121 replies to this topic

[Blaqkfox]

I have a rather nice red 92 TDM 850 that I listed for sale to see what kind of offers I would get. In that endeavor I was contacted by someone who didnt want to buy, but wanted to sell. He happened to also have a red 92 just like mine, albeit in much worse condition. He had purchased it with hopes of getting it running or using it as a parts bike if he ever bought a nice one, but after 2 years of looking for a TDM in good shape and turning up nothing he gave up and bought other bikes. Here in the states TDMs are hard to come by. We only got them for the first two years. So there sat this poor old TDM in his barn for 2+ years.

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He was moving and wanted to sell it to me for $200 just to get it gone, and he figured I might have better luck selling my bike for the price I was asking if it came with a parts bike like his. Little did he know I had no actual plans to sell my TDM, I just wanted to gauge the market, but sure if the price is rightI mean who wouldnt.

So anyways, obviously I buy his tdm for $200. Who wouldnt. He did me the service of pressure washing it first atleast.

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And it looked to be in decent enough shape. The seat was in great shape and still plush, and besides being incredibly dirty and missing one fairing it seemed to all be there. Aside from the gas tank that is

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Well it just so happens my buddies and I are doing a $1k bike challenge- have to get a bike and get it running for $1k or less, then were taking a 500 mile trip at the end of next month and filming it for YouTube. I had purchased a 99 sv650 for this but it ended up needing more work than I anticipated. In fact theres 3 cylinder heads laying on my workbench with pitted valves right now for that thing. So I figured why not use this TDM instead!

I got right to work to see if this old 3VD would fire up. Every key hole on this bike had been tampered with, but Id already run the VIN and it was clean. I pulled the carburetors off, which had some cheap pod filters (no wonder the old owner couldnt get it to run right), grabbed a used battery from the workbench, unplug the ignition switch to hotwire it but find its a 3 wire and all my diagrams are of a 4 wire. I poke and prod and get the lights to come on, shot some starter fluid down its throat, hit the starter button, AAAAND nothing. Not a thing. Try the other wire on the ignition switch hotwire but only the tail lights come on. Must be the park position, I think. Oh why dont I check my bike nope no park position. Odd. Decide to plug it back in and grab my trusty screwdriver to see if I can turn the mangled ignition switch. I can. Lights come on. Reset. Try again. Still nothing

I grabbed the flathead and crossed the terminals on the starter relay. PHOM PHOM PHOM she turned over and compression sounded like it existed, but still no fire. Atleast the engines not locked up, I think to myself. I pulled a spark plug wire off, grabbed the jumper cables and a known good spark plug. Plug in boot, ground on plug, other ground to battery. Turn it over. No spark. I pull fuses to check, dirty as can be, a bad connection perhaps? Grab sandpaper. Clean connections. Reset. Try again. Starter button magically works this time, and VVVRROOOMMM she screams to life before dying as quickly as she screamed. Shes a runner. Shes a track star.

Filled with serotonin I run inside to grab my wallet. I had already priced out all the obvious stuff it would need. A new tank, chain, carb rebuild kit, intake bolts, air box, petcock, fuel pump, battery, etc. $736 worth of parts. All in all Im $937 in now. With a little wiggle room before the $1k budget cap. Hopefully it wont need anything else too major. But I am nervous about the charging system. I havent had it run long enough to verify its working and I hear these R/R are notorious for failure. Read something about upgrading to a cbr600rr R/R iirc? Anyone shed light on that?

Ill keep this thread going as I scramble to get it ready for the trip next month. Wish me luck.

[Catteeclan]

Don't remember seeing a tank like that, normally rotted out the bottom.
Good luck.

[LAURENCEAUX]

Great to hear of your ongoing good fortune "Blaqkfox" and welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to following your progress on that side of the pond. What's your YouTube channel/video called?

[Blaqkfox]

Yeah the tank is a shame. The bottom is fine actually, its just the inside and the top thats gone to shit. Not sure if thats from sitting in a barn and animals leaving their business on it or what. First one Ive ever seen do that. I was able to source another thats in near perfect shape but it does have a large shallow dent on the top.

I also found a man named Pieter who lives in the Netherlands that parts these bikes out, wish Id found him before I ordered the dented one, owell, Im pretty sure I can get the dent out.

As for where to watch and follow, right now I have a few videos up on my TikTok account, Ive yet to upload to YouTube but I probably will. The trip and all will be uploaded to our vintage motorcycle shops account that I work for, were just now getting that off the ground so Ill link the shops YouTube as soon as its available. Heres where you can find me:

https://www.tiktok.c...k154hxoGNS&_r=1

https://youtube.com/...RPWIc_GAbK5tcyM

[Snowbird]

A good find for the price.

[dapleb]

Noice!

The rectumfrier is normally just fine unless you start adding extra gizmos to the system.

Some peeps swapped to an Elextrex RR98 unit.

Good luck with yer adventures!

[LAURENCEAUX]

Blaqkfox /Adam,

 

Judging by your YouTube video I'd take a bet your are the youngest member of this forum  (being a fossil amongst fossils myself). The ownership of the Enfield and a TDM puts you in a sub-group on the forum, of which I too am a member.

 

The number place L665MHH is/was on a red Proton GL here in the UK, yet is in your garage?

Attached Files

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Edited by LAURENCEAUX, 19 February 2024 - 06:23 pm.

[Blaqkfox]

Thanks yall, Im not sure what an Elextrex is, perhaps yet another thing we didnt get in the states. Shocked to hear Im one of the younger members here. The L665 license plate was given to me by a Porsche owner about 10 years ago when I worked at the local Audi/Jaguar/Porsche dealership here in the states. Its a homemade custom plate that was on a Porsche track car that got traded in. I dont own that royal enfield anymore either, but I do miss it dearly. It wasnt of much use where I live, too slow. The TDM fits the bill much better here on the farm just outside the city. I just did some YouTube videos for the enfield since it was such an interesting bike. Im probably going to try and do some on the TDM as well. Not much out there on them, atleast not in English.

[Rallyist]

Thanks yall, Im not sure what an Elextrex is, 

https://www.electrex...o.uk/index.html

[Blaqkfox]

Ah ok! Thanks for that. The last big ticket item I need are tires. I mainly ride street bikes and Ive never really bought dual sport tires before so Ive been doing a lot of reading. But then I found myself struggling to find tires in the appropriate sizing for the tdm. I was liking the Heidenau K60 but they dont make a 110/80. And the conteintal TK80s looked nice, maybe a tad aggressive though, and it seems people are using a rear tire as a front to make those work. To make matters worse we set a separate budget of $200 for tires for this event. And the cheapest tires I can even find are the square-elli Scorpion rally tires coming in at $388 for the set. Oof. The continental TKC70 tires are looking good to me, if I can manage to find a front one thats in stock somewhere, but what would yall recommend?

Again, this is a 500 mile trip, probably mostly paved but with some light off-road in the gravel and grass, the tricky bit it that we will probably encounter a good bit of mud as well.

[Pedro]

Considering how rare they are in the States, that's a good find, and the price! Can't go wrong. Nice one!

[Blaqkfox]

UPDATE.

I wheeled the bike out today, sealed off the ports to the engine, sprayed it with some soap, and gave it a good pressure washing. It actually cleaned up pretty well, but its still a rust bucket.

Well I was going to insert a photo here but Im struggling to upload the files. Apparently theyre all too large. Even after screenshotting and cropping like I have been doing. Owell.

After that I started dismantling the carburetors. Again having trouble uploading an image. But theyre fully dismantled aside from one stubborn pilot jet. It would appear the previous owner had a heavy hand and snapped the head off, so Ive been trying to extract it. My smallest screw extractor is MIA so I tried to get creative with some strong glue and a house screw but it didnt work, then tried a reverse drill bit, but that also failed. Ill have to go buy another extractor kit I guess. I also found my idle cable had disintegrated. I cannot seem to find a replacement. But I have noticed other parts online that almost match the part #, but they dont begin with 3VD. Ive ordered a FZR1000 cable and will see how that works out. It looks pretty close. Being I live out in the country, the closest hardware store is a good 45 min drive away, I decided to ditch trying to remove that pilot and save the carb work for another day.

So I pivoted my focus to the wiring the rats had started to chew on the tail section. It wasnt too bad. Only two wires were stripped bare of their insulation, the copper strands remained intact. And one other wire had a nibble or two on it. I cut the compromised section out grabbed my flux paste and soldered a new section in.

I also discovered two sections of cut wires. Really wish I could post a photo to show them ugh. Well one is on the tail section, 3 ground wires, attached with a 3 alan head bolt to the frame. Iirc I saw this on my other tdm. Im not quite sure what its for though. Two black wires and one blue. I thought turn signal grounds perhaps but those come from the main harness back there. The other cut wire I found on the bike was on the thermostat housing. A single wire attached with a ring terminal. I do recall seeing this one on my other tdm, but again no idea what its there for.

Speaking of electronics I found the large relay next to the flasher relay just dangling and exploded from overheating. The Facebook TDM group tells me its for the vacuum pump on the tdm. Does that sound correct? Its like a 6 or 8 pin relay. At any rate Ive ordered a replacement. I do wonder what caused it to overheat and melt tho.

Moving along, I ripped off those ugly gross orange grips and found some stick on grip heaters underneath, also with cut wires, so I cleaned all that up and put my old grips from my tdm on. Happy with the way it looks.

My new ignition switch arrived today too so I installed that. It was pretty difficult to source a 3 pin unit, I got the only one I could find used off eBay. I couldve got any old ignition switch and repinned it or whatever, but Im a sucker for oem parts. And it came with the fuel tank lid too so thats a nice bonus.

Then I moved onto an oil change. The fluid looked like that of a blown head gasket, Im praying its just condensation from sitting so long. I also discovered the little tube was missing (as it always seems to be) from the small end of oil filter housing. Fortunately the o-ring was still in place and hadnt got sucked up into the oil galley.

I gave the bike a once over to see what else was lacking. No speedometer cable, and the battery box is missing I think. There is a metal L shape where the battery sits but it has two rubber grommets on the bottom, I bet thats where a plastic battery box snaps in. Ill have to check my other bike. I also noticed neither brake was working. I found the front master cylinder fluid had crystallized. Hopefully the master seals are still worthy. The rear I fear is not. The fluid is still there on the rear but straight to the floor. Ill try bleeding and flushing it but I bet that brembo master is shot back there.

Speaking of the other bike I robbed the good stuff off this tdm and installed it on that bike today as well, which was nice.

That was pretty much it for the first day. Got a good insight into what Im working with and whats missing. Next week all the parts should arrive and I can get cracking on cleaning, rebuilding, and balancing the carburetors, and assembling the bike. Will have to wait for a few odds and ends I ordered today to arrive, and sort the brakes out before I can test ride though.

Is there a way I can upload a photo larger than 11.98KB on here? Usually screenshot and crop has worked but I can crop a photo to the smallest my iPhone 14 will let me and it still says its too big to upload. As always you can check my TikTok for the latest. I havent had time to film for YouTube but maybe I will use the photos and make a video still.

Edited by Blaqkfox, 25 February 2024 - 03:11 am.

[Favs]

UPDATE.

I wheeled the bike out today, sealed off the ports to the engine, sprayed it with some soap, and gave it a good pressure washing. It actually cleaned up pretty well, but its still a rust bucket.

Well I was going to insert a photo here but Im struggling to upload the files. Apparently theyre all too large. Even after screenshotting and cropping like I have been doing. Owell.

After that I started dismantling the carburetors. Again having trouble uploading an image. But theyre fully dismantled aside from one stubborn pilot jet. It would appear the previous owner had a heavy hand and snapped the head off, so Ive been trying to extract it. My smallest screw extractor is MIA so I tried to get creative with some strong glue and a house screw but it didnt work, then tried a reverse drill bit, but that also failed. Ill have to go buy another extractor kit I guess. I also found my idle cable had disintegrated. I cannot seem to find a replacement. But I have noticed other parts online that almost match the part #, but they dont begin with 3VD. Ive ordered a FZR1000 cable and will see how that works out. It looks pretty close. Being I live out in the country, the closest hardware store is a good 45 min drive away, I decided to ditch trying to remove that pilot and save the carb work for another day.

So I pivoted my focus to the wiring the rats had started to chew on the tail section. It wasnt too bad. Only two wires were stripped bare of their insulation, the copper strands remained intact. And one other wire had a nibble or two on it. I cut the compromised section out grabbed my flux paste and soldered a new section in.

I also discovered two sections of cut wires. Really wish I could post a photo to show them ugh. Well one is on the tail section, 3 ground wires, attached with a 3 alan head bolt to the frame. Iirc I saw this on my other tdm. Im not quite sure what its for though. Two black wires and one blue. I thought turn signal grounds perhaps but those come from the main harness back there. The other cut wire I found on the bike was on the thermostat housing. A single wire attached with a ring terminal. I do recall seeing this one on my other tdm, but again no idea what its there for.

Speaking of electronics I found the large relay next to the flasher relay just dangling and exploded from overheating. The Facebook TDM group tells me its for the vacuum pump on the tdm. Does that sound correct? Its like a 6 or 8 pin relay. At any rate Ive ordered a replacement. I do wonder what caused it to overheat and melt tho.

Moving along, I ripped off those ugly gross orange grips and found some stick on grip heaters underneath, also with cut wires, so I cleaned all that up and put my old grips from my tdm on. Happy with the way it looks.

My new ignition switch arrived today too so I installed that. It was pretty difficult to source a 3 pin unit, I got the only one I could find used off eBay. I couldve got any old ignition switch and repinned it or whatever, but Im a sucker for oem parts. And it came with the fuel tank lid too so thats a nice bonus.

Then I moved onto an oil change. The fluid looked like that of a blown head gasket, Im praying its just condensation from sitting so long. I also discovered the little tube was missing (as it always seems to be) from the small end of oil filter housing. Fortunately the o-ring was still in place and hadnt got sucked up into the oil galley.

I gave the bike a once over to see what else was lacking. No speedometer cable, and the battery box is missing I think. There is a metal L shape where the battery sits but it has two rubber grommets on the bottom, I bet thats where a plastic battery box snaps in. Ill have to check my other bike. I also noticed neither brake was working. I found the front master cylinder fluid had crystallized. Hopefully the master seals are still worthy. The rear I fear is not. The fluid is still there on the rear but straight to the floor. Ill try bleeding and flushing it but I bet that brembo master is shot back there.

Speaking of the other bike I robbed the good stuff off this tdm and installed it on that bike today as well, which was nice.

That was pretty much it for the first day. Got a good insight into what Im working with and whats missing. Next week all the parts should arrive and I can get cracking on cleaning, rebuilding, and balancing the carburetors, and assembling the bike. Will have to wait for a few odds and ends I ordered today to arrive, and sort the brakes out before I can test ride though.

Is there a way I can upload a photo larger than 11.98KB on here? Usually screenshot and crop has worked but I can crop a photo to the smallest my iPhone 14 will let me and it still says its too big to upload. As always you can check my TikTok for the latest. I havent had time to film for YouTube but maybe I will use the photos and make a video still.

 

Use the full editor bud
 

[Blaqkfox]

Use the full editor bud

Sorry, am I not using that? Im in full mode or whatever its called on my mobile phone. Got the colorful logo banner and all that. I click more reply options, and even using the advanced uploader for photos. I screenshot the page to try and show you, but this is how far I had to crop it down before itll let me upload

Well, shoot I was going to upload it but after going back a few pages and then coming back to comment somehow my 11.98KB limit it was giving me has turned into a 2.77KB. I literally cant even upload a single word now, I had to crop this entire screenshot page down to this to upload something

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^thats a photo of the 11 in the 11.98kb limit it was giving me. Thats literally how far I had to crop an entire screenshot of this page down to get a photo uploaded.

And now its saying I only have 861 bytes for a photo upload? Does this thing keep a running total? Am I only allowed so much per thread or something?

Edited by Blaqkfox, 26 February 2024 - 05:40 am.

[Snowbird]

Possibly a non sportin member limitation?

[Favs]

More Reply Options button

[Blaqkfox]

So today we broke a carburetor

That stuck pilot jet was REALLY stuck. Ive done hundreds of carburetor jobs at the shop, and Ive removed my fair share of stuck pilot jets in my days. I can probably count on one hand the number of carburetors Ive messed up beyond repair though. Unfortunately today was one of them.

I had an extractor in there with a nice bite on the pilot jet. But I couldnt turn it no matter how hard I tried. It was just completely frozen in place and wouldnt budge at all. Until we gave it a lot of force. In fact it stripped the tool handle used to twist the extractor bit. So I grabbed the vice grips. It would round the bit off or skip the teeth on the vice grips before it would twist the pilot jet free. After trying multiple methods and tools and taking the bit to the grinder to try and get a nice flat surface to leverage we finally managed to twist it. Only problem was as we twisted the bit it didnt loosen the pilot jet. Rather it dug in deeper, and given its tapered shape in one fail swoop the bit mushroomed the pilot jet and blew out the wall of the jet block assembly.

https://i.imgur.com/NOaBE2g.jpeg

There a link to the photo, Im still having trouble uploading yall. Idk it says 10.05KB today. Hardly enough to upload a good photo. Idk what a sportin / non-sportin member is. Im under the full version->more replys section. Tried the advanced and the basic photo uploader. Its just limiting my file upload for some reason. Maybe because Im on my phone? Ill see if I cant sort it out next time Im on the computer.

Anyways, I now needed to source a jet block replacement. It just so happened my buddy has his m900 Ducati tucked away in the corner of the shop and no plans to get it going for a few months, and it just so happens that it uses these same carburetors. With the trip about a month away and in lieu of time Im robbing his jet block for the tdm. I hope it will work. It should. They look identical and I verified with air that the passageways are the same. One difference I did notice was one was marked R-1 while the Ducati one is marked R-2. As far as I could tell, the only difference was the placement of the circular leftover spot where it was broken out of the mold (see photo in link below- the circle is on the upper part of the one marked R-2, on R-1 its on the other side). But that wouldnt matter one bit, so Im not sure why the manufacturer decided to label them differently.

https://i.imgur.com/lvKQawV.jpeg

Thing is, I need to buy a replacement for his bike now. To be honest Im not even sure what carburetors these are. On the side there seems to be some ghost lettering etched into the carburetors, Mikuni T341. But that search returned nothing on the google. I came across mikuni BDST on another forum and that did return results that looked like what I have. I did end up finding a replacement from a European website but they want 43 for it. Meanwhile I was seeing plenty of others that looked correct, but listed as a Ducati 600 monster carburetor jet block. And those are only around $10.

So I am wondering if they would be the same. There is a press fit jet (midjet?) in the jet block so that has me worried- that on the 600 it might be a different size. It looked the same between the tdm and the m900, but maybe thats because theyre similar CCs or something, idk.

Edited by Blaqkfox, 28 February 2024 - 05:47 am.

[Blaqkfox]

Well, I had quite the scare yesterday. I had bought this TDM without a title. My state is very lax in title work though. Here whenever you sell a vehicle/motorcycle/boat pretty much anything, all you ever need is signatures and addresses on the title. No extra papers required, not even a notary. It’s one of the things I love about my state. And if you buy a motorcycle that’s 30 years or older without a title you just need a form and a bill of sale and you can apply for a title. And it’s all incredibly cheap too. It only cost me like $30. So that’s what I did for this bike. Unfortunately when I turned my forms in at the court house the clerk said “it looks like this motorcycle had a theft record”.

I was worried about this. The bike had every lock cylinder tampered with to the point you could just stick a flat head in it and turn it. But I used that nicb.org website everyone suggested I use to run the vin and it showed no theft or salvage title reported. So needless to say I was a bit shocked when the clerk told me it could potentially be stolen.

I asked her, “so what do we do about this?” And she said her computer doesn’t show if it was a theft from 30 years ago that got resolved or one from last week, so she had no idea if it was an active theft case or not. My heart sank. I mean no title, botched lock cylinders, it wasn’t looking good. She said “this has never happened to me before, hold on” and went to talk to her supervisor. The sup told her to send the paperwork off and we will see what happens. I said “well what’s going to happen if it is stolen?!” She said, “i don’t know, like I said this has never happened to me before. I assume your title application will be denied and you’ll receive a letter stating what steps to take next”.

So I left the court house with my mind racing and thinking the worst. Will I have to go to court and defend my innocence? Will the police come and take the bike? So I decided to get proactive and call my local sheriffs department and ask if it had an open theft case. The lady in the records department told me she couldn’t give that information out to the general public, and it would be best to have an officer come out to run the vin and then he could tell me if it is stolen or not.i asked her what would happen if it was stolen. She said “we will tow the bike and you’re just SOL whatever money you have in it”. After getting transferred around awhile I was put in touch with the dispatch unit who took the vin down and told me they’d send an officer out.

An officer never did come in person, but I got a phone call about 10 minutes later from one. Fortunately he said the VIN was clean. ‍. So it must’ve been something that happened years ago, was resolved, and for some reason they never fixed the lock cylinders. Through all this I got in touch with the last person I knew who had owned it, and they did say they bought it from some drug addicts in a sketchy part of town years ago with no title and the lock cylinders already busted. So I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised they never fixed the locks. But after he told me that I was even more convinced it was going to be a stolen bike. I’m so glad it wasn’t. Just a case of crackheadery.

Hopefully I’ll get my title in a few weeks, for now I have my plates and registration and I know I can move forward with the project! So that’s great news. Almost all the parts are in so I’m going to try and assemble the bike as much as I can the next two days! I’ll keep yall updated.

[LAURENCEAUX]

Phew - this bike's got a history, but I guess you have it now, so good luck with the renovation.

[Blaqkfox]

With all the paperwork behind me I finished the carburetors today.

https://i.imgur.com/BXGajCW.jpeg

And got them back on the bike

https://i.imgur.com/qrwNI3v.jpeg

Turns out the fzr1000 idle cable I snagged for cheap as a replacement is about 3/4in too short to mount in the factory location. Ill have to come up with a place to tuck it away. If its anything like my other tdm it doesnt ever really need to be adjusted. Im impressed by that, on my fz1 Im always having to adjust it for the wild temperature fluctuations we get where I live.

Unfortunately when going the carbs I lost a main jet from the one I took to work with me. The one I broke trying to remove the pilot jet. Im pretty sure when verifying the Ducati m900 jet block passageways flowed the same I accidentally shot mine across the shop. I had left the main jets in because I wanted to run the whole jet block through the sonic cleaner to loosen them up. Those old o rings felt stiff in there. Guess they werent as tight as I had imagined lol. Im going to look for it tomorrow but we have about 30 motorcycles crammed into my buddys garage while we work to open an actual shop building so the chances of finding it are slim to none. I have ordered more but I doubt theyll be here in time for our big trip. I suppose worse come to worse Ill rob it from my other tdm. So I guess Ill be starting the bike for the first time just a few days before we leave then lol.

So now Im focusing on brakes. Neither one works. This poor bikes sat so long the front brake fluid had begun to crystallize. I removed the master cylinder and ran it through the sonic cleaner but the seals inside were kaput. I suppose Ill replace it with one from like an fz1 or something a little better designed and cheaper. As for the rear brakes the fluid was still liquid, albeit dark. I wanted to try bleeding the system first, but the bleed screws on the rear caliper have seen better days. One is broke off completely, but not leaking fortunately. The other is just rusty and seized up. Im letting it soak in penetrating oil for a few days before I attempt to remove it again, almost snapped it off the first go.

Just waiting on that jet and the air box now and I can get to running the bike and balancing the carbs.

Oh also today I makeshift that little spacer thats supposed to be in the oil filter housing on the small end. My other tdm was missing that as well when I did its first oil change. I imagine a lot of ppl loose that spacer or never even notice it fall out when changing the oil. Im happy to report that in both cases the o ring has stayed seated and not gotten sucked up into the oil galleries. I tried to order a replacement from partzilla but they emailed me saying it wouldve be available until the day Im supposed to leave on the trip, so I found a steel dowel from the hardware store that fit pretty well (couldnt find a metic one the right size, silly America) and cut it down to size. 5-6mm tall.

Ive also passed up the budget for the competition were doing so one of my headlight bulbs currently has a zip tie holding it in. Its getting too close to the trip to order much anything else and have it here on time as well. So things are about to get very janky when they need fixed. Fortunately once I sort the brakes I should be good. Well just cross our fingers that all the suspension and wheel bearings and such are good and dont give out.