Project Tony's ZXR250s

Also they`re the brakes all painted and i re-did the oil pressure sender as i wasnt happy how i mounted. I mean new chinese is still going to be better than worn oem

 

Well with 56k kms It wouldnt surprise me if the bores are past the limits . Contemplating swaping the engine from my C model into it but i don`t really want to go butchering up an A model

 

Progress time
Finished my exhaust i made out of some scrap i had laying around. Walker oem resonator from a ve commodore and tip i had laying around. Machined the flange on the lathe from 10mm steel plate with a groove for the original gasket and then m6 holes tapped into it . Finished with some exhaust paint and polished the muffler and tip as they're stainless steel



Nice 1.2kg weight reduction over stock not that it'll make a noticeable difference

Onto the front wheel. A very good clean and polish got most of the brake dust and gunk off it.


On the first ride i noticed it had a bad whirring noise. Turns out 1 of the wheel bearings was stuffed , looks like water got in it soo...



Turns out i had some 6203 bearings laying around. Pretty common bearing size which is nice

Front fork time

Man oh man were they bad. Closer inspection reveals they have not been apart ever . Fork oil reeked and look like black engine oil. Not much came out . Lots of sludge inside , had to degrease and hose out the tubes they were so bad. Bearing didn't look too bad and the chrome is perfect which is lucky.



Once it was all back together i sanded off all the corrosion and paint chips on the bottom of the fork and gave it a nice coat of silver and clearcoat



Also unsiezed the adjusters and gave them a nice polish



Pulled out the steering head bearings . They were in great condition so i just greased and reassembled it after repainting the bottom which was all rusty


Also noticed i put the brake line on backwards
Painted and rebuilt the rear caliper then bled it and adjusted it to spec
Also adjusted the gearshifter to spec while i was there



Then lastly i cleaned and painted the front rotors as they would've been originally then reassembled the front end

 

Only things i used was a tool i made to hold the damper rod and another tool to wedge between the spring and top cap . i also made a tool to suck out the correct amount of fork oil when doing the levels . The paint i used is vht caliper paint . cast aluminium colour and then clearcoat on top

 

Well that escalated quickly . Was just supposed to take a few bolts off for plating...


And then ....

 

Photo dump time... so while everything is getting plated and the bike is looking like this (wheels and suspension are off now as well) I decided to tear down the engine so I can start ordering parts



Initial inspection looks good, no sludging at all , cams look perfect and so does the journals .


Think the timing chain has stretched just a tad haha, chain guides are absolute rubbish with one full of cracks and nearly falling apart and the tensioner is also highly worn. Valver cover is also pretty gouged from the loose chain. Oil line to the head also has two pinholes in it which leak a oil when running


Someones had an accident before and repaired the sump. Not very impressed with the way it looks


Wonder how old this filter is , they're all made in china now



Exhaust ports look fairly good with little carbon buildup and they're all about the same


probably the worst intake port which is still not bad

Don't know how visible it is but the headgasket failed on cylinder 3 which was the also the sparkplug that usually had coolant on it when I pulled it out causing a misty exhaust when running and compression in the coolant overflow . And you also see where it failed from the water gallery to the oil drain holes making the oil and coolant mix as well. Everything looks fairly decent with no cracks after I cleaned it off good . Cylinders look very good too with no lip and only 1 light scratch . Pistons also look good with very minimal scuff marks . Hopefully the bores will measure up good as well as the rings that are in it , would rather reuse the rings if they're good than questionable chinese ones if i can help it, likewise with the valves (Genuine pistons and rings are not available in standard or 0.5 over size)

Buy list so far starting from the top:

• Valve cover gasket $31 (greyimportspares)
• valve cover bolt seals x4 $18.48 (partzilla)
• Spark plug tube gaskets x4 $17.20 (greyimportspares)
• Both timing chain guides $78 (greyimportspares)
• Timing chain $75 (greyimportspares)
• Timing chain tensioner $25 (megazip)
• Valve stem seals x16 $102.24 (aliexpress)
• Oil line (Unobtainium, will have to get one made $$ unknown)
• Valve adjustment shims x16 worst case scenario $80 (precisionshims)
• Camshaft cap o-rings $15.08 (partzilla)
• Headgasket $53 (greyimportspares)
• Cylinder base gasket $23 (greyimportspares)
• Piston rings (maybe)
• Gearbox countershaft seal $5.80 (megazip)
• Gearshifter shaft seal $5.70 (greyimportspares)
• Thermostat $43 (greyimportspares)
• Thermostat o-ring $3.50 (megazip)
• coolant pipe gasket
• Clutch cover gasket $14.80 (greyimportspares)
• Oil pan gasket $19 (greyimportspares)
• stator cover gasket $9 (megazip)
• Oil pickup tube seal $6.81 (partzilla)
• Water pump seal and gasket
• Pretty much every coolant hose and vac hose
• radiator mounting grommets x4 $16.84 (partzilla)
• tailight grommets x2 $6.80 (partzilla)
• tailight damper $2.81 (partzilla)
• fuel tank rubbers x2 $7 (megazip)
• battery bracket rubbers x2 $8.54 (partzilla)
• conrod bolts maybe
• shift lever rubber $3.41 (partzilla)
• sparkplugs $24.28 (partzilla)
• oil filter $12.20 (partzilla)
• rear shock c spanner 15.50 (partzilla)
• Wiring harness clip
• Rear subframe wiring harness clips
• All fairing bolts
• Chain slider (no longer available so no idea where I'm going to get one)
• Airbox seal
• Gearshifter rubber
• front master cylinder dust boot
• caliper slider boot
• both handlebar grips
• gauge dampener
• key
• fuel tank warning label
• ebox frame stickers
• Radiator steel bushing

TOTAL SO FAR: $643
Not sure how far into it I want to go being that the con-rod bolts are non reusable
Oil pickup had little bits of gasket in it , oil pan had no metal in it at all , oil filter had some very fine brass particles in it which is probably just from the clutch .

 

This stuff with the satin clear on top. Make sure to cure it in the oven so it`s nice and durable when reassembling

 

new ones are available they're just 8 bucks each already adding to the large bill haha

 

Well I was just supposed to clean the wiring harness buttt ended up retaping it so it looked nice and new again


Also most of the bolts and brackets are off and sorted into gold and silver for zinc plating

 

Gave the frame a much needed clean with degreaser being quick so it doesn't attack the aluminium .


Originally I wasn't going to paint the frame but after seeing how bad the condition of the paint was and the corrosion I don't have much choice



You can see bits of acid damage from a previous battery exploding I'm guessing from overcharging as the regulator rectifier is a 2nd hand unit. The damage is much worse on the rear subframe, battery bracket and fasteners



On to the swing-arm which has a fair amount of damage to it


^ripped off swingarm spool

Found some aluminium bar stock laying around so i'll be making a new boss from that and welding it back on



huge dent from the exhaust (who knows how many times its been dropped in it life with fairings off 4 different bikes and painted 10 times )


With swingarms being not easy to come by with most of them having the same dent or worse I decided to put my panel beating skills to good use and repair it .


^First step was to drill a 10mm hole on the backside to allow a punch to fit inside . Then using a few different size and shapes of bar it got to where it is now


More than good enough , only has a few little dents but they're so small and shallow I'm not going to worry , bit of metal putty and primer and she'll look good as new (and weld up the hole I drilled )



^straight as