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Now that you have disregarded any sensible advice you may have gotten about this being the worst way to get into motorcycles, that's really good progress. While you've got everything pretty stripped down, check your valve clearances now and set them to spec. It's a lot easier now and if you have to reset anything, it'll mean a little more futzing with the carbs anyhow. You'll also find out in that process if you need a new valve cover gasket (you probably do), and that's way easier to fix early in a rebuild than on down the road. For that matter, just buy a new gasket for every bit you take apart and replace them as you go so you don't have to do it after you think you've finished the whole project and start springing oil leaks everywhere. Just get a new petcock and fuel line. Do your brakes. Get a caliper rebuild kit (usually just a set of seals for the piston and maybe a couple for passages through mated surfaces) and new pads (HH organics should be fine), and fluid. You really should install new brake lines if the ones on the bike are stock, but they could probably wait until later. Seriously, rebuild your brakes. Don't gently caress around with old lovely brakes. Good poo poo, keep going. That bike has good bones. edit: Your left fork tube looks fuuuuuucked. If that's just surface rust, it might be ok. Either way, your forks need a rebuild too. Seals, wipers, fluid, and the tubes need a thorough cleaning. Surface imperfections like that rust really gently caress up seals, so scrub them with a fine scotchbrite pad until the rust is gone. If there's deep pitting (deep = something you can feel with your fingernail when you scrape across it), you'll need a new fork tube. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 17:51 on May 28, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 17:47
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 07:02 |
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Actually, just pull your current petcock apart and check it for function. There's a lot of rebuild kits for other bikes, and I bet that one is no exception. If it's hosed, a lot of people use Yamaha Raptor petcocks to fit a variety of tanks. For some reason it's a universal go-to. I've got one on my Yamaha street bike and Suzuki dirt bike. They're cheap and common. For pretty much everything you'll need to do, check the Ninja 250 forums first and get active on them. They're such a ubiquitous and loved bike that I bet every task in a rebuild has been done and done again until there's a single go-to tutorial. The owners' communities for cult bikes like that get giddy when someone comes around with the intent to do a full rebuild. So that will be your best source for a walkthrough on checking and setting valve clearances, and Dagen H has your links for you. In addition to your brakes and fork, add rear shock and wheel bearings to your list. There's not much you can do to refresh a rear shock, but there's probably a good replacement out there (forums will know) if necessary. Those are all things that are pretty crucial to safety and fun, and when you do them at the very beginning, they're easiest and you won't have to touch them again for a long time. Does that bike have a cush drive? If so, learn how to check the condition. The cush rubbers are usually affordable, but can be difficult to find and if you need new ones it may take you a while to get some tracked down.
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May 28, 2018 23:11
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builds character posted:One serious note here: anytime someone who is good at wrenching tells you a thing will take X time, it will take you at least 4X. Then you’ll get more comfortable and it will only take 2x. Then you’ll work your way down to telling other people “it’s a one beer job.” And they’ll be the ones taking an entire Sunday to change an air filter. Yeah, this is true. It's having done a job before that makes it short. But it's good to take extra time for jobs the first time around and during a rebuild. By the time you finish, you'll know just about everything there is to know about that bike, and a whole shitload more about bikes in general by extension.
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May 29, 2018 18:24
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mewse posted:Thanks, I appreciate it. I've wanted to do a project like this for years but last year I took the leap from apartment to house so I have a big-rear end shed to store bikes now. You are going to be so glad you got a stock airbox when it only takes you a few days to get the carbs tuned and synched correctly, after which you have smooth reliable power delivery throughout the throttle range. As opposed to never having a good tune and always having mixture problems and by extension lovely idle and dead spots.
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Jun 9, 2018 21:39
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If all the bulbs are intact, check continuity on the relay. Or just buy a relay and see if that fixes it. If not, return it. If one or more of the bulbs are dead, replace them and try again. I think older bike electrical systems are finicky about the total resistance on the system, so if one bulb dies the others won't work properly.
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Jun 21, 2018 18:59
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You can probably get a suitable replacement at the auto parts store down the street.
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Jun 21, 2018 22:19
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mewse posted:my dad's impact gun. Hold up. Soak it in penetrating oil, tap it firmly with a hammer, wait a day, repeat. Those bolts can break easily, and when they do everything gets worse. A hand impact driver, one of those things that you hold with your hand and strike with a hammer is often all it takes to break the threads loose, where an impact gun might just twist the head off the bolt. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 04:08
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mewse posted:The problem with this one is that it's like a foot long and I think the threads are at the far side, so I was using penetrating oil already but I don't think it was reaching the threads. You might only use it a couple times, but I bet on a rebuild you'll find more uses for it than you expect. It's worth in for the irritation of stripped threads and the special kind of fury you feel when you shear a really important (or even just really inconvenient) bolt.
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Jun 30, 2018 04:35
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mewse posted:It starts right back up again and if I let it have some choke then it gives some really good throttle response. I’ll prob try your suggestion with the jets If you have an enrichment circuit (supplies the fuel/air mixture with more gas, effectively bypassing the pilot circuit) instead of a choke (chokes off air to mixture), then your symptoms indicate a clogged pilot circuit. Pass a guitar string through the pilot jets and the pilot passages in the carbs themselves and try again.
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Jul 19, 2018 15:54
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You can tune your pilot screws off header temperature to a certain extent. After a synchronize, I adjust mine to ~500F right at the bend, measured with an IR thermometer. Don't know what's ideal for your bike, but somebody has probably figured it out. A friend of mine welds O2 bungs into his headers and tunes by the A/F ratio but he's a weirdo anal engineer. When synching, check your adjustment at a couple different engine speeds, like idle, 2000, 4000.
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Jul 20, 2018 05:06
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eeeesh that subframe
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Jul 22, 2018 23:27
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Kenda 671s are great tires, way better than the price would have you believe. They wear evenly, are plenty sticky for moderate to a little aggressive riding, and do just fine in the wet. I've even done hardpacked dirt and gravel at 40 mph and felt fine. They do lose some grip on really cold wet road lines and tar snakes. Also they age a little fast, but if you ride a decent amount that won't be a problem.
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Aug 2, 2018 04:52
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Air filter oil is often red as well, and the airbox drip tube often terminates back there, but I kinda don't think you have an over-oiled filter on that bike. But yeah, your shock is probably toast.
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Aug 10, 2018 19:39
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Ha, yeah I do that every now and then myself. I didn't realize you'd serviced the air filter already. You can try to clean it up or just roll with it. Since there's no sensors or anything inline, it's not going to be too terrible to deal with. You might suck some in the intake and have funny carburetion issues for a while, but it eventually settles out as long as you're riding often enough to keep it from accumulating in the carbs. You can also just take the filter out and whip it at the ground until no more oil slings off.
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Aug 10, 2018 19:56
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Have you already lubed the bead and put a ratchet strap around the circumference while airing it up?
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Aug 19, 2018 06:44
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Slide Hammer posted:This bike is coming back to life. 
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Aug 27, 2018 17:08
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You loosened the pinch bolts on the yoke, right?
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Oct 30, 2018 02:12
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Yeah just return those and get some Galfers or similar. Don’t bargain shop for dentistry or brakes.
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Mar 28, 2019 01:06
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Mar 29, 2019 03:30
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Just wash it in your sink with dish detergent and put it on the drying rack. I did this the other night with a prefilter I made for my K&N from the same material. My hands were clean afterward, taking a step out of the process and the whole thing was a lot more pleasant. It was dry by morning and I oiled it up and reinstalled it.
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May 17, 2019 01:59
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You are the only person I've ever witnessed completely rebuild/restore a bike to (near) completion and then ride it as a first bike without disappearing into the ether. A drat unicorn.
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Sep 26, 2019 23:03
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Paint the inside of your windscreen black. From the outside, it looks shiny and black and the uv-hosed stuff is almost invisible.
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Sep 27, 2019 22:29
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Check the serial numbers and see if some tweaker tried to grind em off.
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Oct 6, 2019 03:39
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mewse posted:I went for a test ride and the speedometer still isn't working. You might be able to pop the whole gauge out and slip a new one in, depending on size. I've done that at least once (FZ600 gauge into an XJ panel).
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May 11, 2020 19:39
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mewse posted:Yeah since making that post I've realized this should be possible since there's two screws holding the mechanism to the faceplate, I might be able to swap the entire assembly from the parts bike, but i'd be getting an odometer at 34k km rather than 31k km Yeah, I ran into that exact problem as well. I started to work on setting the new odometer to the correct time, but so much of the mechanism is spot-welded or press fit together I just said gently caress it and kind of forgot about it. I hooked the whole thing up to my drill and turned it on in reverse, but it only registered 45 mph, so it was going to take like a week straight of run time to get in the neighborhood. You might be able to swap the odometer mechanism into the new gauge, but there is a deep hole of loving with stuff just to make it like original that is uncovered then.
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May 11, 2020 22:36
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Sagebrush posted:I know exactly the mechanism you're talking about and it's a really cool piece of electromechanical technology. The speedometer cable drives a spinning magnet that sits inside, but does not touch, the brass cup that's connected to the speedometer needle. The cup rotates on a pivot and is spring-loaded to return the needle to zero. When the magnet spins, it induces an eddy current in the conductive brass cup, and that induced current creates a magnetic field that allows the magnet to drag the cup forwards in the direction of rotation against the spring. The faster the magnet spins, the stronger the induced current, and the further the cup can rotate before it's stopped by spring tension. By carefully tuning the spring you can calibrate the system so that a given rotation speed is translated to an angular position of the needle. Conceptually it's very similar to the spinning rotor on an electric meter, or that physics demo where you drop a magnet down a copper pipe and it hovers its way to the ground. I just watched the RCR episode on the CB900 Custom and now I really think there was some designer at Honda in the 80s with a massive hardon for unnecessary ~elegance~.
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May 14, 2020 03:43
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