'72 Yamaha RT-360

I've only realised how retarded I am. I;ve been posting in the cafe section without even knowing it...
Sorry for the repost guys. But here's my current project.
And help and guidance will be appreciated. I have heaps to lean and so many questions. Thanks for anyone who is willing to lend a hand and good luck with your projects!






Hey guys. First post here for my firm old school purchase.
I've owned a PW50 and a little Sachs madass125 in the past and never done major work on either of them. I'm all new to this but I am really looking forward to this project and will welcome any and all suggestions made my those who are willing to give them.

I am no mechanic but have always been good with my hands and am very patient. I'm still a student so time and money are not on my side. The first step of this project will be to get her running (and healthy) and do all the basics to get it registered. I'm doing this because I need the transport too! Some prick stole my bike so I figured I should finally ride something I really want.

I need some input into the project, whether to do a complete restoration or go slightly custom. I am thinking about doing a slight cross between an enduro and a cafe. Ultimately would like to lower the height of the bike, have thicker forks and a custom seat. I won't be modifying the frame to shove in mono's etc, so I guess overall, it will not be an extremely complicated project.

Here is what I'm working with and what I've done so far. Please, comment on anything. Tell me your ideas etc, it be pros or cons!!
Thanks guys.

Original Pic from seller

When I got her in the garage, she didn't start at all. Surface rust all over, not in good nick to be honest. There is no key to start. Just a kill switch. She had been stored away for a very long long time and recently pulled out to ride on a farm.
Running on premix, the autolube has been disconnected.
All lights and blinkers are also disconeccted, hence no battery either.
Exhaust is on very loose and supported in some locations with twisted wire. ha. I didn't see that in the ebay pics, that's for sure.


After doing heaps of reading and on cleaning carbs I decided to go forward and giving it a crack.




Wasn't too bad inside but the main jet had some gunk in it. Soaked, did alll the gnarly stuff and go it back in

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360


Ill deal with that shitty black paint on the carb later. It's disgusting. . . I think I'll black out the engine but leave the carb as is, after stripping the paint. If it doesn't look half decent, and if i have the money I might sand blast it I guess...

Stripped the paint and sanded the crap out of the tank... Some how have fallen in love with how it looks. All the dents and imperfections have totally got me.
I got a post up before and have been recommended to use by one of the mods. I forget the product name but supposedly it does the job very well.
Besides, I don't have cash to buy a new tank or get it repaired so this is the way to go. I cleaned the insides out till all the gunk is now no longer present. Hopefully no more clogging or the carb from here on.





I hooked up the tank and carb after this pic and tried to fire her up.
It took quite a few attempts but she coughed up some shit and got rolling!!!! I was throwing fists up in the air at this point
I'm definitely keeping the exhaust. I've never seen this before untill I started looking up the RT's and DT's and I reckon it looks AWESOME. Will have to have it sandblasted as the rust is doing its job well. . .


It still struggles to start and will never get going in the first few kicks. Once running, the engine sounds extremely unhealthy. It is idling far too fast so I read over the owners manual to set the idling screw but the factory settings do not do the job. Perhaps the cables from the carb are too tight or something. I have noticed that the air screw is totally bunged up. I can only move it, say, 1.5 turns from whatever position it is in now. Ill have tet this replaced for sure.
Either way the engine will need to be taken care of. Can anyone suggest a solution. Should I take a look at it too see if I can figure out the problem or just spend the money to have a mechanic do it. I dont really want to fuck up the important bits. . .

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

Nice project! Keep the updates coming!

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

You have good taste. I believe you have a 72 RT I have the same bike the 72 had the silver body paint like yours. I don't believe they still made the RT in 79. Anyways good luck on the build I to am going to go the Street Tracker style on mine. I just finished my KZ and now have to work on the RT or the 78DT I want to restore and sell.

Seat Options check out:
Hotwings Glass http://www.hotwingglass.com/
Here is one of his seats that I will use on my RT very thick fiberglass can support rider on its own.

I have also used seats and body work from Airtech they are also nice but not as thick I used a metal seatpan under the seat for support
http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/

I think I am picking up a 72 175 as a parts bike next week so I may be able to help you with some parts.

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

I have the same seat as ChefOtto for my TS250... Pretty awesome (as is his bike looking at that pic)

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

Hey thanks for the tips.
Sorry, my header is a typo. i have no idea how the 9 got in there. It should be a 72' RT-2.
I have had absolutely no time in the garage the past month and I am really looking forward to the holidays.
I'll have 2 solid weeks of free evenings and I hope to get some dirty work done in that week.
I'll need to get onto some money, double time, though. ha

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

[quote author=smvirili]
It still struggles to start and will never get going in the first few kicks. Once running, the engine sounds extremely unhealthy. It is idling far too fast so I read over the owners manual to set the idling screw but the factory settings do not do the job. Perhaps the cables from the carb are too tight or something. I have noticed that the air screw is totally bunged up. I can only move it, say, 1.5 turns from whatever position it is in now. Ill have tet this replaced for sure.
Either way the engine will need to be taken care of. Can anyone suggest a solution. Should I take a look at it too see if I can figure out the problem or just spend the money to have a mechanic do it. I dont really want to fuck up the important bits. . .
[/quote]
Left crank seal wiill cause high irratic idle on these engines no ajustment on the carb will correct it

Re: '79 Yamaha RT-360

Spoonz said:

Left crank seal wiill cause high irratic idle on these engines no ajustment on the carb will correct it

Click to expand...

so does that mean it's sucking in air from the left seal and i'm getting a leaner mixture?
it's just an abnormally high idle and it is concerning


do you have any suggestions, spoons

Yes, it sucks in way too much air and it is never the same amount. The only way to correct this is to replace the crank seal. And if you're going that far may as well replace them all so you know nothing will leak on you, air or oil. Hope this helps

Spoonz said:

Yes, it sucks in way too much air and it is never the same amount. The only way to correct this is to replace the crank seal. And if you're going that far may as well replace them all so you know nothing will leak on you, air or oil. Hope this helps

Click to expand...

Thanks heaps spoonz, this is the sort of help i'm in need of.
I'll soon be on a 3 week holiday from uni and will have some good time to be spent on the bike.

I'm a baby at all this and do not have much knowledge with the mechanics of a bike. Do you think I should just drop her in to a mechanic for a quick check up to see what exactly is wrong? I'm patient and am not bad with minor repairs and have got my hands on the owners repairs manual. I'm confident that I'd be able to clean the motor etc but I wouldn't want to make it any worse by puling it apart and not being able to fix it. . .

My budget is tight and will be an ongoing thing as I am still a student, so minimal cost is definitely part of this project. If I could avoid spending hundreds of dollars instead of hundreds of hours, I would!!
Reality is that some things are well out of my boundaries and of course, I understand this.

If you're just getting your feet wet on this and not too confident on tearing into it spending the extra $$ may be better for you. Most manuals will give you the steps to make this repair but can be had to understand. I read mine 5-6 times before I tore my engine down for a complete rebuild and still had to go over it 5-6 more times during.

Spoonz said:

If you're just getting your feet wet on this and not too confident on tearing into it spending the extra $$ may be better for you. Most manuals will give you the steps to make this repair but can be had to understand. I read mine 5-6 times before I tore my engine down for a complete rebuild and still had to go over it 5-6 more times during.

Click to expand...

sounds about right. thanks for the tips. i'll see how this all goes down in the next few weeks.

Re: '72 Yamaha RT-360: shitty little update. taking baby steps

So I've smashed out another semester of uni. 2 assessments to go. Can't wait till break to spend a good month cleaning this bastard up.
Work experience overseas is probably a go so I really wont have much out of the 3 month break unfortunately. See how things go.
I've been on Yamahaenduro.com mostly but that site has gone AWOL and I can't even land the homepage. So I thought I'd just drop a few photos in...

Decided to go all out. First project. It's a single cyl 2 smoke. So why not give it a good punt and learn as much as I can.

Chucked the carby back in after a second clean. Seems to idle a little better but the smoke (doesnt seem like much) was pretty hard core even for a 2smoker. Need to check my mix as I think the oil ratio is too high.


bit o cleaning ahead..


Not too obvious in the photo but those darker strips are pretty deep scratches. Manual says no deeper than 0.002" before replacing but I dont have a micrometer so there's no way to tell. Should I just rebore and hit up an oversize? The cylinder also has some scratches but not as bad as piston




decade worth of skunge took a bit of scrubbing. these were FILTHY before!


can I reuse this gasket? light sanding and anneal with a camping blowtorch?


BIG QUESTION: How much of the wiring harness can you actually salvage? All wires were corroded and had a white patina on them. Surprised she even started at all.
I'm putting new lights, hook up a battery so I figured i'd spend the money and get new electrical - completely. I want this to be a reliable everyday ride so i don't think i'll do it myself either. Any suggestions here? I'm 100% clueless. Although its kind of late since I've yanked most of it off.



I think my biggest issue I face now is setting the timing and checking points. It was honestly taking me a good 30+kicks to start on cold, and this would include a few blows from hell for kickbacks. Never had my ankle swing back like this on any bike ive ever been on. i pussied out and got a bit scared the next time i had to start it. ha

aaand finally good for transport. this seriously took waaay too long. i guess you cant help it when you only get 30-40mins once a month or so.
moving all this to my warehouse i lease with a few mates. i'll finally have proper space to get this all cleaned up and thrown back together.

looking forward to get my hands proper dirty soon

Mate thoroughly impressed you went ahead and just took it all apart. I'd say I'm in the same situation as you, but I haven't been able to do that yet. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Holy shit dude. Just checked out your thread and profile. Haven't updated for a while but I've moved to Surry Hills recently. You've got to be the closest member here. Somewhat rare for us down here as most of the logs are in the states.

Don't be impressed, I haven't gone anywhere yet. Got her started and that's all really. It will be a long journey.
Whats even funnier is that I purchased a little 125 from scotts last year. It got stolen, and that's why I'm here. Good little shop that one. Actually contemplating using them to get this registered and probably ask for some mechanical help when the time is right.

What are your further plans with your kawi?

I'll be moving all my shit to a workshop in botany vsoon. My mates have a lot of tools as they are builders and carpenters. If you ever need a tool of some sort and don't have it, shoot me a message and see if we can help you out. We might even get a welder soon!

Haha shit, I didn't even realize you were from here. Actually I'm near Epping (Beecroft) but agreed, definitely still closer than the guys from the states.

Are you studying at UNSW?

You've definitely been doing more than I have - I tend to do very little but ask a lot lol. And you know it starts, that's already way ahead of where I'm at...

Yeh scotts were ok. I'm a bit annoyed cos I've seen them sell pretty much the same bike on eBay for a lot less and he wouldn't budge on my price. They started too, and had cheaper mech issues to fix. But yeh, not knowing any other shops, I'll probably head back there to get my rego. Sucks you got your bike stolen but - how much did this one cost you?

Just waiting for parts to come in the mail, so just sketching some ideas for now. I'm very tempted to start hacking at the frame just for the sake of doing something, but this engineer's sign off sounds like a bitch.

I've been looking at the welders at bunnings actually, but I really think I should do a fabrication course before I burn my house down. Thinking of maybe enrolling in COFA just to use their metal works facilities? Would love to see the workshop when you guys have moved in - sounds like you'll be making a shit load of stuff then, even if it might not be for the bike.

YeRight, sorry did a quick snoop when I realised you were in NSW and your location was popping up near pyrmont. Beecroft still pretty close though!
Yeah still hacking away at UNSW. one day I shall graduate. The cofa course is probably a good idea. I've been contemplating doing the workshop intro at main campus. I study interior architecture so we get access to the industrial design facilities but need to do an induction course. I just don't know how much freedom you get in there..

That sucks about Scotts dude. How come you didn't buy the ebay items instead? I snaked mine for $600 off ebay. They guy said it ran well but hadn't started it for 3 months. So took a gamble based on his good feedback.

I still reckon you've gone further than I have. Mine just happened to be simple repairs, and the only reason why I decided to tear it all down is because it's a single cylinder 2 stroke. Can't possibly get easier than that and I figured it's a good learning bike.

what's the situation with your ride at the moment? are your carbs still the issue

Yeh still waiting for the rebuild kit to come from the states, along with different jetting options. I'll put in an order for the pod filter soon too - don't want to do it too early and just have it sitting there - would drive me nuts.

Ha I did an architecture course there. The workshop is a good idea I think, I did it but never got around to doing the exam, but I doubt they'll let me use it now anyways. If not for the tools at least there's the painting booths you could use - don't think they really check what you're doing as long as you're a student and not doing something dangerous - I saw an industrial designer making prototypes for his own commercial "gain"...definitely reckon its worth a shot - its free too.

I didn't have much luck on eBay and I was impatient. Missed out on a couple on Gumtree too, so ended up with Scotts. Probably should have done my research first, but at least I have something to work on I guess. A working bike would have been preferable but hey.

What the hell dude, that is funny when did you graduate. FBE seriously endeavors to breaks your balls don't they. I hope they burn in hell one day.

Working bike is def the go for anyone. But Learning the hard way on the first go is probably a good thing as well. I'm speculating the first bike to be the hardest!
I just hate how so many things have to be shipped in from the states. Really sucks. Another reason why it's all been so slow for me.
I just ordered some brass parts for my carb, all my cables and am prepping for my frame to be cleaned up and powder coated. I bail overseas in 2 weeks so really need to get my ass into gear. But of course, I bet I wont get any of my shit from ebay till I leave!!