'74 Suzuki TS250 Beginner Build

At any rate, dove into the motor last night.

Nothing really went wrong, and I dont have any bad news. Motor is in great shap actually. The sparkplug came right out. No stuck headbolts, or cyl stud bolts. Everything came right out.

One little suprise... after wiping it down before breaking it down, I tipped the bike over on to the right side (the brake side) and about a cup, 1.5 cups of water came out of one of the bottom holes... I can only assume its rain water. Because when i pulled the oil from the cases it was clean as ever. Strange........



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Sooty plug.


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Kinda clean top fin on the jug... after about 20 minutes of very careful scrubbing.


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Its off and looks pretty darn clean. Those two specs on the left side are actually part of the cast. They dont come off.


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Probably time for new rings.


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Bike only has 10k miles... one of the previous owners went up quite a bit in size... huh.


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Cyl's clean. Has a few wipe marks since I wiped it clean. I need to reoil it tonight so it doesnt start to rust on me.


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AlphaDogChoppers said:
Cylinder and piston look great!

ADC thanks! Thats what I thought. I was a bit suprised to see that the piston/cyl is 1mm over stock (a tad disappointed) but thats ok.

Rings seem to be a little hard to come by. I've found 1 set and thats about it. Probably going to replace them for good measure.
 
AlphaDogChoppers said:
1 mm over, that's 0.040"!

Call Hastings. They make rings for anything.

I think its more pointing out that this bike has possibly already been bored a few times. Thats ok though. Jugs for this bike are cheap :)

Thanks ADC
 
VonYinzer said:
Pretty cool thus far man. Keep it up.

Thanks Von, was wondering if anyone was following along... quiet forum we have here. Anyway I've made progress, as anyone working in a garage will tell you, the time you want a photo is when you're hands are all nasty and greasy. So photos have been a bit lacking lately.



After the motor was out and I saw that the cyl was super clean and the piston looked good, i decided to order the ONE set of piston rings I could find ANYWHERE for this bike. They were about double the cost of normal everyday piston rings, but thats ok. They're on the way. So the motor is covered up and ready to button back up.

Back to the bike. Time to swap out the 21" front wheel with an 18" wheel wrapped in a 100/70/18 sport touring style tire. Original tire tread itsself is 3"... the new tire will be 3.8" wide.



How do you like the half purple forks? Sweet eh?

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I was hoping to use the entire front end off the TS90, but I'm realizing that the forks are just too thin for street use, and there is no stabilizing bar, like the TS250 wheel/forks have. Which I tend to like. So I originally was going to use the entire front end. Now I'm going to be using the hoop and spokes off the 18" wheel, and transforming the ol 21" hub into an 18" wheel. We'll see if it all lines up. If not I may have to buy new spokes and a hoop. I took the 21" front off the TS250, and besides having 7 bolts just to take the front wheel off, it was uneventful.

Went to take the 18" wheel off the TS90 parts bike and check this out... previous owner wasnt too bright. :eek:


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My dirtbike is using my stand, so I had to start getting creative. TS250 is being held up by the 4x8 ceiling beam hookup and the TS90 is on a few wobbly blocks.


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Heres how she would sit after the 1.5" drop. (21 to 18" tire) I'll drop the forks another .75" But thats all it will come down. I put the tank on just to check it out. By the time the forks are dropped just a tad, and the new rear tire and possibly new shocks are installed, it should sit nicely.


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Last night i measured (about ten times) the circumferance of the rear wheel with the current tire on it. Its a 3" rim with a 4" tire on it. I'm going to be going to a 4.9" tire in the rear. I have about 5.75" of space, so it will fit cleanly. 130/80/18 in the rear. After measuring for a specific tire, I ordred 2 tires, 2 tubes, new drag bars, grips, and 4 quarts of Blendzall Caster oil for this project.


Things to do:1. Wait on piston rings
2. Work on front wheel conversion
3. break down TS90, keep all nuts and bolts, and extra 18" wheel. Get forks, shocks, tank, motor, electrics, bars stripped and ready for sale on ebay
 
Crickets ..... suggestions?

Project for last night was a small one. To start getting ready to use two wheels, and make 1 usable wheel. I need to use the hub of the 21" wheel, and I need the spokes and hoop of the 18" wheel. The plan is to get it all prepped, mocked up with completely loose spokes, and then have a friend show me how to tighten and "true the wheel."

After I took the nasty nasty 21" tire off (honestly it could be an original by the way it looked) The Tube was nice and orange. Lots of dust n' rust. Took off the band that covers the nips of the spokes and it broke into many pieces along the way. Underneath?

This. Lots of rusty parts. Glad I'm not reusing this.

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Slowely removing the spokes. The process I used (since its my first time, and my friend told me to give it a go) Spray each and every threaded area of the spoke (the inside area where the spoke meets the hoop) spray each one with blaster, or penetrating oil. Tiny amount. This helped a TON in freeing the angry spokes. Some were very loose, some were not loose at all and they popped as they loosened. Next I'd use a cresent wrench just for two rotations, giving the spoke the nudge to get loose. Then I used a power drill from the inside of the rim, using a flat blade screw driver tip I was able to speed the process along once they were slightly budged. Using a cresent wrench for each one, would have taken hours.

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I had a helper today.........


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21" rim is OFF! Now time to work each and every spoke off. Which again, easy... They just rotate out.


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From start to finish this took me an hour and a half. I removed a lot of rusty parts, thankfully the hub I'm using, is 100% rust free and in great condition.


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Architecterre said:
Any update on this? enjoyed reading what you have so far. Im working on making a ts250 into a bobber.

Hey fellas. Yes, very little. I stopped with the thread because there was very little response. TO stop take photos, transfer photos, upload, then make into a thread, it was taking a considerable amout of time and not much feedback.
 
im into it, keep it up. wether people follow it or not someone will come along with this same bike at some point down the road and use your thread as a reference so essentially your being a teacher without knowing it!
 
MotoPhotog said:
not much feedback.

It's not all about you. ;)

You don't need our validation to continue posting. You will DEFINITELY get no feedback it you don't keep up the thread. It's not always about getting feedback. Those of us who are following your thread are likely to continue following it so long as you post an update once in a while. If you post a question, we will help you answer it, but don't expect to get an "Attaboy!" every time you update your progress.
 
MotoPhotog said:
Hey fellas. Yes, very little. I stopped with the thread because there was very little response. TO stop take photos, transfer photos, upload, then make into a thread, it was taking a considerable amout of time and not much feedback.

So you expect us to visit, read and comment on your build thread, yet a quick look at the posts you've made since joining shows that 99% of your posts are contained in this single thread! You don't take the time or interest to comment on anyone else's build, yet expect all of us to join in on yours. Wow. ??? There are a few other builds/members on here like this and I don't even bother viewing their builds any more.
 
He can't be bothered with updates, because we don't drool and genuflect every time he bolts on a new part... :-\
 
MotoPhotog said:
Crickets ..... suggestions?

<snip>
Next I'd use a cresent wrench just for two rotations, giving the spoke the nudge to get loose.

My suggestion is to buy a spoke wrench before you try to true the wheel when you rebuild it. They aren't expensive and will make your life much easier. In fact you'll probably save the cost of the wrench by not ruining the nipples along the way. And don't forget to lubricate the ends of the spokes before you screw everything back together.
 
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