Yamaha 1981 XT250 Resto Project

Danny3zzzs

Active Member
Picked up a nice little Yamaha XT250 dual sport bike on Tuesday that I couldn't pass up for $200.

The bike:


Untitled by Danny3zzzs, on Flickr


Untitled by Danny3zzzs, on Flickr

Everything seems to be in pretty good shape, but it definitely needs some work. It runs, but it blows white smoke like a chimney out of the exhaust and is quite hard to start - splashing gas into the cylinder (through the spark plug "hole") is the only way to get it started. At minimum, it's probably going to need new rings and a good honing. It may also need a new piston and cylinder. I plan on ripping the engine apart and rebuilding it in my high school power mechanics class.

The ultimate goal for this bike is to become a good dual sport bike for getting good at riding (before hitting the streets on my CB360 project ;)) and to just have fun with it and learn more about bikes and the interesting engineering + design behind them.

I am not sure of what I will be doing to the "style" aspect of the bike, but the tank is in great shape so I will be leaving that original. The rear fender + tail light have minor cracking so may need replacing / fixing but that is low on the list. The previous owner claimed that the other previous owner put Yamaha RD350 gauges on the bike, and sure enough they don't mount completely right - also the mileage may be off (it is listed as 10,000, but the P.O. claimed that was probably too high). The frame is in good shape and has very little surface rust (for a Wisconsin bike) and the paint is great. The exhaust system has a little surface rust, but no holes; probably needs to be cleaned up and painted in the end. Overall cosmetically a great bike (for the age and price).


New parts the previous owner installed:

-New sprocket (to gear for more torque by changing the ratio)
-New chain
-Tires with 75% tread left
-Clymer manual


When I was buying the bike, we had to "bump" start it (OK it was more like a full-speed running start) to get it going. It then drove around and shifted through all of the gears well, no issues there.

The previous owner knew that the bike was from 1980 or 81, but I have confirmed it to be a 1981 XT250.
 
On Friday I had the first "real" look at the bike.

Replaced the spark plug (the previous owner had the wrong style of plug installed :eek:, but it was the same length)


Took a few pics of the "dirty" parts of the bike:










Engine grime:


Petcock that needs rebuilding / replacing:


Dirty carb:
 
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