Project: Garage Find

[ybk]

I like the story Was going to say how can you sell after such a proper rebuild! Bummer for Andy but at least he knows it's being appreciated and not broken for spares or worse

[m3-paul]

Great story about the bike. I would love to know the history of mine.

Regarding the v piece. Just screw the top part into the top/nose fairing with two allen bolts. Hopefully your fairing has the rubber grommets with the thread inserts in them?
Then you can just bolt and screw the side panels on to it. There should be three of these rubber threaded grommets on the v piece on the right hand side (as seen when sitting on the bike).

[squirrel_hunter]

Unfortunately I'm going to have to cancel the MOT.

The oil leak is still there.

So I need some help and advice. The oil leak is at the neutral switch. Its coming from behind the switch most likely from the damage where the original broke and removing it made the situation worse. But I cannot see anything wrong with it when the switch, essentially a metal bolt is removed. I've tried the switch 3 times each time with a new copper washer, each time torqued up a little bit more, and the final time with some instant gasket on the faces of the washer.

So what is next to try?

[Fotis]

can you take a picture of it? Where is the oil coming from? Maybe its the switch?

[squirrel_hunter]

Its not an easy thing to photograph, but this is the area when the engine was out if the frame:



And this is the bolt before it went in:



Some more pictures:



As you look at the switch you should be able to see a little glistening of oil on the right. There is not much there at the moment but it is there for sure. And that is only with the oil being in for an hour or two.



Not sure if its any help, but that is the bolt from the side/ underneath. The extra gasket is the bit that was on my finger that I didn't notice yesterday and cleaning it up didn't really work.

I don't think its the switch itself but could be wrong. I suppose the only way to know for sure is to replace it with a new one or use another bolt. But I don't think I have one of the right length and pitch to go in there.

But my latest though is unless someone thinks this is a bad idea, would using instant gasket on the threads and the sealing faces of the copper washer torqued up be worth a shot?

[stevewr250]

Do you think it could be the weld repair opening up when you tighten up the switch?
It would be nice to get to the bottom of it for your own piece of mind before you bodge it up for want of a better word

[maccas]

Try a bit of plumbers ptfe tape on the threads?

Dan

[Fotis]

also you might want to replace this switch with a normal bolt just to make sure the oil is not coming from within the switch..

[squirrel_hunter]

Thanks all for the advise. I opted for an original fibre washer and a tube of gasket sealant. Left it for the night to dry out and then filled the engine with oil and regularly monitored it. Over the course of a couple of days there was no oil seen from the switch and nothing on the tissue to confirm.



Its not pretty and it now officially qualifies as a bodge. But just so long as it holds at this point I'd be happy.

The fairing are now back on. I greased up the hinges and added some spacers to the brackets to get things to line up, its an old bike with some history so I expected some manipulation would be required. I'm not going to run with the V piece at the moment as I don't have the correct mounting bolts, but this isn't to important to me and can be looked at a little later.



My attention is now on the tank. The paint is dry now, I wouldn't recommend spray Hammerite any more so brushed it on. The white is not a colour match but then I expected that, and its no problem as its just to seal and protect the base.

The fuel filter came off of one of the replacement tanks as the original was far beyond saving. I added a new gasket and lines from Yambits. Some original foam dampers from Yamaha, and some copper washers to seal the screws and hold the filter on.



Replaced the fuel cap so its a one key bike now. But the rubber seal had some paint on it from the original owner. But luckily that comes apart so I took it off and replaced it with the rubber seal from the original tank.



Even put the rubber tank guard and over flow pipe back on.



Then hooked it up to the fuel tap and connected that fully.

Put some petrol in the tank and waited for my feet to get wet. They didn't so I lit a match closed the fuel cap and decided it would be rude not to fire it up.

It took a couple of extra kicks as I haven't started it for a couple of weeks and it needed time to get flowing from the tank but it started and was running off the tanks petrol.

At this point I can also report that I have at least 3 forward gears. It needs to clear its throat a bit as there are a couple of stutters but I did find the power band for a split second. First impressions is that its twitchy, but I put this down to my nerves, the new tyres, and the wet road. I think its going to be fun though.

The MOT is booked. Will monitor the tank, no smell of fuel yet, for the next couple of days. There are a couple of little things I want to take another look at but it would appear the big jobs are over. Lets see what happens next...

[Paul]

good luck with MOT
my bike just got dropped off this morning for MOT and i have import crap to sort

[squirrel_hunter]

Today didn't quite go as planned. The intention was to MOT the bike and then complete the Bikesafe Trackday at Castle Combe on it.

It started off ok. Got to the MOT station, the bike wasn't feeling the best, however it got there. And I worked out why the other night test ride was so twitchy, tyres require air in them to work properly.

Well the test went well. No failures and no advisories I have a certificate to prove this!

The ride back from the test felt better. Though I have a little clunk in the clutch that I need to investigate, only appears setting off when not really under load. Strange, so ideas welcome?

With a tax disc I headed home to do some of my own checks. I adjusted the front brake lever and topped up the gearbox oil then headed off to Castle Combe.

Not far from home and a total of 17 miles completed the exhaust note changed and I lost the rev counter and lights. Pull in and twiddle the fuses. The lights came back, so that is just an issue with the fuses and the box, again. I have an idea for this.

Restart the bike and I don't like that engine note at all. Look over the bike thinking the exhausts are loose, they're not. Try and locate the noise as it sound like something vibrating loose. Then I spot the right hand power valve cover resting between the fairing and exhaust. Cover the covers hole and the noise drops.

I think that the bolt hole thread holding the cover has failed. I wasn't convinced by it when it went back on. So what I think happened is the bolt failed and the cover worked loose.

So the next thing to do is to replace the fuses and fix the covers bolt thread. I have been thinking of the old tap and die, but would a Helicoil be best here and is that something I can attempt at home with the engine still in the frame?

[squirrel_hunter]

Thought I'd take a look at the bike today. Replaced the problem fuse and that gave me the full electrics back. Need to get some shorter spares then what I currently have for a better fit but they are in there now.

Next was to check out the thread on the powervalve cover. Popped the fairing off and tried a bolt, which took to the thread fine. But with the cover in it wasn't gripping quite right. So I tried a longer bolt which was miles to long. But then I realised what the problem was firstly I needed the longer bolt or as its more commonly known, the correct size bolt. The next thing was to run a tap down the hole to clear out what ever it was that was stopping it getting all the way in. And with that the cover was on a held tightly.

A quick start of the engine confirmed that the noise and electric issue was solved. Now you might have noticed there have been no bike finished pictures. The reason for that was I was going to take them at Castle Combe circuit and hopefully include one of the bike on track. But it was not to be. So I took the bike down the road to check it was all working and to get a couple of pictures...



I should also add I'm no David Bailey.



But these should give you all some idea of how the bike looks.



Even tried a couple of arty shots.



Some may have worked better than others.



I also only went out for 5 minutes. Or so I thought. I've now covered a total of 52 miles. And I ran out of fuel. But stuck it on reserve and it kicked back into life once the air was clear from the pipe.

So things to do now include adjust the chain. Loosen the wiring at the front as I think its slightly restricting on full lock. Scrub the tyres in fully. Get some more miles on it.



As for what its like to ride, very different and I need to get more practice in. There is no engine braking, but get in the powerband and it shifts. Oh does it go. The front brake is uncomfortable at the moment as I think the span is wrong, more adjustment needed there. However I spent the entire 35 miles of tonight's ride with a little grin on my face.

[Tom Mac]

Looks excellent, well worth all the hard work.

[TZR1ktF3]

Good project topped off with an excellent looking TZR!!

[tzr-v4]

Very nice looking TZR250.

Well done.