Hey guys, Here is the start of my Across Project. It is a 1997 GSX250F. I bought it as a partially disassembled project. The plan is for me to learn more about how to do things myself. Here is how it arrived home: It came with no keys, some parts in a box, very leaky fork seals, but seemed to be pretty much all there. What I have done so far: I have got a set of keys made. Discovered the ignition leads were broken and 3 spark boots were crumbling apart, so I found a 2nd hand set of coils with leads, which are now fitted and giving good spark on all 4. Got the thing to start, using Start ya Bastard. ran rough, and leaked coolant out the bottom. Found the leak was from the water pump, so removed it, found the ceramic seal and the mechanical spring seal were toast, so got new replacements for them, along with o-rings etc. Put it all back together and seems the leak is gone.
Next job was the leaking fork seals. I got a set of seals, got fork oil, and borrowed from work some threaded rod and 24mm nuts. Put the bike on backwards onto my homemade scrap wood work table. Strapped down and propped up, I removed the front end. Pulled the forks off, stripped down, cleaned out. Used the threaded rod and nuts to hold the damper rod in place while I undid the bottom bolt. After giving everything a good clean, new seals went in without much hassle, and forks went back together with new oil. Forks back in the bike, wheel back on and that brings us up to speed with today. I am now stuck with fueling issues. I have had the carbs off and given them a clean with throttle body cleaner, taken the jets out and cleaned in the same. Reassembled and reinstalled. Now my issue is I cannot get the thing to start on its own. If I spray start-ya-bastard in the airbox it will start easliy. But needs help to keep running. once warmed up it runs okay, but still has issues. I let the bike get up to temp (found the fan works properly ) and then tried to adjust the pilot screws, starting from the factory 1 1/2 turns out. After playing a bit I seemed to get nowhere. Sometimes when I give the bike some revs, it will hang or take a long time to come back to idle. I am at the point that I think I am going to have to pull the carbs out again and check over everything. I did not check float levels etc. last time. I have a set of vacuum gauges, but I need some new vac hose to use them. If this fails to get it running, then next step I guess will be to check the valve clearances. Once I have it running nicely, all that should be left for me to do is get some new tyres, a RWC and register it.
Sound's like the little hole's at the bottom of the mixture screw threads in the base of the carby's are blocked up or partly blocked Unscrew and remove the mixture screw's and see if you can see through the hole's into the main bore of the carby
Had a bit more of a play today. Found by carbs were not fully seated in the intake boots. I was none the wiser, as I put them back how the previous owner had them before I pulled them off. I was resigning myself to removing the carbs again, so went to remove the airbox, when the whole carb assembly came with it I realised they were not on properly. When I saw another member somewhere mention Rubber Grease to help reinstall carbs, I grabbed some today and got them to seat properly. I was very hopeful when trying to start it again. I checked the holes for the mixture screws, but they were all clear and I could see into the carbs. Still had trouble starting it, it always gives one fire for the first time of the day but never starts. Started it on start-ya-bastard, then got it to idle once it started warming up. Would not idle any easier with the enrichment/choke on. I need more vacuum hose but I managed to throw a vac gauge on cyl #1, and the reading was low. All the above is leading me to think I will need to do the valve clearances. So when I have some spare time next, I will be taking the valve cover off and measuring it up.
