Finally I’ve bought a 500...

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JonW
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#16 Post by JonW » Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:00 pm

The 500 is now safely ensconced in my garage thanks to the previous owner and his brother’s delivery service. The bike arrived the day after a terrible storm that knocked power out to tens of thousands of homes in my area. The suburbs here looked like a war zone with debris everywhere from the wind and felled trees and powerlines. Driving over powercables and debris was the order of the day if you wanted to get around with no traffic lights working and long long queues of stationary vehicles. When the bike arrived we were without any power and the humidity was awful. The storm hit us Saturday and as I'm typing these on Wednesday there are still houses without power and its days later, we were lucky and ours came back after 26hours, sadly too late to offer my guests a cool drink of course as everything (including the Christmas food) in the fridge was all warm and ruined. Amusingly a 20minute drive in our fair city will take you to places that have no idea we even had a storm, at least they had working supermarkets, if you could get there.

Anyway the silver lining of that storm cloud for me was the bike arriving and that I got to meet the original owner of the bike and chat about it. He told me some good and not so stories of course. LOL!

He bought the bike in 1986. He went up to Sydney to find one but the shops had none and told him that emissions regulations had killed the 500 off, trying to sell him a ‘better’ Suzuki GSX instead. He drove home to Canberra and on passing through Queanbeyan he remembered there was a Yamaha dealer there so dropped in and lo ‘n behold they had a pair of 500s buddying up the shop floor. The salesman said he’d had them ages and no one wanted them so did a stunning deal at $4200 on the spot, list was $6800. He probably thought the shop would get the servicing and maintenance but as his brother was a 2 stroke fan and racer there was no chance of that!

Over the next 32 years he put 42,000 Kms on the bike told me that without a doubt this was the best $4200 he ever spent. In that time the bike suffered a few scrapes but has never really been apart. It has had the tail/exhaust plastic modified (holed and cut) for some kind of grab rail and all the panels have faded from the Aussie sun, most of those panels are fine apart from one fairing mid panel that has multiple repairs and I'm missing a front indicator. The engine is out as he heard that around 40k kms that the inner crank bearings can fail and wanted to swap them out before that happened. The bike came with those bearings and pistons for a rebore as well which was cool. It even has the original tool kit, but is missing the wire hook of course, aren’t they all?!

One thing I am pleased about is that this has always been a Canberra bike. The dry climate there means that when removing the fasteners many still look ‘as new’, even the water pump steel outlet has bright zinc on it!

Image

More pics as things happen, but for now I’ve started to strip the frame down to begin assessing what I’ve got and what needs work etc.
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silverstrom
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#17 Post by silverstrom » Wed Dec 19, 2018 12:44 am

She looks great for her age Jon. Terrific history. Glad you get to be a part of it.

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JonW
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#18 Post by JonW » Wed Dec 19, 2018 3:02 am

Thanks John, Ive spent the day cleaning parts and apart from a few missing bits its not too bad at all, one of my better project bikes lol. I usually by them either trashed or as frames and start from there so this is a bit of a luxury :)
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80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#19 Post by JonW » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:06 am

Ive been slowly working through the chassis parts, pulling hem apart and making lists of what is needed, not least the usual rear suspension linkage etc

So Ive now moved on to the engine and its not very pretty inside the top end :(

While the cylinder walls look ok, the pistons are far from reusable.

Image

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This engine is on standard bore and done 43,000kms. Should I be expecting this kind of wear at that mileage I wonder?
www.2smoked.com

80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
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86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

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tacky1
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#20 Post by tacky1 » Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:22 am

Pistons look like normal, Every bloody engine I have stripped looked like that, Welcome to the 500. :P
1985 RZv500
1984 RZ500 Hybrid
1986 RG500 Walter Wolf
1986 RG500 Skoal Bandit
1984 RZ350
1984 RZ350 Hybrid
1981 RD350LC
1981 RD350LC Hybrid
2009 CR500AF Supermoto 250X
2007 CR500AF 250X
1988 YSR50 (2)
1989 VFR750R RC30
1984 GPZ750 Turbo

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phildu31
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#21 Post by phildu31 » Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:43 am

For sure, this one has seized.
Don't forget that with 4 cylinders, many won't notice one piston seizure : you still have 3 cylinders to pull.
At 42 000 kms, it is great time for a complete rebuild of the crankshafts.
At least, all bearings ( crankshafts and big ends ones ) MUST be replaced.

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JonW
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#22 Post by JonW » Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:01 am

Thanks guys!

Phil, Every piston looks to have seized at some point on this one. I was wondering if it might have been as oil pump issue... is that a possibility?
(of course it could have been run without oil... hmm... I'd never know... The PO's Ex had hold of it for a few years and she was an angry bitch from what ive heard)

Yes it will get new or rebuilt cranks. I already have some of the bearings, but might just stump up and buy some of Gus' cranks.
www.2smoked.com

80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

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phildu31
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#23 Post by phildu31 » Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:56 am

An oil pump failure is a possibility, but only one among many others.
You can check it by using a drill to make it run on a bench.

I'm also interested in Gus' cranks and sent him a PM in April, but unfortunately, he never read it and his last visit here was in May ... ??

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Speed Freak
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#24 Post by Speed Freak » Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:38 am

My bike has 40000km and first pistons. They are not even close to this... They look like normal wear without scratches.
My bikes:
RD500 YPVS 1GE
RD350 YPVS 31K 1985
Honda CBR 1000 RR SC57
Yamaha R1 RN04

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JonW
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#25 Post by JonW » Tue Jan 29, 2019 4:46 pm

phildu31 wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 8:56 am An oil pump failure is a possibility, but only one among many others.
You can check it by using a drill to make it run on a bench.
Cool, do you know if I need to run the pump clockwise or anti clockwise?
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80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#26 Post by silverstrom » Tue Jan 29, 2019 5:48 pm

I think it looks like 43,000 km of hard wear and poor quality oil. I think if the oil pump was to blame you'd have a much bigger problem than you do now and it would be obvious.

You will likely find the cylinders need to go up in size due to liner wear and the cylinders no longer being perfectly round. I'd expect to see measurements that are more than a little out of tolerance based on those pistons. As for pistons, that has been discussed here often with some debate and many opinions as to which is best. Personally I think the best approach is using 4 TZR250 pistons (1st gen....2MA/1KT/2ME) .

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JonW
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#27 Post by JonW » Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:09 pm

Thanks John, I do know the PO said that he rode it hard when he rode it. I know from my own short jaunts out on my fleet that its easy to not always run up to temp a bike or car when youve not much time to go and play out on the local streets when you use the bike infrequently etc. so maybe thats what happened.

I agree with you that these will be worn oval. I actually have a full set of OEM yam pistons in 0.5 over that came with the bike. I do wonder if im 'throwing away a rebore' by using those as thats 2nd over (I assume there is a 0.25 overbore option on the 500 as there is on other yams). I hadnt seen the TZR piston option. I'll have a look in the Engines section.
www.2smoked.com

80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

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silverstrom
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#28 Post by silverstrom » Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:36 pm

Yes Jon, that's right, 1st oversize is 0.25mm, as is standard for Yamaha.

Follow this link http://www.rzrd500.com/500phpBB3/viewto ... =3&t=15395

Also follow the link in my last post there.

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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#29 Post by JonW » Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:37 pm

Tested the pump, oil dribbles from all the outputs when run fast and the lever is pushed so I can only assume it does work. Plus the tops of the pistons are black and have deposits.

FWIW anyone else doing this, its clockwise you want when you set your drill :)
www.2smoked.com

80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD250LC '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com

Ron57
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Re: Finally I’ve bought a 500...

#30 Post by Ron57 » Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:43 am

Hi Jon, two of my motors had done just over 40,000 ks and the bottom piston had clipped the exhaust port
and broke the edge of the piston, had to go to second oversize. I have used PROX TZR Pistons.
Cheers Ron.

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