[turbo_v12]

Hey Junkie, thanks for letting me know.

Guess I still have a lot to learn about ignition.

[ac 427]

Great learning guys. But after a lot of thinking, i have decided against the bike.

I met wiht a bad accident last sunday while I was returning from Shirdi on my bullet.

It was a freak accident. This accident has left me thinking.

But my Tryst with the RD continues. May be 6 months down the line, when i feel confident enough to ride one, i shall start looking.

Thanks for all the help.

Cheers
AC

[insaneroller]

rx cdi will give issues in the long run. You will suddenly feel a loss of throttle response or power. I have the shogun wiring & rx cdi, so talking from experience. Now changing to RDD cdi, uni, jets etc. So its correct to say that rx cdi aint a good match, at least not for the long run

[speed0mania]

hi guys! almost final with my buy! its an '86 HT restored to factory spec. it doesn't have CDI but points. And I would like to keep it that way as thats the way it came out of the factory unless theres alot of problem i dont want to switch over to CDI can anyone tell me the cons of breaker points and maintenance tips for points. cant wait to get my hands on it!!

Also its on its 4th oversize do you think its better to pay 7k extra to get a 3rd oversize cylinder kit or use the 4th for now and look for a better than 3rd after im done with the current setup?

[Ajaybiz]

Yes its worth to go for 3rd over size rather than 4th one but being in Delhi i suspect that you'll get original bore not sleeved ones.
Best of luck mate as now days RD prices are touch sky high.Someone offered me set of four NOS RD blinkers for 8.5K, so imagin the prices of other components.

[speed0mania]

yup! unsleeved! didn't want to go for a sleeved one! More probability of it giving trouble later!! i heard parts and all are wayy more expensive down south!! well cant wait now just a matter of a few more days but the adrenaline's already pumpin !!

[Brutus]

Heres what i found out

Early 83 Rd's were 5 speed and not 6 speed.

pre-85 Rd's had a fatter tank, and had Rajdoot type hand grips, and Koito headlights, and drum(black) coils.



Ht kits(made in japan) came only till early 85, if anybody has a later bike with a Ht kit, then its a LT model with Ht cylinders. And yes, and Ht kit with HT card slides and Ht stock silencers sound awesome.

Early 85 LT bikes were basically a HT with a exhaust port riveted with a piece of copper on the circumference of the port to make it an LT. all you have to do to make it into an HT cylinder is to knock off that chip.

The HT rd likes low timing at low RPMS, bit higher at mid range and back down to low timing at high rpms. This graph came in the shogun CDI, the rx units were just advance after a certain rpm. But as to make these units to work with 2 cylinders properly, the current output from the magneto has to be doubles, voltage remaining the same. A way to do this is to super-charge the magnet and decrese the no of coils of the armature, but using a thicker wire, but its a very calculative job. There are ppl who sell jsut these as kits, but they charge just too high.
Just for the record, the stock HT timing is 1.8mm BTDC. With a programable kit, starting at 1.5mmBTDC, going to 2.8mm at half throttle, and 1.8mm at full range works well. The best ignition coils i could find for a cdi unit was a auto-ricksaw cdi coil. It was bigger and supported higher current from the custom CDI unit.
The original Magnet alternater of the Rd produces 140watts of current, the optional unit that came in some police RD's in India had a 550watts alternater to support the sirens and cop lights.

[gt_mustang]

man i wish i had some one to guide me when i bought my RD 2 years ago
my RD was awesome expect that it was on 4th oversize. didnt have that performance that i was expecting.

anyways i bought my self US SPEC R5 RD350 Bores im selling them if anyone interested PM me

[narayan]

[quote=speed0mania;1128276]hi guys! almost final with my buy! its an '86 HT restored to factory spec. it doesn't have CDI but points. And I would like to keep it that way as thats the way it came out of the factory unless theres alot of problem i dont want to switch over to CDI can anyone tell me the cons of breaker points and maintenance tips for points. cant wait to get my hands on it!!

quote]

if u are really the " hands on " guy or have a very good mechanic close by ( who is good at setting points ) -then continue with it. the timing needs to be set quite often . actually you can also do it if you are very interested.

but better to invest in a good CDI - i think autoescorts in mumbai makes a good kit

[speed0mania]

@ narayan: well i am a hands on guy but have little knowledge setting points did meet Mr. sumeet mehndiratta who runs a one man garage specific for rds he's a member of NERDS (NCR Enthusiasts of RDs) group so guess he can help me out, even though he was more inclined towards a cdi kit. But if someone can tell me how once i don't mind checking every week as it is going to be a sunday ride! and i like to pamper my car and now bike on my day off!

[Brutus]

Even the originals cylinders had sleeves fited from the factory. Later people fit another set of sleeves into these sleeves, and thats a no-go. But there are people in Ambala and Delhi that fit sleeves just like the original ones, and you cannot make out the difference. These same kits, once polished, are sold off as new for quite a sum of money. so Buyer beware.
I did use the Autoescorts kit once too. That time i had a RD with the original colour and an unopened engine, in 2001. this kit makes a spark an inch an a half long. As though there is absolutely no problem with this kit, but experience was different due to my own fault. This kit uses a magnetic rotor that fits on the main cam. Instead of the points is a magnetic pickup that sends a signal to the TDI box and coil for a spark everytime the rotor passes next to it. This magnetic pickup bolts to the alternater at just one point.
In my case, this bolt used to come lose no matter how hard i would screw it down. I even used lock washers. One day i was going uphills and had a bag with me, so that must have been a load on the bike. Now this bolt came a little lose, slowly advancing the timing of the right cylinder due the vibration. A loaded bike, an aging motor, and advance timing is not a very good combination. A few minutes of pinging, and the motor blew a hole the size of a marble through the piston. On a positive note, a points bike in this case, i would not have have enough power to make the bike go with a load with this advance a timing and maybe i would'nt had to go through the experiance.
As for setting the timing, its best to have a dial guage, but the adaptors for the guage to fit inside the cylinders is real hard to come by. If you can get those, only then do you get true timing. Otherwise, you really would'nt getting the timing done as good as the mechanic does for you.
Take Care,
Bikram

[crazydiablo]

Originally Posted by brutus

One day i was going uphills and had a bag with me, so that must have been a load on the bike.

Man, that must have been some bad, if an RD could not pull it. I dont agree with many things that you have said, but who am I to argue.

[Brutus]

If you would read properly, i was going uphills, on my way to shimla from chandigarh, and it happened right after parwanoo.

[Ajaybiz]

5 speed gear box veriable timings thats really something new for many RD guys
BTW Brutus i have seen the very first lot of RD delivered to my uncle in oct 1983 but it was 6 speed and point ignition that you cant say its got veriable timings.
Can you put bit more focus on veriable timing ignition system in indian RD's.

[Brutus]

Not variable ignition dude, its what kind of timing suits what rpm. the factory timing is basically a compromice between whats good at a certain rpm. If they had any sort of digital or analog electronic timing advance gadgets in those days they surely would have done that. I only reason i specified that was because there are so many people talking about fitting an electronic ignition fron a certain bike, so they should probably go for a unit that matches the curve.

As for the 5 speed RD, there are not many of they left since most of they have used stuff (including 6 speeder, yes its interchangable) from the normal RD350's. These RD's had a very ugly rajdoot type silencers, and unlike the normal silencers that are bolted at 2 more places other than the cylinder kits, these dont use the bolt under the engine compartment. The cylinder blocks were slightly different, both the engine side panels were different( and beautiful to look at, all naked raw aluminium) and they did not use mikuni carbs. Even the fron foot peg id hung below th silencer unlike above the silencer like it was done in indian models. Most of these models were imported before the RD came to india, but theres a mechanic called Ramesh, who was the cheif mechanic fro RD's at Yamaha service center in Chandigarh every since the RD's were launched and he told me the earlier ones from the company, came like these units. A friend of mine in chd has one but he too has the converted 6 speed one, though he still has those engine side panels intact, and since he's using silencers from the normal RD, he just cannot figure out why there's a clip with a hole connected to the silencer right under the engine and still there's no mount in the chassis to bolt it to. I think i might have a pic of this bike lying somewhere.
Here it is, this one is the stock 5 speed RD350, notice the silencers and differnet engine side panels, and the foot peg evolving from below the silencers.


These use the same type of side panels but i am not sure if these had the 5speed units


Bikram