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New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

  1. #1
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    haven't had a mini for a while, built two in the past, but i've been jonesin pretty bad for one... then this little guy fell into my lap for 'beer money'... i offered $50

    1980 Yamaha LC50 "Champ", 49cc oil-injected 2-stroke, 2 speed tranny, shaft drive

    it was abandoned in a friends garage 5 or 6 years ago, running when it was parked, but not since. it had been sitting, leaking oil, and untouched. they were joking about The Champ at work and i overheard the conversation. had no clue what 'The Champ' was but when i learned it was a little 2T road legal scooter in need of a home, i had to have it.

    on the way home last Tues...



    when we loaded it up into the truck, the pipe was drooling black oil all over the place. attempts to kick it over at home left my driveway full of blasted oil. thing would just puke it out the tail pipe. and i mean PUKE. wasn't sure if it was motor oil or just leaked down 2 stroke oil. the motor looked to be overfilled (yeah, again, uhhh) so i drained some out but it was pretty clean actually.

    started tearing into it, what a complicated little machine! Yamaha must have been aiming for most complicated fucking scooter on the planet. it's got an oil pump with multiple hoses, vacuum fuel petcock with three hoses, auto-choke device in the head with tiny spring actuated thermostats that have four hoses, a check valve that sits off the carb. totally wacko. waaaaay overkill.

    the petcock leaked badly. the internals are nuts. little diaphragms and crazy cut off valves with rubber gaskets, etc. a tiny vacuum hose with pull from the side of the carb would start the flow of fuel. way too complicated so off it came. straight gravity feed from the tank to carb with a fuel filter was the fix. i'll put a shutoff valve on it later. just a simple plastic one.

    i had no clue if the mechanical oil pump worked but figured i would leave it in place before removing it in favor of straight pre-mix in the tank. poured in some fresh Amsoil Interceptor and hoped for the best.

    i had spark and the plug was getting wet but i only got it to run for about 3 seconds, twice. opened up the carb to find the entire bowl full of honey. ancient gas. the slide was stuck shut by what looked to be crystalized honey. took the pilot out, basted the whole thing with carb cleaner and put it back together. now i had a throttle/slide that worked and hopefully enough clear passages to get the thing to fire. i was afraid to remove all the hoses and not know what was what after deep cleaning the carb so i only removed one from the check valve and the oil pump hose.

    when kicking i could see the oil light on the dash illuminate so i knew the battery and electrics were probably functioning. amazing.

    new plug, fresh fuel, a whole can of contact cleaner to even see all this stuff and we were ready to kick. pretty low entry fee so far...

    SMOKE SHOW! we have liftoff. man was i pumped. ripped it up and down the street to clean it out. everything seems to be working! no seize yet so i let it cool down and looked everything over. all good.

    my son and i ripped around the neighborhood yesterday 4 or 5 times with him yelling 'GO CHAMP GO'. hahaa. this thing is a blast. prob does about 35mph. the 2 speed tranny is really nice, good takeoff grunt then shifts into the cruising gear. smoooov. the suspension bottoms out easily but it's comfy to ride on relatively flat ground.

    pics of how it sits right now. i need to get the lights working, give it a bath and get it reg'd for the road.

    not sure if i want to start chopping it up and modify it or restore it with stock parts. they're a little hard to come by so not sure. Yamaha only made this model from 80-81. this bike was built Dec 1979. i've got lots of ideas for custom but for now i'm really diggin' the OEM look.

    can't wait to pick up my first 12 pack on it






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    Last edited by typeone; 07-13-20 at 12:38 PM.
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  2. #2
    Lifer bryco13's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    They make little Dunlop 606's for that bad boy?

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  3. #3
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    i dont know. the tires are pretty decent, no crazy dry rot, so i'm going to rock 'em for now. i've seen some little DS knobbies that will fit though

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  4. #4
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    oh, and the brakes work great too! i think this thing will just need a good cleaning inside and out. it's got ~5,400 miles on it. that's a lot of scootering!

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  5. #5
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    nice stock example in yellow...


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  6. #6
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    You are amazing. I'm still looking for a find like that.

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  7. #7
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    some progress... rear rack removed, bobbed rear fender, low bars.

    New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ-imageuploadedbytapatalk1409494487-664912-jpg

    the more I ride it the better it runs.

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  8. #8
    Senior Member Dave603's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Never seen these before but looks cool haha.

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  9. #9

    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    whoa, whoa whoa

    2-smoke??? F-YEAH!!...WAY too complicated, lol....2-smoke??? F-YEAH!!!....it RUNS!!! F-YEAH!!! (and what a great feeling it is to fire!)

    imho - why not just keep it cosmetically as it is? finding oem cosmetic parts can end up being impossible if not expensive because of the scarcity of parts

    youtube that little dinger man!

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    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Quote Originally Posted by breakdirt916 View Post
    imho - why not just keep it cosmetically as it is?
    apparently you don't know me too well

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  11. #11
    Lifer
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    From some angles it looks like that front rack is designed to take a number plate..

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  12. #12
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    there is a cover for the horn that's supposed to go there but I'm going to use a little canvas pack I have instead. keep some basic tools and stuff in there. then the rack itself might be modded to mate with a Six-Pack Rack from veloORANGE

    seat mods are on the list next though. too frumpy

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  13. #13

    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Any chance your friend is from Haverhill? I had one of those jacked from my backyard back in '98. Saddest day of my life, at the time. (I was 12).

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  14. #14
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    that sucks! i love this bike, so do both of my sons. no on Haverhill, this one has lived in Providence for a long while and he got it from upstate NY I believe.

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  15. #15

    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    So I took my leaking petcock off my lc50g and went to straight gravity feed and now have gas pouring out back of carb and a flooded carb (won't run unless I close gas and kick it till gas is down to normal)

    Was considering replacing carb and read a guy put a pw80 on plug and play with a choke cable to bypass bmv.

    Have you or anyone had any experience. If I go to the pw80 carb I'll probably consider a pw50 big bore kit to get a bit more umph.

    Literally like 3 people on the Internet with these babies -.-

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  16. #16
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    sweet, another Champ owner! you're right that they're rare... you see way more Chappys around the web.

    my gravity fed stock carb works fine, have you disassembled and cleaned really well? it's been a while for me on this bike but pissing gas means stuck float or other float/needle related issue. start there first.

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  17. #17

    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    So this one made me feel like an idiot -.- 2 nights ago i tore carb apart and cleaned it ehich had no effect on solving the problem. Last night I realized it takes vacuum to run the vacuum pet cock... I had run fuel to both lines out of the petcock. So I was essentially pouring gas into the carb opening for s#$*s and giggles. I tore my fuel lines off, sealed vacuum line and ran fuel to only the connection that drops it into the float and we're officially running.

    Been cruising around, next is replacing the 5 yr old oil and finding a 12v battery and redoing the wiring as it us all meant for a 6v systen (I have a 12v coil)

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  18. #18
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    ah, good deal ! glad to hear you solved it.

    you're giving me some motivation to get back to working on the Champ... we've just been riding it since my Aug post two years ago. handful of issues are cropping up like tires cracking, brakes are toast, speedo exploded in the hub on a top-speed run, seat is cracked, rear shock bushings are toast... but the thing runs so good we just keep on keepin' on


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  19. #19
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    almost 6 years later but this project has been moving forward again due to my kid taking on a new foreman position bike had been running no so great the past few seasons but a thorough douching of carb and lines fixed her up again. the carb is stupid complicated but we got everything in working order.

    got tired of the over-oiling the simple, mechanical injection system provided so we opted to remove with a block-off kit for a PW50. much cleaner with 40:1 premix

    pump in place



    pump removed



    you did your job for 40 years but time to go, old frien



    PW50 block-off plug



    UNI dual-stage filter for freer flowing air (and sound, to boot)



    comical Photochop but scored some OEM body work to cover carb/motor/battery between the frame rails. i've been searching for these parts since i got the bike. super, super stoked to have them but my wallet took a hit. ($150) we also installed new OEM rubber foot rests, new seat cover, and some pitbike bars that we'll polish sliver. bar risers will also go on to get a tad more height.



    next on the list ... FAT RUBBERS wrapped on blacked out, tubeless converted wheels.


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    Last edited by typeone; 07-13-20 at 12:29 PM.
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  20. #20
    Don't run with the pack. whynot's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Long time ago I had a Puch-powered DKW 125 trail bike, ran it on 50:1 bean oil (Castrol R) ... that smell ...

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    Last edited by whynot; 07-13-20 at 02:48 PM.
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  21. #21
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Quote Originally Posted by whynot View Post
    Long time ago I had a Puch-powered DKW 125 trail bike, ran it on 50:1 bean oil ... that smell ...
    had to look that one up, know Puch, but not DKW ... what a beautiful machine



    when i jam the hood on the Champ, the return loop still has delishus 2T in the air, you just can't outgrow that smell ... i should burn some 927 through it

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  22. #22
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Quote Originally Posted by typeone View Post


    That's some high-tech cooling right there! Look at those fins!

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  23. #23
    Don't run with the pack. whynot's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Thread drift -- sorry -- yep, that's the DKW, simple, light, good handling ... all good. The ringing of the fins was deafening haha

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  24. #24
    Lifer typeone's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    fresh cheapo brake shoes arrived



    got the front wheel painted



    need to decide on tubless valve stem color, silver



    or gold



    NOS speedo drive gear arrives later today

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  25. #25
    Lifer Chippertheripper's Avatar
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    Re: New project - 1980 Yamaha Champ

    Dibs.

    When this eventually needs a new home: dibs.

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