What to look for buying sx's

[tri again]

Guy has 2 1985 sx models that they bought new
and want 1600$ for both. He said they look real nice, always parked inside
and 'maintained.'

I have a few and have had the carb cold start troubles,
swing arm bearings and races, shift fork, starter rebuild,
countershaft whine etc
so I know enough to get in trouble.

What other catastrophic things should I look for?

When I asked about gear oil for the differential he was like a deer in headlights,
so I'll bring a 17mm? and look for chocolate milk oil.

The dumbest thing they ever promoted about the driveshafts
was to call them 'maintain' free.

so... ask him to leave them alone so I can start them from dead cold,
check diff oil and compression and obviously try to hit all 5 gears.

Anything else?

Thanks

[dougspcs]

You pretty much covered it..when I bought mine I check all that except the differential oil. (it was my 1st I didn't know)

Of course look in the tanks for rust..if there, either remove and seal or just install an inline filter and remove and clean the carb. There will always be rust residue in the float bowl and thru the jets.

The ones that bug me are the guys who sell them dirty as hell..'that's how they're supposed to look' is what they say.

But then they would all be mint and the good ones wouldn't be worth as much! So I say get them, if his idea of 'maintained' is cleaned after use..your laughing.

[tri again]

yeah, my last sx was orig owner, keys and title,
He didn't clean it because it Never got dirty.

Parked it inside 10 years ago, it looked NEW new new.

But the tank was so rusted inside you could fit 4 fingers thru the bottom.

Tank was left empty with the cap on so condensation just killed it over the years.

Now, every tank I get gets acid rinsed, neutralized, dried and rinsed again with
that 'heet' stuff to dry out any remaining moisture.

Put the tank on the bbq or woodstove so there is NO moisture left and
then rattle some rocks or screws and blowblowblow with compressed air to
get the microscopic rustdust out and then fill them with non ethanol gas and
KEEP them full.

[1985BigRed250ES]

dont mean to hijack this thread, but what do you mean by countershaft whine? I think my SX has this problem also. what all are weak points on the SXs? I have already found the diff full of mud and water and got that flushed/cleaned out.

[tri again]

dont mean to hijack this thread, but what do you mean by countershaft whine? I think my SX has this problem also. what all are weak points on the SXs? I have already found the diff full of mud and water and got that flushed/cleaned out.

NO problem.
I didn't notice the countershaft whine until I got another 250.that was quiet.
It's like a medium pitched gear whine like an old ford 3 speed that you can 'hear' on acceleration more than decel.

I guess it could be coming from the differential but it changed pitch with different gears as
well as ground speed, if that makes sense.

As far as your chocolate milk diff gear oil.
Again, it's only 3.3 oz but the ring gear has enough throw to pick it up and throw it around.

My concern is that if water gets in thru the axle seals a foot away, that oil must have to go all the way out there too.
So imagine 3 ounces of oil trying to cover the inside of 2 feet of 2 inch pipe.

Then again, maybe water can get in from the outer hubs but the oil doesn't have to go that far.
Another mystery for me to question.

Some people have rinsed them out with diesel but that might dilute your fresh oil.

idk, I'd just change it a few times, maybe run it slowly up on blocks.

I also usually put the front tire up on something so it pours out the fill cap
instead of that tiny drain bolt.

A good check would be to check backlash of the ring gear with it up on blocks.

slowly work the wheels back and forth an inch or 2 and see if the ringgear
engages the pinion nicely.

The backlash is usually a couple thousanths and MAY tell you if the bearings are
worn.

You may have gotten lucky and it's ok.

You KNOW we all have our fingers crossed for you.

[tri again]

well they sure looked new and started and ran perfectly
buy they got ocean beach sand in the frame pan on the day they were bought so
the frames were so rusted the footpegs fell off.

Everything else was perfect looking. and the dad did
weld a full plate under the engine but I just couldn't do it.

Imagine the bottom frame tubes rusted enough to see inTO.
The guy was a farm equip fixit guy and did a beautiful job welding a plate to the entire bottom,
both tubes, but the only good steel to weld to was the frame tubes where they start back up
so essentially, the plates only had an inch or 2 of good metal to hold on to.

Kinda seems like a hinge point waiting to happen.

Darn shame too because everything else on these trikes looked new and low low hours.

I could prob make them last forever with my 2/3rd gear farm rides, but every so often, someone jumps on these things and rides across the tops of the bumps at 30-40 mph.

Guess this is more of a problem in the salt/snow states?
or in this case, packed with wet salty beach sand once or twice 20 years ago and never rinsed off?

I'm still sad, but there will always be more, right?

[S250X]

The only thing I can think of is the outer wheel hubs at the back wheels. We have had a few with the splines stripped out. They are pretty cheap used off ebay though. New ones from Honda used to run 180 bucks.

[Headsup]

I would say Take the Cap off to the Swing arm and see how rusted it is... Just ran into this problem and i have no way to get the Lock Nut off Its so rusted.

[tri again]

I would say Take the Cap off to the Swing arm and see how rusted it is... Just ran into this problem and i have no way to get the Lock Nut off Its so rusted.

soaksoaksoak
heatheatheat

if it's totally toasted, heat will destroy the seals but they come with the new
bearings and races.
They are available locally btw and may be front wheel bearing for ford falcon or something that common.

part# 30203 with the name 'axis' on the box.
easily cross referenced I suppose.


After making the 'tool'
I'm pretty sure I used a hammer and a punch to loosen that locknut.

It IS a locknut so almost any motion should get it to move.

Excellent point btw.
Not a fun job for sure.

Getting the races out was the real fun part.

We used a 2 foot drift (hardened steel and ground to the same radius)
but also had to grind off the lip on the INSIDE of the race to get a bite.