Between the age of 18 - 22 we went through a few field bikes, 250xl, DT400 etc and ended up with an XT500 and SP370.. Then female attraction became to great so they got left in a shed.

Storm of 87 blew the shed over so they were moved to another part of the garden, covered by a tarp and have sat there until now, so 30 years without being started.

The years have not been kind, brakes locked up, levers jammed and the SP370 hard siezed solid, although it's not full of water, the XT turns over :0

So cleaned the carb on the XT, it was mingling some kind of tar and hardened black crud, cleaned the points and it runs, very hard to start but it was always a pig however the SP has not fared so well, trying to get the plug out so I could poor some boiling diesel into the bore and the plug has sheared off, no room to weld a nut on the remains so I guess I will have to pull the head unless anyone has any other ideas?

These bikes cost very little when we got them, worth £££ if I strip down and rebuild so a summer project ahead.

Cheers Mark

I'll, take the dt400 off ya...

As you say, back in the day these bikes got wrecked on the pit heaps, but how I wish with hindsight I'd kept all of my bangers.. dt250 x7 rm125 350lc (x4) xl100 tl125 cd400 rd125 Rd250 Rd400 and don't forget the ruler... the Honda 90 step through..

The female attractive came when I moved up to a z1000, didn't put me off bikes cause she loced it but then buggered off to Oz with her mam and dad..

I'm looking for a xl500 atm...

I've got a 1976 RL250 Beamish trials bike I want to swop...

Will an easy out not get the bottom bit of the plug out? If you take the head off maybe drill through it and put a bolt and nut through it and see if a bit heat moves It!

The DT400 is long gone now, it looked like a trials bike, rode like a road bike so not really any good in the woods.

The two above are all that's left, my first bike was a BSA batam D7 scrambler with the correct aluminium mud guards, I swapped a pushbike for it!

Having slept upon it I will try and break out the ceramic part and drill it, once I can poke an endoscope in the bore I will know more about why it's locked up.

[Edited on 30/4/17 by mark chandler]

I've used a junior hacksaw blade before after removing the cEnter electrode and ceramic to carefully cut through the threaded section in 2 or 3 places then removed the remains when loosened. If you cut into the thread in the head a helicoil would help

SP370 flogged which left me £400 to fix up the XT500




Stripped down



And paint going on



Forks polished, stantions off to be rechromed



Looking forward to getting it back together.

[Edited on 29/5/17 by mark chandler]