Life at 20,000rpm. AU restore.

13308 Views 51 Replies 10 Participants Last post by kula, Mar 3, 2018

kula

Discussion Starter · Mar 18, 2017 (Edited)

Hey all

I managed to score a 1991 CBR250RR. MC22-L.

It's been there 7 years, and it hasn't moved in that time.

It's a jap import Honda CBR250RR. 1991. MC22.

I was gonna rent a ute, but realised an uncle in law has one that gets bugger all useage, so I asked and Sunday was fine to use it.

Go to the office, parked the Ute on L1, where we have a loading dock.
Now I didn't measure anything, nor did I have a long ramp to load it on. I thought, the loading dock has a pretty similar height to the ute, so why not roll it on.

How wrong was I. The dock is way too high. The ute had about a 50cm drop to get to. I had one shortish ramp and nothing else. Gave it a go, and yeah, i dropped it. It got stuck after the front wheel, and was gonna end in tears. Pushed it up (harder than I thought) and pulled it back.
Attempt 2. I found a long table top, that would make the approach angle doable. But it was sliding on the tray. Not gonna work.

Using an old Gorilla loading trick, I used one of the level change ramps to back the ute onto, and the table top.
An all mighty push (I couldn't get big speed as I didn't know if the table would hold the weight) and we were on.

Phew. Big phew.
I had a solid workout doing this.

Had to get some new straps, 2 on the forks, one on the rear and she wasn't going anywhere.

Getting it off at home wasn't too bad, I have a raised retaining wall edge thing that lined up very well with the side of the ute. Pushed it backwards, and then towards the garage.

Had to give it a quick hose before anything else.

ahhh that's better.

Had to get an idea what we were working with.

Pulled off the side fairings, pretty easy.

hoses generally look ok.

Found the dipstick, and man, crystal clean oil.
I'll change it anyway (once I find some) but there was plenty there and it was cleeean.

Wheels and brakes look ok.
Time to see how much is left.

Getting thin.
Maybe borderline.

Tyres look good as new. A bit firm but they are way to old to risk.

Not having the original key meant I had to swap the ignition barrel and the tank lock. Ignition was pretty easy, 2 different sized hex screws, and an easy connector. The fuel cap, wow, nightmare. Doing research online the go was to call a locksmith or pick the lock. I have no lock picking tools, nor experience, so I drilled the fucker. Finally managed to get it off.

Took the tank off, and drained the fuel and checked out the inside.

Hmm pretty nasty, how clean should it be? I'm going to rotate a few litres of fuel through it.

Took the seat off, and most of the forward fairings.

Dem quads. Looks clean from here.

Popped the new battery in. (silly terminals.)

and we have power!

all the lights work! bonus. i wasn't expecting every indicator and the headlights to power up fine, but they did just that.

Hmm, the oil was clean. Everything else seems ok, we have fuel, (but it;s dirty), meh, let's see if she kicks over:

No kick, but she turns. I'm happy with that at this point.
I was expecting a lot worse.
I've ordered a new petcock (valve under the tank) will clean it out, swap plugs and try again

Swapped that bent bar end too.
Fresh.

This is fun.

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41 - 52 of 52 Posts

kula

Discussion Starter · #41 · Jul 8, 2017

Finally got a bit of time to do a few little things to the bike today.
A while ago I purchased some braided front lines.
The brakes worked fine, more than enough stopping power for my riding (commuting mostly) but they were rubber and very old so I always had it in the back of my mind that they were well past their prime. And I reckon the fittings were a bit rusty and wouldn't last much longer.

And I always ensure brakes are as good as they possibly can be in all of my vehicles.

There were quite a few different brands around, ended up with these BTR ones from the UK via ebay.
New fittings were included which sealed the deal for me.

Fitting was simple, unbolt the old,
put the new ones in place, and bolt them up.

A good flush and bleed and they feel great. Definitely more solid now. I did a quick stop at 80 and thought I was going to flip it.

Secondly I've been monitoring the temp of the exhaust with an infrared thermometer, and cylinder 3 was a fair bit lower in temp than the others.
Thought I would swap the plug and see if that changes anything.

No change, but here is the old one.
It may did start a little easier.

I've also been having some small issues with the temperature.
When sitting in traffic it tends to rise up a little past half. Not sure what was causing it, the fan seems to be spinning ok.
Today I flushed the system, gave it a good clean and added new distilled water and coolant mix.
Idling in my driveway it seemed fine for a while, and then went a bit past half.
I gave it a slight rev, and the instrument lights seemed to glow a touch brighter, and maybe the fan was spinning quicker? Either way it dropped the temp a bit.

Seemed to be fine for about 20min, and then same thing happend. Rising above half at idle.
Revving it didn't seem to cool it down this time.

Water pump?
Thermostat?

Any ideas?

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Slipry

· #42 · Jul 12, 2017

chased an "overheating" mc22 issue for a long while. fitted a fan override switch to get the fans operating earlier to give a buffer. changed thermostat and cap, flushed it all, wetting agents, etc.

reading some experiences on here, generally the needle sits pretty high on the gauge anyway, meaning that when its normal it looks like it is super hot. but it is not.

I would verify temp with a stand alone probe before chasing your tail.

I used to sit in traffic on 45`c days. yep the fan was roaring and my boots would melt on the road, but would never go over 2/3

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kula

Discussion Starter · #43 · Jul 13, 2017

Did some temp testing today, and it seems to be ok.

This is about as hot as it got today, the other day was a touch closer to red.

Measure.

Ambient ground was 11 degrees C.

I did a 60min drive through Sydney traffic, stopped and measured at idle.

112 degrees C.

and the cold side:

rad seems to be working ok.
I reckon it's ok, just will monitor it.

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kula

Discussion Starter · #44 · Sep 30, 2017

I found where the livery came from.
Well, not this kit, but the original inspiration.

Colin Edwards, RC51 Superbike.

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Randomrat74

· #45 · Oct 1, 2017

Ok, I just read this article and VERY IMPRESSED! Great work I’m am jealous and want to copy LOL &#55357;&#56834;
I have a MC19 but I do love what you have done

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rickybobby

· #46 · Oct 13, 2017

awesome work kula! might I suggest cleaning up the insides of your tank and sealing it up so all your hard work will be worth it? my tank was as filthy as yours before, used POR15 motorcycle tank sealer and now it's good as new, no more loose rust inside my tank.

picture here

View attachment 4545

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kula

Discussion Starter · #47 · Oct 13, 2017

Yup, I did have the tank professionally cleaned by a radiator shop. They polished it up pretty well.

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kula

Discussion Starter · #48 · Jan 6, 2018

Still riding this thing and enjoy it.

The initial plan was to have it sold by now, and have a Cafe'd up CB400, but CBs aren't that cheap, and I reckon I'd spend way to much modding it.
So, change of plan, keep this til I get my unrestricted licence (July all things going well) and then flip it for something else.

Took it through the nasho today, was beautiful. Almost like I had the place to myself.

and of course, the view as the reward.

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kula

Discussion Starter · #49 · Feb 17, 2018

Reason why bikes are cool #2948.
Occasionally I have been getting some clutch slip, in 2nd and 3rd when hitting peak torque.
And shifting fast with the clutch is kinda pointless.

So I wanted to swap the clutch out, and $45 for new clutch discs makes it a no brainer.

Doing my research it seems there are a few options on brands and materials, with racing spec models available.
This isn't a track bike by any means, and reading around showed that the best combo is to get OE clutch disks, with heavy duty springs, so that's what I did.

Being a wet (in oil) clutch system you need to ensure everything is nice and lubes, so first up in the morning I let the discs soak it up in Penrite's best synth.

The process is simple, and with the right tools I reckon can be done in an hour. Amazing. Imagine how long it takes to swap a clutch in a car.

Cover comes off.

4 bolts for the spring cover

and then you need a special 4 pronged 24mm tool to undo the main bolt. Honda charge something like $99 for this, so a $0.99 socket from Supercheap modified with a dremel does the trick.

I didn't take many pics of the process as I was covered in oil, and there are good youtube vids of the process.

original springs still have about 1mm life in them, but no point in putting them back in when I have the new ones ready.

The old clutch cable was peeping through the sheath, so I decided to swap that out too.

I always replace my oil filters at every change (some people do it every 2) it's $10 so I say why not.

And she rides great.
I only took it around the block, but as with every fresh oil change, shifting is great, everything feels nice and smooth and the clutch is perfect. May play with the adjusters a little once the cable sets in, but so far so good.

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