1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange" D-U-N Done! Well, at least for now.

[diesel450]

Okay,

So I've been reading these threads and posting here and there for a few weeks now and I am amazed at the amount of creativity, courage and ingenuity I see. The wealth of knowledge and the willingness to share it is inspiring. I hope you all will enjoy watching this build and will chime in with tips and advice. I need all the help I can get.

Project is a 1972 Yamaha R5 350 two stroke. These bikes ruled the streets in there day and I think it will make a great cafe bike. I had originally planned to restore the bike but the cosmetics are so bad that I think it will actually be less $$ to do a cafe build. I really want to do all the work myself including paint so here we go.

Color scheme is Black and Orange So the working title is "A Clockwork Orange" but let me hear all your ideas on that topic! :-\

Heres what I have to start with.

The good news is that the motor turns over and there are only 8000+ miles on the odometer. the bad news? its been sitting for a LOOOOOONG time. I opened the oil drain and almost nothing came out. I do believe the mileage is original though as it looked to have the original tires on it.

progress thus far has been taking it apart;

and i wondered why I couldn't get spark.

37 years of gunk;

The wiring harness is in pretty good shape and the wiring did not look to have been messed with at all. So I'm hoping that a new battery and points/condensers and she'll be good to go on that front. The carbs are off and cleaned and awaiting carb kits. The front forks are frozen, won't slide at all so if anyone has any advice on getting those apart I'm all ears.

I am going to use the stock tank and am looking for a tank to compliment that. The exhaust is in good shape and I love the low long pipes on these so I'll stick with that as well. I'd love to hear and see your ideas for this great little bike.


Looking forward to it!!

 

[chrisf]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

That looks like a pretty good start! Put it this way: I've polished a bigger turd than that. Personally, I think you're on the right track. Get it started and tuned pretty well. Then, over the winter, tear it down and tart it up a bit.

I built a Yamaha 2-stroke as well: http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=7196.135

--Chris

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Chris, Amazing build there! and actually that is pretty much the look I'm going for though not quite as blacked out. I have spoke wheels so I'm going to polish the hubs but powder the rims. Rims and frame gloss black the engine and exhaust matte. Where did you get the seat? That is exactly what I am looking for.

The thing was in such sorry shape that I just went ahead and tore it apart. The motor turned and it felt like good compression, only 8000+ miles on it. I'm going to pull the head and covers to inspect and then regasket the whole thing. This should also make the cleaning and painting the motor easier. I have the carbs rebuilt and will throw some pics of the naked frame and parts everywhere up later.

 

[chrisf]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Hey:

thanks for the compliments on the bike! I actually made that seat from scratch. PM me if you're interested in a duplicate.

--Thanks, Chris

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Okay, so its been raining here in the Northeast for a few weeks now which has given me plenty of garage time yet I have made little progress. I have ordered a bunch of parts and finalized a plan though. I'm doing more of a street tracker style with a brat seat and probably upright bars for this one. though I may opt for clubmans in the end we'll see once I get the chasis rolling.

Sorry Chris, I'm going to have a go at making my own seat. If I fail miserably I'll be in touch. I will get a template together for one of your CF gauge plates.

I will post some pics of my seat as it progresses as well.

I did get the carbs cleaned up and a rebuild kit installed. I then realized that I am planning on running pods on this and am wondering if anyone has any Jetting suggestions versus stock for running pods with these Mikunis?

More pics at a later date

 

[NoahAbs]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Since my project is stalled until I get my bike to the welder to fix a mistake I made...

C'mon Diesel, lets see those new parts on the bike!!!

Looking great so far, been raining down here in NY too, crap for riding, and I've been super busy so not even good for repair. I hope that in a weeks time the underlying paintwork will all be done on mine and I can get her rolling again....

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Waiting on the welder. I am going to post an update of the cleaning and frame progress soon so stay tuned. Speaking of cleaning, anyone have a better way of degunking a motor? Degreaser and elbow grease sucks!

 

[gribbs]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

are you doin the welding yourself? I used the elbow grease on my motor, only way to go I think

and that is a great name for the project! my fav movie of all time

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Okay, small progress here. I got the motor apart and have started cleaning. you engine guys out there have a look and tell me what you think. I think the pistons, rings and Cylinders look pretty good. motor has about 8 grand on it. I don't think I need new pistons but should I have a hone done to the heads? Notice the signifcant degunking and still more to do. Yikes!

I have a welder lined up to weld the back of the frame for me. I cut the end of the frame off to allow for a nice looped pipe to be welded as a frame stabilizer and grab bar. Once I get that done and have the frame painted I'll post those. Talking to Joe about Powder on the rims.

 

[Skyeye]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Diesel,

If it was mine, I would keep the pistons, get a new set of rings, and a light hone before putting it back together. 8K, it's practically new. You are just overcoming the neglect and getting some insurance that the engine will break back in again.

Scott

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Thats what I was thinking. I have read that the 2 strokes are hard on themselves and that 8-12 K is what you can expect before needing work but this one doesn't look to have been beat on to bad.

 

[Swagger]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

I'd have to say go to the first overbore with new pistons and rings. There's quite a bit of evident scoring, though it's about right for a 2smoke near the end of a set of pistons. You might get away with rings and a hone but the next set will die in short order possibly seizing the engine....at which point it becomes really expensive. Unfortunately I'm speaking from experience. I skipped the re-bore on my RZ, just honed it and added rings. Ran great after the warm-up knocking (piston slap) went away but at around 3k miles or so it seized up at 80mph. Luckily I was going straight on a long road and was able to clutch out of it.

You have a great bike to start with.....

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Thanks for the input. I think I will probably heed this advice.

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Okay, progress. I had the cylinders looked at and was advised that a hone and rings was all that was needed. They cleaned up real well with the honer and I got to learn how to do that so that was good.

I shipped my rims out to Joe in Chicago (Powder Pro) and he and Sean did a great job on them with quick turn around and at a great price. Thanks again to you guys! That whole thing was a bit of a fiasco on my part as I packed the two rims seperately and taped the boxes together. Of course they were seperated along the way some where and one was lost. I picked a replacement up at the local salvage yard for $40 and got that out to them. Some before and after pics below. I still have some polishing to do I'm trying to figure out the best process and products for that and have finally found a system that works so they are cleaning up pretty well. getting the wheels back together was a big hurdle, as was getting the frame stripped. I'll have that painted and psot some pics soon.

 

[Swagger]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Did they lace them or just mask? They look great and it appears they got the rust off the spokes or are those new?

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

New spokes. I sent them just rims. I laced the wheels myself which was actually pretty easy. I have a home made truing stand and am going to tighten things up this week.

 

[tomsljr]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

If you really want to juice this thing, you might want to consider expansion chamber pipes. They really give a boost to the old two strokes. Looks like this is going to be a winner. Just be careful when it hits about 5k rpm, the beast is unleashed.

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

I go back and forth on the exhaust. I actually really like the look of the original pipes "long and low" I'm going to do low rise style handle bars and a brat seat, I'm also keeping the bike a 2 up rider. I think I'm going to wait and see how the thing comes together before deciding on exhaust. money is an issue at this point as well, so that will have to factor in. Thanks for checking it out though I'll have more to show in a week or so.

 

[diesel450]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Alright, I hit the turn around point!! where I'm no longer cleaning 4 hours a day, I actually get to work with parts that don't get my hands dirty!! very rewarding in its own right. I have some pics for you all but first things first. Full disclosure; I knew from the beginning that I wanted a brat style/street tracker bike versus a true cafe racer for this bike. I wanted that flat style seat but wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish it. The R5 has a bracket across the tail similar to the cbs. Then I came across Chris' Rd400 and whammo! His frame mod was the way to go. So, yes I completely ripped that idea off!! : I have finished painting the frame and bits and the engine covers etc. Tank is stripped and ready for body work (more on that later) and I replaced the stearing bearings with new tapered ones. Wheels are waiting for tires which are on order. I wanted Metzler m22's but they are impossible to find in this country and all the websites were out of stock so I settled on Michelin Macadams. Here's some pics

Having at the frame!

Finished frame with New old stock redwing race shocks

Covers ready for paint. I decided to not black out the entire motor and keep the original hi-lights

Motor is mostly clean and ready to go back together, though I still need to clean the tops of the pistons.

Tank is stripped and ready for attention. can anybody gove me a step by step to prep this for paint? I understand basically how to use the products needed but I've never done one from the ground up.

I'm looking forward to comments and suggestions!!

 

[NoahAbs]

Re: 1972 Yamaha R5 350 "A Clockwork Orange"

Dude, BEAUTIFUL work. Love the loop on the back, great job, looks perfect. Project seems to be picking up, you're almost there (only 1,000 more things to do, right?) I am definitely gonna dive back into my RD this winter after my CB is up and running, the CB is just so much closer it would be silly not to square it away before getting into the real project.

Keep it up man, awesome job.