New 1986 tecate-3 project

[jeep1980]

I just picked up a mostly complete 1986 tecate 3 a few days ago. Its rough but it was free and its gonna mean alot to me when its done. It belonged to a friend of mine that passed away a couple years back. He bought it with intentions of rebuilding it but never got the chance. Most of the parts are there and the cranks already been done. It looks like the only things I'm missing are the flywheel and rear brake assembly. It still needs the top end done and I'm pretty sure the stator isn't any good either but its a solid start.

[dcreel]

That's awesome.. What a way to celebrate your friend's life than rebuilding that. Keep us posted on your progress.. Welcome to the site..

[Slingblade]

Welcome to the site, That looks like a good start to a Great project. Sorry about your friend but glad to see your finishing the project in his honor. There are some real Tecate guru's on here that will be glad to help. Good Luck.

[jeep1980]

Thanks. I am planning on keeping this updated. I'm going to strip it down the rest of the way and clean up everything. The frame and swingarm were spray painted green at one time and it looks kinda shabby. I think I was to paint the frame purple, polish the swing arm, powdercoat the wheels black and do the hubs in the green. I'm not sure how it will look like that an I will probly change my mind on some things but I'm looking forward to getting it going again. I've already got a little help off here finding a different cylinder without chunks missing and I'm looking forward to learning alot off here.

[ezmoney1979]

Cool Tecate! Good luck with the build! Anything you need, you will more than likely find it here at 3WW.

[scooterroo]

wow, free! sorry about the circumstances behind it, but it is nice to hear that your going to finish it in your friends honor. welcome to the boards. as a few of the guys above said, theres alot of good info on here and a few of us t3 fans here that will help with whatever we can. defiantely keep us posted on the restore, glad to see yet another come back to life. i said it a few days ago, but damn, it seems as if the t3's are popping out of the woodwork lately!! awesome!.

[jeep1980]

I got a little progress done yesterday. I pulled most of the stuff off the frame and ordered some parts. I got new carrier bearing, new front wheel bearings and fork seals comming. I've never done fork seals before so it should be interesting. Hopefully I can go actually pick up my new motor saturday and start getting it put in. I picked up a 1988 kx 250 to steal the motor out of.

[nstyle73]

Sorry about the whole cylinder issue, but the kx250 transplant should circumvent all of those issues. Looks like a great start, and thanks for the parts.

[jeep1980]

No problem on the parts. I picked up the whole bike for less than it was gonna cost to fix either cylinder and the bike runs. I am going to finish stripping the frame and get it repainted and start from there. The mounts for the 88 kx motor look almost identical to what I need so I'm hoping it will slide right in and not require alot.

[Rollingmenace]

looks like your off to a good start man keep us posted

[jeep1980]

I got it completely stripped today and got the frame primed. I cant find purple paint that I think will look right for the frame and I like the ones on here that have blue frames so I think I'm going to copy that and go with blue. I don't want to spend the money on powder for it. I know in the end powdercoating would look way beter but I'm going to ride it not sit and look at it. I will get some more pictures in a few days after I get the frame painted up and start putting it back together.

[Rollingmenace]

cool ive decided to put my 250r off for a bit and focus on my tecate as well

[jeep1980]

I picked up the donor bike saturday and took it for one last spin around the yard before it gets transplanted into the trike frame. The bike itself is a real piece. The motor was rebuilt supposedly and then they decided the rest of the bike wasnt worth it. It looks like the engine cradles are identical on the two so I think its going to slide right in. The only difference I can see so far is the clutch cover is different. Its a two piece design so changing the clutch out will be easier. I also got the frame and brackets cleaned up and mostly painted. Who ever painted this thing green did a terrible job. It was more like thick overspray on most of the frame rather than an actual paint job. It looks a ton better already. I tried to take some pictures but the camera didn't want to cooperate so I will finish up painting it and start getting it back together and get some pictures.

[84 r]

sweet cant wait to see her done!

[nd4speed]

Post some pics of the transplant !!! I don't think I've seen the 88 lump done before but always suspected it would work fine.

I 've bought a couple bikes just for transplants. So much easier than rebuilding and you get some of the money back parting out the leftovers.

Rode my latest transplant yesterday, but the KX gearing is tall and I wished I had more sprocket choices.