1. Find a good tank and have it painted which was going to cost a kidney.

2. Try the slim chance of fixing the leak by putting yet more liner in. Another costly option but which did not entail selling any body parts.

3. Try soldering up the holes. I am not a big fan of conducting hotwork on fuel tanks, I have seen the results of it going horribly wrong in safety films at college, complete with blood spattered holes in roofs. I did not have the equipment at home to do it and it was the least favourite option.

I went for the wafer thin chance of option two and bought the various cleaners and potions required. Another unexpected 8 x £10 notes, flying and flapping away from my pocket.

I do not have a fuel filter fetish, the pic was in fact taken to show the leak. Just in front of the oil tank wing nut. Those two drips are leaking fuel.



Having spent much of my working life on 24/7 breakdown cover with a commercial vehicle hire business hiring out 27,000 vehicles nationally, I hate mobile phones with a passion and they are not glued constantly to my hip.
I had a missed call from my suspension guys in Bradford and a follow up text asking me to call them back at my soonest convenience.....

With heavy heart, I gave my suspension guys a call...
Whassup?
We examined your fork tubes and are happy that there is sufficient meat left to clear out the pitting, but they are bent.
Bent?
Yup, both running out by about 5mm.
We need to put em on our machine to straighten them before we can put them in the tube grinding machine.
OK.
Its £50 per leg to true them up.  Its getting to be an expensive job,  we tried to source some aftermarket 31mm tubes but no one is doing them and they are no longer available from Yamaha.  New ones would have been the cheaper option.
Fine, just do it.  We have no choice.
Ok bye, click.

Silence punctuated by quiet sobbing.  I heartily wish my PC had blown up the day I set eyes on that cursed bike.
Obviously another relic of that accident 40 odd years ago...

Once you know what to expect, it stands out like a sore thumb..

​​​​​

Empty tank/flush.
Rig a vacuum on the vent or petcock, block the other.
Pull a vacuum 2-3"HG spray leak area with MEK keeping the vacuum steady.
Smear your choice of fuel-proof epoxy.

You may need to play with vac levels but you will see epoxy sucking into hole(s)
Reduce vac to balance as needed.

Tinkicker. I know the bikes complete but this guy has 8 pairs of front forks NOS.
You can find him on Ebay UK.
Moto-Classic LLP
David Wise
Oak Farm Nursery
Station Hill
Hook, Winchfield
Hampshire
RG27 8BX
United Kingdom.
I think he's closer to you than me.
Regards
Dave.

Cleaners and potions duly arrived, instructions were consulted and followed to the letter and the new liner material put in the tank.  It was left near a radiator for over two weeks to cure and then the tank was refitted.
Fuel was fearfully poured in and breath held.

No leaks!  Yay.

I figured it would be wise to take a look inside the airbox.  He said he had fitted a new filter but that means nothing.  
What is this idiots definition of a filter?  An old sock?
Filter was in fact new and was made of foam.  It was also the wrong one and badly fitted.

The DT monoshock has two types of filter. 
Early type that is stretched over the cage and squeezed between the airbox body and the airbox lid to hold it in place. 
​​​​ Cost about £20.

Later type is slightly smaller and stretched over a cage, which is held in place with a large washer and wingnut.  Cost about £12.

Guess which he had fitted.....

It was too small for the cage, one side had slipped out and would have allowed unfiltered air to the motor.  It also had a hole in the end for the stud, washer and wingnut arrangement where there should not be one.

Another £20 flying and flapping away adding to the many £100s already spent on this "fully restored and overhauled bike".  It had not been oiled...

 

Absolutely seething with the old gits bodges.  I looked up suddenly and caught the flash of binoculars in the sun from atop the local, decommissioned power station main flue.

Ah.  There you are you old twerp.  Spying on me from up there are you?


A long way to climb, I would be out of breath when I got to the top and I doubt the internal elevators are still working.
I expect he just flapped his wings and flew up there.

OK.  If Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Mohammed.

A cunning plan, faultlessly executed.


I feel much better now and the psychiatric doctors say I am making excellent progress.
 

Waiting for the tubes coming back and not much to do.  They have a six week turnaround time for rechroming forks. Meanwhile,  I had two niggles.
1. He had highly polished the fork outer tubes which is the incorrect finish.
2. He had fitted a really cheap seat cover for some reason.  Maybe the original was torn in the accident.  I dunno.
AlI knew is it was the wrong un and lumpy as hell.

I set to with grey scotchbrite and five coats of clearcoat to get the finish right on the forks and ordered the correct style seat cover for the model year.

Forks refinished and being allowed to harden.  That seat cover is horrible and plain wrong without a logo.


The correct seat cover fitted.  Looks better than expected even though the foam is a bit crispy underneath in places.  The 79 UK model had the logo on the rear and a seat strap.  European and all later models had a larger logo on each side and no strap.