Suzuki TS 250 Restoration Project

Hi all, I picked up this TS 250 the other day for £100 including a seized engine and another complete engine that was not seized. The guy had it in a garage for about 7 years after buying it for his collection (he has 7 garages FULL of bikes). This is my first project (Im doing bits and bobs on my 125 but its hard to do when you ride it every day).

As soon as i got the bike to my friends garage me and him got to work stripping the frame down to grind off the old paint and rust ready for a new paint job. Everything came out pretty easily as it was all greased well which was nice. The only thing that neither of us can budge is the swingarm bolt. I have managed to rotate it but not slide it at all, i think i need to purchase a copper hammer or a brass drift so i can hit it harder with out damaging it.

I had a quick look at the seized engine and it turns out it has no piston and there was a knurled piece of metal stopping it from rotating that when removed the engine rotated freely. I think its a piece of tool handle that must have dropped in, maybe when taking the piston out?

Anyway here she is, im pretty sure it is an ER but do not really know, if anyone knows better please tell me. It has been road registered in the past so ill apply for the v5 soon.





Stripped and started to grind, it is coming up quite well.


Is the rear supposed to look like this?!


There also appears to be some messy welding done to the frame, im not sure if this is from suzuki (heard their welding is quite messy) or it has been repaired in the past. Regardless I am going to grind it all down with a dremel neatly.

Please post any suggestions and tips as I have never done this before and have no real guidance!

Re: TS 250 ER

Careful grinding down welds, extra metal there is a good thing, unless you're going to reweld it and know the penetration you may be weakening your frame by grinding all the welds flat....
If you're going to paint use a little body filler to shape up the welds and keep em sloppy and strong IMO (unless you want to grind em down and reweld that is)

Re: TS 250 ER

I was not going to grind them flat, just grind the nobbles and spiky bits that are raised. What sort of filler would you suggest? As for welding I have only had a go at it a few times and unless i could get hold of a mig for flux cored then theres not point in thinking about that for now. Cheers

Re: TS 250 ER

Oh yeah you'll be find grinding off the slag, they leave a lot of it .
Any good body filler, bondo will work in a pinch, theres a lot of better ones out there. Any bodyshop supply store can hook you up.

Re: TS 250 ER

I don't think there is one around here, I live on the arse end of England see in Cornwall haha. Ill look on ebay though

Somthing like this?

Re: TS 250 ER

Cleaned up the shocks last night, I really am amazed how good old chrome is compared to modern crap!



In other news this little bugger nearly took me off my bike. My friend took him home for supper...



I just bought some primer and real dark grey paint for the frame, im thinking of going army green on the tank and plastics. Opinions?

Re: TS 250 ER

Carb Clean, seems to be a hard white buildup like calcium or limescale. Anyone know what it is?





Also I dont think it is an ER anymore, it just has an ER headlight...

Re: TS 250 ER

more work to shocks

Re: TS 250 ER

Cool stuff man. Have to ask though, are the shocks functional at all?

Re: TS 250 ER

cheers bud, thanks for the reply. Yeah the seals are find and they damp well. Was some slight rust on the travel but I used wet and dry to sand it off then polished it with auto-sol until ot was mirror. Not perfect I know but I'm only just earning enough money to pay rent at the moment so I can't splash out on anything!

Finally got the shocks done! This is going to be a slow project... Due to where it being at the moment the people want it out Looks like I have blagged a place on a farm (in a dairy hut) too keep it semi long term... When it gets moved there ill be able to access it when ever I want and hopefully get a move on with it!

Primed




Then Painted gloss black, never used the paint before but I really liked it! Covered well and looks great.






Cleaned up the springs the best I could. But one was much worse than the other, i guess the chain oil kept one better.


Overall really pleased. First whole item I have really restored so although it seems trivial im quite proud

That's awesome. You should be proud.

Take the wins when they come.

All the best,
Damian.

Thanks man, I have been following your jawa restoration. I love old 2 strokes!