Project Another VT250F-2

Stopped twiddling thumbs now and going on with what I can do whilst awaiting postie.
'Shed approved' method of straightening bent handlebar.

Steering head bearings were notchy so new ones required.

Been chiseling off years of crud.

Seized bolt in linkage. Had to cut the head off and bend frame lug to get link out. Much heat required before vigorously applying 4lb hammer before it moved. New bolt needed but bushing can be saved.

Becaused the bolt had seized in the bushing it had allowed the bush to turn and wear the frame lug. Will weld up and grind smooth when I repair the broken centre stand mount.

Might need a bigger wash tub.

 

Out with the swingarm bolt and found this. Mmm, crunchy.

Cone was corrugated too.

As the cones are in a 'blind' hole to get them out involved some 'old school' methods. Using a MIG welder I put about six large spots of weld onto the cone. When the weld cooled the cone had shrunk enough that a couple of good hits on a solid wooden block had them out far enough that I could get a slide hammer behind the edge and pop them out. New cones, seals and bearings (they are same as Holden commodore front outer bearings) from local bearing shop.

Made a new repair piece for the broken centre stand mount and welded on. Also put a layer of metal over the worn frame mount for the shock linkage and welded crack in mount.

Ground off and smoothed out.

Filed the holes and fitted new bolt and stand tube.

Tried some Rapid Fix on the edges and missing bits of the plastics. Works great and the $30 spent saved lots on buying new panel.

Frame at sandblasters and picked up paint ready for when it returns.

 

Painted all the black bits after cleaning/repairing on the 'Hills Hoist spraybooth'
.
The rubber gaiter on the rear shock had seen better days. Lucky I still had the leftover gaiter from my previous VT rebuild and trimmed and fitted after the paint dry.

Also fitted up the linkage.

Back to watching the paint dry.

 

Thanks, but the pins are 16mm. Have new pistons (VF500 ones) on way.

 

Same part number and lots of references to how the 500 is a doubled up 250.

 

Yes, but be prepared to sell a kidney.

 

As that famous Swedish furniture company say in their instructions, "some assembly required".

Made some new folded pieces for the rear blinker mounts to replace the broken off bits.

Had to trim the new bushes for the centre stand down 1mm to fit the frame.

Bit done then.

Tomorrow the electrics.

 

Some of the electrics needed a bit of attention. This main power wire only had a few strands remaining connected.

I soldered in some more strands from a scrap piece of wire and two coverings of heatshrink.

The pistons had seized into the front caliper.

Some 100psi pressure from the air line did nothing so had to resort to the old lever action grease gun. A few pumps soon moved them.

Few more things fitted, lots repaired/repainted ready to fit but stopped now by the lack of new parts. Hope the posties get things moving soon.

 

Package from CMS in Netherlands arrived today (ordered 9/4/20) with my new .50mm oversize pistons. Off to see the reborer tomorrow.

 

A few more bits have arrived and now have forks in. These were so cheap I could not let them get away and for a genuine part did not fit that well but look good now.

Have the switch gear overhauled and cleaned.

 

Have put this one aside for the moment whilst I have the 'Wasp' on the bench.

 

With the wasp driving me crazy and Grandsons XT600 taking up the assembly table I dragged out the heads to do some work on them. They probably should have been scrapped as one has three cracks and the other four! I wonder how bad this engine has been abused to do that.
Anyway, both heads on bench and stripped. Blasted, welded and smoothed the big lumps out of the ports. (After working on CBR heads these have badly made ports)
Here is the front head with both exhaust valves so badly burnt away as to not be round. Have to buy two new ones as by the time these were ground round they would fall through the seats.


Here you can see the mis-match in size of the exhaust port to the gasket, which is a match to the pipe. I left about half a mm step to help with the anti-reversion of exhaust gasses back into the cylinder as I am using the standard mufflers.

I ground the port out to match and smoothed the rough bits.

The inlet valves were well coked up.

Even after blasting clean they are badly pitted on the seat faces and will need a bit of grinding.

In this shot you can see the ledge behind the valve seat that needs to be ground out to smooth the airflow into the cylinder. The good books all say that the last 10mm before the valve seat is the most important for good airflow around the valve head.

This after the cracks have been welded and smoothed off, seats cut and spark plug threads cleaned out.