Time To Put Dave's Engine In The Frame

Well, it was time to stop by Dave's place again and work on his RD400. This time, the goal was to mount the engine in the frame and hang as many things on it as we could before it was time to head home.



It didn't take long at all to get the engine rolled into the frame. And actually, I picked up the motor and muscled it into place while Dave was putting his dog Sadie out back. And I was kinda surprised to discover that the motor was fairly light (compared to the one in my Yamaha 650). Sorry to say, Dave was a little disappointed to come back into the garage and see that the motor was already sitting in the frame because he didn't get to witness the 'magic moment'.



As we were working on the bike, we suddenly had visitors! Tom and Sue Hackney dropped by to see how we were doing. After talking for a bit, Sue took Sadie for a walk while Tom pitched in to help out. We started out by working on the carbs, and found out that there were some problems with some of the hardware, so Dave got to work on that while Tom and I began by installing the reed pods in the back of the jugs and then we put the alternator and ignition system together on the left side of the motor.



After that, we tightened up the output sprocket and put the drive chain on. Unfortunately, when we tried to put the clutch cable in, we found out it was about 2 inches too short. It looks like the cable might be for an RD350, rather than for an RD400. Then, Dave got the parts we needed for the carbs together and we started rebuilding the carbs. The first one came apart and went back together with no problems, but when I opened up the second carb it smelled bad and was varnished up pretty badly, so we ended up having to soak it in carb cleaner overnight. Since there wasn't much more that could be done, it was time to head home.



We made quite a bit of progress tonight, and it's really starting to take shape.

I can't wait to fire this thing up and hear that characteristic Yamaha RD, "Ring-Ding" sound...