1976 DT250C Flat Tracker project.

Well its started 15 years ago. I was in a road riding club and one of the members was an old speedway rider. He had a property that had his own flat track on it and we would have BBQ days out there racing old dungers around his track. I myself had an old CB200. Damn we couldnt kill that thing, and I`d always wanted to have a go at flat track racing, but never got around to it.
Anyway a year ago, an ADV member ask me to come along to a track day at a local flat track. Man I wanted to get out there, but the young guys on modern bike were just scary to watch. Then the classic class came out and I was sold. Somewhat alittle more sedate, with pre-1977 bikes like TS250`s, Xt500, and a XR750 Harley Davidson to name a few. However its taken me a year to finally get around to getting a bike.
Another ADV member was moving and he had an excess of motorcycle in his shed(oh boy how terrible :huh) and ask if there were any takers. I immediately put my hand up for the DT250 he had. After some failed attempts to get the bike the 1000klm, he partly disassembled the bike and brought it down for me, on his way through to his new home. He had offered it to me free, but I gladly parted with $50.00 for the bike, as it was worth that just for his effort.

Here it is just after I but the wheels and forks back on to get a look at the bike whole. Its a bit of a bitser, but basically it is a 1976 DT250C with 1981 electrics.



The next task was to see how it ran. I intend to give the motor a full rebuild, but I just wanted to hear it go just to know that the electrics work and that when I put the thing back together again(and believe me Ive stuffed the most basic rebuild up electrically before as I electrically retarded ) and also to see how it changed gear and all.
So with some new fuel and a cleaned out carb(so I thought) I tried to kick her into life. But damn no joy. Checked the spark. It had spark, but it was kinda erattic. Checked the carb and seems when I put the bowl floats back in, I........um............ seemed to have put them in upside down, which would close off the fuel needle.. So fixed that and then still no joy. Mmmm spark, fuel, compression. What more does a 2 stroke need? Problem was the plug. Seems I could have had some hairline cracks in the inside of the ceramics and it was arcing from the diode and not the body. Never heard that one before.
So armed with a new plug and a foam pod filter I kicked her in the guts and away she roared. Dont know what was louder inside my steel shed? The unsilenced muffler or the Yeehaaa from me.
So after a few revs and putting it through the gears, it was time to get down to the serious business of the strip down. It still had the gauges, complete wiring, oil tank and switches. These will go straight to ebay as I want to make the bike pay for itself in a small way. However I do want a proper 1975-76 fuel tank for it. And Im having a hard time tracking one down. So if anyones got any leads, please PM me.

Here she is with all the excess stripped of her.


Im lucky in a few aspects of this rebiuld as I will be doing most of the work and with stuff like powder coating , Im lucky to work in an engineering shop with a huge powder coating section that never says no to me.
My hopes are to have this on the track by mid year for the local clubs practice days, then dive into the 2013 season.

So for now stay tuned.
Cheers
Craig

Heres some excess bits

This is going to be fun!

Here's a bit of DT bike porn to keep you motivated:

Nice Hunsta tREV's old bike? oh and if you dont have much joy with the lectrics i can take pics of my DT175 that has been stripped down mind you its a 1981 model so i dont know if it will be the same

I'm in!

Ok and so in continues. With the wiring cut down to a bare minimum, it was time to make fit the better 2 stroke exhaust that came with the bike. It had the standard exhaust which doesnt really have a expansion chamber to speak of, but the other exhaust provided would need to be modified slightly to fit the barrel. This was a simple job of cutting off the flange from the standard header and welding it to fit the two piece expansion chamber set up. There had to be a few modification to the end to fit around the frame, with the addition of some lugs to secure it from rattling round. So to speak. The silencer at the end had been made and by the looks of the inside of the pipe never been used, so a quick shorten of the pipe, a joiner piece to mate them together snuggly, and bobs your uncle. New exhaust. Just hope it produces the right amount of power. has to be infinately better than the standard one.

Unpainted as yet. but I think it will be functional

Great thread, good luck with this project.

That period aftermarket long-range tank you have is potentially worth a few bucks as I think they are quite rare...

Tex

I'm in..!!! Yeah, I'm a sucker for this kinda stuff!!

They turn up on eBay all the time, usually for less than $50.

I think I payed about $25 plus postage for that one.

Is that a tach drive coming off the front side of the case? I never had one of these but it makes sense to me....

Mike

No thats the cable off the oil pump.

Well had another go at the bike this weekend. Only get weekends to look at it, so it was time to strip it all down to the bare frame to have it off to work for paint stripping and powder-coating. Wont be a flash colour. Just Satin Black.
Still trying to find a decent 1975-76 tank for it. Went to a local swap meet today, but no luck. Still the hunt goes on.

All the bits ready for stripping and paint.

Youve been busy, Craig

Yeah got to keep my hand in mate. Plus its alot quieter in the man-cave these days than it is in the house.:eek1

Hi Hunsta. Nice to meet you at the swap meet. Hope you have some luck finding a tank.

You getting much of that rain down there in Gympie? It hasn't stopped here since the swap. Work today has been cancelled as we have been flooded out at work and lost power. School and Kindy has been cancelled too so I am looking after my 4yr old daughter today at home. My wife still had to go to work at the bank even with no power. I hope the rain lets up soon before we get cut off.

Gday mate. Yeah we got sh@tloads of rain. Am currently flooded in for the second time in 10 days. Water was over a metre deep and running fast. Still its all flash flooding so it should be gone by tomorrow.
Still one good thing, gives me more time in the shed for the bike. However I will lose a day for the stripping process.
Craig

I have a tank from an MX250 that I run with my 75 DT250B mxer. Not sure if it's something you're interested in, but I can send photos. Inside of the tank is near perfect; outside is just primer. Includes a petcock.

Practice Day this Sunday, 11th of March. If you're not flooded in! I missed the swap meet due to being at work, but I'm home now. My bike is staying in the shed this weekend, the club still has no replacement Race Secretary for me. Anyway I've been too busy to prep the bike (yes what a slack bastard).

Anyway here are a few more motivation pics:
My bike Before and after:




And what you'll be doing when you hit the track:



(What a crap start!)

Get off the bloody computer and go back to the shed!

Gday mate. Wont be able to make the practice day. Not even to just watch, as the 11th is my daughters 10th birthday.
I love the race start pic. My opinion in racing was to always let the hero`s race out first then reel em in. Ha Ha. Who am I kidding.
Computer is all I got at the moment. Frames being powder coated and Im not going to touch the motor til I have all the frame back together. That way I can do the motor and then put it straight in when its done. have truck loads of parts arriving from all [parts of the globe at the moment. I even bought some stuff (and paid thru the nose:huh) locally.
Got the big Maleny Swap meet on the 18th. Hoping to find a tank and a few other bits there.
Craig

[hijack] Is the Maleny swap just on the Sunday 18th or is it on the Saturday too? Where is it in Maleny? I'm thinking of heading down for a look. [/hijack]

Well its been a couple of weeks since there was a move on the bike. 2 floods in a week then a busy week on the powder line, had me waiting like a 7 year old for santa for my frame to be ready. Well as they say all good things come to those who wait. And I was lucky enough to get it today. While I was waiting Ive been busy on ebay buying lots of bits for the rebuild. Unfortunately Im still waiting on a few bits, but I had enough to keep me busy for an hour or two.

Mmmmm nice powder coating always makes a job look better.



After getting all the parts inside, I thought Id start to put the frame back together. First was a new set of swing arm bushes. the book says these should just push in and out with no trouble. Well I guess they never tried to do the job. I had to destroy the old ones to get them out and the new ones were such a snug fit, Im hoping to never have to do the job again. One of the parts that hasnt turned up were the steering head bearings which was a little dissapointing, so basicly all I could do was the swing arm and fit the new shocks. A nice set of YSS shocks. They are 20mm longer than standard ones, which help with the load the bike will have to put up with and this should match the longer forks that are one the bike.

What comes apart eventually starts to come back together.


Now once the forks are rebuilt I`ll be starting on the motor. It will be a bottom up rebuild. Crank bearings, big end, small end, and a total new top end. Not sure if its been rebored before. Ive rebuit a DT250A before and got a full gasket kit from The Old Parts shop in Singapore, but this time Im having trouble finding a full kit for the DT250C. I did find 1 seller, but he refused to post internationally. His loss I guess, so ive started buying gaskets individually. Ive hand cut gaskets before, so I`ll make the stator cover and oild pump cover by hand, but Ive bought a clutch side case gasket. I did manage to get a full motor seal kit, but until I get the rest of my bits the motor and the rest of you, will have to wait.

New bits