Well, it starts.. '85 ATC250r resto-mod

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, I have bought my first round of parts and then some.

From members here, I got an '85 headlight in excellent condition, kill/light switch assembly, swingarm bolt, thumb throttle, with more coming.

From 250r.net I got a good deal on an RPM Dominator +4 with LSR billet locking hubs.

Pulled most of the plastics, tank and handlebars today. I wanted to get more done this weekend, but it was a busy weekend with other plans with family..

The tank is boxxed up and will be on it's way to Mr. Clean in the next few days.

And here is the really cool thing, my in-laws came by today and gave me a real nice hydraulic ATV lift for a birthday gift! Talk about nice! So, Ol' Betsy is on the stand and prepped for the major surgery. Might get quite a bit more done tomorrow.

Like I said earlier, there isn't going to be alot of eye-candy with this portion of the build. This winter is about getting it together and mechanically sound. Next winter will be powdercoat, new plastic and general "make it pretty" time...

But here she is as she sits now...

[Jason125m]

Sweet man! You can't beat those lifts. Mine was the best 60 bucks I ever spent!

[M.Pargiello]

I just picked up a similar lift myself. Best purchase so far! Makes milk crates a thing of the past.

I will be watching this for sure, your 350R is awesome

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Made a little progress today.

Got her stripped down to bare frame. The swingarm pivot bolt was so badly seized I had to cut the swinger out with the smoke-wrench. It kind of sucked to cut up an otherwise good swingarm! But I have an extremely good condition '85 swingarm already on the bench ready to go in once I get the 3ww shop swingarm bushings I just ordered today! I'm happy I can spend a good portion of the money for this build right here with my 3ww friends, wether it be buying parts from other members or through the shop.

I will probably go out and do a little more puttering with it later. Just cleaning up bolt hole threads and general cleaning up mostly. I still have to pull the forks out of the lower triple so I can rebuild them. Got quite a bit of polshing to do on the forks and triple too.. Mothers Mag Polish is going to LOVE me!! LOL!

Being that next winters project will be to strip it back down and PC the frame I have decided to clean it up and paint it this winter as best I can. It's only got to look good for this summer's riding season so what could it hurt..

I have a couple parts listed in the classifieds I won't be needing, so check it out if you are looking.

Here is how she sits as we speak.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Got all of the threads of the bolt holes chased out with taps today. I have to redo a couple of mounts. 2 of the grab bar mounts were bad. 1 was stripped out totally, the other had an old snapped off bolt in it. So, I ground the little threaded barrels (I guess that's what you would call them) and will be welding new nuts on in their place. I kind of want to keep things uniform and as close to factory as I can. I don't want to mess around cobbling through-bolts and whatnot.

Also, my left front motor mount points on the frame/engine cradle were badly damaged. The 2 holes for mounting the motor mount plate itself are supposed to be threaded, but were so badly damaged you could barely tell they were threaded at all. So, I will be grinding them off as well and welding nuts in their place. Going to have to be a little more careful with those to keep the proper height from the frame tube for proper motor mount alignment.

I'll likely be doing those little welding repairs tomorrow night or saturday morning.

After that is done, I'll be painting the frame up. No pics after todays puttering as it really doesn't look any different than my last update. The next update will hopefully come saturday evening or sunday sometime and include pics of the freshly painted frame.

Once the frame is painted and cured, the fun stuff will begin! Starting to piece it all back together!

[sx250heath]

Keep the pics coming. I am also doing a frame up 250R build.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, I got my 2 motor mount and grab bar mount holes repaired today. Also painted the frame... I know I know, paint sucks. PC will be done next winter. I have my budget pretty carefully planned out for this build because I can't bear to watch it sit around all summer again!

Still waiting for my nylon swingarm bushings from the shop among some other things, but commencement of assembly is right around the corner!

Here it is as it sits right now..

[bkm]

Looking great man. I love it!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Third and final coat of paint went on the frame just a few minutes ago.

I recieved my swingarm bushings I ordered from the shop today!

Now that I have those, assembly will commence very soon. Going to Raffas saturday with my wife and my brother in law (Beadle350x). So I won't get much done that day. Hoping to find an '85 style tail light as that is the last '85 250r specific part I need if I recall correct.

Have a whole pile of parts in my garage to get started with. Including a z400 rear master cylinder as my original is seized tight. Mosh will remember a conversation we had a while back and after taking some measurements on one of my z400's it looks like the rear master from a z400 is a pretty easy swap for the old ATC. That should make things alot easier for us. I will be sure and note the conversion in the build thread and post pics.

Next pics should be the first parts of the chassis coming back together!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I got to spend a couple hours in the garage with the old R today. I got the harness ran, CDI and coil mounted, swingarm and rear shock installed, and rear master cylinder mounted.

Guys check this out: A z400 rear master cylinder is practically a direct swap! Only difference is the Suzuki unit mounts with smaller bolts than the ATC does. So, all you have to do is drill and tap for the ATC size mount bolts so the master cylinder doesn't loosen and chuck around in the larger holes found on the ATC. Now, I made a bonehead mistake and drilled and tapped for a 9mm bolt instead of 8mm by accident. So, I ended up through bolting them for now till I run to the hardware store and grab a couple of 9's. But the point is, there is plenty of meat to drill and tap the cylinder mont holes to use your OEM ATC mounting bolts.

I mocked up the brake pedal and linkage and it looks like I may have to make a minor adjustment to the shaft on the master cylinder, but that remains to be seen exactly how much. But it is nice to know we have an inexpensive option to swap in if we have an old master cyl that can't be rebuilt. I picked that one up from ebay for around 30 bucks and it came with an almost new +2 braided brake line and the reservior with line. Can't beat that with a stick!

Pics below shows how she sits now and a couple closeups of the z400 master cylinder mounted up...

[jsmay]

Looks great! My 200x is gonna get done this spring... Gotta finish up my shovelhead before the weather breaks. See ya Saturday.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I took the forks apart today to get ready to change the fork seals and found a bit of a head scratcher...

At some point years ago, the fork seals got bad and somebody "replaced" them. They left the dust seals off the sliders and pounded some other type of generic seals in right on top of the retaining snap rings. I chuckled a bit and pulled em out of there with no issue....

What is puzzling is this... Under the snap ring there was a kind of thick metal ring, approximately 1/8" thick. Then there was the seal, and under that the much thinner back up ring. I checked my Honda service manual and it only shows the backup ring that goes under the seal. It doesn't show a second ring that goes on top of the seal and under the snap ring. Am I missing something here?? The only difference my manual shows between the '85 and '86 forks is the spring setup. This manual is an actual Honda manual, not a Clymer or anything like that...

I had one new fork seal but not two as I had to replace a blown seal on my other R last summer. So, I rebuilt one fork. Here's where it gets a little weird... With the old seal that was in the fork, the seal and both rings would fit under the snap ring. But the new fork seal is a touch thicker apparently and I cannot get enough room to seat the snap ring with all 3 installed. So, I left out the thicker ring I found to be in between the seal and snap ring (which as I recall is the way I have found every Honda fork I have ever re-sealed) and everything lined up perfect. I did verfiy the bushing was seated all the way in too...

Am I missing something here? Or am I undoing somebody else's old cob-job??

[El Camexican]

If I understood that right, is it possible that at some point over the years that a replacment set of seals came with a thinner seal and a ring to take up the space? It's been years, but I seem to recall buying a set of EMGO Suzuki seals that came like that.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Thats an idea I pondered El Camexican, but I wasn't sure as I have never heard of such a thing. The seals that were in there are in fact thinner than the new one I put in....

Between what you suggest and the fact my manual shows no such spacer ring between the seal and snap ring, I think that very well might be the case.

Thank you Sir!

[yaegerb]

I just rebuilt mine and didn't have that second ring. I am guessing that somebody rebuilt them who didnt have a manual or knew what the hell they were doing.