Another Kawasaki ZXR250

Well I'm not feeling that great today, my wife has diagnosed me with a severe case of man flu, so I'm sitting back this morning pondering a trip to the Dump as my garage is full of crap and really needs a good going over. Then my phone beeps to let me know I have a text message, I read the message and it a guy I sold some ZXR parts a while back to was offering me a ZXR250 for sale. We exchanged a few texts and he sent me some pics of his bike, suffice to say I was interested and planned a drive later on this arvo for a look.

I figured I would take the trailer in case I wanted to buy it, so as I was hooking up the trailer, Phil showed up. We drove to Caboolture and had a look at the bike. At first I was a bit taken aback, its a ZXR250 alright (see pics) but its an A model with C model fairings and C model gauges. I believe the wheels, forks and brakes are a model as well. The carbs were off so I couldn't hear it run, the windscreen was missing but I figured I would have a go. I knew I had a spare C model frame, forks and wheels at home plus a heap of other spares so I made an offer, cash was exchanged and she made her way home to the garage.

Phil and I have spent a few hours on her this arvo, a windscreen was fitted, carbs cleaned and I worked out why she would run ( several carb blockages) , hooked up the jumped leads and she fired up with some start ya bastard, its a bit late to rev it so I don't know if she will rev out, but I'm hoping the carb issue is sorted, There is plenty of plumbing work to be done ( most of the carb air and fuel lines are missing).

As for its future... not sure yet....

 

Here's a pic with a screen on , we also replaced the coolant overflow bottle , we were told it was damaged when in the shed, thank goodness for spares  :Thumbs_up: 

 

bought another one tonight, so 2 shall become 1  :occasion14:

 

Now that I have amassed a collection of 3 ZXR250's, I thought it best to get one on the road and registered, the first one I bought was the orange one and I have already confirmed that it runs, it has new tyres, new brake disks, fresh oil and new fork seals etc so this was a good basis to build on. The orange bike was a mix of ZXR250A and ZXR250C parts, the fairings didnt fit properly, while they looked fine from a distance, they werent a good fit and I wouldnt ride it as is.
So last night Phil and I started the disassembly process. The intent was to move the body work from the blue bike to the Orange ZXR250 with a view to getting it on the road.

When we started, we pulled the fairings off the orange one and there were lots more C model parts on there, I also found the wiring harness was damaged and the rear subframe was wrong so it was removed from the blue bike and transplanted onto the orange one.

Didnt get a chance to start it as we finished swapping parts over at 11pm, we will hopefully fire it up tonight when I get home. I have afew new parts to fit as well such as a screen and new indicators... this should be a fun little bike.

 

A bit of an update, we tried to start the bike during daylight hours and it was really struggeling and backfiring, we fitted new plugs and still no dice. I pulled the coils off to validate I had them wired up properly from the harness and they were correct as per the wiring diagram, we then pulled the leads off the plugs and verified the leads were in the correct firing order and they werent, I think the left coil as installed on the right hand side and vice versa, so they were moved and set correctly. While the leads were off, we trimmed the ignition leads to ensure they were getting good contact and ran them from the coil to the correct cylinders. Turned the key, hit the strater and she fired up... WINNER !!!

The 2nd challenge was there was a rattle in the tank, it sounded like there was a big rock in the tank , we tried to get it out through the tank cap and determined the object was way too big... scratching heads as we were trying to work out how it got in there. Phil grabbed a really long set of pliers and pulled it up to the tank cap and it looked like a big block of tank liner, we can only assume someone tried and failed when fitting a liner kit and it congealed into a big block thne wokred itself loose. So while Phil steadied it with a pair of pliers, I used the Dremel to grind it down to smaller chunks that could get it out of the tank cap.... it took a few hours but we got there in the end.

Both seats were ina bad way, so Phil has taken the seats back to his place to replace the vinyl. Next steps are to fit the airbox, tank and fairings, new windscreen then bleed the brakes and she should be okay for a RWC then rego.

 

A bit of an update, airbox is on, tank is on, new screen is on, key barrel replaced so the one key does the ingition, tank and rear seat, I was about to refit the body work and I though I would check the coolant, it was almost a clear colour, so I drained it and replaced with new stuff. She starts easily and runs quite well, revs easily but I can tell the carbs are in need of a decent balance. Once I get the panels on, I will get some photos up

 

I fitted the panels and ran it for a bit today, still plenty of work to go, but its looking like the bike it once was, I'd have to say its doing a "Doug" and sounds like its dropping a cylinder, then it comes back. I may take Doug's lead and buy a complete carbie kit for it and looks at some new leads and caps, I'm also considering an ultrasonic clean on the carbies in case there is a blockage as they don't sound 100% right, all in good time I guess

Still have to sort out the brakes, balance the carb's, get the rider seat recovered, get the rear seat from Phil up the coast and then rip the rear section off to refit a new tail tidy as I sourced one on eBay to replace the one on here that's been cut.

This is fun, wish I had a bit more time to play

 

yep, still plenty of work to do but it looks so much better than the dodgy orange thing I bought home, but I'm waiting to see if my CBR600 will be fixed or written off, if its written off, then I'm going to have get cracking on it so I have something to ride to work.

 

no mate, that's how it came

 

Bit of an update, its really 2 steps forward and 1 back with this bike. Phil recovered the seat so that's good, what we found was the carbs still seemed out and seeing as though I have a few spare sets, we cleaned one and fitted them and the bike would not idle... tried another set and she turned into a fire breathing dragon, I haven't heard a ZXR rev so freely or so hard, yay... winner. Next we noticed a minor oil leak on the stator, the stator cover was removed and replaced along with a new gasket fitted. Bike was reassembled and then she wouldn't run, pulled the stator cover off and the gear steps down from the starter motor had slipped, readjusted that and she was good to go. I then noticed a minor leak from the sump plug, it seems someone had overt tightened it and the thread in the sump plug was gone.. arrgghhhh lucky I have spares, so another sump was fitted. While the exhaust was off, we fitted a different set of headers that had fresh paint... Now to sort out those brakes and fit a new tail tidy.

I feel we are getting closer... it should be a well sorted bike when its done.

 

tail tidy done... now the brakes... I hate doing brakes on ZXR's