Great Video.......i am a german rd 500 driver and your englisch is very easy for me to listen and to translate. I build many 250 and 350 LC / YPVS Yamaha engines new but not one RD 500 engine. The day will come i rebuild my Engine.....your Video is a great help for me. 😊
@thebracketfactory I had a RU-vid channel get monetized and you get over 1000 pds videos do a great thumb nail and start selling t shirts with your channel name on it also do smaller length videos 15mins try doing videos a day from hull were you from 52 yrs of age
@@jensnitsche4994 Ich hab mich vielleicht etwas unglücklich ausgedrückt.....ich habe eine schöne 500er......eines Tages werde ich den 500er Motor überholen.....so meinte ich das. Schau in meine Videos....da ist auch die 500er.
Funny how this just showed up on my feed. Back in 95 I was at a garage sale and there was something under a blanket against the wall. I maneuvered on over to take a peek and there was a mint 74 rd350. Asked the lady about it, she said her husband was a salesman at a dealership, the bike had 35 miles but it never would run more then five minutes at a time so he brought it home and there it sat. I gave her $500 and a friend of mine found the problem of some factory welding slag shorting out the bike. Sold it for $2500 a few years later.
Great video! For my computing & electronics degree in early 90s, I designed and built a power-valve servo controller for my Ministock racing TZR 125, plus an LED rev counter. TZRs in the UK didn't have the controllers fitted and the valve was fixed in the closed position, you could also move it to the open position, but that then gave it no power at low revs.
Thanks for the video. I had a RG500. It was way simpler than this with similar performance. These 2 bikes were an answer to a question nobody was asking.
I had an RD250LC in 1981, then a Kawasaki GPz500 and 750. In 1984 I had to decide between buying a GPz900R, an RD500LC or going to Australia. I chose going to Australia for a year. I finally bought a 900R in the mid 90's and still ride now (S1000XR) but I never owned an RD500. Your video was truly fascinating and I want a 500 even more now! Subscribed and looking forward to the next 500 video.
Had similar experiences , owned a 250 LC in late 80's , great bike , was ex track bike so had had some tuning, then went to Australia , spotted an RD 500 in the paper and went to have a look , thought all my dreams come true but went for test ride and it gave off the most horrendous tank slappers when coming off the throttle, the optimist in me still wanted to buy it but so glad I didn't , would have killed me , think it was probably bent . Ended up with GPZ 600 instead, awesome bike , used to do Macpherson street racing at midnight after the pub, up through the chicane from beach , then 80 mph up to the roundabout, happy days.
Glad you liked the vid! I'm working on a YZR rep at the mo so should do a vid on that soon, but will also do a more detailed vid about the power valves which I only touched on.
@@thebracketfactory Was great, am hugely impressed with your knowledge on the engine , will keep an eye out for the yzr video. Funnily enough I also owned a Yzr 250 wr 2 stroke moto x / enduro bike '89 model , I think they were basically race bikes with lights from what I can gather , was fastest in the pack, just holding off my friend Dave Lamberts TT 600, look him up, much like yourself, very clever bloke , specialises in XT 600's for overland trips.
I still seen to get my hands on one! I love in the USA so highly unlikely these days for cheap. For now i will continue to ride ann 13 of my rd 350's i have restored Thanks for the video. I haven't seen may on the internals of an rd500.
Hey up mate first I've seen ov your channel, and what a great video, very well explained. Always struggled to know what these bike's are supposed to be called, mate got one when they first came out in Australia and have always remembered it as been a YZR did also think earlier than 84. I did ride it a few times and loved it, seemed like a big Motorcross bike on the road to me, picking up front wheel half way round corners was fun just like I'd ride my enduro bike
Very, very cool!!!✌️😎👍 This gave me a great idea though. 2 RZ-350 engines mated I CAN KEEP MY YPVS!!! Two cub '425's twins, twin crank , ect .... Thank you, thank you very much!!! 👍
Its looks like a TZR250 2MA/1KT motor and a TZR250 3MA stuck together, but I guess thats what the engineers were working with at the time. The YZR500 0WC1 is my "if I won the lottery" bike, or if I ever got my hands on one of these motors, I have enough TZR's and spares to build one, but every one I have seen for sale is way out of my budget.
I finally realized I purchased the Wrong 2 New bike after buying the Absolutely astounding 1985 RZ350F the next year 1986 RZ5000V4 steel framed bike , when I should have simply waited till 1987 & purchased another giant killer TZR250-1KT And l imagine would have a lot more useable fun on the twice as small engine size as the bigger overweight lump of a bike 500cc 2 stroke, but after riding & owning 2 Yamaha sport bikes and a bunch of heavy Japanese Socalled sporty bikes the 1985 RZ350 is still the most favorite bike of all time and if ever win the lottery I'm buying as many TZR's & earlier RZ's as possible for a Private Hord collection.
Excellent video I am In California and I am restoring a YAMAHA RD 500LC. However, because of gasoline environmental laws, the old plastic seems to take a big toll on this old motorcycle.
I love the way to very simply explain the total workings of the outer engine components how is your Austin 7 Racer going love all your videos lots more please.
Not Piston port !. That's reed valve "Torque Induction" 100%. Upper cylinders are fed via reed to the cylinders. Lower 2 cylinders are fed via reeds though the crank case.
Also always curious on the compromises engineers have to allow for when pairing multi cylinders on 2S. I have seen RZ 350 cranks with 180d offset pins and understand that the engine is treated as 2 seperate gas pumps in that layout. Then the other day i saw an RGV 250 crank with 0d offset crank pins. This must mean a shared crankcase/primary compression allowed by the 90d cylinder barrel orientation? So interesting.
I bought a red/black rd500 back in the 80's it was on a c reg, a quick test ride and it was sold, cost me £2300, i always wanted one but the £3500+ new price was to rich for me, mine had around 18000 miles on it and it was faultless untill i foolishly let the local jonah have a go on it and he came back with it running on 3 cylinders !, i pulled a plug out and diagnosed a holed piston, did the old screwdriver down the plug hole test, i also had a new yzf 750r so the rd 500 was left alone as quite frankly it scared me from working on it as it looked so complicated, ive stripped and rebuilt many of my previous and later yamaha 2 strokes, td3/tz/yr5/tzr3xvsp no problem ,.anyway i sold it as is for £1200 as i only had room for 4 bikes, so it had to go, leaving me with yzf750r/rd350b/tzr3xvsp/honda cb750k2, these last 3 ive just sold to my eldest son, leaving me with my yamaha R7 0W02 from 2000, i px'd the yzf750r for it in 2004,.if i had a crystal ball back then i would have hung onto the rd500, but i sold it to racer nigel bosworths brother, i also had a speed camera tkt for it years later (my name must have still been on the v5), so it must have been repaired ,. C730EMF was the reg,.not mot'd now on gov.co mot checker,.long live the 2 strokes !..
Throughly interesting. Thank you. As someone about to embark on a 86 RZ 350 resto l wondered if you have done or can do the same for these engines? Regards, Simon, Christchurch, NZ.
Hi, I've not done one on the RZ350 (which is the RD350 in the UK), but as it happens I do have on in bits so I could do a vid on it. I'll stick it on the 'to do' list!
The degree spacing slightly improves tyre grip by spreading the would be twin power pulses of a cylinder per bank firing apart fractionally. Also the slight offset will degrade a sympathetic resonance from the cranks secondary weightings due to each cranks rotational distance from the other with regards to their input onto the clutch's drive gear, and torsional resonations potentially effecting long-term.. bearing lives, perhaps reducing a frothing effect upon fuelling and oiling to below a cavitational bubble generation range(s) level ?
I purchased mine in the 90s, I think it was 10yo. It was in like new condition with about 8k kilometres, I paid $4200 Australian dollars. Kept it for 5 years and sold it for $5k.
very interesting, hope you don't mind me asking, but what is your day job, or trade/ training ? only you appear to be very familiar with this engine, and engineering in general, enjoying your videos. myself long time motor and mechanical engineer/ fitter.
I do not understand the per say 2nd oil pump. As the crank is lubed by the fuel/oil mixture and does not run in an oil bath per say like a 4 stroke. Only thing I can only guess is they are putting the crack seal(s) inboard of the main bearings so the 2nd pump would just oil the main bearing on the right but how does the oil get to the bearing on the left?
One of the oil pumps is the 2-stroke oil pump as found on many 2 stroke engines. The other pump is a gearbox oil pump and specifically feeds the primary gear for the top/rear crank as that is high up in the engine and too far away to just be splash lubricated. I hope that makes sense!
I won't pretend to understand the actual physics behind it but I suspect that only one of the gears has a functioning anti backlash device because they found that they only needed one in order to achieve the goal that they were trying to achieve. Given that type of system will inherently add friction and will rob power they probably decided just having one was the best compromise. The other one likely has a dummy setup just so the two could be the same and use the same hardware etc.
@@thebracketfactory yeah I've seen quite a few instances over the years as a mechanic where dummy parts like this are created in order to avoid re-engineering a whole bunch of things.
I am from Brasil. Bought, recently one rz500 from Canada, on a “bring a trailler auction “ the bike cant run lower 3000 rpm. I need to pull choke to get some velocity and after that need mantain engine over 3000 rpm, if not the engine lost the power and stops. Do have any explanition how to check/fix ypvs valve?
It sounds like you have an issue with the carbs - I suspect the jets area blocked. Strip and clean with ultrasonic cleaner and make sure all jets are clear. Good luck!
Rebuilt one for an old buddy. His son had assembled it. Seized so hard it pulled the wrist pin out of one of the pistons. Aftermarket pistons any one? Put it together stock with Yamaha parts. Much better
Wasn't Honda the only Japanese manufacturer with a single crank 2T engine? I know that Yamaha and Suzuki both had counter rotating twin crank engine that were coupled to the msin crank.
Yes, the NSR400 had a single crank... but only 3 cylinders and 400cc (for Japanese market). The Yamaha cracks both rotate in the same direction and are only connected via the clutch basket.
The lower crank gear is heavily lubricated the crank at 12:00 not so much so is noisy without the backlash gear ? Maybe? Great project ! I’m butt hurt !
Still nowhere piston-ported, still not anything close to a YZR. Maybe it's gonna be a nice bike, have fun, I'm all for it. But if you put " YZR replica" in the title, people are gonna be disapointed.
I can't imagine the anti rattle primary drive stuff would be in the racing version of this engine. The piston port side looks to me like it has access to the crankcase and may or may not be piston port??
You are right - the anti lash gears are often left out of race engine builds. And also it is *not* piston ported, despite what said! The rear pistons do have ports in them, but it's reed valve induction..
😂 I can't believe you're working on an engine that's 40 years old. And has accounted for splash needed for lubrication... While my 2019 5.7 l. V8 ram engine... Has a tendency to suffer from lifter failures due to inadequate oiling at idle😮😮😮 Yeah that's right. It's still 2024... Old is better
After the success of the RD250LC and RD350LC, when Yamaha announced there was going to be a RD500LC coming, EVERYONE was expecting a 350 bored out to 500. Which I think would have sold by the million! However what we got was a square 4, V4 massively more complicated engine with different cylinder banks front and back. A much bigger heavier bike with a £3000+ price tag compared to £1130 for the 350...It would have been Sooo much easier and better to have made a TZ500 replica with detuned barrels... It was a MASSIVE disappointment at the time and didnt sell well at all from what I remember. You COMPLETELY misread your market Yamaha, a massive mistake.
In the UK someone made an RD500 from two RD250 engines mated to together (4 cylinder in line) - it was featured in a magazine at the same time as the RD500 came out. Ebvryone liked the 'home-brew' version more...!
@@thebracketfactory Yes, I have seen a water cooled and air cooled version, both were rather 'wide' as I remember. The best answer was still a twin, a completely wasted opportunity by Yamaha, very annoying!
As long as it's thermally protected ? Say cerakote . Magnesium is usually more desireble then aluminium . Lost sparx ignition is a great idea to prevent false signal but for the rest must awfull . No wonder 2 stroke smoked so much
6,200 For a Gamma 500cc Suzuki in 1986, Now they sell for 30-40k, this is Canaduu and The USA. Can buy 2 Strokes in The Philippines for next to nothing North America, Fukn Scam up here!
