Yamaha RD Startup

You will have to research for yourself and decide on breaking in the new motor. I fall into the "break it in hard" camp, but I have my own compromises. Think I have said all this before, but as a rule I do 2 full heat cycles with no load. That is completely warming up the motor and letting it cool off with no dyno or riding. It is mostly just to check for leaks and re torque cylinder head bolts. First ride or dyno is immediately after warming up, and is hard ride through the gears maybe 80% then compression brake back down through the gears moderately. Repeat 4 or 5 times with a little bit of 100% and close to red line on the last iteration. The idea is to get combustion pressure behind the rings to push them hard against the cylinder wall to grind them together for the best seal, otherwise the cylinder wall can get polished and no longer grind the rings to get them to seal. I give copper head gasket RDs a super easy short ride first to re-torque the heads again and hope they seal before doing the break in. You will not have much trouble finding people that will claim this is all the worst process possible, so consider it accordingly.

Don't forget to use LOTS of oil for break in, and for maybe 300 to 500 miles after. Again, opinions vary.

Your pump looks like US pumps without the manual wheel to spin the pump. You will have to get your manual to check it, I think you rotate the pump to maximum stroke (you will have to use the kick starter lever to rotate the motor and hence, the pump) and check the gap between the cam and that big stainless washer with the throttle closed, and cable correctly adjusted, but check to be sure. I don't remember the gap measurement off hand. I suspect you are right though, probably never been touched since manufactured.

dialed down the pump yesterday.

it was really easy.just unscrewed the dearation screw on the pump and waited for the oil to come.then it was jsut a question of time.

i could see the airbubbles popping on the threaded hole and then fresh oil came with no air bubbles...

now i will move on adjusting the idle stopping screws before i will run the motor next week!

Just wanted to share some pics of my maiden...nearly ready for the test ride.
Hope everthing goes fine.
Gonna run the stock seat configuration then maybe gonna change to my epoxy one.

BEAUTIFUL!!!

I love the mirror finish on the cooling fins!

I agree with running a little extra oil on break-in, probably easiest to just add a little to your fuel. How much I really cannot say lol. I would imagine that the factory doesn't suggest additional oil upon initial break-in. Don't go crazy though or it will not run right; it will also smoke like crazy and foul plugs. Make sure you have your plug wrench and some new plugs with you just in case you foul one.

Again, beautiful looking bike man, fantastic job 8)

Thank you man its been a grrat experience restoring and trying to keep an eye on the details!

So i'm pretty much down the line with everything and i'm planning to start the bike this weekend.

I've got an important question:

Will starting the motor to adjudt the carbs on one day and riding it the next day hurt the fresh motor?

The reason why i'm asking this is that the bike now is parked in a place where it is impossible to ride (with no plate).
I would like to start it up,adjust the carbs,mess with air screws,check the oilpump and next day transport it out to a place where i can safely ride it (parking lot).
Will this pose a problem?since you told me to immediately ride it after starting it....

Thanks in advance!!

Opinions vary, mine is that there is not much you can do to harm the fresh motor except to not have enough oil. You have a stock setup, so there is not much concern about if being lean, running it hard, and getting it too hot. With alterations there is more to be concerned with. You can't do much with the carb adjustment until the engine is fully up to operating temp except to get it close. You likely will fine tune after riding around anyway. Just warm it up completely, make your adjustments, and let cool completely and then RE-TORQUE THE HEADS! Don't exceed the spec. If the bolts are tight, leave them. Check them after the first and second ride too, even if they seem stable. Like I have promoted before, I run my engines pretty hard very soon after first start, but as noted, opinions vary!

Bike looks great, staying tuned for the new paint!

I will def follow your instructions on running in the motor and getting the motor enough oil.glad i bought my torque wrench so i can check the torques.

Am i right since a stroke mixes oil and gasoline running more oil will make a lean mixture (less gasoline,more air)?


So i'm gonna start her up,see if everything runs fine and ride her the next day.
Its a good plan,since it gonna smoke a lot.
Premix plus oil pump plus dupli color engine paint plus exhaust wrap...so its better the get hot and ride her when the stink is gone and i'm sure the oil pump does its job.

When i checked for spark,premix in the bowls what could cause the motorcycle not to start instantenously?
I'm asking just to know how to react right.
Could there be starting issues when the motor is fresh?
You already stated that the bike should start easily,but maybe you had cases where they didnt.

Did some experiments with paint will post soon in my paint thread!thanks for your in depth help!

Usually when a kick start bike of mine does not start readily, it is because I was impatient and did not wait to let the carbs fill up with fuel! However, as previously mentioned, usually if your bike won't start after being assembled it is due to some sort of incompetence like "forgot to put gas in tank - spark plug wires still not installed - key not on - etc". If you have checked all the obvious things like those and you have spark, your bike should start very easily. When I see people that have trouble it is usually because they are not grasping the fact that they are operating a manually controlled device. It is you the operator that is controlling the fuel that goes into the motor, and most people that have trouble expect things to work like a modern car where there is no user input. Assuming you have spark at the right time and the rest of your motor is ok, if it does not start easily it is probably due to it being given an incorrect amount of fuel from that which it needs to start.

Many two stroke bikes need a lot of choke to get them started in really cold weather. Unfortunately they also tend to need at least a little choke in only slightly cool weather, and the "all or nothing" enricher circuit is way too rich for warmer weather. So often you can't simply engage the choke, fire it up, and let it sit there idling until it warms up enough to not need the choke. Often it will run for a bit then die from a fuel overdose. The upshot of which is that you may find you need to manually turn the choke on and off to keep the engine running until if is warm enough to not need it at all.

Paying attention at the very beginning of attempted starting is crucial to success. One of two things generally happens - too rich or too lean. Rich example: The ambient temperature is cool enough to need the enricher (choke), but only for a little bit. Petcock on, bowls fill, choke on, and kick. Engine fires but dies because throttle was not used to add enough additional air to keep it going. If you keep kicking it, it just keeps getting richer, does not fire again and "floods". If the choke is left on, the engine will continue to be too rich and not start until the excess fuel evaporates out, which can be accomplished by turning off the choke, and kicking the starter with the throttle held open adding extra air until the mixture is again agreeable for starting. If after that first kick, the operator had turned off the choke, the engine likely would have again started pretty easily - though more choke and throttle probably would be need to be used until the engine is warmed up.

Otherwise I see people starting their bikes too lean. They think it is warm enough that the choke is not needed, and they twist the throttle as they kick the starter. The open throttle condition prevents fuel from being drawn up from the bowls, there is no choke, so all the engine gets is air with too little fuel. No starting is the result. Interestingly, these guys are often worried about "flooding" and continue to kick. No doubt that it can be difficult to tell if you have put too much fuel in and need to "air it out" or there is not enough fuel in the first place, which is why paying attention at the beginning is important in making a rational determination.

So fill the carbs with fuel by turning on the petcock. Wait for the bowls to fill. Engage the choke. Then kick with little or no throttle. When it fires up, keep it running with the throttle. If it fires and dies, try it again with the choke off. If it fires and dies again and then won't fire, keep adding choke until you get it running. As it warms up, you will need less and less choke until it revs up fine with no choke at all. This is all much easier than I am making it sound, the main point is to keep a notion of how much fuel you are putting in so you can determine whether you need to either add more fuel (with more choke and less throttle) or more air (with less choke and more throttle) if the engine is not starting. This is mostly only important because if you add too much fuel, you have to remove it before the engine will start and usually this means a lot of kicking (and swearing) with the throttle open to clear it out.

My money says your bike will fire right up with no trouble at all and you will have worried for nothing!

shit jpmobee i had all those words typed up just like what you got written up there,then you posted before i got a chance
the bike really looks the duck's nipples ;D the only thing i can ad is that always start a new engine with clean new sarkplugs .thisaway you can verify that the starting issue is lean or rich as so perfectly explained above.the clean new plug will show and smell of gas and even putting a match to it may show a bigger flame.but if lean they will be dry as my sense of humour.
if the plug is wet wet put in a nrew one ,do not hesitate,you can always save the wet fowled one for an emer-jencie spare
the other thing that may cause quick flooding on enrichener(choke) is if you idle speed screws are not even screwed in far enough to lift the slides very much.this causes the enrichener circuit to REALLY over fuel,more so than with correctly set idle speed/slide openings ....the choke/enrichener circuit supplies air and fuel,is almost like a seperate very crude second carb built in to the main one a carb for starting when the engine is not warm enough to keep the fuel suspended as a vapor in the air

You did figure out how to bleed the oil pump?
The small Allen head with fibre washer is the bleed from tank, remove it until oil runs out the hole.
I usually ran bike with the cam wheel fully open to get max piston stroke on pump, only takes about 20 seconds for lines to intakes to fill with oil

Thanks mobius and xb for your help!i will make a video of the start up for your entertainment.

Yes i bled the oil pump.the euro version has no white plastic wheel just a screw with a washer.
I will exactly do that to 'bleed' the lines.

I've only ever worked on the British ones
Seen the wheel on some 1970's Yams though

the RD 250F was also delivered in the uk.wait i ll post a pic of the pump.

Dry as the XB humor - Got to be the all-time benchmark!

Remember - The only way to be more certain of demonstrating ones skill as an idiot than having an audience present is to put the event on tape! ;D ;D

Looking forward to the unedited video!

Where else can you find a frustrated swearing austrian dude (except arnie in terminator I) ?

I def will keep 2 or 3 sets of spark plug handy,is it ok to clean the fouled ones with a brass brush and acetone?

don't use wire brushes to clean pliugs the porcelan can gather enough metal to allow a direct short ...
on a new plug that has gotten gas oil wet just burning of the fool with a propane torch,gently is fine or a strong chemical and plasick brush

You can try it - but don't get too excited about saving them. Once there is crap on the electrodes sufficient to keep them from sparking, the energy from the ignition often creates a carbon track along the insulator which is "the path of least resistance". There is no practical remedy for it I know of. I never clean mine - just toss them. I think I still have a little purpose built sandblaster to clean plugs (a commercial tool - I didn't make it) which makes them look great - like new even, but haven't used it in years as the cleaned plugs never actually worked like new for me. On the other hand, I know some people that claim good value with cleaning them. One thing is a certainty - you MUST use perfectly new plugs to determine the correct timing and jetting if doing plug chops.

When would you do the first plug chop?how would you go about?
Thought about doing it the after the first ride when the motor runs on oil pump and straight gas out of the tank.
I wonder how she will run,the mains are now 115 (stock setting),the PO had 160's installed so maybe i will need to go back to the 160's,but maybe it was just a means of 'tuning' of the PO,lets see how she will run.
If the stock 115's are too small how can i find out riding it?

Personally I've never had an issue cleaning plugs with a propane torch
Even putting them in a bike that's running properly will burn the insulator clean.
You won't get carbon tracking if correct heat range is being used, the nose of plug is designed to run hot enough to be self cleaning
If 115 is too small, you will know, usually rather suddenly as motor 'tweaks'
I wouldn't hold full throttle for more than a few seconds while testing. Just remember bike likes to rev so keep tach minimum of half way to red line 8)

Ok thank you!
Was does tweak mean?go down in rpm?

Should i rev the motor in the beginning up and down in order to warm it up or try to achieve a constant rpm at 2.000?

Thanks