Its a Chinese Mikuni copy, available from ebay for £25. Might work perfectly though...........

....or it might be the reason the bike is now being parted out. 

Its a Chinese Mikuni copy, available from ebay for £25. Might work perfectly though...........

So might my bodged but original carb.  Buying a carb that may or may not work at this point in time is not progressing the build and wity a tight budget, the money needs to be spent on more immediate parts.

I still have the option of helicoiling the knackered thread if the thread sealer does not hold.  With thin and fragile zinc alloy castings though, it is a very very risky business, very little meat to play with and the odds of disaster are high;  hence fingers crossed about the sealer.

If you know the dimensions, most local bearing suppliers can assist with seals. Otherwise Yambits are very good.

Front end is back together as well as the rear end.  I have quite a few parts finished that cannot be fitted until I get the rear wheel assembly sorted.

For that, I need as a minimum, new brake shoes, new sprocket carrier collar, new rear sprocket, lock tabs, new chain pulls, and one I will replace as a matter of course - the sprocket carrier bearing.

The missus has taken to keeping the debit card in her purse out of my way until next pay day.... "Its not a race to finish it", says she.  So back to my tiny man cave muttering and grumbling under my breath.

The front fender was very sun faded, so I tried the trick I saw on youtube to restore the colour.  I thought it was complete BS, but thought I would give it a try... Heat gun out and gave it a good going over.  By gawd, it worked.  It actually worked.
Pity I cannot shift the black staining.  Nothing will touch it.

Front end sporting its now straight and rebuilt forks.  I think the axle casttellated nut is the wrong one.  It is too narrow to reach the cotter pin hole.  The 175 nut is much deeper. Stuff like that drives me insane.


My tiny man cave is eminently suitable for repairing watches, but entirely unsuitable for storing and rebuilding motorcycles.  The number of times I have grazed my back on the handlebars of the 175 just out of shot when standing back up...  It will be a long time before it is suitable for watches again.  Place is filthy.

A few cables, a new tyre, and a new headlamp reflector and bulb and I can pretty much call the front end finished.


Rear end back together.  All the small parts, chain guide, brake torque arm, rear brake pedal ect are all ready to fit but need the rear wheel in first. When enquiring about the prospect of purchasing the required parts to complete the rear wheel, the missus snapped her purse closed so fast, it nearly took my finger ends off.
The rear shocks responded remarkably well to treatment, very pleased with them.


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Coming along nicely!

If you intend to use the bike, well worth well getting some woven linings fitted to the brake shoes. Villiers Services, can help with that, and it will make the brakes at least 50% more effective.

Time for a little research.


New front brake cable arrived this afternoon.  The old one has a damaged outer sheath and rust has penetrated into the cable through the coils.  It works, but looks crap and feels worse.
I can never deem a rust penetrated brake cable fit for the road.  Just have no idea whats going on inside and it will probably bind like buggery under tension.

Time for a replacement.  Hmm seems like they were made of unobtanium with a half life of 10 years.  Someone is trying to sell a used one on ebay for £45.  .   Jog on.

Enter the aftermarket sector.  DT100 front brake cable fits DT100 1974 to 1983......  Permit me to be a sceptic.
Still, no choice.  One duly ordered and arrived.

Offered it up to the bike.... 

1. The thread for the original, separate lower adjuster in the back plate is 6mm.  Thread on new pre fitted cable adjuster is M8.
2. The bottom nipple on original is a 8x10 barrel.  The new cable sports a pear nipple and no split barrel supplied.
Neither of the above are insurmountable, although deeply undesirable.
​​​​​​ Kindle out with official Yamaha book of words.  Page on cable routing.
3. Cable is about 4" too short.  It won't even reach the backplate adjuster lug.

Cable back in its packet and once again I have to send a piece of aftermarket garbage back to its garbage seller.

Measured up the cable, put in a search of cable length (1100mm) and yamaha brake cable.  A website for a bike shop in Thailand offered the info that it had for sale a RXS100 brake cable, the length of which is 1100mm. The pic looked identical to the DT cable, right down to the rubber sheath on the end.

A look on CMSL gleaned that the RXS100 uses the same separate 6mm threaded lower cable adjuster as the DT.  So it looks like we are in business.

A search on fleabay found a new aftermarket RXS100 cable at less than a tenner and the pic looked encouraging, it looked to be the same as the Thai cable, so I have taken the gamble.

Will it be another facepalm moment?  These large aftermarket bike spares warehouses seem to think if a cable fits a 1978 DT400, it will also fit the rest of the DT models, all years and all capacities.  Must cost a fortune in returns. 

Get a Venhill universal front brake cable kit, which includes all the parts to make it fit perfectly.

Exhaust decoked, prepped and ready for a coat or five of high temp paint...  Very happy with the condition of the downpipe.

I'd be tempted to cover it with high-temp CLEAR paint! That clean metal looks amazing!