Hi Guys! Please help me to fix my FZR250

Hi everyone, im new here. My name's Jarrad and im from Melbourne (Cheltenham area), Im just getting into motorcycling (older brother rides and ive bought his old 250).

This seems to be a great resourse as not many people know the ins and outs of the little fizzers! Im hoping to get some help fixing some problems with my 3LN FZR250 1991.

3 jobs have been identified that need to be done.

1. Cam chain is very noisy so i assume needs replacement. Does this mean the cam chain tensioner must also be replaced?

2. Valve clearances of the engine need to be checked/adjusted.

3. Steering clicks in the centre but there is no forward or backward play in the forks. I think this requires new "head stem bearings"

I got a quote from a repairs shop local to me for $649. That is alot of money for me as i am a student and did not expect it to be that much. every other quote i got was even bigger!

I am looking for some advice on if any of these jobs are do-able by an ametuer or should i just take it in?

Thanks guys and sorry for the long post! <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

Jarrad

 

Cheers Dave for the quick reply!

I have looked at the valve clearance thread and although it seems relatively straight forward, in all honesty i dont know what many of the parts or terms id have to deal with are. Ill do some forum searches to see what i come up with.

For whoever has dealt with head stem bearings before, is it literally only the ball bearings that need replacement? or do also the tracks that they run on need to be replaced?

For the amount of work to be done, does $649 sound about fair to you guys?

Thanks heaps and happy riding!

 

ill look into these tapered bearings. does it complicated going from loose bearings to tapered? the process of replacing i mean.

 

OK BIG update and I need some advice, I feel ive been really stuffed around.

I ended up taking it to my local bike repair shop, who had quoted me $649 for the whole job, at the very beggining. As it turned out, the cam chain was fine but the cam chain tensioner was jammed halfway, the guy freed it up no problems.

Then he told me i needed new inlet maniflods (All four) and sourced them from a wrecker ($40 each)

Then he did the steering head bearings.
At this point I came in to have a chat, the bike was almost completely assembled (no seat), he tells me "Mate your going to need shims for your valves, and its a pretty big job, a couple hours labour but the shims are only $4 each.
I ask him what the cost is for the work so far (inlet manifolds replaced and steering head bearings/freeing up the tensioner) and he says about $350.

I say thats fine and he says "ill give you a quote in about an hour."

3 days later and I go in looking for my quote, he says "im just waiting on a call to give you your quote, but ill get you it really soon."

The next day he calls me into the shop so I go in. He says "ive looked at the valves and theyre going to need to be done, ive pulled it apart to check them and some are out of spec. It will really take too long to do them because you know once you put a new shim in then you check it and its a bit off so you've got to do it again blablabla."

Then he says i should take it to a yamaha repair place in box hill (very far) where he knows a guy who can do it no problems.
He also tells me that the cam chain tensioner is getting stuck again and will need to be replaced.

I get a text message from him a couple hours later saying the total cost of work is $539! so hes charged me around $190 for labour of checking the valves and saying he cant do it. the worst bit is that he DIDNT EVEN WRITE DOWN THE VALVE CLEARANCES!

Sorry about long post but im a bit fired up at the moment. Im going to have to go in there and confront him about charging me for pulling it apart and not doing anything. - CRAZY!

 

Cheers for the input Dave, I hope iwont have to pay that price its a joke. Anyways Ill be doing the valve clearances and tensioner replacement myself, but i feel a little more confident about it since having that mechanic show me all the bits he was talking about haha.

I have read the "how to" on the site and even suggested the mechanic read it but he wasnt interested would you believe. <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: -->

One question though, on the How to, it refers to a chart in the manual for tolerances but earlier states that inlet valves should be between .1 and .2 mm and exhaust should be between .2 and .3

Does the chart just show this or is there more specific info for each valve?

Thanks again guys!