Little bike, big dream
My loosely baked plan was, after getting the bike operable,
to ride from the Pacific Ocean to the top of Los Padres National
Forest and back — an all-day ordeal that involved first cross-
ing the city, then transitioning onto a steep, narrow mountain
road, and ultimately splintering onto a single-track trail bris-
tling with rocky climbs and descents, ruts and washouts, ledg-
es, snakes, bee swarms, prickly chaparral, cougar tracks, sand
and boulders, and ultimately cresting at 4,707-foot Divide
Peak. Imagine Disneyland’s Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad ride
amplified 1,000 times and very ...
alarmingly ... real.
But first the YA6 had to run.
Foremost was the matter of the
seized engine. No amount of force
on the kickstart lever would turn it,
and removing the cylinder revealed
the piston and connecting rod
were free, but the main bearings
were rusted solid. Likely at some
point during its 45 years of disuse
the machine, like the poor cake in
that Richard Harris song, had been
left out in the rain — maybe for
many moons, judging by the state
of the chrome surfaces and the
rotten seat cover and crumbling
foam. Filling the crankcase with
oil and then slowly, gently torque-
ing the crankshaft back and forth
gradually produced some rotation,and then a little more, and eventually the crank, swimming in a
gritty petroleum bath, was freed, although its bearings felt quite
unhappy and grumbly. With the top end reassembled the engine
kicked through, and with a battery installed the ignition sparked.
After replacing the starter solenoid, most everything worked,
including horn and lights. We were getting somewhere.Not respected; neglected
Getting it to run well was another matter. Although the
engine would fire and idle on
starting fluid, it would not rev
up. Taking the carburetor apart
showed why. The float bowl, and
all jets and passageways, were
blocked by a bouquet of peach-
colored crystals, reminiscent of
miniature barnacles or a high-
school chemistry experiment
gone wrong. Numerous baths in
carb cleaner and much handiwork
with picks, wire strands and com-
pressed air eventually produced a
working carb.
But the engine still would not
build revs. Off came the right cover,
the clutch, the primary drive gears,
the rotary-valve cover and the phe-
nolic rotary valve. And there it was:
Instead of the hardened steel pin
Yamaha used to time the rotary
valve there was ... a cutoff roofing
nail! Some slacker had been hereThe inside of the Yamaha YA6’s carburetor before
cleaning. It’s a wonder it would even idle.44 MOTORCYCLE CLASSICS September/October 2017