Varadero 125 Rebuild

aha-shake · Scooby Slapper Joined: 27 May 2006 Karma :

Lo all!

Been reading a fair few past and present Project threads recently, been absolutely blown away with some of them.

So, decided to dig my old xl125v out of the coat pile it had come to live under for the past 2 years in my dads garage. I wish I took a picture so I could do a proper before and after comparison, but I didnt, so I'll try and paint a pen picture Very Happy

Basically, it last got ridden 3 years ago, did a 110 mile journey on it and obviously pushed it a little too hard near the end because I seized it about 5 miles from home. Took the rear cylinder off and managed to get the piston out, barrel was fine, piston and rings were shot.

Got to that stage, plugged up the holes where the cylinder should have been and in the crank case with tissue and left to gather dust for 3 years.

Got it out yesterday and its a right state, forgot how scruffy the fairings were too.

First job was removing the front fairing which was easy enough despite several snapped fittings. The tank had already been removed to get the cylinder off. Next was both the rear plastics either side of the seat.

The first major bit of work was getting the exhaust off, it is the OM system and was fairly corroded in places. Even with liberal splashings of WD40 two of the heat shield bolts managed to shear. Not a major problem though, grinded the offending thread holes off and welded new nuts on in their place.

Managed to get the exhaust off in the end no problems.

Next I set about getting both brake calibers off, no issues with that but after getting the front one off the bike getting the pistons out was a nightmare as they seemed to just not want to budge, in the end I just persevered with the air-line and pliers and eventually got them out without damaging them.

Then chucked them in a pot of Gunk for 10 minutes and gave them a good scrubbing with a brush and scotchbrite, they came up pretty nice with only a bit of corrosion left in where the pads are normally housed that wouldnt budge.

Doesnt sound as interesting as the other similar threads ive read but ah well! Ill make sure to get some pictures of the next steps.

Cheers, Shake Cool