1984 yz 250

[Daynosaur]

Hey guys,

Bought this 1984 YZ 250 off of Hazzy from these forums around a month ago.
This is what it looked like:



It was in a little worse condition than the photo shows, but still a very good buy.

It has a 1985 front end on it, and that will be staying but cleaned up.
The rear disk is going. Just going back to the drum brake again.

First up, started taking bits and pieces off.
Tank was taken off and cleaned a bit. Took the petcock off as it was leaking, and replaced the o-rings. Carb was taken off, opened up and now awaiting parts to arrive for the rebuild. Radiators are off, cleaned up a bit and painted the front covers black. Seat was taken off along with airbox etc etc. Gave it a general degrease and pressure clean and it came up alot better (photos still make it look better)







Bought a new rear wheel with the brake accessories as the one on there has been welded. When that arrives i'll be getting both wheels powdercoated black. Handle bars and front caliper will go for powdercoating black too. And lastly, everything i've taken off will have the nuts, bolts and washers replaced with stainless items.

I think thats about it for now. Not doing too much at this stage as I will be riding it throughout winter. After the season i'll be pulling it down to the ground and completing the rest of it.

I'll get some more photo's up soon, and try take some as I plod along.

Cheers,
Chris

[jules_1972]

Sweet!!

Good stuff!!

[RT]

nice i'm at the same stage with my ktm, just had the last parts arrive for the engine rebuild, so hopefully this weekend i will start on it! will be following yours along too! nice bike!

[Daynosaur]

Cheers fellas. Got a link to your bike RT?

I won't be rebuilding the engine at this stage. Supposedly the rings and pistons were done not tooo long ago (in ride time), and when I went to look at the bike, it started first kick.
That's the only time i've heard the damn thing, as I pulled it down the weekend after it was home . But hopefully not too long now, just trying to find the carb needle I need, which seems to be impossible.

Also unsure on the colour scheme. It's between 3 combo's:

Black and chrome
Black and red (so it resembles an old YZ)
Black and blue (so people know its a YZ)

Leaning towards the black and red combo though .

[Hazzy]

Awesome stuff man, Glad to see it has gone to someone who has the time for it. Keep us posted

[Rich]

Nice...

Fun machines...

I once wedged a worked YZ400E air cooled motor into one of those frames...

That bike was an animal...

[Mizer]

Go racing pre85mxwa.com

[Daynosaur]

Yep I will be... but not this season. I need to learn to ride again. Only ridden a tiny bit... so i'll break the bones this season and be better at riding and have a beaut of a bike for next .

Yeah Hazzy, have had time but it seems like time is slipping away at some points haha. Think it's because im waiting on parts arrival that I think that.

And cheers Rich... can't wait to take this thing out when it's ready! Hopefully within 4 weeks!

[Daynosaur]

Not too much has happened recently... haven't had the motivation, went through one of those periods .

But an update as to what has been done:

- Carb is rebuild, and sand blasted.
- Pulled front and rear wheels apart, rims and hubs at sand blasters now.
- Fair bit of painting has been done, and general cleaning up.
- Pulled more things off to clean/make way for the paint.
- Rear shock is apart, just need a bump stop and it can go back together.
- And forgot to mention, but took my mates gold handlebars and chucked them on this.

So it's coming along slowly, a bit faster now though which is good. Once I get the wheels back they'll go straight in for a powdercoating in black.
Then its getting the spokes zinc coated again, ready for respoking. How much is zinc coating for 2 sets of spokes approx?
Will recover the seat, experiment with dyeing the tank and plastics also.

Other bits will come up later, but will try and keep up to date with some pictures. Went with a different paint sceme too. Oh and so people know, Its definately not the best painting, but its not meant to be. Just a general cleanup really. Its my first bike pulldown too .

Brake cylinder


Front Caliper and rear brake cover


Radiators (little dusty now)


Sprocket + rad covers


Painted front


How it sits



Start of frame painting



Hope you like it.

Cheers,
Chris

[shan]

Thats the H model am I right

[Daynosaur]

H model? Its a yz250 L on the parts manual. Not sure what you mean.

[shan]

My bad , I was thinking back to front there , A long long time ago I had a J.
Never was good at the alphabet, or spelling.
Thats a beutifule toy you have there, well done

[Daynosaur]

Haha no worries. Yeah L model .

Cheers man. Its getting there. Alot of it is just a good clean and paint up, a wee bit of attention will bring it back to life.
Motor also being sprayed a nice matte black to bring it back to life. So eager to start putting it back together!

[Cruiserman]

Yeah from memory (which is rooted) The J had the radiator on the front guard.
If you are interested in restoring the old tank try JIF and a polishing wheel in a drill it works, but it wont get rid of the petrol stain but it will bring back the shine.
Great project well done.

[Daynosaur]

Tanks for the tips. As its a black and gold theme, im going to try the dyeing process, hopefully on the Friday or Saturday coming. Then might try that trick to get some shine to it.

Will keep updated about it anyway

[Daynosaur]

Still yet to give the dye a go. But more painting etc. I was so far into it, why wouldn't i rip the motor out and swingarm off .




Nearly every bolt, bar a few, are being replaced with a little shine!



High tensile zinc coated bolts all round. Frame looks alot more yello in the piccies, probably cos of the crap phone pics and darkness.
Motor will be painted tomorrow hopefully, then I'll start assembling things, and take pictures as I go .

Colour sceme should look nice when all the black bits go on.

[Daynosaur]

It now takes a bit of shape. Motor all cleaned and painted, Carby rebuild completed and bolted up, gas tank painted, came up pretty nice after a good hour of sanding and some paint. Fuel will only go in to start it or ride it, won't be stored in there. This should help it to not bubble if it's going to happen. Chucked motor back in with some old bolts to dummy it up, and dropped the tank on the frame.

[Arwon]

Nice work.

the bike is an L model the H was air cooled, the K had a twin leading front shoe brake ( i had this model from new)

[Daynosaur]

Im tooooo lazy. Just started again!!!

Stainless cap head bolts will be all over this thing, for free .
Seat is being re-trimmed + fresh foam where it's needed, get it back this week.
Ordered stainless steel spokes to go on the black powdercoated rims and hubs.
Getting the rest of the wheel shinanigans too, tires, tubes, rim locks. New tires because the old ones feel like pebbles melted into some rubber

What size for rim locks, I haven't a clue!?

I think that's about it for the updates right now. Piccies soon.

[Daynosaur]

Wow... over a year since last update... shows my motivation...

I got stuffed around a shit load with wheels. Ordering spokes that said they were for my year yet were for new bikes etc etc. Not getting refunded etc etc... getting the wrong nipples. It goes on. It looked like this:


SO... when I decided to piss all of this out of my head recently, I thought i'd do it once more and properly... Pulled it back down again, down to the bare frame. Got this powdercoated along with handlebars, pegs and spring...


I had previously serviced the rear monoshock... but the line from the nitro cannister and the shock body was shit... so got a braided line made...


Will that size bump stop bottom out too easy?
The shock will be off to dynotime soon to be oiled and gassed.

Some people with old bikes will know that sourcing parts can be hard... and because my wheels have cost me alot already (already blasted, powdercoated, new bearings etc), I thought screw it, i'll fit a newer model wheel. A while ago I emailed and called around places that had a wheel I liked, told them the plan, and got shut down by all, saying no it won't fit and we don't recommend it... don't recommend fitting a stronger wheel? ok.

Just recently, found the torpedo7 website, and what a store it is! With half an hour left in the special, I picked up a 2000-07 (ish) wheels set, front and rear for $515 delivered! It then went up to $715 odd. Luck on my side!!! So i'll have to dummy these up after I get some bearings for the forks, and look at what spacing needs to be done (fitter machinist by trade).


Also have a new fuel tap that has arrived.


Seat has been recovered... will post a picture later on.

It's amazing, I've made so much more progress in the past 2 weeks than I did in 2 years .

Thanks for reading!!!