Suzuki DR350 project
Getting a bike back on the road after a lengthy break is not as simple as just turning the key, as Mikko finds out
The bike needs nothing big done, but without all the little jobs it won’t run!
Iblame the lockdown. The reality may be that the damage was done way before there was as much as a sneeze in Wuhan, but I have never let reality get in the way of shifting blame. So, the official line is that the lockdown caused my Suzuki DR350 to sit in the garage, unloved, unused and generally neglected for too long. By the time I wheeled it out, it was in desperate need of servicing, and crucially, it wouldn’t start.
Damn your eyes, lockdown!
I had owned the bike for a while, but never serviced it yet. That’s bad, I know, but if there’s one thing that will make even a lazy man spring into action, it’s your motorcycle not starting. So, after a less than eloquent ‘chat’ with the bike, and a couple of glasses of red to calm my nerves, I hatched a plan.
What I would do was this: I would change the oil and oil filter, clean the air filter, put a new spark plug in, fit a new battery and, most importantly, clean the carburettor – the suspected ring-leader of the non-start gang. If the plan worked, I would have a bike that ran, and it wouldn’t need any instant fettling. Fingers crossed, huh!
MAKING A START
The beauty of working on a bike such as the DR350 is that the single-cylinder thumper is about as simple as can be – not unlike its owner. So, the service part was pretty straightforward. I ordered the oil and a Hiflo oil filter, a spark plug, and after realising that the air filter needed replacement, I grabbed a new Hiflo foam filter, too.
The carburettor bit was a bit more complicated as I wanted to get new seals, O-rings and the like, but had no idea what model the carburettor on my bike was. Not being the first owner of the bike (I’m number 11 according to the V5C), I could only assume that any parts could have been swapped with non-originals years ago… So, I did what I usually do when in doubt – I went on eBay, and took a punt.
The pictures of the parts in the rebuild kit that I found looked about right, although there was no way to determine the scale. My only other option was to have nothing, so I clicked ‘Buy now’, poured myself another glass of wine and tried to convince myself that it would be alright.
GETTING ON WITH IT
A few days later the parts arrived. I had everything I needed for a minor service, but I wouldn’t know if the rebuild parts fitted my
carburettor until I took it off and inspected it. Changing oil and the oil filter change was a simple affair. The only fly in the ointment was that the sump plug must have been re-threaded at some point as the new sump plug wouldn’t fit. Oh well, the old one would have to do for a bit longer…
The spark plug change was easy, just a matter of screw off the old, and screw on the new. And the air filter change was easy, too. I just removed the old item, oiled the new Hiflo one, dried it and slotted it back in – so far so good!
DIRTY OLD CARB
Things took a turn for worse as I started with the carburettor rebuild. First of all, it was a pain to get out as I was determined not to remove the air box to give myself more room. Again, the simplicity of the bike came to my rescue as there was nothing to break near the carb, so I just applied brute force and popped the unit out.
The outside of the carburettor was covered in filth as expected, but it was the inside that I was interested in.
What I found in the float bowl made the outside look ok – it was disgusting! There was a lump of what looked like mud in the recess at the bottom of the bowl, and all the little nooks and crannies were dirty. So, it
was all taken to bits and given a proper clean. And then another clean. After what seemed like hours of cleaning, the parts were finally looking respectable, and the jets and needles were in operation again.
Removing the carburettor gave a good excuse to lube the throttle cables, too. It’s a job that I have been putting off for long enough, but now that I had to release the cables anyway, I might as well give them a squirt of lubricating goodness.
WILL IT, WON’T IT?
After the service and carb clean was done, I made one last substitution before attempting to start the bike – the battery. I had noticed that it was on its last legs, and I didn’t want it to ruin all my hard work right at the end. A new SLA factory activated battery was sourced from BS Battery, and an OptiMate battery monitor wired in to make it easy to keep an eye on the battery level and charge it when needed.
I wheeled the DR out, opened the fuel tap, pulled the choke out, switched the ignition on, and nervously hovered my thumb over the start button – this was it, make or break. I pressed the button, and the engine gave a promising grunt – more than it had done before the tinkering – but it didn’t start. Before I had time to think about it too
much, I pushed the button again, opened the throttle a little, and the glorious sound of a single-cylinder engine filled the air. Hurrah!
NEXT STEPS
As soon as I had stopped congratulating myself (which took embarrassingly long), and after a closer inspection of the bike, I discovered that my work had only just started…
The kill switch did exactly what it said on the tin – it killed the engine, but the button was so jammed that once you killed the engine, that was it, you couldn’t start it again until you pulled the button out with pliers – not ideal.
The rear brake line was also damaged – it wasn’t in need of immediate attention, but left alone it would cause problems. The chain and sprockets had seen better days, so they should be replaced. The wheel bearings would need to be changed, too. And as a cherry on the cake, I noticed that the tank had rust in it. It would need attention before the carbs were full of rust again…
Why is it that running old motorcycles involves such an ungodly amount of time to keep them from falling apart?
Oh well, I do enjoy it really. And when you know as little about mechanics as I do, every day is a school day.
Right, I need another glass of red, and a plan for the next step in getting the DR spick and span.
To be continued…