The bike Honda never built - or, my MR250 Elsinore for the Vintage 1000

Mr.E

Got to keep the loonies on the path...
This place needs more Elsinores :) So its been a few years, time for another abomination from my garage. This time it's time to get a bike ready for the Vintage 1000 this summer on the Trans America Trail. The bike to be used is a '76 Honda MR250 Elsinore. Here's the deal: The bike needs to stay under $1000 excluding tires. My wife bought me this for Christmas for $400. So I hope I can keep it under the limit. Its surprisingly complete. It even had the requisite swamp mud in the motor. A bit of messing with it and its got spark. even sputtered once. But before I jump on it too much the motor is coming out for a full freshening up.
 

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Pulled the motor out, things seemed ok. When I picked the bike up at Jussy's house we noticed some whitish stuff inside the covers. wasnt sure what it was but kept messing,

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Turns out it was the swamp water corroding the cases on the inside. Dammit.

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Found one little hole so far, hope there arent more. this is gonna add some more work to the pile,

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Righteous. Doubt I have anything that'll help get her on the road, but if ya think of something just shout.
 
Not much to update except new crank bearings are ordered, and I'll probably get a gasket kit soon. Need a new piston also. The gas tank is also in need of a liner, and i'm kinda thinking SL175 fenders will be a nice change too. Little more trim than the crusty oem ones at least.
 
Mr.E said:
Not much to update except new crank bearings are ordered, and I'll probably get a gasket kit soon. Need a new piston also. The gas tank is also in need of a liner, and i'm kinda thinking SL175 fenders will be a nice change too. Little more trim than the crusty oem ones at least.

nice project while youi have the crank on the bench you should check the big end of the rod for radial clearance
a dial indicator is the only way really a bit tricky but if you hold the rod gently sideways against the thrust washer then you can push pull to get a reading
really needs to be done flushed clean and dry,so the grungy oil doesn't interfere with the measurement
somewhere you could find an upper limit but anything over .003" is getting close to all done
 
xb33bsa said:
nice project while youi have the crank on the bench you should check the big end of the rod for radial clearance
a dial indicator is the only way really a bit tricky but if you hold the rod gently sideways against the thrust washer then you can push pull to get a reading
really needs to be done flushed clean and dry,so the grungy oil doesn't interfere with the measurement
somewhere you could find an upper limit but anything over .003" is getting close to all done

Thanks XB, I'll be sure to do that. For now I've still got to get a 28mm socket for the clutch and make a rotor puller because Honda wanted to make this one different from everything else I guess. Oh well, I've got a lathe, 20x1.5mm die, a brain and a welder. I'll make one and save $9 :)
 
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It isn't pretty, but it fit in my lunch break and it'll work. A 20mm rotor puller. I'll pop it on and give it a twist later.
 
Mr.E said:
3067-220216151244.jpeg


It isn't pretty, but it fit in my lunch break and it'll work. A 20mm rotor puller. I'll pop it on and give it a twist later.
You dang machinists make me sick
 
Well well, the gang's all here. This is like 2010 all over again :)
 
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