Hey Y'all! Picked up this DT175 a few years ago as my first motorcycle. The previous owner had it running decently and included a bunch of extra parts, but it was in very rough shape. Picked it up for $1000 and was able to register it as street legal and got it on the road right away, despite not having any instrumentation or indicators. I then had a local shop put signals and lights on it while utilizing the stock 6v system. They also rebuilt the forks and put rebuilt the top end with a new piston. Bike ran well but then I put it away for 3-4 years where it sat under a tree while I moved to the city. Decided to get it back on the road as a commuter here in NYC so I towed it up and got to work. After a good cleaning, new carb, new plug, it fired up. Drained the trans fluid and a few drops of a grey sludge came out, no good. Refilled and started using it to putput around town. Shifted decently, clutch slipped a little bit here and there but the cable is all torn up. Decided to start doing some more restoration/upgrades. New brake shoes, new shift shaft seal, new exhaust gasket, cleaned out the tank (lots of nasty rusty water and flakes came out but you look in most of it is shiny), new fuel lines and filter. Decided to rip out all the butchered wiring and start from scratch and upgrade to 12v. Took a few tries while learning but I love this kind of work. Added a cheap digital dash which isn't working great (couldn’t get the tach to do anything, and the speedo just flickers random numbers intermittently, added a 12v battery (had none), 12v rectifier regulator, some LED lighting, keyed ignition (that currently doesn't actually kill ignition, just controls battery power to the fuse block. Im chatting with Trail Tech about a Vapor setup. I would really like speed/tach/neutral/signals.
So thinks have been going good but now that its more rideable I think I realized I have some serious problems in the bottom end. Im getting a knocking sound, power loss, and really bad vibrations thru the pegs and handle bars. Thinking it was bad crank seals that lead to bad bearings, especially when there was probably water in the system. Bike smokes pretty bad now even with the oil pump disconnected. Also my neutral switch isn't working, its not making contact with what it touched in the crank case. So where I sit now is accepting Im gonna have to do a full bottom end job, which I've never done. I ordered new crank bearings and seals. Do you think I should try to source con-rod and transmission bearings too? Im starting to collect the tools, flywheel puller, seal puller, picks, JIS impact driver, etc. Any other commonly overlooked supplies for an engine tear down? Gonna film the whole thing for myself, im terrified of not being able to get it back together correctly. I would assume it makes sense to replace the clutch plates and top end seals while in there.
Im currently surprised with the power draw on my battery from the 12V LED’s I have. Not sure what the total wattage is out of the magneto and if im overloading the rectifier. I know there some upgrades available but they seemed expensive. Besides the motor Id love to get a little more height out of the rear of the bike, I read shimming the rear shock can help a little. Also, the front shocks are butter but they feel under damped. Also when I pulled the front wheel to do the brakes I had a lot of trouble getting it back in, is it normal for the fork to fork distance at the axles to be 1/2” tighter than the axle flange to flange? Sorry for rambling! Ive never really had anyone to chat with about this stuff, just kinda learning it on my own and Im really excited to explore this forum for answers.
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