250ES Refresh hit a wall...

[ironchop]

He doesn't do the machine work, but he uses a local automotive machine shop I'm familiar with. All they need to do is the reaming to the guide. I don't have a total price, I think he is going to let me know what the machine shop wants to charge, but his initial quote was much lower than the other local big shops, I don't think he will be more than they were, and I'd rather support small business anyway.

You will find that a lot of the "big Shops" do none of their own machining anymore but gladly mark up what the machine shop charged them to do the work and charge you for a profit for merely dropping off and picking up your part from the machine shop. All our local dealers are doing similar things especially on bore/hone jobs.

[cap]

Shims? You mean the head gasket? that should be replaced when you pull the head.

[ironchop]

I went to a local guy in his 70's running a small ATV shop nearby, when I found his name I asked my folks if they knew him and it turns out he's the same guy they took their ATC's to back in the day, and the local NAPA said good things about him. I ended up spending about 40 minutes just shooting the bull with him about fixing ATV's and stuff, seems like a nice guy.

Hey Airmapper, Who is the guy? I`m just south of Bowing Green and know a couple older cats who professionally worked on/raced atcs from this area and was wondering if he was someone I was familiar with.

If I had known you were close to me (Alvaton, here) I could have helped you earlier. I`m also a machinist.

[Airmapper]

I got my head back this morning. Of course I could not disassemble it to check everything (that's why I had to take it to someone to begin with...need a valve compressor, which indecently costs more than what he charged.) but it looks good. He only charged me $25, I gave him a little bit more.

I completed re-assembly. I turned it over real slow this time by hand using the kick start lever, no binding. I used the "T" mark for sure this time, the cam marks all lined up. I think I'm good (crossing fingers.)

No attempt to start yet. I need to buy some new exhaust gaskets before I button all that up. I may have some clutch work to do yet as well, not sure. I got a new seal for the reverse lever shaft as well, not enthused about pulling that case cover again, but I'll get the rest of it assembled before I think about that, it's not too hard to get at.

Guess I'm not really out of the woods until I'm riding.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed here, I appreciate it. Wish me luck.

[Jmoozy27]

$25 is a good friendly deal. No hustle in that. Hope it runs good.

[Airmapper]

I'm happy to report, the Big Red is running!

Thanks everyone for your assistance. I still have some issues to sort out and loose ends to tie up, but I'll do some searching and reading the service manual before I ask too much on that.

It has a slight tick which may be nothing. That new timing chain quieted it down a lot. I will double check the valve lifters and make sure it's not that, but it sounds great otherwise.

[atc007]

Glad you're on the seat finally.... Wish we had seen the top pic months ago.. Your head is basically worn out by Hondas specs in your cam wear areas ( . It will run,but you will hear it. Keep a good clean,oiled air filter in her and keep your oil changed. Enjoy !