81 DT175 project bike.

[seth0941]

Okay, this is my current project bike. I bought it as a non running bike that sat outside for about a year.

Here is what it looked like the day I brought it home.







The rear brake was stuck but other than that it looked ok.

[seth0941]

I decided to get it running before I did anything. Some how I got lucky and the fuel tank looks new inside.

I had to take the petcock off and clean it and rebuild the carb. as well. She is a 1 kick start cold bike. I need to find specs on compression though, she only has 120 pounds.

with that done I started taking it apart.

[seth0941]

The wheels need some work, they are round and not bent but rusty. I hope I can save them.

The rear brake was full of dirt but looks good.

[seth0941]

Well she is in pieces now. ready to start the build. I don't know what direction I am going to go yet. I am thinking mostly stock.

[Padmei]

Wow the memories.
I got a 79 DT175 as an apprentice many years ago. Loved it & hated it. The muffler was always choked with oil, back shoes only were good for half of their depth before locking the brake cam, used to carbon up & start screaming like a banshee while I would panic, turn the key off, pull the sparkplug out, get a whoooa of a whack off the plug then find something big & unmovable to ram the front wheel against till it died... My blood pressure is going up just thinking about it. Unfortunately I was always broke so couldn't afford to replace the kick starts. After number 3 I resorted to crashstarting each time... in traffic...in rushhour....
It did teach me that a small less powerful bike can be as much fun as the IT250s & PEs of the time. And introduced me to the sport of enduros. I also did my first engine rebuild - got the slide stuck in the carb on reassembly & ran it in on the first kick at 10 000 RPM.

Did you know that they brought them out again in 1989 & the price was the same as in 1979 - $1500.00

[seth0941]

Originally Posted by Padmei

Wow the memories.
I got a 79 DT175 as an apprentice many years ago. Loved it & hated it. The muffler was always choked with oil, back shoes only were good for half of their depth before locking the brake cam, used to carbon up & start screaming like a banshee while I would panic, turn the key off, pull the sparkplug out, get a whoooa of a whack off the plug then find something big & unmovable to ram the front wheel against till it died... My blood pressure is going up just thinking about it. Unfortunately I was always broke so couldn't afford to replace the kick starts. After number 3 I resorted to crashstarting each time... in traffic...in rushhour....
It did teach me that a small less powerful bike can be as much fun as the IT250s & PEs of the time. And introduced me to the sport of enduros. I also did my first engine rebuild - got the slide stuck in the carb on reassembly & ran it in on the first kick at 10 000 RPM.

Did you know that they brought them out again in 1989 & the price was the same as in 1979 - $1500.00

Nice... I did not get this because it was what I was looking for, I bought it because it was cheap and in decent shape. I thought if I am going to mess up a bike trying to restore it mine as well be a cheap one.

[YZEtc]

I have owned the exact same model in the past, myself (1981 DT-175H), and the bike was very basic, simple, and as reliable as a bike can be.
It's too bad that Yamaha hasn't imported 2-stroke dual-purpose bikes over 50cc into the USA since 1981, as I can only imagine the kind of machinery they'd be producing in 2012 for that job.

Edit:
Actually, there was a DT-80K and DT-100K in the 1983 Yamaha line-up.
Then, come 1984, it was all 4-strokes except for a couple of 50cc models.

[JWhitmore44]

Nice little bikes that work well as mountain goats :) I rebuilt an 81 after it took a bath and nothing done with it. It was mostly cleaning an about $400 worth of parts. I did swap out the shock for one out of a DT400. Not sure how much that helped :) The spark arrestor on the end of your pipe looks to be non-stock.

[seth0941]

Originally Posted by JWhitmore44

Nice little bikes that work well as mountain goats :) I rebuilt an 81 after it took a bath and nothing done with it. It was mostly cleaning an about $400 worth of parts. I did swap out the shock for one out of a DT400. Not sure how much that helped :) The spark arrestor on the end of your pipe looks to be non-stock.

Yep, someone welded an old school supertrap on to it. If anyone has a stock one I would love to find one. I also need the oil tank.

[seth0941]

I just fixed all the photos.

[WVhillbilly]

Looks like a nice project.
I've been riding by this for years. Never seen anyone around, would love to have it.

Just because I hate to see it rot away.

[seth0941]

Originally Posted by WVhillbilly

Looks like a nice project.
I've been riding by this for years. Never seen anyone around, would love to have it.

Just because I hate to see it rot away.

Knock on the door with a bottle of whiskey in the truck. Has worked for me in the past. Let me know how it turns out.

[WVhillbilly]

No house there anymore
Just this shed and an old outhouse.

But someone cuts the grass, I don't think they ride the bike tho.

I don't need it, but I want it. I friend of mine had one similar to it when we were kids and we rode that bike all over.

[seth0941]

Okay, I worked on the bike today. I just reached into the box and pulled out a pice. I did not take a before photo but if you look at the first photos you can see it.

I started by taking it apart and almost loosing the detention ball. Then I attacked it with a wire wheel till it looked new. I then baked on an industrial silver enamel paint. I know it is not factory original but I am not looking for that.

[JWhitmore44]

The wheels on the one I had looked about like yours. I never could get the spoke nuts to break free and most of the spokes and ended up replacing most of the spokes.

WVhillbilly, is that a XL500S ? They had a 23 inch front wheel instead of a 21 so tire choices are kind f slim. There used to be a nice dual purpose tire that you could run though. The 500 was quite the tractor, I really liked mine.