Dust to Glory 360

Great thread, keep it coming. I did a quick resto/shoepolish on a 76 DT125, they sure are fun and pretty bulletproof.

Great information my fellow adv riders have provided me! So I have no clue what I initially was looking at when I couldn't find OEM seals. Sure enough, I went back and the seals were available. I slapped my forehead ....thinking how could I have been so blind and then blubber to the internet world about not being able to find seals. Well.... needless to say, I ordered up a set of seals.


My husband finally got a chance to work on porting the piston. He took the new piston and was comparing it to the old one that I had and he thought they looked very similar in size. He managed to hunt out where I had left the cylinder head and tested how it fit and it fell right through. When I finally returned from work, my husband showed me that the piston I ordered was too small . It was .012mm bigger than the previous piston. When looking at the old piston, it was stamped .25 (so I assumed... lesson learned). I thought I was starting with .25 over, so ordering a .75 over was going to be plenty.... or so I thought.

I choose to change course from the reeds/porting cylinder. I took the other cylinder head and checked to see if the any of the pistons we had would work. The piston that I had in the miscellaneous box of parts would work.

I began prepping the new cylinder head, so I could take it to the machinist.



I had to remove the decompression valve.



And remove studs that were in place.



I also had to clean/scrape stuck on gasket and heavy grime.



I boxed the cylinder head and piston up and dropped it off at our local machinist to do his magic, aka bore and hone the cylinder to match piston.


Now I wasn't kidding when I first introduced my intentions for this rebuild that there were going to be trials and tribulations. Go ahead, laugh, I know you want to..... it's okay I already have. I've learned a lot during my project so far and I'm sure there will be many more learning experiences. I'm not going to give up on the reed/ported cylinder, but I want to get the bike going, so I choose the alternative to get the bike going the soonest .

Keep providing the excellent feedback, since all of you are helpful in providing information for me. Thanks for the help everyone and stay tuned!!!!

Suscribed... !

You are doing great!

Oh my.... where does the time go. I've squeezed in a few hours here and a few hours there working on the bike, but I haven't had a chance to post until now. Sorry to all those waiting for the next step!

The local machinist was very quick in getting the top end back to me. I think it was two days and it was delivered to the shop. I was surpirsed to hear from my husband that it was there and awaiting my return. When I finally got a break from my job, I headed in to the shop to apply a few hours of work to the bike.

I attempted to put the bike up on a bucket, so I can work on the bike with it in an upright position. Even though I put all my strength into it, there was no way I was going to get that bike high enough to place it on the bucket. I was caught off guard, because I've hefted my crf230 onto a bucket many times and didn't have a problem like this. It's surprising at how the weight distribution on bikes has changed so much over the years, as well as the advancement of the types of metal used within the bikes. So I gave in and asked Mr Forrest_fire1 to provide the brute strength that I lacked to place the bike on a bucket.



TA-DA! Such a keep and simple bike stand, that works so well.

I began with applying the new rings on the piston. Of course before I started I said a small prayer, in hopes that I wouldn't break the piston rings. Mr Forrest_fire1 has told me many stories of his past rebuild experiences and breaking many piston rings. It took me alittle bit, but I manged to apply both rings without breaking them!

Next step, I placed a clean rag over the open crank case, because I'm know to have butterfingers and drop all sorts of stuff and I would rather not have to fish out any parts. Knowing my luck if I were to drop something in the crankcase, it would be a teny tiny pin/clip.... Anyways. I fitted the bearing on the piston rod.



Then added on my new piston. The pin was a nice tight fit and eventually I manged to get the pin clips in place. I'm almost positive there is an easier way to place them, but I managed.

Waa-laa. New piston and rings applied.



This is where I stop on finishing the top end. I feel it will be easiest to have an extra set of hands when trying to install the cylinder head. Unfortunately the shop was very busy that day and Mr Forrest_fire1 was unavailable to assist.

My next project choice was to break into the carburetor. Which is easier said than done.




These are a few before photos, partly so I can remember what it's supose to look like when I attempt to reassemble the carburetor.

One experience that I got to enjoy all to myself, that I want to extend to the ADVrider community was the pungent, terrible smell of bad gas and oil that came from the carburetor.



I began disassembling the carburetor and keeping track of all the tiny parts I was removing. I then attempted to remove the float bowl and it wouldn't budge. I thought it was something I missed, so I rechecked to make sure I got all the screws out and double checked the repair manual. I didn't miss any screws, but the carburetor wasn't going to come apart. I went to seek out some advice on what to do next. Mr Forrest_fire1 dad showed me a trick for gentle leverage, that allowed us a big enough gap to apply some distilled alchol to clear away some of the grime. After multiple coats and some manipulation. We got the carburetor apart.





Well..... I think the picuture explains a lot. I'm unsure of how long that few has been in that carburetor. We decided the carburetor needed a good soak down. We removed all parts that could be damaged during the soak and set them aside. I of course took a picture to keep track of them (so i would know if something came up missing later). Smart thinking, right?



Then I put the carburetor in it's bath of distilled alcohol to let it soak away the goo, grime, oil, and gas.



This would be the spot that I had to stop at for the day. I learned so much about carburetors, because my father-in-law is very knowledgeable with small engines. He provided a few helpful hints in continueing my rebuild and some info that will help with future adjustments on the carburetor.

More to come, but unfortunatetly the time constraint has hit me again. Hopefully I will find some time very soon to add on to the saga.

thinking back to my DT days, I'm sure the pistons in the DT's had windows on the rear skirt. I see that 360 does not which is surprising. Is this 360 a reed valve motor? if so, you may have an old piston port type piston.

The part you have all been waiting for, right?

I decided that I needed to finally break into the forks. I had my new oil seals, so I just needed to get the forks off and take a look.

Took me a little bit to figure out how to completely get the tire off. The reason being, everytime I attempted to pull the axle out, it would go part way and stop. I will admit, I got a little frustrated at this, because I've removed the front axle on my CRF230 many times and never had any issues. Eventually after some twisting and pulling, it came out .


I proceeded to expose the forks, by removing the speedo and tachometer.



This bike only had a few miles on it.

After removing the forks completely, I dove into dismantaling them.

I grabbed a pan to pour the oil into and I wrinkled my nose at the oderous smell that the oil emitted as I drained the oil out.



I don't know how well you can see the oil, but it was white streaked, smokey grey, and clearly showed signs of water being mixed in it. Could you imagine attempting to ride around with these forks? Now theres a thought to ponder.

I headed over to the vise, so I could work on retreiving the oil seals.



I went to expose the dust seals and according to the repair manual, I simply needed to twist and slide the dust seal cover off. That was easier said than done. I couldn't get the dust seal cover to budge a bit. I had to resort to stronger guns, aka a pipe wrench.

This wasn't as easy as it looks and I had to be extremely careful not to damage the dust seal cover or the dust seals. Slowly, but surely I was able to work off the dust seal covers.



I began to exam the dust seals and to my dismay , they were heavily cracked around the lower edges. I could tell that alot of dirt had worked its way into the forks over time.



I inquired with the brains of this operation, to see if there was any way I could salvage the dust seals. It is my goal keep the costs of this rebuild to a minimal.

The suggestion I was given, was to take black silicone gasket maker and apply a thin coat in the cracks and around the outer surface. I gave it a try.


Before.....


After! It appears that it will due the job. Of course the silicone is still wet and I need to let it dry, but I think it might just work. It's a rather simple fix.

I finally manage to expose the oil seals only to discover that everything else that I have done on the forks was easy compared to this. I manage to extract the oil seal clip and dig out the oil seal washer. Yes, I said dig out. You see, after all these years of sitting around, bad fork oil, and dust seals that don't keep anything out.... The oil seals are rusted in.



I brought my father-in-law into this matter as I was unsure of the best approach to get the seals out, cause they weren't budging for me and I didn't want to damage anything. His first attempt was to change the leverage point and not pry on the fork itself. His tool of choice..... drum roll please....... a washer. Yep, a washer that was just slightly smaller than the inner fork tube diameter. He had this particular tool in a special spot in the shop..... which as it turns out, was in a bucket full of miscellaneous nuts, bolts and washers. So..... original.



Unfortunatly, the oil seal still didn't want to move an inch. We ended up taking the dremel and cutting out the oil seal.



After being shown what to do, I was able to dublicate the process on the second fork. On the plus side, I only spent a half hour on the second fork compared to the first.

Working on the forks has taken me a lot longer than I initially thought it was going to take. So this is my stopping point until next time.

Reflecting on the project so far, my initial thought is what was I thinking! This is turning out to be tougher than I thought. At least I haven't thrown down tons of money..... yet. Then I think about it some more and I take in all the knowledge and skills I have learned along the way, which is priceless. When I finally get the reward of riding this bike around town and out into the hills, a major benefit I will have gained is that I will know the bike really, really well. All of my frustrations and suffering will pay off in the end.

I felt that after the day that I had, I deserved a beer. Cheers and until next time....

LOVE the dog in the bed!

you and ff1 must be riding or geocaching............

Oh man, it's been to long since I've posted and worked on the bike. My schedule has been so busy!!!! I even had to read my posts to find where I had left off and previously talked about. It appears that I left off on my forks, so I will begin there and continue my tale.

I picked up where I left off on assembeling the forks. I had to sand the inside of the fork tubes to remove the reminants of rust, so I could put the new oil seals in. Re-assembly went twice as fast as disassembly. I was amazed with myself at how quickly I put it all back together. I managed to put the forks on the bike, but I had to order up the fork oil, so I didn't put the caps on bike yet.



The forks were to a point where I couldn't proceed any further until the oil came in.

I moved on to the carburetor. Previously I had the carburetor soaking in alcohol to loosen all the gunk that had sat in the carb for years.



It was a great improvement from when I started.


This was the alcohol looked like after the carb was soaking in it.

These next steps were teadious and time consuming. I first had to make a run to the auto parts store to grab a new bristled brush, because the ones available at the shop have been used far beyond their lifespan. I began scrubing the carb body and cleaning all the small crevises.
I removed the main jets, float needle and any other part I can take off and clean. I searched out every tiny hole and made sure it was clear of any debris. Carbs are very interstesting objects, you could spray carb clean in one spot and it using came out at a random point, or at least I think it's random.




I carefully began re-assembleing the carburetor. I had to constantly refer to the manual to make sure I was matching everything together correctly. I started with the needle/seat and got that back into place. I took the carb to Mr Forrest_fire1, where he instructed me on how to test the needle/seat to see if the old one worked. Amazingly enough, it sealed perfectly in the test. As it turns out the only thing that needed replaced in the carb was a small o-ring that they had in stock.



I applied the carb body, which only turned out to be slightly problematic, as it turned out I didn't put my jet all the way in, so the carb body wouldn't seal. I put all new hoses on and installed the choke lever and..... ta-da



My carborator was clean and re-assembled. I was checking out my handy work and messing with the choke lever and to my dismay, it wouldn't fully choke. It kept getting stuck part way. :huh I took lever off and it worked fine off the carb. So I checked the carb to see if I missed a spot that was stopping the choke lever. I didn't see anything, so I put the lever back on, sure enough.... it still didn't work. I repeated the process twice more trying to trouble shoot what was wrong. I couldn't figure it out, so I gave in and went and asked my father-in-law. He showed be how to dismantle the choke lever even further than what I had done, gave me some very fine sand paper, told me to shine up this point and this point and apply some grease to that point and put it all back together. (good description huh.... you know exactly what points I was talking about). I did as I was told and put the lever back together and installed it on the carb. I was surprised at how flawlessly it worked now. I definately learned a lot during this process. I now only pray that I truely did a good job, because I'm terrified that I might blow up my newly re-built engine.

This is were I stopped for the day.

Hopefully my schedule will ease up and allow some time to do some more work on my bike. This project is definately looking like the earliest time to finish would be mid summer. Dang it.

You are amazing with your write up and all the work you have done you go girl

For future reference on fork seals, they have a metal lip, so it's almost like pressing in a race (ALMOST.)
The easiest way to remove is, of course, the seal removing pry.
If you don't have one, take a straight blade screw driver and carefully pop the top edge of the seal (where the metal ring is) to break the seal of it against the fork. At this point it should be pretty easy to get the straight blade in and pop it on out w/o damaging the fork leg casting.
By pop, I mean place your blade on the intended surface to hit then smack it with a good ol' hammer. I've done this many, many times without so much as scratching the cast, it's all about the angle.

Oh how the time has flown by and I haven't had a chance to touch the bike. Life has been busy for me. The great news is, I got me a new house with lots of shop space!!!! Plenty of room to work and store our bikes.

When I finally got a chance to go back to the motorcycle shop, where my bike was laying in wait for far to long, I had to remember where I had left off. Hmmmm...... I noticed I hadn't finished the forks, so that's where I started. Grabbed the good 'ol shop manual to find out how much I needed and measured it out and poured it in.



I threw on the cap and tighted it down and done! Forks were finished.

I've been itching for a while to get my cylinder back on, so I went and found my husband and asked if he could help me. He of course responded "when I'm done with this I will". Ok, so I would wait, which I was fine with. I was checking out what he was working on, which was a 4x4 rear drive assembly, and he was changing some seals out. I of course could tell he was trying to concentrate and I don't think he could concentrate very well with my hovering and question asking. It only took a few minutes of him dealing with that before he set his tools down to come help me. I think he figured he would get more done if I could continue to work on my bike.

Two sets of hands makes quick work of installing the cycliner. I thanked my husband and he left me to work on the bike.



I started adding the studs to the cycliner, so I could bolt down the head. Problem #1, two of my studs had rusted on nuts. I tried and tried to get them off and neither would budge. I even checked the other engine to see if it had studs I could take out.... no luck. I tried the magical goo buster stuff I've used before and that wouldn't help either. Finally I went and asked what I should do. Turns out, I would leave the rusted bolts be and just install them after my cylinder head is in place and it will tighted down fine. I was like :huh really? That was an hour easily wasted.

Lunch break

Two studs in, I install the cylinder head. I then started to install the two rusted studs and after having them both tigthen down ready to be torqued, I discovered I forgot to put on the washers. Dang it! I uninstalled the two studs and added the washers and tightened them back down. I leared a lot about torque wrenches when I next approached my husband how to set the wrench. He quickly explained how the torque wrench works and the one that I happened to take to him was a inch/pounds measurement. He showed me how to calculate to foot/pounds, which was the measurement my manual provided me. Simple algebra. The other torque wrench, the one I didn't choose, was in foot/pounds it turns out. Jeez, I'm just making this rebuild soooooo easy. I began tightening down all the bolts and the very last one wouldn't tighten. In fact, it was reversing itself out of the cyliner every time I tried to tighten it.
Problem #2 - stripped out stud threads in the cylinder. After all my hard work and annoying hang ups, I had to undo EVERYTHING I just did. I eventually get the cylinder back off the bike and take it down to the local machinist shop to have my cylinder helicoiled.

My sprite was rather done for that afternoon. I looked at the rest of the bike and thought of things I could work on, but I had lost motivation. I was done mechanicing for the day. I went to the front of the shop and decided to thumb threw some of the parts catalog. My spirits perked up some about an hour later. I submitted a parts order for my bike. Heehee. What did I get? You'll just have to read on to find out. Just before I was thinking of leaving the shop for the day, the machinist shop dropped off my freshly helicoiled cylinder. I carried it back to my work space and left it there, because I was done for the day and I wanted a cerveza.

Two days later.....
I come back and work reinstalling the cylinder head head. I WILL DO THIS! My husband helped me again slide the cyclinder over the piston and rings and off he went. This time around, things went more smoothly. I remembered the washers and I choose the torque wrench that was in foot/pounds. I get smart when I have to do things twice. I torqued the cylinder bolts and the clinder head nuts down to specification. I then added my new spark plugs (one of the items I ordered) and tada. It's reassembled without a glitch!



I then began to work on the front wheel and removed the old brake shoes and install the new ones I had ordered.



The old ones were just a tad bit worn. I've never installed the brakess before and I've never fully paid attention when my husband or his dad had previously changed them. I asked and it was simpler than I thought it was going to be.



Fresh front brakes ready to go!

I went and grabbed the front wheel, to apply the brand new tire I had just bought for it. I've changed out my dirtbike tires before, so I just started going at it. I took my new tire and set it outside on top of a lawn mower, so it could warm up and be easier to work with. Breaking the bead is the the simple part. I began working on getting the first side of the tire off. I got some tire out from under the rim, but I was having trouble getting my tire irons to grab the lip of the tire. My husband came over and of course "helped" me and had the first side of the tire out from the rim in seconds. Of course I gave him an evil glare.



I ripped out the old tube, probably more forcefully than needed, but I think that was just a bit of jealous rage slipping out. I proceeded to work on the second side of the tire and in not to long of time had the tire completely off.



I retreived my toasty tire from outside and set to work. I changed out the rim strip and set to work getting the first side of the tire on. Having a warm pliable tire and lots of soapy water, I made quick work of it.



I decided to put in a heavy duty tube, just because I prefer them. I was having a valve stem issue with getting it to seat, but my husband showed me a trick and it made it easier. I lubed up the other side the tire and got it mounted on the rim. After giving the tire a few extra squirts of lube, I aired it up and the bead set nicely. Front tire installed on rim, next I grabbed the front brake and installed it back on the tire.



Woot, Woot, little victory dance. . Unfortunately the rear tire had to come from tennessee, so I have to still wait for it to come in. Eventually I will change that one out too.

This is the end of my days working on the bike. Hopefully, if all goes well. It won't be as long of delay.
Happy Reading!

Looking good.Can't wait for the grande finally.I wanna ride,I wanna ride!I haven't been on a 2 stroke since the mid 80's.I might not remember how to ride one.

My older brother and I shared a HT1 90 in the seventies and our next door neighbor had a bike just like yours at the same time. I always admired it and even got to ride it a few times. ( I should find what happened to that bike. Hmm...) I'm looking forward to seeing pics of yours when it's done. Great work, good luck and cheers.

That's so funny. Sounds just like me when Tony and I are working on the bikes together. I guess that's both the blessing and curse of having a wife whose interested in this kind of stuff!

So it's really true, better to ask for forgiveness than permission.Just subscribed.