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

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I would say thats correct.. at least about whomever removed and omitted the slider dust seals and jammed some random seals into the sliders on top of the snap rings! LOL! Apparently they tried to replace the fork seals and the concept pf snap-ring removal escaped said genious...

[El Camexican]

I am guessing that somebody rebuilt them who didnt have a manual or knew what the hell they were doing.

I need to get a t-shirt that says that!

[09RappySE]

I just did mine as well...no second ring.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Made some more progress today.

Rebuilt and mounted one fork (only had 1 new fork seal on hand), mounted a set of Dunlop radials I bought used for very cheap on my 350x rims I had set aside for this build. Installed the axle, partially installed the caliper, ran the brake line from the z400 master to the caliper.

But I did run into a couple of hiccups...

First, when I installed my RPM Dominator axle, I ran into the same problem I had with the old stock axle... Whith the axle tightened down as it should be, the brake rotor rubs against the caliper saddle. I have pondered this issue for a long time. So what I did is this. Remember those odd spacer rings I reported finding in my forks a couple posts back?? Well, one of those thick rings fit perfectly on the axle and inside the axle bearing seal to work as a shim between the brake hub and axle bearing! BUT, I had to grind a little bit of the brake hub down on the axle lock side to expose splines for the axle lock to catch. It has been the most perplexing problem. I thought the bearing spacing was incorrect on my Boss carrier. But Rappy took some measurements on his LSR twin row carrier and my Boss is dead on in agreement with his LSR. So, I now have a different swingarm, different axle, same carrier and still have the same problem. But I think my shimming the brake hub out a little bit and grinding a little of the opposite side will work just fine. Rotor alignment is spot on now as well.

Second little hiccup: I bought a rear master cylinder with brake line andr reservior. The master cyl mounts up nicely, no issues there. I was hoping to use the newer style reservior so I could get away from those stubborn reservior cap screws that like to strip out so easily. But, with the coolant puke bottle installed, the Suzuki reservior doesn't mount up. So, I was going to just use the old Honda reservior.. problem with that is, while the ID of the outlet on the Honda ressy is the same as the Zuki rezzy and line, the OD of the honda unit is much fatter, making it so I can't use it. Plus the reservior line fitting on the zuki master cyl is the smaller OD as well.

So long story short, I was thinking of deleting the coolan puke bottle. I have never found coolant in the puke bottle of either of the 2 R's I have owned. If I delete the puke bottle I can then run the Zuki brake reservior and move on to other things.. problem solved. I was thinking I can just run a puke line that dumps somewhere near the swingarm pivot area.

Anybody ever delete the coolant puke bottle? Any issues with removing it?

But anyway, here is how she sits now.. Pardon my cluttered garage, it's getting kinda cramped now the the R is getting bigger again! LOL!

Oh, and if anybody wants any closer up pics of any specific areas or parts (like the rear master cyl setup) just let me know and I'll post em up.

[yaegerb]

Made some more progress today.

Rebuilt and mounted one fork (only had 1 new fork seal on hand), mounted a set of Dunlop radials I bought used for very cheap on my 350x rims I had set aside for this build. Installed the axle, partially installed the caliper, ran the brake line from the z400 master to the caliper.

But I did run into a couple of hiccups...

First, when I installed my RPM Dominator axle, I ran into the same problem I had with the old stock axle... Whith the axle tightened down as it should be, the brake rotor rubs against the caliper saddle. I have pondered this issue for a long time. So what I did is this. Remember those odd spacer rings I reported finding in my forks a couple posts back?? Well, one of those thick rings fit perfectly on the axle and inside the axle bearing seal to work as a shim between the brake hub and axle bearing! BUT, I had to grind a little bit of the brake hub down on the axle lock side to expose splines for the axle lock to catch. It has been the most perplexing problem. I thought the bearing spacing was incorrect on my Boss carrier. But Rappy took some measurements on his LSR twin row carrier and my Boss is dead on in agreement with his LSR. So, I now have a different swingarm, different axle, same carrier and still have the same problem. But I think my shimming the brake hub out a little bit and grinding a little of the opposite side will work just fine. Rotor alignment is spot on now as well.

Second little hiccup: I bought a rear master cylinder with brake line andr reservior. The master cyl mounts up nicely, no issues there. I was hoping to use the newer style reservior so I could get away from those stubborn reservior cap screws that like to strip out so easily. But, with the coolant puke bottle installed, the Suzuki reservior doesn't mount up. So, I was going to just use the old Honda reservior.. problem with that is, while the ID of the outlet on the Honda ressy is the same as the Zuki rezzy and line, the OD of the honda unit is much fatter, making it so I can't use it. Plus the reservior line fitting on the zuki master cyl is the smaller OD as well.

So long story short, I was thinking of deleting the coolan puke bottle. I have never found coolant in the puke bottle of either of the 2 R's I have owned. If I delete the puke bottle I can then run the Zuki brake reservior and move on to other things.. problem solved. I was thinking I can just run a puke line that dumps somewhere near the swingarm pivot area.

Anybody ever delete the coolant puke bottle? Any issues with removing it?

But anyway, here is how she sits now.. Pardon my cluttered garage, it's getting kinda cramped now the the R is getting bigger again! LOL!

Oh, and if anybody wants any closer up pics of any specific areas or parts (like the rear master cyl setup) just let me know and I'll post em up.

That will work with the overflow bottle or I recommend you drop the line on the head of the motor that way if the bike overheats and fluid starts coming out of the line, the fluid will steam when it hits the head. Quick telltale button. A couple of my racing buddies used to do it. Also, I am glad you found a good use for the extra washer

[09RappySE]

Just out od curiosity, why did you decide to use a Z400 master?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

A while back, Mosh contacted me because he noticed that I own 250r's and z400's. He had heard from a few people that the z400 master cyl is an easy swap onto the ATC and they canbe found pretty cheap, which is handy. He asked me to take a couple of measurements and verify it was true. I found that the bolt spacing is the same, only difference is the Honda master is mounted with 8mm bolts where the Zuki master is mounted with 6mm bolts. Being that the bolts thread directly into the master cyl casting all you have to do is drill and tap the z400 cyl to 8mm and it bolts right up.

My old master cyl is seized up tight. So rather then mess with it I just went ahead and got a z400 master cyl with brake line, reservior, and reservior line for about 30 bucks to my door.

[ONEBAD350X]

Looking nice!! What handlebars are you using?

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I'm really not sure. It is a set that I got from Mr. Clean on the cheap. They are almost identical in profile to my Renthals on my other R. Wide, low and not much sweep.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Spent some time with the R in the garage today. Installed the airbox, painted the radiator mounting brackets, installed radiators, mounted the throttle assembly and PWK36 carb, installed clutch lever, hooked up and bled rear brakes.

Now, I went ahead and mounted the carb in the pipe connecting it to the airbox now to make it a little easier to install the carb when the engine is in...

And to the rear brakes. I found that with the z400 master cyl mounted as the old Honda unit did, the plunger clevis would contact the subframe tube when pushing farther down on the brake pedal. So, I used a larger nut between the master cyl and mount to shim it out about 5/16" or so. Now there is no contact between the clevis and the subframe. There is a slight angle on the master cylinder plunger shaft now, but it's not drastic and I don't think it will be an issue.

I took a couple of close up pics of the master cylinder showing the slight plunger shaft angle and my shimming the master cyl to allow clearance for the clevis...

She'll be a roller soon!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Well, I placed an order with Rocky Mountain ATV for a couple odds and ends to complete the roller... Fork seals, fork boots, and lug nuts.

In the meantime, I got the engine all taken down. Good running .050" over stock cylinder engine that I was running before I did the ESR 350 big bore last winter. It has been sitting in my garage just needing to be taken apart to install gaskets and a paintjob.

So now I got all the painting done on the engine and plan to get it back together today depending on how long I'm out working today.

[ezmoney1979]

Good job! It's coming together very nicely. What paint are you using on the motor? Looks good

[Jason125m]

Looks great Joe, giving me the itch to do mine.... someday

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Good job! It's coming together very nicely. What paint are you using on the motor? Looks good

Thanks Sir!

Believe it or not and this may sound dumb... but all I am using is Rustoleum brush-on oil base in gloss black. If you check my build thread from last winter (esr 350r build) I posted quite a few pic of the painting. I took an 86-later gray bottom end and turned it black, plus painted the bare aluminum ESR cylinder.

They keys seemed to be

A: clean parts,
B: 4 coats and letting each coat bake nicely by the woodstove, and
C: using a descent quality, small bristle modeling brush... And of course ALOT of patience! LOL! Happy to report that my black paintjob on my big bore has held up on the crankcase and topend beautifully so far!

I know PC is better, but after helping my cousin put together a TRX a couple years ago that he had alot of PC done on including the entire engine, I'm not sure I want to go that route... We had quite a bit of monkeying around scraping PC from places it doesnt belong making engine re-assembly much more time consuming and diffcult. Pieces didn't want to mate together, much less ensure a good seal. Alignment dowels and their corresponding holes having PC on them was the biggest issue. I think I'll just clean and re-paint things periodically as far as the engine is concerned....

More pics should be coming later today.. Maybe even pics of the completed engine!

[MIK6]

Looks awesome!
Let me know next time your up this way, stop in and give my brothers R a once over..

MIK6/ Mike