another Saturday morning

I took the DT3 apart last Saturday and looked it over. I ordered the parts I needed, and hoped to have them all for this weekend, but didn't really expect they'd be here. I'm waiting on fork seals, the front tire, sprockets, exhaust gasket, and a few other things. I did get the rear tire, chain, and new clutch cable. I put on a set of old XT500 bars, and some new Scott grips. The XT bars are about a 1/2" wider on each side, but will be perfect.


I cleaned up and painted the exhaust, and straightened out the heat shield. I'm not doing any restoration work on the bike, but some fix-up and preservation on a few parts.
before:

after:

Here's the rear Shinko SR241 4.00x18 with the stock Dunlop. They have the right look, and should make the bike much more fun to ride, both on the road and trails.

The IRC tubes I'm using have a blue line that makes it very easy to see if the tube is installed without any kinks or twists. I got new rim strips also, but the bead locks were nice, so reusing those.

The wheel bearings had no play and are very smooth, so I just greased them. I popped out the seals, hosed them out with brake cleaner, dried with compressed air, and repacked them. This bike certainly shows it's age, but with the low miles many of the wear items are in great condition.



This was the contents of both forks. Gross.

The fork internals looked excellent though, so getting everything cleaned up and ready to reassemble when the seals get here.

One problem with the bike I noticed when riding it after I bought it was the gas cap seal leaked very badly. The seal is no longer available from Yamaha, and I didn't feel like hunting down a New Old Stock part and then paying NOS prices. I measured the seal on my SR500, and it was the same diameter, so figured I could make one work on the DT. SR500 tanks use the same gas cap as an XS650 "Special", so I ordered part # 20-0036 from Mikes XS. I took just a few minutes to make it work on the DT.

The XS650 seal upside down, which is how I installed it on the DT.



The gas cap taken apart.

The side of the seal that goes against the tank when used on an XS650 or SR500 was too thick for the DT, and wouldn't allow it to close properly. I mounted the seal upside down, and then trimmed the thicker part from the top with a utility knife blade, to allow it to work in the DT cap.

This puts the smooth untrimmed part on the bottom to seal with the tank. I also cut off the center part of the seal. I reinstalled the cap on the tank, and it's now leak free.

Hopefully I'll have the rest of the parts soon. She's still going to be a bit of a rat, but should be super fun to ride for not much money.

Gary Nixon

Barry Sheene, Gary Nixon, Cliff Carr, Paul Smart & Suzuki's test rider, Ken Aroka

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Sportster

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Saturday morning

I'm getting the DT3 ready for new tires, chain and sprockets and some general maintenance. Basically giving it a good cleaning and inspecting everything as I go, and making a list of what needs to be fixed or replaced. I got up early this morning, and stripped it down. It's such a simple bike that it only took about an hour and a half. It's a low mileage bike, so even the steering bearing races looked excellent, as did the swingarm bushings.


Some of the rubber parts are really nice, like the snap on covers for the clutch and brake levers.

The clutch cable will have to be replaced. It's always better to find this stuff now, rather than out on the road when it breaks.

The rear tire has the code "013" and the front is "023". If I understand Dunlop codes correctly than these tires were made in January for the rear, and February for the front, in a year ending in a 3, so likely are the originals. Here's the front below, cracked most of the way around the side wall. I want to stay with a trials tire, so ordered a set of Shinko SR241 tires.

The bars are too badly bent to try and straighten out, but I've got some others that are fairly close to these that I'll use.

I gave the frame and engine a cleaning while it's apart, and will do a bit of paint touch-up on the frame.

upcoming Indiana area events

Vintage Bike night - The first Thursday of every month 6-9pm at the Steer Inn in Indianapolis

Mid-America Speedway - flat track and speedway racing - August 6th and 13th Indianapolis

Four Stroke Single National Owners Club Thumpers & Twins - August 13 in Rosedale Indiana

Bunker Hill Speedway - flat track racing - August 14th Bunker Hill

Indiana Flat Track Association - flat track racing - August 20 at the Shelby County Fairgrounds

MotoGP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - August 25-28

Endurocross - Indianapolis August 26

Indiana British Car Union - Indy British Motor Days car and bike show - August 27th Zionsville

Indy Mile - AMA pro flat track Indianapolis August 27

Wildcat Creek MX - motocross racing - August 27-28 east of Lafayette

NHRA US Nationals - Indianapolis Indiana August 31 through September 5

James Dean Festival & Run - Fairmount Indiana September 25 through 27

Victory Days - Grissom Aeroplex - September 30 through October 2

44th Annual Newport Antique Auto Hill Climb - Newport Indiana September 30 through October 2

Grand National Cross County Ironman - Crawfordsville Indiana October 22-23

Yamaha DT3

Taking a quick browse through Craigslist this weekend, a found something that really grabbed my attention, a 1973 Yamaha DT3. I've always loved the '68-'73 DT1 series, but most of the bikes I'd seen listed were either a lost title bike, a complete basket case, or on the other end a too-expensive-for-me pristine example. This one was just right, a titled runner for a fair price. After calling the seller I headed over to look at it. I was fairly certain I'd be bringing it home, unless the seller's ad had been misleading. Turned out to be just as described, and I even got to test ride it first. 10 seconds after unloading it from my truck, I was out having fun with it.

Here it is after giving it a wash. Just over 2000 miles on it. It has a 1975 Georgia inspection sticker on one of the fork legs, so spent it's early life in the south. The guy I bought it from got it from someone who had it just sitting in a garage for at least 20 years. He then replaced the engine seals, petcock, rebuilt the carb, had the exhaust cleaned out at a radiator shop, and some other stuff. He didn't do anything cosmetic, but just sorted the engine, road it for a bit, and decided to sell it for whatever reason.

It's missing the rear turn indicators and needs fork seals. The drum brakes seem fairly decent on it.

The right side of the tank looks the best. It has a bad spot of the left, but I'll be keeping the worn original paint. I'd always liked the gold color on the earlier DT's, but the green is growing on me. The thing coming from the middle of the head is a compression release, with the lever on the left handlebar.

It is a very sweet running bike. It sounds great, and has plenty of power for back roads and trails.

It has Dunlop Trials Universal tires, which the owner thinks could be the originals. The front is cracked, but the rear looks very nice. I'll get new rubber before doing many road miles on it. The same with the chain and sprockets, as they are likely the originals.

Spokes wire tied together. I think this was done mostly to keep one from causing damage or puncturing a tube if it broke.

This bike originally came with a low front fender, but it was common to switch to a high mount. The owner thinks the mount is Yamaha, but didn't know about the fender. I'll be on the lookout for a stock low fender, but likely would keep the high mount on the bike. The fender is black plastic, and likely whoever put it on painted the rear fender black to match, as it should be silver.

Someone must have had the bike tip over on soft ground, so widened the side stand footprint, a nice mod.

The seat cover is still soft, but has some bad spots on the sides. I'll likely just patch it up a bit for now. With the patina of the bike, new parts like a seat cover would kind of stick out, so I'll just keep it as it is.

It's got a few things to fix, but I'm really digging the bike already. It should be lots of fun, and maybe a nice restoration project later on.