Hey there Looking at diving into the 250 screamer world, currently got my eye on an FZR 250r 1993. Guy who has it has two other screamers under his care so i assume he knows what hes doing maintanence wise. He did a bunch of stuff to it at 35,000 ks, at 40,000 now and been in storage for a while. Basically just want to know what i should be looking out for when i go to see it in about a week. common problems ETC. He also has a ZX250R '91 with a similar story if that might be a better pick. Appreciate any advice you can give
Ask him if he did a total rebuild of the carbs before and if so did he drain the bowls before going into storage mode .... carbys are your biggest nightmare on FZR250s Later model carbs are a better design https://www.2fiftycc.com/index.php?...zr250-bodywork-frame-engine-carburetors.3469/ Any photos of these bikes?
ZXR250 has issues with its regulator/rectifier overheating and burning out thus causing you to run on battery only and eventually stopping on the side of the road. Carbs are Keihin so normally good. Cam chain noise due to faulty Cam Chain Tensioner or stretched chain is another common issue. Cam chains are a bit underdone so stretch over time causing tuning and riding issues. Post a link to the guy's ad, so we can have a gander.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/trade-me-motors/motorbikes/motorbikes/sports/auction-3725013822.htm Link to post, definitely more inclined towards the FZR, Side of the road breakdown doesn’t sound fun
Asked him about riding, he says he’s familiar with the carbeys getting stale and it runs bad if it hasn’t been started in a while. But it always settles out after warming. (As it should be) He says he takes it on sunny days and sometimes through the bays with his girlfriend, every 2nd or 3rd weekend.
Wow .... those prices over there for the old inline 4s are ludicrous ! $AU4,428 ..... even though its a later model with the improved internals on the Mikuni carbs its still twice what I would pay here in Oz for a well maintained running 3LN. And people always try to tell u they are "rare" .... FZRs arnt rare at all .... maybe the 3LN7 I would consider the Suzuki GSXR250 the hardest to find Actually the hardest thing to find is one thats not in 100 pieces , left outside for 20 years or butchered or thrashed by some well meaning 18yr old with a man bun (they are a LAMs bike in Australia) The other very important maintenance item is valve clearances .... if he did the cam chain then this should have been done at the same time There are varying degrees of carb overhauls .... these BDSTs need a complete 110% job done on them ... and as can be seen by the number of posts on here about them ... sometimes more than once. Years ago we had a set off a bike we just bought and the seller said "carbs were done by the dealer just recently" .... and they looked "brand new" , until I opened them up .... the only thing done was a coating of grey paint. Other things to note are the odometers arnt going to be accurate in total .... the FZRs were entirely JDM and therefore were grey imported "secondhand" and the story goes the instrument clusters were replaced by the importers. Also the later models are 40HP compared to 45HP on the earlier ones due to a change in regulations in Japan back in the day. But they are a great bike to ride if the planets align
I may have over dramatised that ZXR issue...you'll smell the melting plastic of the R/R connector before you conk out. FZR looks good. Good luck.
3LN6 is restricted to 40HP - not sure how that is achieved, it may be a bit less cam duration, carb throat diameters [but as others have noted - the 3LN6/7 have decent needle retention mechanisms and should NOT wear emulsion tubes as quickly, if at all with any luck] Keyster replacement carb parts are available. If it needs emulsion tubes [unlikely] don't bother with aliexpress emulsion tubes, I got a set, they are not the correct spec, 2.52mm instead of 2.59mm which is a HUGE difference for something like that. Hopefully the carbs haven't been messed with, one crucial setting is fuel height [float height], and if the emulsion tubes aren't worn and the fuel height is correct, all other things being correct, it should go ZOOOM IMO the 3LN3/5/6/7 are the best looking fairing style wise
hmm, I’ve been riding a cruiser for about a year, wanting to get into sport bikes which have more power. The horsepower drop does sound kinda bad.. Would the ‘91 ZX250 be the same story considering it was done for regulation purposes? Will the ~5HP make a difference?
unfortunately a lot less jap 250s made it to NZ, most came from Aussie as far as I’m aware. It’s definitely not a bad price for this market, he even had someone in the Q&A telling him to uo the price lol.. Sending someone to go look at it next week, like I said in previous post this guys seems to know what he is doing so it’s probably decently looked after. Also what should I be listening for in regards to the Cam chain tensioner?
The transmissions rattle like a bag of spanners when they're in neutral at idle, why is known, it's not a concern. Putting it into gear with the clutch pulled will quiten the transmission rattle as it loads up via clutch drag. At idle the whole engine sounds noisy because the ignition pulses mean it's running almost lumpy, idle should be set to 1600RPM. It may be possible to misinterpret the transmission rattle as cam chain tensioner issues, they're not plagued with cam chain tensioner, chain stretch issues, at that age with those kms I wouldn't expect problems
I think the 1991 ZXR250C still runs the 45HP motor. @Linkin had one from memory and it seemed to go okay.
