My RT2 is dripping as well… I’ll pull the engine and do some serious cleaning and seals this winter..
Thank you for allowing me to follow along !
Sneezles61

Job well done & great pics thanks. But just to be "me' being me--i don't worry about a small leak like that as it keeps the seal lubed. [my lame excuse lol]. A British bike would be happy to leak so little. Mind you mostly 4 strokes--but i did have a bantam, & excelsior. & just sold my Trojan minimotor pushbike this morning, now 'that' leaked bad. Sorry--carry on.

When I worked at butler’s we had parking spots for Harley’s only those old pan and knuckle heads leaked oil like crazy 

I took care of a couple things last week through yesterday that I thought needed attention.

First
The factory paint on the pipe was pretty much all gone and there was rust in spots, especially down at the bend near the cylinder. I figured before I took care of the exterior of the pipe I'd address the insides. After I picked the bike up last fall and began disassembly, I poured gasoline through the pipe trying to remove as much old oil as I could. The bike only had 2,100 miles on it, but I had no idea how the original owner rode it. Before I started it for the first time I found the crankcase was full of 2 stroke oil from sitting the past 27 years with oil in the tank. The 2 stroke oil had seeped past the pump's check valve. I removed the oil through the spark plug hole in the head by turning the flywheel with a cordless drill, but a lot made it into the pipe.

I attached my heat gun to the outlet of the pipe and wrapped it with aluminum foil.


After about five minutes it started smoking.


The smoke stopped after about 30 minutes when I then pulled the heat gun and began pushing compressed air through the pipe. The compressed air started the burning/smoking again. My infrared thermometer never showed a temp higher than 460 anywhere on the pipe.

Once the pipe cooled down I ran a brass cup brush over it then 80 grit emery cloth over the entire pipe to remove any gloss I'd not knocked down with the cup brush and to get the last of the rust off. A couple hour soak of the portion of the pipe at the inlet end in Evaporust removed any remaining rust.

Prior to paint an isopropyl alcohol wipe down. The pipe received four light coats of Eastwood High Temp (1,400 degree) Satin Black paint.


Heat Shield back on


24 hours after paint it should finish curing with some heat added by running her. I went on a half hour ride without the removable piece it the end of the pipe to let any loose carbon have a better chance to get out.

 

Next were the rear shocks.

I'd removed most all the rust off the coil springs earlier in the year with WD-40 and 0000 Steel Wool. They needed more. There was rust on the lower body of the shocks. I purchased a set of Tusk Dual Shock Motorcycle Spring Compressors off Amazon.
Disassembly was pretty simple and straight forward.


Notice the rust on the lower shock body? When I got this bike, every nook and cranny was packed with oil soaked sand. The previous owner had ridded the bike in the Pine Barrens area of southern NJ that has very sandy soil. There was oil soaked sand inside the plastic slider piece between the two spring coils. That oil soaked sand was like sand paper taking the chrome off the lowers as it went up and down with each stroke of the shock. Evaporust and WD-40 with 0000 Steel Wool and I managed to clean it all off the lowers. The inside of the plastic slider needed sanding to remove all the grit and return them to a smooth surface to slide against the lowers. The insides of the spring adjusters were packed full of oil soaked sand too. Some strong degreaser detergent and a tooth brush and I got that all out.

Reassembly was also very simple and straight forward.


A pleasant surprise while apart. Both of these 50 year old OEM shocks still have their dampening!

SUPER Job looks better than new Congrats!!

Great work. Really admire the patience & ability all you guys have--& i don't.

You have a knack for sprucing up the old bike… I appreciate you posting your progress!
Sneezles61

The original owner appears to have gone down on my bike at least once smacking the front end pretty good. The end of the clutch lever was broken off and the front brake lever was bent; both replaced with genuine Yamaha parts. The chrome cap on the right fork was dented badly and I replaced it this past summer with parts from Sumo Rubber. The rubber cover on the right side foot peg had a chunk out of it, both sides replaced with covers from KDI Repros, one of the bolts and grommets in one of the left side front fender brackets had been replaced with incorrect parts, sourced nice replacements from Motodad on eBay, and the left side fork reflector is cracked - still looking for a replacement. The bars are bent and I've got a nice aftermarket pair that appears to be a perfect match I'll put on this winter. The tach stopped working shortly after I got the bike running and has been replaced with a NOS unit I found at a decent price on eBay.

The speedometer.


It was obvious there was a pretty good dent and scrape on the front.

Notice the pin on the right? There was no washer on it any longer and a cotter pin through it, not the correct clip.

Another dent under the trip meter reset knob. 

Amazing he didn't shear the knob off.

This dent I didn't know was there until I pulled the speedometer off the bike, it was tucked in behind the ignition switch.

This dent was extreme enough and in the right place (wrong place) it had broken the gauge face 



The speedometer operated fine, but a grinding noise could be heard with the front wheel off the ground and giving it a good spin. I reached out to DEET a few months ago regarding a rebuild and spent some time tracking down a couple/few donor speedometers for the rebuild this past summer.

DEET comes through with a masterful rebuild!

The Speedometer arrived to the house Monday. Thing looks like new!