Parts
The Quest for Parts
How to find what you need without a second mortgage.
Finding the parts you need to complete your project will be one of your biggest challenges. Many parts are no longer available from the manufacturer. But that shouldn’t stop you from trying your local dealer or other dealers across the country. They just may have parts in stock for your vintage bike.
Building up the pile of parts.
Make sure that parts are not available from the manufacturer or dealer before paying premium prices for NOS parts. I have seen YZ front fenders sell for over $100.00 on E-bay when the same exact fender was available from my local dealer for less than $35.00. Don’t let this happen to you!
This brings up a very important point does your restoration have to be perfectly original? As an example a connecting rod is available from aftermarket suppliers and an updated item is available from the manufacturer. Must you have the original item stamped with the correct part number? This will greatly affect the cost of your restoration sometimes by double or triple.
If you are building a bike that you plan to race, I suggest that you use aftermarket parts whenever possible. A race bike wears out expensive NOS parts. It can be heartbreaking to see your newly restored vintage bike fall over in the garage and break something you searched for months or years to locate. Of course if you want the bike for display or you want it to be perfectly stock in every way, by all means buy the parts you want.
There are a number of dealers that stock NOS parts for Vintage Yamaha’s. My favorite vintage Yamaha dealer is Speed and Sport Yamaha located in Pennsylvania (www.yamatopdog.com). They have a huge Inventory, are very helpful and they ship quickly. They can be expensive on very rare parts but the majority of the time they have most items in stock.
Buying parts on e-bay is addictive.
Compare prices to find out what parts are really worth. I have used Bike Bandit (www.bikebandit.com ) for this purpose because they have an online parts catalog with prices. This was a great help at the beginning.
Another wonderful site is the Swap Meet page ( www.vintagemx.us ) and of course there is always E-Bay. Even though E-bay can be a great source of parts use care and ask lots of questions before you buy anything.
I purchased parts on E-bay from sellers who swore they removed the parts from a 1980 YZ125 and yet I have gotten parts from other year YZ’s. Ask for more photos or how they know what bike the parts came from. Some sellers have been told by a well meaning friend or relative that just didn’t know.
Yamaha has a logical numbering system for serial numbers and parts. The serial numbers start with a three digit code which is the model designation for the bike. In some cases they stamp this three digit pre-fix on the parts. The pre-fix for the 1980 Yamaha YZ125G is 3R3.
This number is stamped on the frame and the engine case as the prefix for the serial numbers. Here is a link to Vintage YZ ( http://hometown.aol.com/vintageyz/index.html ) they have a list of the pre-fix numbers for Yamaha YZ’s from 1974 through 1981. Or if you are interested in a list of Yamaha Motocrossers from 1974 through 2006 go to Craig Mac’s site ( http://craigmac215.tripod.com/yzmodels.htm )
There are more resources for parts on my links page.
Make a good clear list of the parts you need. This makes your parts hunt that much easier. You can then check off the parts that you purchased and avoid buying duplicates. You will update the parts lists many times during the restoration.
Since you’ll want to know how much my parts cost in building my bike, the list is posted below. These are the actual prices that were paid for all the parts and services.
You can skip to the bottom to see the total cost. Remember this list does not take into account any any of my labor, nor has it been updated with any of the changes made to the bike since the build.