Yamaha SR250 Restoration - Built by a schoolboy

benarmour

Active Member
As the subject title says, i'm restoring a 1981 sr250. Rather, that's what i'm trying to do...
The subtitle for the build is "What does this bit do?" due to the frequency of this phrase popping out of my mouth throughout the length of this build. I can admit that I don't have a flippin' clue about motorcycles. As a 15 year old in the UK, i'm much too young to legally be able to ride, meaning i don't even know the little bits of info you learn about your bike through riding them. None of my family are bikers, so i don't have that experience. I literally don't have a clue what i've got myself into by starting this resto project...
We'll see how it goes.......

Onto the bike: An 81 yamaha sr250, pretty uncommon in the UK i believe. I got it as a total wreck! We'll, i'm not sure it even qualifies to be called that. Multiple parts were missing, and what was there was rusty or partially broken, a result of the bike not being ridden in 15 years, being unloved and being open to the elements for all of that time.
The shots below show the situation...

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Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

Ya man... Thats rough alright. First thing you need is a proper shop manual. Than go from front to back and start a list of whats missing.

Are you doing a factory restoration (putting it all back to showroom condition) or customizing it?

Keep at it, ask questions when you have them (lots of smart idiots here ;) ) and have a good plan from the beginning.

Good luck my man, and keep the updates coming.
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

as for the engine, same engine on the tt250 and xt250 for the same years.

if it needs piston rings, don't bother trying to find one for the sr250, it shares the same part number as the xs650. tends to be cheaper.
and Yea that thing is rough as hell.

+1 on the shop manual

and don't worry about questions, we've all started somewhere. There's a lot of 250's kickin' on this site now
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

Wow that's definitely a project bike! As someone in a similar situation, I can honestly say that you will learn SO much with this bike. It's also important not to let it overwhelm you. Do one thing on it everyday after school/work even if you don't feel like it. If you feel like you've done well that week reward yourself with a new part or helmet or something sweet to keep you motivated.
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

Hey guys, thanks for the advice :) I've managed to find a shop/repair manual on the net, and i've read through that a couple of times, so i've got a bit of an idea on a couple of things like disassembly.
Thanks for the info jay. Due to the fact that i'm on the tightest budget ever (i'm in school so have literally no income), i'm not currently looking to replace the piston. I've had a look at the cylinder and the piston, and both seem in reasonable condition, though what would i know? haha I manually turned over the engine a couple of times the other day, and i could feel the air rushing out of the spark plug hole. does that indicate a good air seal?
VonYinzer, the plan's to get it back to 90% factory, the only main exception being paint. I'm going for a green-blue tank, gold wheels, black frame, white fenders, and a few gold accents here and there. Also, i might stray from the factory finish where i have difficulty finding exact replica parts, such as the mirrors and indicators....

I've had the bike for a few months now, so i'll put up some more info and pictures to show where i'm currently at in the next couple of days!
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

So guys, i need to call on some help from you:
I'm trying to replace my bearings, and have struggled and managed to get all the wheel bearings out, but i'm struggling to get the sprocket carrier bearing out. I'm not sure on how to take the seal out so that i can get at the bearing...
Here are a couple of pictures, i'm hoping that from them you can deduce what i need to do...
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thanks in advance!
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

Sorry I have no clue, so this won't help a bit.
But keep at it - I saw a couple bikes similar to that when I was looking for a project - they scared me off.
Hope it goes well for you.
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

haha, cheers man!
I ended up getting the seal out; i just needed to apply a bit more force than i had previously been willing to apply (didn't want to break anything...)

The only reason i started with a bike this bad was that i was given it for free. I had asked around a bit for a project bike, and one day a family friend rolls up in a white van and throws it out the back; i was stuck with it...

Like you, i'm a complete novice, but i'm enjoying every little bit, even simple things like getting an engine bracket all nice and painted :p
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

Haha its a good feeling aye?
I guess if you got it for free you don't have anything to lose. I have to stick at it now I've forked out cash for mine :p
But yeh, keep it up.
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

I'm off to india to do some charity work for a couple of weeks today, but just thought i'd update this thread with a little progress...

Well, it was my birthday yesterday (still not legal to ride...), and i got a bunch of much needed parts! i've struggled for the last 6 months trying to find bits and pieces for it, but over here in england parts are few and far between, and when some of them do come up, money can sometimes be a problem, as i'm sure many of you guys can relate to. But yeah, got a bunch of parts yesterday! here are the pics...
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Brand new brake light switch and new bolts for the whole engine and carburettor

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Levers, rectifier (i've already got one so if anyone needs one, get in touch) and a flasher relay

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Speedo and cable (quick question: speedo shows 38000 miles, but the engine has run far fewer. should i just leave the odometer as it is, or is there any way that i could get into it and change it to match roughly the mileage the engine's gone?)

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Handlebar controls (the only place i'd seen these online was in canada, so i'm made up with getting them!)

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And my favourite of all, the headlight!

When i return from india i'll get round to posting pictures of where i'm up to with the tank and wheels and the rest of the bike....
 
Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - Front fork disassembly not going to plan, help?!

Right, so i've not been regularly updating this, but i have been working on the bike! (I'll get round to updating ya'll on where this thing is at in a day or two...)

So i'm trying to swap out the bottom forks of one set of forks with the top half of another set of forks (all 4 forks are sr250 forks), and before i've even got anywhere, i've already reached a dead end! :-\

I can't manage to get the allen bolt removed from the bottom of the forks, have you guys got any advice as to what i could try here to loosen the bugger?
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Second question is what on earth do i do to remove this? on most fork disassemblies i've seen, there's something here that you screw off, but on my forks it just looks like a chuck of rusty metal...
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Re: Yamaha SR250 Restoration - 'What does this bit do?'...

At the top of the forks there is a solid plug with an o-ring around it that is kept in place with a metal c-clip. By the looks of it, the plug is pushed in already, and is stuck there by rust. Put some penetrant in there and let is soak for a few days. Did you drain the oil out of them yet? Than after a few days, really push on them and see if the slug will budge. If it does great. Take a small pic or awl and try to work your way at that c-clip. It's that ring close to the top of the tubes. Once that is removed push on the top tube again and try to get that slug out. Make sure your face is not over the top, cause when/if it lets go that slug will hit you in the face and soak you with oil.

As for the bottom, it's strickly going to be force. I put the long end of the Allan key down the fork, then with steel pipe or the closed end of a large wrench I used leverage to get it out.

Do the top first.
 
Re: SR250 Restoration - Built by a schoolboy

So i've REALLY not been frequent with these posts, but i have been getting work done on this thing!
Cheers for the help there jay, i'll update the fork situation in a little bit...

First though, i've been doing some cleaning/painting on the frame. pretty simple, wire brushed the old paint/rust off, primed, then shot a couple of layers of gloss black, followed by a clearcoat. Here we go:
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Simple as that!

Then moved onto the tank, which took quite a bit more work...........
There we a couple of pretty sizeable dents in the tank, and multiple smaller dents and scratches, etc. Whacked a bit of bondo on them, followed by a bunch of sanding and tidying up, which acheived this:
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Then came some more work because i wasn't quite happy with it, followed by some primer and some colour, which got me to this point:
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More updates to come soon....
Cheers fellas!
 
Then work got underway on the wheels...
Took them off the bike, which was simple enough seeing as how half the brake line/speedo cable/etc. weren't included when i got the thing ;)
These where how they were looking (I deduce, although i could be very wrong, that the previous owner attempted a white rattlecan job on the rims):
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So i got to work getting the white paint/remaining fragments of chrome/rust off of them, and then attempted my own little paint job in gold. I tried it and just wasn't feeling it when i was done. This combined with not being sure how well it'd hold up to road chips and the like, and i decided to go to a pro and get them powdercoated:
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Super happy with these!

Replaced all the bearings, which involved using a collection of 'tools' including a flathead screwdriver, a couple of random bits of metal i found lying around, a chisel, and a meaty hammer :eek: i know, i need some proper tools, but being in school and having no job doesn't go hand in hand with purchasing quality goods...
Installed bearing:
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Just need to get some rubber put back on these things and they'll be ready!
 
Great work on the tank. looks perfect Maybe a gold stripe on there to tie the tank and rims together
 
lol, good work. maybe a dark line around the lettering to set it off would look the shit. That tank is so clean
 
Been atrocious at keeping this updated, but here we go:
Been doing some cosmetic work on the engine, managed to get it all cleaned up nice, painted most of it in a flat aluminium (that's 'aluminum' for all you over that side of the water), and polished up some accent pieces:
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Also, done some work re-upholstering the seat. The original vinyl was horribly tattered, so i decided to rip it all off and cover it in a nice leather jacket i found:
From this
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to this:
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So the swinger that was on the bike when i received it had a major problem, the bottom of it looked like this: :eek:
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So bought a replacement one off good old ebay, cleaned it up a bit and voilá!
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Got some more polishing work done on the forks, and replaced the old oil in there while i was at it. Managed to pick up a couple of decent tyres too, so i can put the wheels back on the frame soon, exciting timessss!
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this is agreat build..

i'm about to start my own sr250.. i'm a complete novice 8even though i'm nearly 40!)... so i'll be learning from you!
 
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