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This is handy to have and what I was talking about about - no need to sacrifice a socket.

Universal Socket

That's pretty cool. That should do the job. When I did the job, I took an impression of the culprit with a ball of play-doh. If you happen to have a 12mm socket laying around, it'll only take a minute with an angle grinder and you're good to go! Stick that bad boy on the end of an extension- problem solved!

I ordered a Trailtech R/R. That'll take at least a week for that to arrive.

remember: a relay needs initial voltage to work, its an electromagnetic switch, you don't have any w out a battery.

Well, then that would explain why it didn't work. Yes, I'm in unchartered territory and fairly clueless. I'm glad it was something obvious to someone who knows. It's not a mandate that I have to run with no battery, I'm just thinking it's a chance to lose a some weight and do a little cleaning up if possible. Running a small alarm battery sounds like a good plan. Thank you for the help!

I bought an HPI 210 ignition from treatland and am trying to get it to work properly. Let me preface this thread by fully admitting that I am not great with electrical- I can read a schematic and trace wires, but I don't fully understand the underpinnings of what's really happening. I've got a '77 RD400 and the HPI is replacing a Newtronic ignition, which worked beautifully. I've read all the threads on this forum (and others) that I could find and they have been extremely helpful so far. What might be making things more difficult is that I'm trying to ditch the battery altogether, while still maintaining the normal function of the stock electrical. I'm still using the stock harness. All lights on the bike are LED with the exception of the tach and speedo.

The rotor is on and the bike timed to 1.9mm BTDC. The bike has had some cylinder porting, the heads skimmed and reshaped, carbs modified and some pretty hot chambers. Yesterday I tested the new coil and CDI (not hooking up the yellow wires and regular) and the bike ran fine, so I verified the timing with a timing light at 3800 rpm. I bought a new Trailtech variable regulator (the one that Mark suggested) and a Bosch 5-pin relay. No rectifier, since I'm not planning on using a battery. Both OEM rectifier and regular have been removed from the bike.



I floated the light coil ground at the stator and ran a second yellow wire with the rest of them. I wired the regulator as Trailtech suggested, and I tried wiring the relay the way Chuck suggested AND the way Mark suggested- both ways the bike did not start.



I patched in the lighting (power) feeds to the red battery positive wire and the rear brake light switch wiring (brown wire). I jumpered the two ground pins together on the relay and grounded the wire to the frame. I also grounded the black battery ground wire to the frame.

When I tried to start the bike today after configuring the relay the way Mark had suggested, the motor was already warmed up from earlier, so it should have readily started, but it was a no go. The key was in the ON position. I tried kicking with the headlight off and on. I tried the kill switch in both off and on positions.

Any suggestions where I could have gone wrong?

- Could I have bought the wrong relay?
- When I floated the lighting coil ground, I disconnected it from the allen screw, there was a black wire and a bare wire soldered together attached to a circular connection. I soldered a (yellow) wire to the whole thing, then taped if off and taped off the corner where the screw hole was, so there's no possibility of grounding again. Should I have cut the black wire off of it and separated it from the bare wire before running the additional lighting lead?
- Should I detach the black battery ground wire?
- Could the LED resistors have anything to do with the bike not starting?


If worst comes to worst, I can always buy a new appropriate rectifier and hook up a capacitor, but I'm trying to keep things simple 

These are great suggestions but the rear sprocket takes bolts, not nuts. I guess lock washers and blue loctite

You can still safety wire it.

I was looking over messages between myself and the seller. The pipe he sent was not the one he sent me a picture of. He sent me a photo of this pipe installed...on a twin shock DT100. I was able to get in touch with him in December. He said he was very busy with a big Christmas order. After Christmas, no response to my messages.
I finally opened a claim with PayPal and that got a lot of response. He's going to have someone send the pipe out right away. Then a message to please drop my claim. Sorry he has been slow to respond but he's in the hospital (along with a photo of someone in a hospital bed with a IV drip).
So I'll wait and see if it actually shows up.

Be very careful about dropping your claim before the issue is resolved. I had an issue with a vendor not refunding money for an item that I had already sent back. I started a claim with my credit card and he suddenly became very communicative. He convinced me to drop my claim, because he saw that the credit card had already issued me the refund. Well that was the "provisional" credit, meaning that credit was in lieu of the money from the vendor. My only option when I dropped the claim was that the issue was resolved. So the credit card took back the provisional credit. Now I had no refund from either the credit card, the vendor and I had no product! The credit card would not let me reopen or start a new claim on the same issue, so I was stuck hoping/praying that I wasn't going to get hosed.

If you drop your claim with Paypal, just be aware of the possible implications....

Looks great. Fair price. Seems like everyone's full on bikes now. I too have vowed to hold off on new bike projects for now. A friend offered me a RD400F in boxes for a fantastic price, but I have a vintage BMW car to get on the road (been on jack stands for 6 years now) and a Harley that I crashed that I need to rehabilitate and sell.

Nice stable of bikes! A couple of times a year, we have a group of 2T bikes that make a run through Skyline and the Santa Cruz mountains. You should come with us!

Replaced my Boyesen reeds with some new TDR reeds on the RD400 a couple of weeks ago. Had a bunch of Jeep stuff to do right after, preparing for a desert run so never got a chance to test them out till today. Sunny and 56 degrees out, but I know how to bundle up. She ran like the dickens! 

Not mine, but this looks pretty good.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2032771627106331/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

Why? Just why? 

Nifty! Nice work! Are FPP pipes worth saving? I have a newer set for my RD400. Pipe tore open around the mount and needs welding.

Yes, those pipes have been listed for weeks now. Not a bad price for rare vintage pipes. Wonder why no one's biting?

Save yourself a ton of cash and get new spokes and rims from Mike's XS and build them yourself.

I contacted mikes xs via email with some questions. The response I got was a link to the wheel section on their website.
Not exactly great service.

I bought some budget rims for my build from 4into1.com. Their "Rising Sun" rims come from Taiwan (not Japan). Welds bulge a little. They trued up pretty easily, but there's a slight hop. For the price, can't argue! They'll be fine for my purposes.

Here's a '77 French Blue that showed up on CL today. 80-90% complete!
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mcy/d/napa-1977-yamaha-rd400/7705647682.html