Project Cibby Project

Well I seem to be "fixing up" Honda's while breaking Yamaha's these days...

Picked up a 2005 CB250Y which has been surprisingly hard to find information on... I don't know how interchangeable they are with other CB250's... anyone with more experience than I would be much appreciated.

This little cherry beast needs 2 new tyres and a rear sprocket and I think she'll cruise through rego. Then I am tempted to look at cafe... maybe get registered first then change things around!



Do have a question though, on some of the chrome bits there is a lot of pitting. alternatively to a respray... anyone know how to get it off?



The other thing I was wondering is apart from OEM, where I would source a rear sprocket with under 31 teeth. The current one has 31 teeth on it - I rang slipstream and they only do 32 or more but I'm looking for a bit more top speed not low end. This thing is slow at freeway speeds and I reckon dropping a tooth or two will help. Weirdly there are a lot of CB250 sprockets... not in Australia (ie UK, USA etc) pretty highly priced... advice welcome!

 

Interesting. What about the areas that physically feel rough to the touch? almost like it's eaten away the metal a bit?

 

Nice. I've had a similar result with steel wool and WD40 then some metal polish. I'm not sure I'm going to get these pits out of the engine covers though...

 

Yeh well it's the rear sprocket that needs replacing, front sprocket is fine so not looking to spend if I don't need to. I don't want to add teeth but unless I go OEM the only options I have are 32+ but if anything I want to go back to 30 or less.

 

I'll check the chain I'm actually not sure.

Yeh but the sprocket is US-based... annoying trying to find local options

 

Can you believe Honda want close to $150 for an OEM sprocket? A JT aftermarket with 31T is $50, also from Honda. Wow.

 

Yeh well when I can get it from the US cheaper than locally.. even with the exchange rate... it has to be asked... WTF!!??

 

Well did I have fun today. I rang 2 honda dealers with the VIN trying to find out what exact model this was. Eventually, after mentioning they had "never heard of it" Peter Stevens said it was indeed a CB250Y (I suspected this as it was written on the sticker containing the paint code and not on the compliance plate) and came under the parts listing for the CB250AC? (I think that's what they said) '92-'05 and was definitely an Australian model. Wow.

Slipstream have disappointed me, preferring to be cagey about supplying me the sprocket I asked for by getting all confused with the model explanation I was giving them so for a few bucks more I just bought a JT one direct from PS Honda ($37, mind you the exact same sprocket another dealer quoted me $50 for)

Bit more painful than it needed to be but at least I have what I need now.

 

Chugging along, new tyres, new rear sprocket & a carby clean.



Checking those holes are clear...



Keihin VE37AATA is stamped on the (other) side.

 

Bit of an update. I had put the bike back together and started her up only to find halfway down the street she would cut out... some minor troubleshooting told me the battery was cactus. It wasn't holding charge and after that short run it was down around 11 volts. After a full charge I let it sit and when "fully charged" it barely managed 12.4V so I reckon a cell or two had dropped.

So I waited patiently for a new SSB powersport battery (couldn't believe I got it for $54 posted as opposed to battery world who wanted $100ish for a Katana) and a couple of days later she's good to go again.

Started up right away but then mysteriously cut out while she was humming away idling. I put some more fuel in thinking that was the problem (as I only had about a cup or two in there because I had previously drained the tank of stale stuff) and she wouldn't start. Weird.

So I started the troubleshooting process, left cylinder had good spark and was wet. Right cylinder was not wet but had good spark. Pretty sure with 16,000 kms this bike shouldn't have any sudden compression issues (yes I checked a long time beforehand there was enough oil!). Measure brand new battery around 12.6V which looked about right... still no go. Messed with the idle a little, knowing I had reset the pilot screws to 2 turns out (I didn't check but by memory it's something around there for these hondas) but still no dice. Eventually I sprinkled a bit of fuel in the spark plug hole on the right cylinder and bang she was up and going again. Seems to start fine now, but after all that cranking have to charge the damn battery again!

I was having a look at the charging circuit though, while running the bike charges 13-13.3V which feels a bit low - all the bikes at idle I have seen are 13.7-14.2V (ish). Thinking there may be something going on there. I took her for a run round the block and she seemed to ride fine so maybe I'm imagining things... I did one last check and revved while checking the current and it went from 13 to around 13.6 then started to taper back the higher I revved which also didn't seem right.

I think next thing on the list is to check that stator... gut feel is that there could be an issue there, or possibly even the reg/rec.

 

So I tested the reg rec through the diodes and not giving me what it should so I think one is fried. It's still putting enough current through to charge the battery but I don't know how long it will last.

Honda want $200ish for a new one so I am eyeing off a chinese one for $20 or so... anyone got any experience with those? They look very similar to the one I have so it's likely this is a chinese one as well. The numbers are different though, this one has SH693-11 and the ones on fleabay for the CB250 have different numbers. I don't know what they mean though...

I figure that for $20 I can gamble because getting it here and plugging it in will tell me how good it is - but I have to wait which is annoying as was hoping to get a roadie soon. Would probably still pass with the reg/rec on its way out though... might consider that too.

@Linkin this thing fires up pretty much as soon as you touch the button so I don't think I need to dig much into the top end at the moment. It has no hesitation starting in cold or warm so i figure the engine is pretty solid.