I have just finished my 1983 XT550 rebuild. The motor came to me in a TT350 frame that I didn't want and originally the plan had been to find an SR500 rolling frame for it. However a guy in Blenheim had an XT550 frame and wanted my TT350 one so we did a swap. The engine was seized and holed in the left crank case but fortunately I managed to get a whole engine in bits that was buggered except for it's left case. Now I know you're not supposed to mix cases but these two go together very well and at the end of the day it was all I had. The original engine had had a lot of water in it and the piston rings had risted the piston into the bore as well as a lot of bearings. I got the piston out with a lot of CRC and other barbaric methods. The barrle was in good shape despite this and I was able to reuse it with a second hand piston and new rings. I replaced all the bearings and seals in the motor and added the kisk-start idler gear that the previous "mechanic" had some how managed to leave out of the previous rebuild.
I had to buy a set of engine mounts off fleabay as my new frame came without them, and fitted the engine into the frame without any major hassles.
I have been using a TT250 gas tank for testing as the original tin tank was leaking. I have done the Kreem liner thing to the tin tank and it is now a goody but I like the plastic smaller tank too so I have painted both of them to match the new plastics. I'll use the plastic tank but keep the tin tank for the next buyer.
I have the original muffler but it runs very nice with just a straight pipe and isn't too loud - not that you'd get a wof with it - so I'll leave it off for now. I might be going deaf but it is half the noise of my TT500 and about the same as the SR400 with the supertrapp on!
I'll give the bike a two hour shakedown this weekend then list it on Trademe next week and see what I can get for her. I need to raise funds for my SR400 and TT500 rebuilds so it's gonna have to go unfortunately.
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