[bigaaron]

I just picked up a 1974 DT360 today for $150! It's mostly unmolested, but the engine is completely seized. The original spedo is hooked up and it says 5,247 miles are on the bike. The transmission oil looks like new, and it shifts nicely. But in 1st gear when I push the bike forwards or back it will not budge the engine, and the kick starter feels solidly locked up when you try to push down on it. The guy said it ran before it was parked on the side of someone's house in the California high desert a long time ago, but after years and years of sitting in the weather, the engine will not turn over. I sprayed PB Blaster in the spark plug hole in the hopes that it might free the piston rings if the problem is being caused by rusty cylinder walls. If that doesn't work, and I tear the engine down, what are the chances of finding a piston, rings, and bearings for a top/bottom end rebuild?

The clutch works, but I can deffinately feel some resistance when it's in gear and I pull in the clutch and try to roll the bike forward. I adjusted it to take up some cable slack, but it still doesn't feel like it's disengaging all the way.

On the suspension, the forks and rear shocks still have oil in them and feel like they are functional, but the fork legs and shock shafts are rusted pretty bad. What is my best option in that area? I was considering finding newer front forks with disk brakes off of some other bike, but I think this bike would be cooler if I kept it mostly stock instead.

The front and rear brakes work, but I might take the shoes out and have them re-lined with new brake shoe material, just to make sure the brakes are safe to use.



Anyone with any info or guidance for me before I begin the project would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! I'm not in a big hurry to get it done, but i would like to make continuous progress in the coming months. I will post pics as I go so you can see the progress. Thanks!!!

[blackhat250]

Yeh keep it stock, its a classic , most parts are available on ebay, whip the head off and take alook at cylinder , dont keep trying to free her off, u"l strip summat else.
its a total rebuild by the looks of it

[oldgitonabike]

They say that diesel oil is a good freeing agent, whip the plug out and pour some into the cylinder and leave it soaking for a few days, that should help to free the piston. You mention the clutch dragging, thats understandable with a bike thats been stood and with a cold engine, nothing to worry about i think there. Good luck with the resto

[bigaaron]

Thanks for the help so far!

GREAT NEWS TODAY!!!

I started taking some items off the bike in order to try to get a better look in the cylinder before I pulled the head. Other then the surface rust, it's really not in that bad shape overall. I sprayed a little PB Blaster on all the bolts before I loosened them, and they all came out nicely. I pulled off the exhaust and the carb, and I sprayed a little PB Blaster in the engine. It looked like the piston was ok from what I could see, so I figured I would give it one more try today. I stood on the kick starter (I'm 250lbs) and still nothing. But then I said F--- IT!, what do I have to loose?!? I gave it one more good kick and it broke loose and turned over!!! You should have seen me running around like a spaz at that point, I was really happy LOL It sounds/feels like the compression is great!

The carb looks like it's in good shape, but I need to pull the float bowl and check it out inside. The reeds were all slightly stuck closed from sitting for so long, but they look very good! I'm just going to clean them and put em right back in. The wiring seems to be all there as far as the CDI box, ignition coil, ignition switch, etc... I might be able to start this thing a LOT sooner then I was expecting to!

The lights are all missing, but I think I'll put more modern LED lights for the brake and turn signals. I'm also going to eliminate the air box and oil injection. I'll put a K&N filter on it since it's not going to be on the dirt much, if at all. And I'll run synthetic pre-mix in it, maybe with a little more oil in the first tank of fuel then normal.

[little dave]

that is good news indeed.
congrats!

my suggestion for a first thing to tackle is to add a layer of duct tape onto the seat.
that will last until you can get it fixed proper, and you wont get off from test rides with foam fluffy all over your bum.


if you need the air cleaner cover for the kickstart side, let me know. as mine was missing one when i bought it too. since i work at a place that can do fiberglass, I made my own. still have the mold. i could pop out a blank one for you that you can make a mount for. I cut a slit in the cover where the bottom screw would go and put a metal tab into the frame where the screw seats so that the tab slides into the slit in the cover.

[oldgitonabike]

bigaaron, on 02 November 2009 - 12:28 AM, said:

The lights are all missing, but I think I'll put more modern LED lights for the brake and turn signals. I'm also going to eliminate the air box and oil injection. I'll put a K&N filter on it since it's not going to be on the dirt much, if at all. And I'll run synthetic pre-mix in it, maybe with a little more oil in the first tank of fuel then normal.

Dont forget this bike is a 6V system so most led set ups will be designed for 12V

[bigaaron]

oldgitonabike, on 02 November 2009 - 03:42 PM, said:

Dont forget this bike is a 6V system so most led set ups will be designed for 12V

I didn't even think about that! Thanks for the heads up!

[bigaaron]

little dave, on 02 November 2009 - 08:22 AM, said:

that is good news indeed.
congrats!

my suggestion for a first thing to tackle is to add a layer of duct tape onto the seat.
that will last until you can get it fixed proper, and you wont get off from test rides with foam fluffy all over your bum.


if you need the air cleaner cover for the kickstart side, let me know. as mine was missing one when i bought it too. since i work at a place that can do fiberglass, I made my own. still have the mold. i could pop out a blank one for you that you can make a mount for. I cut a slit in the cover where the bottom screw would go and put a metal tab into the frame where the screw seats so that the tab slides into the slit in the cover.

That's awesome! I will definately keep that in mind, but I'm fairlty sure I am going to eliminate the airbox. I want to keep the oil tank on there just for looks, along with the emblem on the exhaust on the other side. If I do that, I will relocate the wiring and CDI up higher so I wouldn't need any covers below the oil tank. Thanks very much for the offer though!

[bigaaron]

I took the carb apart and soaked it in Chem Dip last night, it looks like it's completely useable, even the bowl gasket, needle and floats look good. I think they might have drained the carb before it was put to rest, no signs of old gas in the float bowl.

[bigaaron]

IT RUNS!!!!!!! I got the carb all cleaned out and back together, but I still need to get the gas tank situation sorted out. But in the meantime I just wanted to see if it would fire so I put it back together and sprayed a little starter fluid in the carb and gave it a kick. It fired right up and sounded great. I only ran it for a couple seconds because I don't want to run it with no premix, but since I had sprayed PB Blaster on the top and sides of the piston I figured that it would be ok to run for just a few seconds.

I had a good used chain on the shelf from my CR250 that looks like it should work, I need to cut the old one off and put it on.

[bigaaron]

VIDEOS of me riding the DT360!!! These were taken on a iPod Nano, I'm not quite as fat as I look in the videos! hahahha (the aspect ratio is all off after I uploaded it to Photobucket)

You can hear how overjoyed Mary is about me having an Enduro My petcock was all plugged and missing parts, so I went to a Yamaha dealer today and they had a petcock from a Banshee, it fit the DT360 tank perfect!

[blackhat250]

Cool aron" she sound great. u"d better uprate them rear shocks tho , coz u look about 300 Lbs in tha video

[bigaaron]

I'm actually only 250lbs! LOL hahaha

Well I found a guy in Orange with a nice pair of front forks, and some rear shocks that aren't all rusty, and he's got a headlight with the brackets. So I'm gonna run out there and check it out today.
I started pulling apart the front end of the bike today, the brakes look great inside, I think it just needs a brake adjustment and some new wheel bearings.

[vic-fzr600]

Thats a really nice bike, not familiar with that model but really like it.
Can see a lot of potential for a project....

[DTGordo]

Mate,
Nice work Aaron and nice work Mary on the video!
It sounds like it's running pretty well and looks like it's got a bit of go. Good luck with all the parts - I reckon there's heaps more spares for those in the States than here if EBay is anything to go by.
Have fun.
Gordo

[JYA12R]

bigaaron, on 07 November 2009 - 07:39 PM, said:

VIDEOS of me riding the DT360!!! These were taken on a iPod Nano, I'm not quite as fat as I look in the videos! hahahha (the aspect ratio is all off after I uploaded it to Photobucket)

You can hear how overjoyed Mary is about me having an Enduro My petcock was all plugged and missing parts, so I went to a Yamaha dealer today and they had a petcock from a Banshee, it fit the DT360 tank perfect!

Don't worry about the weight/size thing, just holding on will tighten things up
And yes, most of us have our own Marys...they just want to keep their cash cows in good shape and in the field working. I share your excitement!

[bigaaron]

Thanks for all the replies!

I have made some progress on the restoration!

So this last week I started tearing the bike down to begin the restoration. I found another guy on Craigslist that had some parts so I went out to check it out. I picked up a set of front forks that had much better looking fork legs, and some rear shocks that had shafts that weren't all rusted. Yesterday I spent some time in the shop with the bead blaster and some spray paint.

The white collars at the top of the springs were starting to crack. Since I had an extra pair of rear shocks, I cut the bottom 1/4" off of the extra black plastic spring guides and used them at the top instead of the white plastic collars, it worked out great.

Here's some pics of the old parts and the parts I restored. I found that the aluminum looks great after bead blasting it with glass bead, and then going over it quickly with some 00 steel wool. It takes the dull finish off from the glass bead, and makes it look like brand new. I'm not going to paint or polish any of the aluminum parts, I don't want it to look all blinged out.






I found a few inexpensive items on eBay, a set of wheel bearings for $15 shipped and a gas cap in much better shape then mine was for $9.

[blackhat250]

Well done Arron, its the fun part of a resto , soarce,n all the parts . "lookn good "keep us updated on the rebuild, its satisfying at the end when its built again,

[oldgitonabike]

Nice work aaron, that bead blaster is a real handy gadget...wish i had one of those

[bigaaron]

Does anyone know a throttle cable from another bike that would fit my DT360, without the splitter in the middle for the oil pump control?
I'm running premix and my throttle cable housing is old and broken, so if I could use a throttle cable off of another newer application, that would be cool.

I got another item in the mail today, although it doesn't look like they gave me the right dust seals. Would these even fit on my DT360 forks? I was expecting the taller dust boots that cover the top 1/2" or so of the fork legs.

[blackhat250]

bigaaron, on 24 November 2009 - 06:45 AM, said:

Does anyone know a throttle cable from another bike that would fit my DT360,
I'm running premix
doesn't look like they gave me the right dust seals.

Yeh arron them dust seals are crap . u can get the propper dust covers av seen them on E-vil Bay. As for a throttle cable , try a YZ or TY . coz there pre-mix models , is the pump goosed?

[bigaaron]

blackhat250, on 24 November 2009 - 12:56 PM, said:

Yeh arron them dust seals are crap . u can get the propper dust covers av seen them on E-vil Bay. As for a throttle cable , try a YZ or TY . coz there pre-mix models , is the pump goosed?

The oil pump looks to have been bypassed long ago, and the oil tank inspection window is also broken. I already have premix for another bike, so it's not that bad for me, and I will not be riding very far at all so I am not worried about not getting enough miles on a tank.