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New to me project bike


Bigturbomax

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Bigturbomax

A couple weeks ago i picked up a little project bike. Im an ex wrench and like to stay busy. Ive been wanting an R3 to keep my FZ07 company but its not financially in the cards right now so......i discover my coworker has this 2007 ninja 250 been sitting in his garage for four years in desperate need of love. $200 later and ive got another toy!!! Ive been having some troubles lately and this is exactly what i needed. Im having a lot of fun fixing it up and cant wait to have it all ready to go. Im really excited to have a 2nd bike :). I think itll be nice to have a little bike to rail around on in addition to all the smiles the yamaha brings. I intend to get it back to running order, leave the engine stock(not much more power to be had out of it) and then get some pirelli mt75s on it and just play. Might do some cosmetic mods and weight reduction. Is there any interest in a build thread for a ninja 250? Lol

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Ya! Get that thing sorted out and make it sing! Nice pick, total fun Amigo.

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Bigturbomax

Well. I picked it up somewhat in pieces. Ziplock full of body bolts, most panels off, carbs off and a very rusty tank. It has been down on both sides and poorly repainted. Its gonna be some work, but ive saved worse with less so im not to concerned. The day i brought it home i covered the intake ports and rinsed out all the nooks and crannies real good to make sure i didn't bring a bunch of bugs into my garage with it. 

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Bigturbomax

Day 2

Left foot peg was broken from being dropped. I had put some grippier pegs on my FZ a long time ago. Dug the stock ones out of a box and check em for fit. Pins were a little bigger on the kawasaki so i drilled em out and popped em on. Perfect, and free haha. They are a little jiggly so eventually ill order some more but these were laying around so theyll work for now. Also carefully straightened out shift and rear brake lever. Sat on it and heard a creak. Found out mufflers were rubbing swing arm. Bent those brackets back out and fixed that issue. Tires are gonna be replaced, but i aired em up so its easier to move the bike around. Valve stems are dry rotted BAD lol

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Edited by Bigturbomax
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Bigturbomax

Day 3 (two days later)

Pulled old cover. Smoothed rear of seat foam with razor. Glued foam dust into divots in front of seat and covered with smoothing foam. Then re-covered with some vinyl i had laying around. Checked all switches and found to be good, except rear brake was way mis-adjusted. So adjusted that. The battery in it wont charge enough to crank, but can run lights.  

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Bigturbomax

seats not perfect but looks decent and feels good to sit on so im gonna leave it as is. 

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Bigturbomax

Some days i get a lot done and others not so much. I work on it when i have spare time, so sometimes its after work and ill tackle something that only takes half an hour. 

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Bigturbomax

Day 6 (3 days later haha)

Discovered missing nut on one of the engine mount bolts!!! Pulled bolt and spent way to long hunting down a suitable replacement. Installed and checked all other engine mounts. 

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Bigturbomax

Day 7

Tore down carbs and cleaned EVERY orifice. All soft parts in good shape amazingly. Put back together and installed on the bike and reconnected throttle and choke cables. Bolted airbox back in (the airbox on this bike is a massive annoyance lol).

 

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Bigturbomax

Days 7, 8 and 9

Mixed up sodium acetate and soaked and cleaned tank. Put 20 10mm nuts in as an abrasive and boy did it take a lot of shaking. Used baking soda to nuetralize acid after cleaning. Then rinsed with acetone to properly dry. Finished off with a few ounces of motor oil swished around the inside to prevent re-rusting. 

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Bigturbomax

Also, even with a magnet on a stick its was quite a bit of fun getting the nuts out when done LMAO!!!

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Bigturbomax

I have a weird level of motivation when it comes to projects. I think it comes from years of working as a flag tech. I picked up this bike july 16th lol

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Bigturbomax

I test fit all the panels to see what else I'm missing and also. Just cuz i wanted to see it in one piece.

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Holy crap, I had to sit down, take some meds and catch my breath. Really getting after things. It's fun to see this stuff brought back. It's even more fun to see someone energetic about doing it. Too often these projects start out with good intentions and quickly fall back into another garage corner to be lost again for ever. Wrench on. 

NICE WORK! 

Go Big T!

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cornerslider

Good luck.... I recently restored a 38 year old bike (for a friend), that hadn't run in 21 years. Getting the bike to actually run was by far the easiest part (thanks Yamaha 😎).... Unfortunately, almost everything around the drivetrain was in terrible shape. The owner was the "original" owner from 1982. He is about to retire, and wanted his bike to run again. I was glad to help out a friend- I learned a lot.... I basically worked for about $3/hour. It was very satisfying on a personal level to make it run again... I doubt I'll ever take on another project like that again. 😎

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""W.O.T. until you see god, then brake"

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Bigturbomax
On 8/1/2020 at 3:06 PM, mossrider said:

Holy crap, I had to sit down, take some meds and catch my breath. Really getting after things. It's fun to see this stuff brought back. It's even more fun to see someone energetic about doing it. Too often these projects start out with good intentions and quickly fall back into another garage corner to be lost again for ever. Wrench on. 

NICE WORK! 

Go Big T!

I appreciate it. Encouragement always helps. Been dealing with some anxiety issues that have kept me off my FZ for a little bit and projects soothe me. This particular one is good to cuz it helps me look forward to riding again soon. 

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Bigturbomax
20 hours ago, cornerslider said:

Good luck.... I recently restored a 38 year old bike (for a friend), that hadn't run in 21 years. Getting the bike to actually run was by far the easiest part (thanks Yamaha <img src=">).... Unfortunately, almost everything around the drivetrain was in terrible shape. The owner was the "original" owner from 1982. He is about to retire, and wanted his bike to run again. I was glad to help out a friend- I learned a lot.... I basically worked for about $3/hour. It was very satisfying on a personal level to make it run again... I doubt I'll ever take on another project like that again. <img src=">

I might need a little bit of luck, we will see. In my circle of friends of become "the guy that cleans carbs and gets stuff running again". 

In the last 6 years since i bought my house ive resurrected several bikes for friends that have been sitting sometimes for decades. 04 klx 125, 06 xl650r, 80 sr250, 84 v65 magna, 85 v65 sabre, 91 fz600r, 03 525 exc, 02 250exc.....all bikes that ended up in my garage and i got running for friends. 

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Bigturbomax

Blinker mounts were broken and stock fender looked terrible. Plus...weight reduction lol. Working on fabbing a DIY fender eliminator/tail tidy right now lol

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Bigturbomax

Ill put smaller signals later. For now the back end is gutted as the body panels will be off soon to repaint and i want to make a custom setup to convert tail light to LED

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