95 RM 250 Project - Update 4 - Finally!

[frostage]

Bought a 1995 RM 250 2 stroke on Tuesday as a project leading up to the summer months.

Set me back £500 due to a number of problems:

*No top-end power (choking/bogging)
*Slight crack in the engine casing by the clutch cover
*Fork seals both gone
*Exhaust rusted and a poor fit (possibly wrong year)
*General poor condition (filthy, never maintained etc)

I think given the low purchase price and the simplicity of maintenance/repair on the old 2-smokers, I could be on to a nice little project, so I have decided to keep this thread updated with my progress as I go to hopefully help anyone else who works on a similar project in the future (and also to entertain those of you who like to see a battered old bike regain its former glory!).

So to start with, original photos:

https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/IMG_1372.jpg


Hole in engine casing (filled with bathroom sealant!!!) (tough to see if you dont know where it is, look for the white bit right next to the side cover by the bottom right of the cylinder)
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/IMG_1373.jpg


Rusted Exhaust
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/IMG_1375.jpg

It took me a long time to find an adequate service manual for the bike, and in the end I had to pay to download one. I think information like that should be free and so I have reuploaded to .pdf to a public link here https://www.mediafire.com/view/?ic3qa466f2uiqc7

Now, after getting hold of the bike I was tied up with work for a couple of days, which gave me an opportunity to get some gaskets ordered for the top end (which I intend to strip down and check). They arived today and as I had some spare time I did a bit of work on the bike. First removed air filter which I found in this condition
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/IMG_1376.jpg

Disgusting, looks like its probably the original (15 years old.. ) So a replacement is on the way for that.

Next thing to do was remove the carb and have a good inspect. Well after removing the float I found a nice collection of mud which had obviously not been cleaned out for almost as long as the air filter. I decided this would probably have got all over the carb and could even be clogging jets, so I decided to strip down the carb completely and give it a full soaking/scrubbing in some soapy water, followed by a rinse with clean water, and then left it to dry in the sun (the little we do have!) to make sure there was no water left in it.

While cleaning the carb I checked the jets and found a 0.14mm oversized main jet.. with no other performance modifications and a stock exhaust.. clear example of the "well more fuel means more fastness init?" mentality. Replacement (stock #172) on the way.

Nice clean carb
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/photo.jpg

I removed the spark plug as well, and found it more black than the back of my eyelids. Obviously we have a rich mixture (likely due to the air filter being as much use as a brick in the air box and the main jet letting in way too much fuel), and also possibly too much oil in the fuel. Tank will be drained along with all other fluids to be replaced by fresh stuff in the right mixture (30:1 according to the manual, though it seems this is a little high).

I've bought some chemical metal to attempt a fix on the casing hole (which is not too big), and if that fails I will try to get it welded. I feel that simply buying a whole engine to replace it is cheating slightly! The main reason I am doing this is for the satisfaction of buying a dilapidated, unloved heap, then stripping it down, giving it the man hours, putting it all back together and hearing it purr like a brand new bike.

Day 2 -

Well first I must start with a discovery I have made. The engine in the RM is in fact a 1995 model rather than a 1998. Also the frame appears consistent with the 95 version, so I believe the whole bike is a 95, explaining why the supposed 98 exhaust does not fit.

I will fashion a new mount for the exhaust in order to fit it to the original holes and create a tighter fit, as the exhaust vibrating at high rpm is causing blowing around the port.

I had a look at the power valve governer push rod and there seemed to be no return pressure pushing the valve back down, leading me to believe a spring was gone or there was a great deal of carbon built up on the valves.

I removed the head/cylinder to have a look at the condition of the piston, rings, cylinder and exhaust valve. On getting in there I found the overall condition to be fairly good for a bike of this age. Fair amount of carbon deposits on the piston and exhaust valve, but nothing major, and my worst fear of the barrel being shot is over.

Barrel
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image1.jpeg

Carbon deposits on piston
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image2.jpeg

Head looks OK
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image3.jpeg

I discovered then that the exhaust valve return spring was fine, but the adjustment knob on the left side was turned all the way out (roughly 2 full turns), leaving no pressure on the spring. It was at the recommended rotation which is why I did not suspect it before, it was just 720 degrees out. After screwing this back in to where it should be I found the exhaust valves to have good return pressure and no real sticking anywhere. Possibly problem solved.

Power valve
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image-1.jpeg

Carbon on the valves (looking through exhaust port)
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image12.jpeg

Time to give the head a good cleaning and remove the carbon from the exhaust valve and piston.

Clean piston
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image5.jpeg

Dirty Exhaust Valves
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image1-1.jpeg

Clean Exhaust valves
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image-2.jpeg

I was hoping to put the top end back together today after cleaning in order to get it flushed through and gasketed in, however the gasket kit I ordered was for a 98 bike so of course I need to swap them for a new set.

Instead I set about cleaning the engine casing, which was coated in oil residue and filth. I cannot say anything here other than to thank whoever invented engine degreaser. It loosened years-old dirt and oil in seconds and allowed me to simply wipe it all off, I even noticed that after 5 minutes I could use a can of compressed air as a mini pressure washer to remove the loosened dirt!

Now I am just waiting for the new gaskets to arrive, so I will carry on cleaning up the bike and fixing minor annoyances for the next day or two until I can put the top end back together.

Day 3 -

Only a little to do today, sorted out the spark plug with a new cap and new plug, the old one was some bodge that was rattling around everywhere
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image2-1.jpeg

Also filled the casing hole with chemical metal and filed it down, nice and solid now as opposed to the bathroom sealant.
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image3-1.jpeg

Fitted the new air filter, comparison of old vs. new
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image4.jpeg

Day 4 -

Well the gaskets arrived today, and all excited I went out to rebuild the engine, only to remember that I had not yet checked the piston rings. Well sods law they are both out of spec quite heavily. For £32 I can get 2 new rings, or for £50 I can get a new piston (mitaka so I know it won't last as long as other brands, but for that price I could rebuild it twice as often as the other brands) so I decided to go for the whole new piston.

Could hopefully arrive tomorrow (fingers crossed!) if not Thursday.

Day 5 -

Well the piston arrived and straight away I got to work, fitted the new piston in a few minutes..
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/photo-1.jpg

Then fitted the gasket, lubed up the cylinder with some good quality 2 stroke oil and slotted the piston in (making sure the ring was in the right place!). Noticed the head gaskets seemed to be too small but lubed them up with oil and slotted them in then screwed down the head. Refitted the radiators and fuel tank, and connected all the hoses.
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image1-2.jpeg

Put the exhaust back on, refilled the oil and cooling system, and got it ready to start. Kicked it over a load of times and even tried bumping it with a little bit of fuel down the spark plug hole, no luck! Couldn't work it out at all! So after that I tried opening the throttle a thinking I may have flooded it, and on the 3rd or 4th kick it popped into life, was blowing huge amounts of smoke (obviously mostly from the 2 stroke in the cylinder) and then bogged and died. Hmm. Took the spark out and found the tiny drop of combustion mix on the bottom had a bluish tinge to it. Hmm! Coolant must be leaking into the cylinder I thought. So I removed the head again and found the cylinder coated with bluish oily/fuelly/coolanty mess. No wonder it struggled to start! Looking at the head gaskets I found my problem
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image-3.jpeg

So I gave up for the night and instead had a read up on the subject of the gaskets being too small. Apparently its common with aftermarket head gaskets on the 250-300 bikes for them not to fit properly. Some people swell the gaskets with heat or chemical soaking, and some just use the old gaskets if they are still good. Well I didn't want to order a new gasket set just for another head gasket and the old ones looked good, so on they went.

Day 6 -

Cleaned out the cylinder/piston/exhaust valve and torqued the head down again. I decided to check the plug gap and found it to be just over 0.7mm, the manual specifies 0.55-0.65mm (0.022-0.026 thou), so I got it down to around 0.6mm with a set of pliers.

Ready to start again! Choke on, smidge of fuel down the spark hole and fingers crossed. First kick and ping! Up and ticking over quite high, while kicking out some lovely blue tinged smoke. Had a play with the air adjustment screw and got it to tick over quite nicely, after a couple of minutes the thick smoke died down to a fairly normal level but the tickover was still slightly high. Thought I must be running lean.

Left the bike ticking over and walked to the other side of the garage to check the manual, and then all of a sudden the bike revs right up to the redline and stays there! Panic ensued with me holding the killswitch for dear life to no avail, then realising the bike must be dieseling and frantically srewing in the air screw to kill the engine, and finally it died. Luckily it only lasted 5 seconds or so as this could have really damaged the new piston, but that scared the shit out of me!

Had a little think what could be causing it, air leak? stuck throttle? Well the throttle slide moved fine and I checked the system for leaks when I had it apart so I doubt that. Must be running very lean all of a sudden? Fuel problem?

I decided to check the fuel petcock for blockages and found something very interesting.. there was no fuel left in the tank! Well after calling myself a few nasty names and laughing my arse off for a short while, I resigned myself to giving the frame/exhaust a bit of a clean up since I had no more fuel. Had a can of black spray paint left over from an old project so set to work spraying some parts of the frame where it has lost its color, then sprayed the exhaust as well. It looks a lot better now, I know its a bit slap dash as I haven't sanded down the frame, but I plan to have a bit of fun in the fields/lanes before I sell it, so there is no point doing it properly then ruining it! I just want it looking presentable so when I eventually MOT it the assessor isn't immediately going to think "what a shit heap".

This is the result
https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image2-2.jpeg

https://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx254/frostage/image4-1.jpeg

Next thing is to get some more fuel and check the carb over again, i.e slow jet, throttle slide, needle clip etc and reset it all to stock. After that I can fiddle with the mix a little to get it running as sweet as possible.

Update 4

Well its been a long time since I last updated this thread, but not for lack of progress, simply due to forgetting! Apologies to all who where following this.

Anyway on to the bike. I got it running fairly well with the standard carb setup, bought the stock needle and main jet and fitted them before going for a ride down in some fields near my house. The bike was still running very rich.

I dropped all the way to a 172 main and tried it again, it seemed more peaky and happier to go, but still ran slightly rich.

Over the next few months I didn't really do much engine-wise to the bike, I rode it a few times in the fields and did a bit of tinkering, but my main objective turned to road registering the bike in order to go laning properly and legally on it.

The first thing I did was to acquire a dating letter from the Suzuki Owners Club, which cost me £20. I read the frame number as RJ1CH-103413 but it was difficult to make out.

Now I needed to prepare for the MOT. I got two road legal tyres from ebay, a Maxxis M7305 Rear and a Michelin AC10 front delivered for £95, pretty happy with that. I also got hold of a little £10 clip-on horn that worked off a 9V battery.

I noticed that the fork seals were part of the MOT checklist (https://www.motuk.com/Motorcycle%20MOT.asp) and therefore they needed doing. I bought a set of all balls fork & dust seals, and set about fitting them. Took the forks off the bike, unscrewed the end caps, drained the oil and split them down. Changed the oil seals and put the forks back together with fresh oil. I had a huge amount of hassle getting the dust seals to go into where they should be, spent 3 or 4 hours trying screwdrivers, hammers, pliers etc etc to no avail.

As this was the last thing it needed for the MOT I decided to just leave it and take it to the local garage, knowing they would have a seal driver with which the job would be a lot easier. They told me that the seals took them nearly 3 hours to fit and in the end they had to get another set of seals to help get them in. They also fitted the tyres and performed the MOT, only giving it one advisory for a loud exhaust and a side-note that it was a daytime only MOT. I was expecting a large bill, being used to a local dealer who I have always gone to for MOT's etc who charges extortionately and is one of those garages that says something needs replacing and you have to pay for it when its never given you a problem until they messed with it. I wont mention their name just in case, but if anyone is in the Torquay area stay away from the shop near the post office! pgh motorcycles

I was pleasantly suprised, only £80 for the work including the MOT pass. I was very happy and will be recommending them for work in the future, this was Mallock Road Garage in Torquay if anyone is local.

So now I just needed insurance, phoned up and sorted it out fairly cheap (I only needed TPO really as it would be living in my locked garage when not being ridden), then headed up to the local DVLA, a 30 minute drive.

I was presented with an couple of problems by the person at the counter, which I will list below as I struggled to find information on this at the time:

1. Needed HMRC to provide a notification that the bike was clear of outstanding import tax, the DVLA used to do it but now the owner has to get hold of it themselves.
2. A dating letter from the owners club is no longer enough, it MUST be from the manufacturer, only if the manufacturer sends you a letter stating that they have no records can a owners club letter be used.

OK, back home again, on the phone to Suzuki, who have no records for frame number RJ1CH-103413. Shit. This likely means that Suzuki did not import the bike and therefore it would be very very hard to prove to the HMRC that import tax was paid. Back to the drawing board then. I noticed that other 11 digit VIN's for Suzuki's seemed to go letter-letter-number-number-letter - serial number, and so went and had another look at the frame. After a while pulling my hair out wondering what the correct number was (it was very difficult to read), I decided to call Suzuki back and explain the problem, give them a list of VIN's to check and hope one of them was correct. Well hey presto, the first one I checked was in their system RJ16A-103414. So I ordered a dating letter (£95!!!) which took a couple of weeks to arrive, and while this was coming I got on to the HMRC.

First I phoned them asking what I needed to do and they said to fill out a c384 form and then post it to them. I did this and received an email response stating that I needed to get the customs import number from Suzuki. Back on the phone to Suzuki again and I was told that the information had been deleted, as is the custom with bikes this old, due to the fact that the law states that the data must only be kept for 7 years.

With this I emailed the HMRC back with what I would like to call and "aggressively eloquent" message, citing the laws I has learned and asking them how they can reasonably expect someone to provide the documents they were requesting when they knew that by law the documents may not still be in existence. Well within 15 minutes I got a reply stating that my request had gone through and my bike was on the NOVA database.

This was the last piece of the puzzle, so I packed up all the documents to send to the DVLA and posted them off, for those who it will help in future, these are:

[list=]Manufacturer dating letter
HMRC notification that import tax was paid / the bike is in the NOVA database
V55/5 filled out
MOT certificate
Insurance cover note (on the frame number)
Proof of Identity, I enclosed both parts of my driving licence[/list]

Got the V5 in the post within 10 days and made up a mock-up numberplate using the correct dimensions by law.

I also resprayed the bike gloss black to take away some of the battered-lookingness! Been out on the bike quite a few times since, I only got the V5 a few weeks ago but have been learning quite a bit about off-road riding, and am falling in love with it almost as hard as I fell in love with road riding.

Next step is to tune the bike to perfection as I'm still not convinced its giving me full power.

I will upload pictures for all the above soon but I am very busy with work at the moment so it may not be for a day or two!

If anyone wants any more info on anything I've done so far just let me know and I'll stick it in the main post so everyone can see it in the future. Any suggestions/advice are of course warmly welcomed.

I will update the thread title each time I update the thread so anyone who is interested does not keep having to check for updates.

Next pictures and new developments will be coming soon![/list]
____________________
2000 Gixxer 750
1995 RM 250

[salty21]

sounds like the previous owner was a retard, which seems to be the case with the majority of offroad bikes. I've had 2 offroad bikes over the past 6 months and both of them needed quite a bit of money throwing at them to get them right. Annoying thing is that the obvious things you check when buying a bike all seem to be ok. It's not until you start digging that retard fixes (bodges) start to pop up.

i used to run my gasgas ec300 on 50:1 premix using castrol fully sythetic oil. I read somewhere that 30:1 was if you were using mineral oil?
____________________
04 NSR 125(sold) ---- 03 CBR 600rr(sold) ----90 pan euro ST1100 '' ----02 CG 125
94 CB400 Super Four ---- 2000 VTR SP1 (sold) ---- 08 ninja p8f(sold, meh) ----05 CBR600rr

[Fowlersrs]

Aye, where are u getting 30:1 from? Norm is 40/50:1 tbh, I wouldn't be running a 2 stroke on mineral oils. Looks like a fun project tho, got it for a good price, obviously needs some work but it looks respectable!!

[frostage]

[devojunior]

what is all that black stuff that looks like its pouring out the reed block more silicone sealant lol and please tell me your going to scrub that air box and you just took the pic for the sake of bcf .

[frostage]

Nope that was gasket sealant, just obscene amounts of it!

Of course, would be a waste of time getting a new filter otherwise!
____________________
2000 Gixxer 750
1995 RM 250

[Irn-Bru]

Cool will keep an eye on this
____________________
KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[frostage]

New update, got it started!
____________________
2000 Gixxer 750
1995 RM 250

[frostage]

Apologies to all who were following this, monetary issues had the bike sat waiting for its MOT/Dating letter for a few weeks and I totally forgot about this thread!

I am working at the moment but will post a large update when I finish as there has been a lot of progress on the project!
____________________
2000 Gixxer 750
1995 RM 250