Yamaha TX750 Restoration: Dual Disc Brakes

After promising to make 2016 the year of the Yamaha I basically did nothing to it except move the poor bike to my breezeway to make room in my garage for my buddies's KTM and FZ-09. I did come up with a plan, and the funds, to have the bike sent off to a shop and come back ready to ride. Those plans fell through once again as I received another "thanks, but no thanks" response from the engine builder. 

The problem is that the reputation the TX750 has for blowing up precedes it and no one wants to touch the project. I have been turned down twice by restoration shops. The bad reputation of the bike does have some merit in that issues with it caused Yamaha to have to do some quick work to reengineer some parts and pay dealers for warranty repairs. American dealers didn't like all of the warranty work required (it doesn't pay well) while European and Japanese dealers diligently did the work. Subsequently American TX's went off to the junk yard while in Japan and Europe they flourished. Yamaha killed the line a year later due to flagging U.S. sales. My revenge is to get the bike going and show all of those cowards that they had nothing to be afraid of.

With all of that being said, the work I did today has nothing to do with the engine. In preps for getting the bike back on the road I bought a second front brake disc online. It was from a 1973 XS650 (actually TX650 since Yamaha changed the designation of the bike for the '73/'74 model years before changing it back). The part is identical to the TX750 brake disc. In Europe, the bike came with dual discs up front and I always thought that this mod would be a good one to do. Follow along as I dig into it! 

This poor bike has not gotten much love from me lately. Relegated to second class bike status I parked her out in the breezeway under a cover while the running bikes get to share garage space. There is a good bit of space available out here so its not so bad. Running back and forth from my tool chest to the bike will be a pain in the arse though.

Tada! Look at those sweet 1970's lines. I just love this bike and every time I think of selling it I get a good look at her and remember how close I came to being complete with the project. The front tire is 19" and the rear is 18". The rims are aluminum and very strong, they were used for racing in their day. The tires are wide and the seat height is low giving the bike a very solid, stable feel. Just thinking about it has me fantasizing about running through the Malibu canyons on her.

I pulled the bike from the Harbor Freight Motorcycle Dolly. If you have a non-operational bike project in your garage, you have to have one of these. I can wheel the TX around to make way for another bike or to clean up the leaves and junk that gets blown into my shop. On sale with coupons for right around $80, they are well worth the money.

After strapping the bike down on my bike jack to get the front in the air, I pulled the from fender. The meaty 19" front tire/wheel combo gives the bike a cool, flat tracker look. I have thought about converting the TX over to full race spec for AHRHA races or converting it to a flat tracker. Maybe once I get this one on the road I'll find another for that project. Getting the fender out of the way allows me to easily roll the wheel forward and out once I've removed the axle.

The secret to the entire modification is the three bolts orbiting the mechanical speedo drive that is centered in the hub of the wheel pic above. As I said earlier, Yamaha mounted twin discs up front on the European version. Rather than make two sets of wheels, one American spec and one Euro spec, Yamaha made one wheel that could be converted to either spec. I just remove the three bolts and underneath are three more bolt holes to attach the second front disc.

This is shot of the test fit just to make sure everything mates up as it should. The second caliper is actually the original. I bought a reproduction to replace the original since the original was leaking. I have a seal rebuild kit for the OEM caliper waiting for me. I went ahead and bought the repop caliper knowing I'd eventually do this project. To mount the original caliper on the opposite side I have to take it apart and switch the top two bolts front to back. The top caliper mount bolt had one side that holds the two halves of the caliper together and the other side to mount on the fork leg.

I left the bike with the new brake equipment still bolted on. I will pull it all apart to rebuild the OEM caliper and paint it to match the right side. I will also clean up the new disc and paint the center section of it as well. After that I'll need to plumb it all up once I get some new brake lines for the new left side. From there I will start making a list of other projects to do while I figure out how to strip down and rebuild the engine. Until then, come on back around for more classic rest action!

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