New Member 1989 FZR250R

Hi im new here and recently purchased a 1989 FZR250R. I bought it with the engine in several boxes as 20 years ago the front sprocket came off and chewed the threads off the output shaft. the last owner stripped the engine down and had the output shaft machined down, rethreaded and a special nut made to repair it but never got round to rebuilding it. It lay in a barn for 20 years so im cleaning up and rebuiding the engine at the moment. Thankfully he purchased new genuine gaskets for it at the time. I need to source a crank seal but have started a thread for that in one of the other forums.
Have been working on a rough english translation of the 250 workshop manual too, im about half way through now will post the full thing up once completed.

 

Finished painting and rebuilding the engine today. New big end bearings, pistons & rings and got the cylinders honed.
View attachment 48564

 

my sister has just pointed out that fzr engines have an angry face on the side

 

The bodywork is a lot worse than it looks in the photos, lots of cracks and fiberglass and filler. Aldo the left side fairing is already composite replacement with repairs and the screen is made from fiberglass. When the bike itself is complete I will probably get a complete new fairing for it. I quite like the TECH21 colours that were on some of the fzr's.

Now the engine is complete the next job is to replace the head bearings, and rebuild all the brake calipers and master cylinders.

 

Finished rebuilding and painting the brake calipers and front master cylinder today. The old fluid had turned to jelly, all 10 pistons were seized and one of the bleed nipples snapped off on the rear caliper. Managed to source a replacement rear caliper with undamaged bleed nipples which also had both pistons seized, thankfully not quite as badly as the originals. The pads came out in several pieces. The master cylinder was jammed solid and fluid had leaked, making it a furry mess. The bike had been sitting in a damp barn for 20 years with birds nesting above it and crapping over it before I got it.



Things are looking a lot better now and everything is moving freely. Next job head bearings and seeing what sort of condition the front fork innards are in.

 

Have been very busy with other projects and havent been near the fzr for a long time. Thankfully I can get back to working on it for a while. Replaced the steering head bearings, forks are currenty stripped down for rebuilding. Spent the afternoon painting and refitting the yokes and putting the clipons back together and touching in any paint chips on the switchgear. Gave the front brake pipe splitter a coat of paint too and stripped and rebuilt and lubricated the ignition switch assembly.

Im waiting on fork seals so until then next on the list is cleaning the inside of the frame area and cleaning up the fuel pump and painting various brackets etc. And unpinning every electrical connector and cleaning up the terminals before reassembling.

 

I got lucky, as well as the repaired one there was a complete extra gearbox in good condition and used that one instead. The bike had been converted to a bigger chain (maybe a 530 or something) and different sprockets prior to failure. The sprocket was too narrow so even with the nut wound down tight there was still a small amount of room for the sprocket to float, its possible that sprocket movement against the nut caused it to loosen and come off.

 

Yup, replacement gearbox was the one that requires a wider sprocket, bought one from you some time ago

 

Just a little progress today, took a filthy set of coils and scabby bracket off, lots of scrubbing and cleaning and cleaning of the frame around the area too. Looks much better, the plug caps fell off when I removed them, trimmed 10mm off the end of each HT lead and screwed the plug caps back on, seems secure now. Can see one coil has been replaced before and 1 plug cap, it doesnt match the others........ Thats gonna be irritating time to figure out a suitable replacement.

The tube thats part of the coil bracket and runs through the frame to contain the throttle cables is a nice touch, well thought out yamaha. And the rectifier screwed face down using the frame as a heatsink, also very nice.

 

Got the front forks rebuilt, painted and installed today, front brake system fitted and bled, speedo drive despooged and painted and fresh grease applied. The fork tubes could do with being rechromed and the fork bushes replaced at some stage in the future. For now however they are holding oil and working fine. Ignore the scabby front wheel, I cant do anything with it until the fairing kit gets here so I can get a colour match off one of the panels.
The footpeg assemblies got stripped down, cleaned, painted and reassembled with new rubbers fitted, they are looking lovely now.
Next job is to replace the fuel filter and pump. I bench tested the old pump and it ticked for a few seconds before letting the magic smoke and a few sparks out. New one ordered. Then remove and cleanup the swingarm and rear shock bits and leave the subframe and some other off to be blasted and powdercoated.

 

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They got a good going over with very fine sandpaper, unfortunately theres some larger chips in the chrome here and there, most of them above the travel area though which is good.

 

Took the clocks apart, cleaned them thoroughly and took care of the speed limiter by carefully grinding away part of the black disc behind the face. Then cleaned them very thoroughly again, lubed the various gears and spun it for a few miles with a drill to make sure it was all working correctly and no excess grease was going to get thrown around in there.

Next up was scrubbing the headlights inside and out, letting it all dry well and removing any corrosion from the screwheads holding it together and the adjuster screws. And fitting new bulbs, it took a lot of searching to find the correct replacement bulbs at a reasonable price.

 

got a batch of parts back from the powdercoaters today, and took a little break to fit some go faster parts to something else.