My '65 YG1 has been sitting in pieces for a year or so now. Being locked up in my house has finally given me the time to tackle it and these videos are so well done and helpful. Thanks for taking the time.
Glad to see the thread and upper edge of the lower leg greased to make life easier when screwing on the fork nut 'O' ring. Those 'O' rings are usualy standard sizes and ready available in modern materials just not in a Yamaha bag. If you ever get really stuck for hard chroming send them to A.M Philpots of Luton here in the UK. They have ground and hard chromed three sets of Kawasaki fork legs for me (F4, F9, S2,) and although not fast their work is second to none. Please keep the vid's coming. Good work.
When I realized Yamaha no longer offered the O-ring for the fork nut, I inspected the originals and determined they were still serviceable. Consequently I didn't need to investigate other solutions, as I did with the fork seals. In terms of hard chrome, the primary issue with sending to the UK is shipping costs for something as relatively heavy as fork tubes. I've actually heard of AM Phipots as I have a subscription to the UK publication "Classic Motorcycle Mechanics" (highly recommended, BTW) and they are mentioned in the magazine from time to time. Though there are allegedly several places in the US that will re-chrome motorcycle fork tubes, I've never been able to get any of them to respond to my inquires. Forking by Frank, based in the US state of Illinois I believe, who manufactures new forks tubes refused to make tubes for the YL1. Apparently they've never made these tubes before and weren't interested in setting up for them. Thanks for all your comments!
hey, super stoked you're taking the time to do all this. you are very detailed and its so much help. I'm also trying to hunt down the brand new NOS tubes. mine are bent. I took the OEM part number 196-23124-40-00 and searched for that in the NOS database but nothing came up. how did you find new ones?
These tubes are very hard to find new as I'm sure they haven't been available from Yamaha for many years. I found the new tubes on ebay, and they came from the either Thailand or Indonesia as I recall, though I don't remember which. If you find them new, they are expensive no matter where you find them. Besides finding good used tubes on ebay, there is an alternative if the chrome/finish on your current bent tubes is OK. A competent machine shop can often inexpensively straighten bent tubes. You might consider looking into this. Glad the find the videos helpful, thanks for the comments and good luck with your project.
These vids have been so helpful thanks...I desperately need new chrome exposed fork springs, do you remember exactly where you got yours here in this video? thanks
The fork springs were NOS (New Old Stock) I got out of Thailand via eBay, I believe. I spoke to this at about the 21:40 mark in the video. Besides NOS you could possibly have your originals rechromed... at a cost. Glad the videos have been helpful...
I did a compression test on my YL1 it was cold, only 85 psi and 89 it runs great. I was told that it should be over 100 psi , I was going to rebuild the motor this winter. Do you think it's a problem if I use it this way for the rest of this season. I don't want to do any damage it's 1967 with 5800 miles thanks.
Running the bike with light compression won't do any damage. As long as it runs OK and is otherwise in good repair, you will be fine. A common symptom of low compression is hard starting when cold but starting OK when hot. Yamaha doesn't publish a compression specification for the YL1 (that I'm aware of anyway), however 100 PSI is a good reference point for a minimum. Note that compression is usually tested with the engine warm and the throttle wide open.
@@kwrightway That's good news it was always in the back of my mind, when i was out for a ride that i may be hurting the motor now i can relax. I will do the compression test using your method thanks again for all your advice.
