Finally got around to working on the bike again. Got most of my parts in order before all the **** started. Took ages to get a few parts like valve stem seals as things were just starting to shutdown & shipping took ages. Painted my frame in clearcoat today & was real surprised with the results. When I sprayed it on it was very orange peel texture. But after a while it came out not too bad I thought. I used KBS Diamond Finish. Still waiting on a respirator so I could paint this stuff but got sick of waiting & had to borrow one. Pretty happy with the results...
Been working on & off on my project. Resealed forks, frame assembled & wheels painted. I was trying to get factory colours to match but ended up going with these off the shelf colours as they were easy to get & didn't cost a fortune/waiting time in freight. I think they will look the part ... Once tyres arrive & frame is rolling will start stripping/rebuilding engine.
Fitted tyres & put frame together loosely so I would not loose parts then started to strip engine down last night to see condition. WELL...they do say you get what you pay for! I found out why my engine would not start after about 20 minutes of run time initially before I pulled bike down. The #3 piston has dropped part of the oil ring into the cylinder & scored the bore. Looks like all the bores have been exposed to the weather as they have slight pitting in them. The score on #3 looks to be too deep for repairs so I may be up for new cylinders/liners/pistons etc. Explains why she was blowing a bit of smoke but when running seemed to be OK, no misfires, noises. I was told by previous owner that it had been rebuilt at some point but when I lifted cylinder head/barrels off the gaskets had sealant/Hylomar all over them possibly blocking oil ports so not a great job. Can anyone tell me if the new liners that you can buy have a finished/honed bore & just press into place with o'ring or are they sold as an unfinished undersize & then get bored/hones once installed? I have read the service manual & it does not shed any light on this. Any Ideas on parts/ reputable machine shops to carry out this kind of work in Australia appreciated. Hopefully I can get hold of some parts & get it running before the tyres go hard. I think for my next project I will start with the motor then work back to the frame just in case it is too far gone...
OUCH I can tell you that FZR cylinder sleeves are dropped into place in the barrels, therefore replaceable, CBR250 barrels are cast in place, therefore not replaceable ZXR250 barrels may or may not be replaceable, if they are there may be suitable sleeves from LA Sleeve if you go that route, they are supplied undersize to be bored ad honed to the final diameter Otherwise there may be oversize piston and ring sets available on Aliexpress which a few have used with no issues on other bikes EDIT - nothing visible on Aliexpress Balius oversized pistons and rings listed here ~$120 per cylinder, however as I have learned just because something is listed on a website in a parts breakdown and even listed as available, Yamaha in my case, doesn't mean it's actually available http://www.robmc.com.au/partFinder/fiche/kawasaki-motors/1999/zr250-balius/b-5-cylinder-piston-s Interestingly, from the parts breakdown, it looks like the sleeves are pressed in, so you could make on from two if you've able to source another set of sleeves and pistons or just do a straight swap
New liners are available on megazip and maybe elsewhere, about $110 USD per pot https://www.megazip.net/zapchasti-d...r-piston-13884728#/il-325119634-584229-584229 Part number 11007-1116
Thanks for the info ruckusman & Linkin. Looks like I will be trying to get hold of some new liners & get fitted/machined. Things are getting expensive pretty quick for the little pocket rocket. Can't turn back now... I got emotionally attached the day I got it running & heard the exhaust note
You may be able to just get another set of barrels in good condition and new OEM rings - much more cost effective, or bore the lot oversize and go OEM pistons and rings if they're actually available
What Ruckusman said. If you do go down the replacement sleeve path, just put the block in an oven at about 140 C and the sleeves will fall out. If they are stiff then take up by 20 degrees at a time. If you can't find used parts locally try Jauce.com
New pistons, rings, intake rubbers turned up the other day. Tried everywhere & could not source new cylinder sleeves so sent to machine shop & hopefully they can make me some as cylinder is scored. Just a waiting game now for the engine rebuild...
Have been cleaning my plastic indicators & rear hugger/mudguard & refitting. Was very faded so I sanded them with 600 then 1000 then 1500 grit paper to remove all the white stuff. Was going to paint them but was unsure how long it would take to flake off so just painted them with the Adhesion Promoter clear. Looks alright at the moment, not shiny at all which is what I was after, but the sun may destroy it up here. See how long it lasts over time. Indicator lenses & headlight are all good nick but tail light is very faded from sun. Does anyone have any tips to bring it back to life? Should I sand it or just leave it alone? Cleaned up & fitted my gages too. They came up real great.
Looking good. Tail light lenses can be cleaned up using cut and polish compound, don't use sandpaper.
Took your advice & cleaned up tailight lense with cutting compound & came up a treat. Cheers Murdo. Put a bit of polish on afterwards & they are like new. Had to glue some of the indicator lense tabs as they cracked. Not sure how long they will last. Slowly getting there. Hopefully early in the new year should have head & cylinders back from Perth to re assemble engine.
Back at it after 10 months of the world turning to sh*t... The parts for the engine turned up & have fitted them all up. Cylinder head serviced, new cylinder sleeve fitted, new piston & rings, intake manifolds-tubes. The only thing that I didn't do which I wanted was to replace the cam chain as I have a new item but did not want to back off the crankcase bolts to get clearance to replace it. Later down the track I will grind clearance on the crankcase so I can replace without splitting the cases. Did not want to split the new chain to fit either so I'll leave that job for another day. Cleaned up & painted the exhaust headers which came up pretty good. Ran all the wiring again, should have taken more notice of where it ran. Fitted the engine & fired it up today & after a few hiccups she came to life. Still got dramas tho as it does not want to restart after approx. 5-10min of running. Valve clearances all good but it seems that when it gets a certain amount of heat into it, it doesn't want to restart. I am almost thinking that it is an electrical gremlin to do with ignition as I know everything, carbys etc are all rebuilt. Pain in the arse...
This shows where all the harness and cables run. Last few pages ... https://2fiftycc.com/index.php?resources/zxr250c-general-information.96/
Cheers GreyImport. I just spent last night going through the posts on here to try & fault find my problems for restarting. I Found a post that you were discussing that the R/Rectifier overheats & causes the plugs to burn out. I have noticed that I have an inconsistent spark on new plugs only after a few starts. I have already gone through at least 2 sets. I thought they were just dodgy batch or something. The R/Rectifier gets really hot also only after about 5min running so think I will look for replacement. I thought the R/Rectifier only affected the charging circuit but obviously it has an affect on the ignition circuit as well. Is this correct? I have an old Yamaha quad & might steal the R/Rectifier out of to see if this works. Just need to check out the wiring. Otherwise I will order another unit.
Check the charging voltage at idle and 5000rpm. It should not exceed 15 volts. Also check it high rpm as these things rev sky high to make power