1979 RM80N Roach

[alexbrown64]

Well, the RM80B is almost finished so time for another project.  I used to race against the mighty 1979 RM80N back in the day and they were fast, good handling and futuristic looking.  Modern KTMs have almost gone the same way with the beam/angular front mudguard.  I searched around and found a cheapie on Ebay... looked all right in the pics.. a few problems here and there but should be good.  Dougs removals delivered the beast last night after a long wait.  It came from Ballarat to Perth.  I nearly fainted when i saw it.  What a piece of *hit.  Photos didnt do it justice...it was worse.  Hand painted tank and plastics..over the old decals and everything.  Every nut and bolt on the bike is from a Jeep or a Trabant.  Muffler off a Falcon.. bars from a Maico 490.  I anticipated a few of the problems but sheeezzz.
Anyway, first thing is to check if she runs as bloke reckoned it used to run before it was stored in shed for years.  Whacked a bit of 2T oil down the plug hole, changed the gearbox oil, removed the airbox and then kicked her over to check for spark. Yes.. we have ignition.  OK, take off carb and run a Keyster kit through it, clean it and check float etc.. clean tank and stick some juice in...kickety kick and she starts after about 30 kicks and a can of "start ya bastard".  Now were getting somewhere.  Hot day in Perth so shorts and thongs on... get the old girl onto the street and take her for a burn.. all six gears and clutch working nice.  Motor sounds worn and compression low but it all works.

Put her back in the garage and stare in amazement at the creativity of the previous owner.  An old radiator hose cut up to replace the carb to airbox boot.  Spacers put in in the shocks to make them even stiffer than the maximum stiffness (they are blown anyway).  Ford Falcon Muffler welded onto existing exhaust pipe.  Hmmmm bloke must of been a butcher. 

After crying in my cocopops i reassessed the situation and turned it around.  Before i tear her down, i cut the old muffler off and trial fitted a repackable DG muffler that is designed for the 1980 rm80.  Thats the closest muffler i could get to original and i pre-ordered it from DC.  The position is good as it misses the shock at full compression and clears  the side plates.  I just have to make an adapter plate to fix it to the frame.

Next, the tank.  I was going up town today to drop my RM80B tank off to Red Alert Rod to get painted so i stripped the N tank down and took both of them up with all the decals etc.  Cant thank Rod enough for his time and i know the jobs will look fantastic when finished.

The plastics where hand painted yellow and underneath is white crusty hard stuff.  There are some splits etc and i was going to chuck them when i decided to have a closer look.  The back/underneath revealed that they are all original plastics.  I got a scraper and the paint and white crusty stuff fell away to reveal fresh new looking plastic.  I think with some sanding and plastic renew, they will look pretty good.  I just need a few small splits repaired.  Anyone know if you can get yellow plastic welding.  Need about 3 welds, 30mm long.  The front mudguard is to far gone but you can still by OEM front guards for $90.  I have a replica DC front number plate so all good so far.

Theres plenty more to share on this journey so i will leave it for now with some pics so far...
Cheers,
Alex

[mudguard]

Rolling on the floor pissing myself laughing. Alex I had the same experience when I bought my YZ250C. I recon this seller moved from Cairns to Ballarat. My bike had a cut up Ice cream container with hose clamps joining the carb to the air box. That was just the start of a total restoration.

[Rossvickicampbell]

Alex - told ya Rod was worth his weight in gold    His work is simply awesome!

[alexbrown64]

Yes Roscoe, Rods work is more that excellent.. he is a genius with the stuff he does on helmets etc..  Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.. the bikes are going to be amazing with the new tanks on.
Its amazing Wayne what some of these characters do to bikes.  Ice cream plastic! classic.  I have posted a few Q's up in the tech section so maybe you can help me out with those after your experiences with doing up the little yammie.
Bike was cleaned and stripped down a bit today.  All systems go....

[alexbrown64]

Bike has been fully stripped.
There were a few parts that cant be purchased new/hard to get/expensive post etc..  but i found some and have had them all posted for free to my US forwarding address.  They will combine all the packages and send it on a lot cheaper.
Managed to find a good condition foot peg perch.  My one was like spaghetti with cocky shit welding all over it.
Also got a rubber boot from carb to airbox (NOS)
And got a used stator cover which is in good nick. 

Stripped the engine and piston is on third oversize at 1.5mm.  Wiseco make a 2.0mm oversize so it will be a rebore.
Rod is sloppy so rebuild bottom end.  Matika do a rod for cheap.  Their all made in Taiwan anyway.

Took some spokes off and sending them to Thailand to that bloke that makes reproductions. 
Frame needs some small welds then clean up and paint.  Its a racer so no powder coat.  Just epoxy gloss black, swingarm in silver.

I bought a 79 rm50 side panel to practice plastic welding on.  I will cut strips off it and use it to plastic weld the small cracks in the originals once i can do it properly.  Supposed to be polypropylene so heat can weld it.  Cheap ebay plastic welding guns are 50 bucks.

Will need new front tyre, tubes, shocks, wheel bearings, throttle tube, nuts, bolts and the like.  I already have a new seat cover,new renthal silver mini bars, cables, front number plate, muffler, brake shoes, etc..

I will take all the nuts, bolts, plates,springs etc up to ZincCoaters to get sorted.  A lot of that stuff had to be chucked.  Front sprocket nut was huge, like a construction nut used to bolt steel work together.

Cheers,
Alex

[Richo52]

Nice One Alex ....rememder my beast with laydown shocks and DG Gold rims ......what a rocketship ;-)
Richo

[alexbrown64]

I may just build a replica of yours Richo!
Bike is slowly coming along.. ordered a bunch of small parts from Partzilla and have taken all the hardware to the zinc coaters.
Below is a pic of the rm80n in 1979 which is what i am aiming for.....

Cheers,
Alex

[Rossvickicampbell]

can you get that seat cover?

[alexbrown64]

You certainly can young man.  Even comes with the velcro on the back and a strap with velcro on it for lifting the bike.  Bloke in Thailand makes replicas and if you have an original in bad condition, send it to him and he will make you one for free. I have also sent him some sample spokes from the N as he does replica spokes... same thing... if he doesnt have it and you have some samples, he will make em up for you free.. called pit-upholstery and vintageAvenueShop on ebay and he is very good!
I am going to post a copy of his email to me and it should be a good lesson for all the blokes doing restores that cant get certain bits.... Now remember... i have the replica N seat and it is amazing quality.  All the correct logo, colour and fits like a cock in a sock.  I have had a bit of a prob with the spokes but he is sorting it out.  I have a set of spokes and they are great quality but some how he got the gauge mixed up and i have thicker front spokes and thinner rear..... no problem.. he said keep them and he gave me my money back and now i have sent some samples so he can get it right.

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[Richo52]

Nice one Alex looking forward to seeing the end result !

[alexbrown64]

Progress update.
The frame was tig welded at the engine mounts and then i rubbed it back and gave it a coat of epoxy gloss black.
Got the seat back from the upholsterers... they stretched the repro cover over and stapled it all up. Looks great.
Rebuilt the forks.   They fought hard.  I dont think the oil had ever been changed as what came out looked like grey grease.  The bottom bolts that hold the tubes on were seized.  I made an impact 6mm allen key tool and got one loose.  The other was rounded inside so i used a series of drill bits to drill the head off and then it came apart ok.  Cleaned out, buffed up, new seals, o-rings, 150mm of ATF in each leg as per the N book and they are ready to go.
Had a bit of a peek at the engine.  Took the clutch off and got my first surprise.  2 broken plates and a broken clutch basket.  The basket has a big primary gear riveted on and one of the steel rivets was broken and everything was loose.  I remember seeing one on ebay so i jumped on and got it.  Not a bad price as it is NOS so thats all sorted.  I took the stator off and now need to make a puller to get the rotor off. 
The new rear shocks are on the way.  I ordered 340mm Betor shocks.  Standard was 325mm Showa and they look identical, even down to how you adjust the spring and the colour which is black with chrome springs.  I ordered some Showa decals identical to the ones that are on the shocks on the N brochure which are green and yellow.  The shocks i got are gas/oil trials shocks so the damping and spring are very light. Hopefully OK for the boy and so much cheaper than anything else i could get.  $220 delivered from Spain.  The DG suzuki from 79 had Betor forks so with my DG muffler and Betor shocks...im onto a theme...
Ive given all the alloy parts a quick polish and the hard parts come back on Tuesday so with the frame painted i can start bolting a few bit on like triple clamps, forks and new silver Renthal mini bars.
Also cleaned up the airbox.  It had a few small holes from wear so i trimmed a few shavings off for donor welds and used a soldering iron to heat the area and weld the donor plastic on. Worked well.
Pics to come as it goes together....

[Richo52]

Sounds grear Alex....if you are going DG theme .......Gold heavy duty rims look awesome if I may say so myself  :-)

[alexbrown64]

I thought about gold rims.  However two things stopped me.  My budget and the fact that the originals are OK.  They are built like a brick *hit house.  So, when i get my new spokes from Thailand, i will lace them to the hubs i have blasted and painted.  Also installed all new wheel bearings, seals and brake pads.
OK, finally got the whole bike down to nothing.  The engine was completely stripped and there where no major surprises.  All bearings and seals out and they will be replaced.  Crank out and that will go into the shop for a new rod. 
The only part that i need that wasnt on my list was the shift shaft.  It was grooved, rusty, worn and bent.  Hmmm, i remember seeing NOS ones on Ebay for about a hundred bucks delivered.  Budget getting tight... i typed in the part number and a Suzuki dealer over east had one for 22 dollars plus 3 dollars delivery.  Thats on the way now! 
Below is a pick of the left side of the engine with the rotor on.  Your supposed to have a special rotor puller and rod holder to take the rotor off.  A piece of 50mm flat plate and three M5 x 30 bolts did the trick.  Just drill the holes about 8mm wide and 22mm apart in a triangular configuration and slowly nip them up with a few washers in there to take up the slack.  Two wire brushes work well as a rod holder and presto.... rotor just pops off.  Then i had to make a long philips bit for my impact driver to get the pan head screws out that are right in the side case cavity.  5 minute weld job and i had a tool to get those suckers out without damaging the cases.
The cases have been cleaned, stripped of paint and the one in the pick will get a little devcon to repair the wear from the chain hitting it.
Next on the list is to get all the engine bits ordered from Partzilla. 
Now that the bike is fully apart and i have assessed the damage i can report back.  She has been hammered over the years thats for sure but that is what she was made for.  Its not going to be a garage queen like my B so this one can run with a few battle scars.  The cylinder has one bent fin and the head has one chipped fin. The left case was whacked by the chain and it knocked a bit of ally off where the engine number is.  Still good but i will reshape it to take the jagged edges off.  Once they are blasted and painted they will look great and wont be noticed but its not concourse.  The footpeg perch was a lost cause so another good used one is on the way and OEM pegs are still available for ten bucks each.  Everything on the N was pretty much worn, rusty, bent, cracked, dented, missing, deformed, out of spec, leaking, not working or replaced with the wrong part. Everything now has been checked and rectified so she will be mechanically and cosmetically great when she is completed.  Looking forward to reading other members builds on these little bikes.  They are great projects.......
Cheers,
Alex

[80-85 husky]

Great to see the effort to get a bike like this back to operational status, cheers good job

[alexbrown64]

Thanks Husky, yes its good to see the old girl coming back to life.

A few setbacks...
I finished sanding the plastics and they come up ok.  There was a few discolorations so i got the heat gun out and gave them a blast.  Worked good but when i got to the front mudguard i over cooked it and it warped and folded in half...s*it.  The front fender is the only plastic bit you can still get OEM so i ordered a new one.  I will put that down to experience.
Got the zinc hardware back from the coaters.  They lost a swingarm dust cover.  There are 4 and you cant get them from Suzuki... a quick search of the net and i found a NOS one in NZ so back on track.
I ordered new Orings from the local Suzuki shop for the fork caps.  Get them home and they are too big. S*it. 

Besides that, it is all systems go... will start bolting up bits soon and put a few pics up.  Will be a wait now for a heap of parts coming from all over the place to start finishing it off.  Hopefully before Christmas.
Cheers,
Alex