slowly coming at the end of the resto of my RD400 D…
It fired the other day… there’s still a few things to sort… new carb cables…she’s misfiring on the left, what with 28 years old plugs have to go through all the timing set-up and all.
I also need to fit the blinkers back on. All the pics I see of a D, the rear blinkers are fitted to the frame. On mine I have a threaded bar attached to the rear light base, looks factory made.
Is this this a normal setup? My frame still has original bungs where most rear blinker attach.
Plus my loom goes into the tail light housing but can’t find an earth lead for the blinkers there, I think they might need it as the housing is rubber mounted.
I tried attaching the blinkers but they wouldn’t work at all. I am suspecting my flasher relay, as It doesn’t make a noise when I swith the bike on… Am I right or do they stay silent?
Turns out it is a Euro spec modification.
I have a feeling it also uses a round cover to hide the locknut on the stem…Reason I need this pic so I can ID the right blinkers at the breaker’s yard… I obviously got the wrong ‘uns.
The front is no prob, it’s the same the world over.
Will the blinkin system work with only 2 blinkers attached or do I need all 4… as Rudiger said it is quite hard to plug them in the tube… kind of stuff you want to do only once!
EDIT: the answer is NO, of course, it will light up but not flash.
Submerged under a sea of bikes, i finally decided to put things under control. Not.This little blog thingy should help keep my head organized. With a baby on the way, I have to decide which bike goes in first for resto.
placeholder for the Stinger
Placeholder for the TC 250 story
On a fabulous sunny day of March.
And with its old rival, the Kawasaki Samourai.
Just a quick pic of that elusive Cobra… only 7 of them were imported in the country in 68.
Sadly the motor is not the original one, numbers should match the frame on these. It has the correct large carbs but later type cylinders (11 fins instead of 10). It’s also missing the rear grab bar (remade nowadays, but at a price).
It came with a replacement tach as the one on the bike is split into bits.
There’s a few things not quite original on the bike, one of them being the seat. The Cobras not only had a specific suede-type cover (now available again) but also a specific seat pan. This is a later type fitted, see the gap? The fork ears look like the right type, but the chrome washers are wrong and come from a T500 R or J.
All in all, even with the missing parts, it’s just pure luck to find one of these here in Switzerland.
Most of the imported bikes were meant as demonstrators and were often kept in the shop window. Then Suzuki couldn’t meet the demand and most of the production was shipped to the US. Then in 69, the 500 II, called the Titan (see on your right of the page, in the bike menu) had a radically different and more modern styling… the old Cobras couldn’t sell and some of them end in the back of the store room and stayed there for many many years… This is where Tom found this one, only a few kilometers from his home.
Placeholder for the 500LC… king of the Road!
Here it is freshly arrived from the coast of Nyon.
3-in-1 pipes, chrome covers, there's some work involved to get it back to standard.
Got the pipe off, it is probably a Gt 750 one… very musical.
