This is an old story, being retold for a new crowd. If you have read this before, move along.

Once again I succumbed to the siren song of the fountain of the yellow meade only to return one step closer to the Dark Side. For those of you who have not yet taken the plunge to the Big Jugg Model - Beware.......

Purchased off of E-bay. This was an unusual purchase, as the bike was for sale in a police surplus property auction the next county over. I had the opportunity to go inspect the bike in person before placing a bid. I was the only bidder . . .

1975 DT400B
Seemingly one owner; ~1,900 seemingly correct miles; Not known to run - but . . .
Full clear Washington Title. The interesting part is the title was actually in the name of the Sheriff's Office. Go figure.

I paid $515 on the E-bay auction and then the County (registered owner) charged an $85 documentation fee (disclosed in the auction text). I will still have some title transfer fees to get it into my name (the state needs to balance their budget). After my investigation tonight, I think I got a pretty good deal at $600.00

Looks like the last time someone opened this up, Nebkheperure Tutankhamun was still in power . . .

When was the last time you saw a pair of these installed that had not been bent, cracked or corroded beyond recognition?

Original Dunlops were low on air, but seem to hold fine when aired up. Probably should have taken a sample of the air inside to see what the pollution levels were back in 1975!

Nice Jugg on that one! Seems to kick over without any odd noises and it has a boatload of compression even after having been in dark storage for 30 some years....


Original seat is still pretty soft, but probably will need to be redone for true comfort - not rips or other issues.

These I think are special edition models. Actually illegal to run on any privately owned vehicle in this state, so they will need to go into the "collectible bin". It is my assumption that since the bike was titled to the Sheriff, these were actually used and the bike was used for patrolling out in the forest around here. I would love to see some old video of this thing in hot pursuit!

When I finally got the electrics hooked up to power, the blue lights were set up to both flash when you turned on the blinkers. The blinkers did not work as blinkers at all, just the sort of jimmy rigged emergency lights! Kind of a Dukes of Hazzard kind of thing!

You can also see the only real damage to the bike in that last photo. The dent in the tank. From the looks of the injury, it is most likely a dent that came very recently by tipping the bike over in storage. No rust on the bare metal of the tank.

Did I mention that there is NO RUST inside this tank? Just a little Yamasludge that will clean out easily.

OK - OK - OK. Here are some full bike photos..... First, the view from the front - Fender has some custom bobbing done to it at some point.

I think we're gonna need to do something about that chain before too long.

Sorry for the dark photos - it took all day to get all of the paperwork done with the state folks to get it into my hands with the proper paperwork.

Again - besides the front fender, the only damage to the bike is the dent in the tank which can likely be popped out, obviously suffered while in the sarcophagus and not while on active duty. There is a lot of rust showing, but most of the stuff on the shiny bits will clean up pretty easily, and the steel items will get new paint as well as the tank.

I will be trying to get spark out of it in the next day or two, change out the plug and the oil, slap some premix in it, flush the carb and see if we can get ignition!

I decided after work to try to get some spark out of the old girl. I pulled the plug in the bike and it looked darn near new. Really. I put a new one in the connector and held it to the head and cranked and . . . No spark.

So - let's pull the side cover and check the condition of the stator, etc. I was a bit worried as the vent hose to that chamber is missing, though the plastic elbow is intact.

Here is the initial view of what I found.

Very promising to say the least.

I pulled off the nut and I think it is safe to say the last time this thing was off the bike was before the bike was put on the boat from Japan! The Flywheel is nicer than the NOS one I had to purchase after destroying the original one on my TAT bike whose threads were toast. I had to weld the puller to the flywheel to get it off that time. This one was a bit easier. I was able to screw the puller into the flywheel by hand.



The outer metal is even a bit reflective after all these years!

What was under the flywheel is the really cool part...... I was in the process of creating a NOS stator (documented in another thread) - or more correctly, I had engaged the services of DEET to create one for me, using ALL nos parts, including the pulsar coil, backing plate and harness. I don't want to talk about the cost of that little endeavor.

After removing the flywheel on this bike, I nearly dropped it. The Flywheel that is....

No I have not polished up the screws. They are still shiny from the factory.

A better view of the pulsar coil clearly showing that the initial setting of the timing done at the factory has never been touched!

I needed to get the bike in the shop and start doing some electrical tracing to see why there was no spark. Could be a bad ground somewhere, or more likely, the kill switch grounding out. I had a very good feeling about this project!

I was in need of a key for the ignition, but in the meantime, I hooked up a spare I had, then disconnected the kill switch inside the headlight. Pull the plug and stick a new one on the wire and - HOLY CRAP! I got spark!

OK - now the pulse racing a bit. I put on my spare tank filled with some premix and sprayed a shot of starting fluid in the carb and it Fired on the second kick! I need to go through the carb for sure, but it sounded really good! Looks like we will have a runner!

Now the elbow grease is about to come out!

I will add more to the story soon.

So sooner is here.

I had a lot of progress - even though my 5 year old son was following me around most of the day!

I drained the crankcase oil from the DT400 that came from the Sheriff Surplus Auction, and it only had about 1/2 a quart in there. Not a good sign, but the oil was not really that ugly. No condensation that I could see, and not unusual discoloring. Refilled it with Torco 10-40.

I pulled the carb and when I pulled off the bottom plug, you could see that the main jet had seen much better days - probably 20 years ago. I haven't opened up the whole carb, but will post photos when I do.

I swapped in another carb that I had recently gone through, and on the Second kick, No Crap, It fires! Kind of trembling, I pulled in the clutch, bracing for the probable dry clutch plates to engage, but it works perfectly. I rode around the yard and all the gears seem to work, and after the intial starting, it seems to start pretty much on first kick!

I spent an hour or so cleaning up some of the easy stuff, installed a new air cleaner, good carb boot, some new levers, a new plastic front fender and of course, the newly issued vintage plates! All I need now is a set of mirrors from my stash, some blinkers and I am all ready to ride it!

Cleaned up pretty well.

The TAT DT400 is in the background, and as luck would have it, I got it put back together and started up today too! It takes a bit more pushin to get it started, but it is a fresh top end. After about 5 minutes, the TAT bike was able to loft the front wheel just by rolling on the throttle in first.

Matching vintage plates - you can't see it here, but the red car in the back also has one! We're lucky in Washington State- for us to have collector vehicle status, the vehicle just has to be 30 years old per the title. It can be as customized as much as you want!



Some time ago, one of our members had a very serious accident that nearly did him in. The consensus was that his front brake somehow malfunctioned and locked up the bike, sending him for a very nasty loop.

I have been working on the Police bike and when I dropped the rear wheel, and pulled out the brake assembly, BOTH of the fiber brake linings fell out! They were Completely delaminated from the metal brake shoes which were still attached to the brake plate. I have not removed the front yet, but can only assume they are in similar condition.

This bike only has 1,900 original miles on it, so these are likely the original brake shoes. The main reason for this post is simply to remind everyone that when you get one of these old girls and don't know when the brakes were last serviced, drop the wheels and check. It could save your life!



I thought I'd post a few pics from the bikes first with me ride. I was slowly breaking in a freshened top end, and doing general shakedown on the bike. I somehow got off work and it coincided with decent weather (Sunny and 61 degrees!). I got to put about 20 miles on the bike, most all of it on country roads.

So far the bike has new tires, brakes, chain/sprockets, fenders, non-factory blinkers, wiseco piston, and a fair number of new bolts. The shots are all taken at a local park on the beach next to the Columbia River. If anyone needs a new wallpaper . . .

You can see the UFO rear fendes I like for these projects.

The bars are Fly Vintage Bend Aluma-steel Chrome bars. Their bend is slightly different from stockers but the the handlebars end up pretty darn close. They are also about 1" longer on each side, but you can cut them down. I like the extra length for riding.

Yet another chaper/installment in the bike's story - even though it is still not actually been a true project. That happens when you get one that actually runs and rides when you get it!

I did some work on the bike since it accompanied us on the TAT west on the trailer (back up bike which was not needed) and will be using it for a couple of days riding with my little co-pilot (6 year old son) in Eastern Oregon. This will be at the Hodaka Days event. I will be riding this bike, with my son on the back, in the Bad Rock Reunion Trail Ride, a 40 mile backcountry ride through the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. It is a strictly vintage event, limited to twin shock, drum brake, air cooled bikes! Motoguy and JamesD will also be on the ride.

The bike I will be riding in the event, assuming I am able to get up early enough after driving 5 hours after work on Thursday night, is the Police Bike (read the above thread for the whole background on the bike).

For this event, the bike has a bit of special prep, mainly the Malcolm Smith Desert tank, Auxillary Oil reserve tanks (on the front), factory rack and Yamaha Snowmobile Bag on the back, Acerbis Handguards and Dunlop D606 tires. It also has a Wiseco piston in a fairly fresh top end.

This bike did not come with any rear blinkers when I got it, and I had removed the ones that were attached to the rack when I had to scavenge the rack off of this bike in Winnemucca, NV in the middle of the TAT due to metal failure. Hence, I needed some rear blinkers.

I took the old ones off of the rear of the Monoshock project (I already used the fronts on my TAT bike) and tore them apart. I removed the stalks, and replaced with a bolt, rerouting the wiring through a grommet in the plastic housing.

I then attached a small bit of aluminum strap to the factory mounting point and bolted this frankenblinker on to that. Seems to work just fine and is spaced in a bit to keep the branches from removing them!

This bike is also running the Showa rear shocks that are sold on Ebay by Ms Superdeals. Very nice replacements. As you can see from the rust on the kickstand, this bike has not been restored much. I have touched up some of the frame paint in places, but the bike needs to come apart for a full resto.

Since this bike will be used as a two up mount for my 6 year old and I, rear pegs to fit were needed. I added some footpeg mounts to the rear and they work really well.

The arrow points to the mount. I did weld these to the frame, but it will be a simple cleanup to remove them when he gets big enough to use the factory ones. I used 2.5" x 3/8" channel so they are pretty stout. The placement means I need to be careful kick starting the bike, but as long as I stay aware, there is plenty of clearance.

The bike does have a lot of other items added, including the fenders in white plastic. You can see the TAT Prepped bike in the background.

The little aluminum mount above the fender is for carrying a spare tube or tool bag.

All in all, this bike is currently a pure rider - very little cosmetics have been done. I plan on a complete frame off at some point, but for the time being, this bike is going to be doing main riding duty. It doesn't have all the extra stuff the TAT bike has, and is quite a bit lighter because of it.

It is also a bit easier to wheelie . . .

So off to the Bad Rock we go . . .

After we did the Bad Rock Ride - I finally got some video editing done. I tried to capture the flavor and main sections of the Bad Rock Trail Ride we did at Athena, OR. I wanted to make sure those of you who didn't make it out, got to see just what you missed!

That being said, remember that I video'ed the entire piece with my 6 year old son on the back of my DT400 TAT Backup bike. It looked kind of like this at the start of the day:

And the video is . . .

Do you happen to have the model or part number for that rear fender? Thanks!

I don't know the exact UFO part number, but it is called a "UFO Universal Enduro Rear Fender",and below is a link to the fender on Motorcycle Superstore. You do have to trim the front of it a bit to make it fit, but it fits really well.

www.motorcycle-superstore.com/12866/i/uf...Light&WT.MC_ID=10010

Thank you!!!