[bwiygul]

Hey everybody, brand new guy to the forum. I'm not a stranger to forums so i know i'll probably get beat up a little bit but i've spent about 2 hours on here looking and cannot find a thread on converting drum brake bikes to disc brake. can somebody point me to a thread on the subject or give a little advice please.



how much do you think i'm looking at? it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to swap a fork (or do i need to do them both), is it really worth it? (i have an 87)....you know all the regular stuff....also if somebody wouldn't mind telling me...



is there stuff that really SHOULD be updated on an 87 (just got it) to newer model stuff and stuff that SHOULDN'T. (ie lighting, alternator, carb, etc). thanks for the help everybody!

 

[lizrdbrth]

Disc brake conversion requires lower left fork leg ( fork tubes and right fork leg are all the same) front wheel with disc, master cylinder with hose, splicing of brake light switch wires (old style plug soldered to new style switch) and ideally the newer kill/starter switch. Your starter button will end up pointing downward with the old style.



Any charging system and wiring harness from a later bike can be retrofitted to an '87, but it's not very cost effective or simple unless you have a complete parts bike. Piece of cake with a parts bike, if everything is there. One '87 CDI unit will cost as much as a wrecked TW, if you shop patiently.

 

[demarko69]

I have a couple 87's. heres my nickles worth of info



disc brakes a good/neat to have but these are 200cc trail bike. If you want to do it and have the cash gofor it. You need the brake perch w/ resevoir master cylinder, brake line, shocks with brake mounts & slave rim with rotor, go to one of the OEM drawings toget the part numbers..



Carb is a good unit keep it clean (rebuild it) keep it clean, new air filter keep it clean., 2.5 turns out idle needle, keep it clean. depending on elvation a new jet keep it clean. i have 114 and 116 keep it clean



Electical is poor at best. You need a good agm style battery, change glass fuse to blade stlye 10 amp, I put in led flasher, turn signals, brake and license lights to save on th minimum charging capacity, will change headlight soon.



Went from a 50t stock sprocket to a 55t. Love it, I think I would love a 58 59 even more. You will loose top end but Im fine with that. I like low end grunt



Check the valve, one 87 was perfect, the othere was toooo tight.



Lube all cable and go have fun

 

[lizrdbrth]

.... and go have fun

Zackly.



But if you plan to keep it forever, bear in mind that the electrical issue will need to be dealt with at some point, and replacing it with '87 stuff is throwing good munny after bad, IMO. Otherwise the bike is as good as any other year. Discs on a TW are overrated.



Go have fun.

 

[bwiygul]

Cool thanks guys....i kind of figured the brakes weren't really going to be a big deal. i mostly plan on using it to putt around on and then actually use it on trails and for hunting and stuff. probably 75/25, trail/ street. I have a gsxr 750 for the street so don't really need to ride the tw on the street if you know what i mean..just wondered if the drums would leave me wanting while in the mtns.



i'm in boise so we're at 3k feet and i'll probably be up as high as 7k+ or so at times...any recommendation on the jetting for that would be appreciated. and so you're sayin to keep the carb clean? lol got it! ha



with the re-gearing, i know on street bikes you can go down one in front and up two in the back with stock length chain, is that pretty much the rule on these too? i also do plan on going to a smaller pitch (520 chain when i get a new one here soon so any advice on that is welcome but i know i ran across that stuff while looking for the brakes).



electrical upgrade....so do i just need to get a new fuse block for that or do you have any more specific info on that? i think the guy i just got it from has a brand new battery in it but i noticed that there is a HUGE drop in the lighting at idle and the blinkers alternate about as fast as a three legged turtle attempting to cross a lake of molasses!! i do plan on upgrading the lighting with some off-road lights and such so any help in this department will be HUGELY appreciated!!



thanks guys!!

 

[lizrdbrth]

Cool thanks guys....i kind of figured the brakes weren't really going to be a big deal. i mostly plan on using it to putt around on and then actually use it on trails and for hunting and stuff. probably 75/25, trail/ street. I have a gsxr 750 for the street so don't really need to ride the tw on the street if you know what i mean..just wondered if the drums would leave me wanting while in the mtns.



i'm in boise so we're at 3k feet and i'll probably be up as high as 7k+ or so at times...any recommendation on the jetting for that would be appreciated. and so you're sayin to keep the carb clean? lol got it! ha



with the re-gearing, i know on street bikes you can go down one in front and up two in the back with stock length chain, is that pretty much the rule on these too? i also do plan on going to a smaller pitch (520 chain when i get a new one here soon so any advice on that is welcome but i know i ran across that stuff while looking for the brakes).



electrical upgrade....so do i just need to get a new fuse block for that or do you have any more specific info on that? i think the guy i just got it from has a brand new battery in it but i noticed that there is a HUGE drop in the lighting at idle and the blinkers alternate about as fast as a three legged turtle attempting to cross a lake of molasses!! i do plan on upgrading the lighting with some off-road lights and such so any help in this department will be HUGELY appreciated!!



thanks guys!!

Forget adding lights or any other extra load to the lighting circuit of an '87. The '87 uses a separate lighting coil, like a dirtbike, and that's the reason your lights dim and brighten with rpm. It is what it is, and can barely support a 35 watt headlight. If anything you want to reduce as many of your loads wherever possible with L.E.D. stuff as demarko has done.



Make sure some P.O. hasn't popped in a 55/60 or something with higher wattage, and if they have, yank it off the bike.



You'll wanna have fun, and preserve those hard-to-find electrical parts.

 

[bend42]

I put in led flasher, turn signals, brake and license lights to save on th minimum charging capacity, will change headlight soon.

demarko



what led replacement bulbs did you find? What source(s)?



what headlight options have you found?



thanks, John

 

[demarko69]

demarko



what led replacement bulbs did you find? What source(s)?



what headlight options have you found?



thanks, John

Im a hacker, made my own, but Azsandrider bought a plugin tail/brake/license for 17-20 bucks ask him

led turn signal, are $15 a pair most cycle shops/ebay, you will need a dummy load or a led flasher.

i use a blade fuse because they are more available on the trail....... does not help anything in the system.

headlight, still working on that

 

[lizrdbrth]

...headlight, still working on that

There are two ways to a better headlight. One is higher wattage, the other is a bigger reflector. Higher wattage is not a wise option on an '87, so back when mine had the '87 charging system I installed the huge headlight from an old Goldwing.



My bike has worn all 3 charging systems at this point, but I still run a 35/35 headlight in the larger housing and it's perfectly adequate. Quite a few old Jap bikes had 7" and 8" square and round headlights and are easily adapted.

 

[TWrider]

Hey everybody, brand new guy to the forum. I'm not a stranger to forums so i know i'll probably get beat up a little bit but i've spent about 2 hours on here looking and cannot find a thread on converting drum brake bikes to disc brake. can somebody point me to a thread on the subject or give a little advice please.



how much do you think i'm looking at? it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to swap a fork (or do i need to do them both), is it really worth it? (i have an 87)....you know all the regular stuff....also if somebody wouldn't mind telling me...



is there stuff that really SHOULD be updated on an 87 (just got it) to newer model stuff and stuff that SHOULDN'T. (ie lighting, alternator, carb, etc). thanks for the help everybody!

Drum brake is actually lighter, and if set/functioning properly it doesn't brake enough worse than the disk to warrant the conversion.

 

[TahoeTW200]

Do the newer model TW's come with factory disc brakes on the front.? And if so do the bolt on to older models say like a '96?

 

[admiral]

i'm in boise so we're at 3k feet and i'll probably be up as high as 7k+ or so at times...any recommendation on the jetting for that would be appreciated. and so you're sayin to keep the carb clean? lol got it! ha

I ride in your neck of the woods, so have experienced the pitfalls of high and low elevation changes...in the same day.



I do not have the experience with changing carburetor jets and what not, but here is a modification I read about a long time ago I tried and has worked well for me. I drilled 5 1/4" holes in the air box cover, and when I get to higher elevation, I remove rubber plugs I inserted in the holes a lower elevation. Originally, I had tape over the holes, but replaced the tape with solid rubber grommets. When I get to about 6,000ft. I start removing a couple of plugs at a time. Above 7,000ft, they are all removed.



At the higher elevations, there was a noticeable improvement with engine idle, and performance. i.e. got some of the power back. Prior to the "hole-in-airbox-cover", idle was low, very low, by which I adjusted the idle speed screw to help low idle, but I don't think this helped the low power issue. Again, I'm no carb guru, just my experience.



If you give it a try and you don't like it, or it doesn't work for you, you're not out much other than a few holes you can keep permanently covered!



EDIT: Here is the photo. Also Ronneydog in one of his photo's, has picture of holes in his airbox cover in the thread "Larger Gas Tank", started 17 May in performance and customization.

 

[bwiygul]

I ride in your neck of the woods, so have experienced the pitfalls of high and low elevation changes...in the same day.



I do not have the experience with changing carburetor jets and what not, but here is a modification I read about a long time ago I tried and has worked well for me. I drilled 5 1/4" holes in the air box cover, and when I get to higher elevation, I remove rubber plugs I inserted in the holes a lower elevation. Originally, I had tape over the holes, but replaced the tape with solid rubber grommets. When I get to about 6,000ft. I start removing a couple of plugs at a time. Above 7,000ft, they are all removed.



At the higher elevations, there was a noticeable improvement with engine idle, and performance. i.e. got some of the power back. Prior to the "hole-in-airbox-cover", idle was low, very low, by which I adjusted the idle speed screw to help low idle, but I don't think this helped the low power issue. Again, I'm no carb guru, just my experience.



If you give it a try and you don't like it, or it doesn't work for you, you're not out much other than a few holes you can keep permanently covered!

glad to know that this will help!! i read about the mod but nobody really specified what it was for other than the "more power" generic. i'll find some plugs before i start to drill...one question though, (and sorry for being a multifaceted thread) but with the air box mod, i found some old threads but none with pics as to where the best place is to drill (ie out of moistures path. i guess i could go ride in the rain for a while and see where the least amount of moisture is but i figured maybe somebody could throw up a pic of where that is. thanks again guys for all the help!



Electrical:

i'll check out the bulbs and thanks for the heads up. i was planning on going led all the way around anyway just for that reason but was going to put a kill switch on them for the trail when i don't need them. but is there a solution for being able to run aftermarket off-road lights on the 87? or anyway to run a hybrid with the old and new electrical system that anybody's found? if i can't do it then i guess that's fine but if there's away to put an upgraded system should i find a wrecked bike or something then i'd like to.



thanks again.

 

[demarko69]

a few weeks ago me and the TW.A.Ts rode from from an elevation of 2500 feet to over 7600 feet in AZ. I was suprised how well all of them rode. My bike is jetted alittle fat. Sure there was a noticable power loss but we all made it with smiles on our faces. Then we did a ride to over 8000 feet, got alittle cold but all the bikes were doing fine.



Now with that said, IF I was riding over 4500 feet all the time I would rejet for that elvation. (leaner)

 

[TahoeTW200]

I live @ 7200 ft . Th bike runs great . How do i find out what jet i have and if the previous owner changed it? Holes in the airbox are helpful @ altitude ? And do 2010 front brakes fit on a 96?

 

[demarko69]

There are two ways to a better headlight. One is higher wattage, the other is a bigger reflector. Higher wattage is not a wise option on an '87, so back when mine had the '87 charging system I installed the huge headlight from an old Goldwing.



My bike has worn all 3 charging systems at this point, but I still run a 35/35 headlight in the larger housing and it's perfectly adequate. Quite a few old Jap bikes had 7" and 8" square and round headlights and are easily adapted.

A third choice is a trio of cree led's, high beam low beam and a hey notice me strobe set up in dual redundant form. Powered by a constant current power supply running off the main battery & alternate powersouce. bench test is almost complete will moveon to packaging as soon as my back gets better. my goal is <9watts and brighter than snot.

 

[demarko69]

I live @ 7200 ft . Th bike runs great . How do i find out what jet i have and if the previous owner changed it? Holes in the airbox are helpful @ altitude ? And do 2010 front brakes fit on a 96?

you hav to remove the carb float bowl. early modle will be stamped on the jet ie. 109 112 114 116 stock is 114, biger the number the richer it will be. you may have to remove it and use a magnifying glass to reaed it

 

[TW-Brian]

And do 2010 front brakes fit on a 96?





Yes, you can put a newer front disk brake onto your 96. You will need the following items from a 2001+ bike to replace these parts on your bike:



1) Front wheel with disk.

2) Left fork, either the entire fork or at a minimum, the lower fork leg.

3) Front brake caliper, brake line and brake lever/handlebar master cylinder assembly.



There is really no way to convert an existing drum brake front wheel to accept a disk without replacing the whole hub. Easier to replace the entire wheel.



Brian

 

[sinophilia]

Hello and welcome. You already got plenty of advice but I will add my two cents. Brake disc conversion is pretty expensive so if you're not changing your fork for other reasons and you don't do much street riding you might want to stick with your drum brake. I am a big fan of disc brakes but I ride on tarmac and in busy traffic all the time. All three 1996 TW's in my garage got a disc brake conversion and two of them got a 320mm rotor - one plain, one toothed... they look really cool if you care for looks!

Anyway, here's my Webpage on disc brake conversion: http://tw.sinophilia.org/Yamaha_Trailway/Disc_brake.html

 

[RodneyReed]

Hello and welcome. You already got plenty of advice but I will add my two cents. Brake disc conversion is pretty expensive so if you're not changing your fork for other reasons and you don't do much street riding you might want to stick with your drum brake. I am a big fan of disc brakes but I ride on tarmac and in busy traffic all the time. All three 1996 TW's in my garage got a disc brake conversion and two of them got a 320mm rotor - one plain, one toothed... they look really cool if you care for looks!

Anyway, here's my Webpage on disc brake conversion: http://tw.sinophilia.org/Yamaha_Trailway/Disc_brake.html

Does the 320mm disk make the braking just slightly stronger than stock, or is it a night and day difference?