1975 Honda MT250 Elsinore from fellow Pelicaner Gogar

[911boost]

Well, as some of you remember back in October, Gogar had this Elsinore taking up space and wanted to get rid of it. I kindly obliged. It hadn't run in a while, and was missing a couple of things. here is a before picture:



My first goal was to get it running. Gogar said it was running fine before the banjo bolt for the oil injection system broke. The engine "stop run stop" switch was also broken. Otherwise, it has been ridden its whole life, but in general was in pretty good shape.

We already have a 2001 CR250R and my daughter has a CRF50F, so we already have our share of dirt bikes but this one is pretty low to the ground, so the plan is to have my wife learn how to ride on it. Plus, it has lights, so night rides will be fun as well when we are camping.

Back to the "restoration" (a term I use loosely, since I do not planning on taking it apart bolt by bolt at this time). The gas hadn't been drained prior to parking, so the green liquid that I think was gas at one point and time, had gummed up. Among other things the carb needed some love.

I won't go into too much detail, but here are some pictures:

Starting the tear down, the oil tank for the injection has been removed, and the supply line to oil pump has been connected to the discharge line, creating a circuit with oil it so the pump doesn't burn up. I premix for my other bike, and generally as a rule don't trust the oil injection systems, I ground down a bolt to perfectly fill the hole in the intake that the oil injection went into:


Right side, notice the new front tire, god I hate changing those, but more on that later:


The headlight is out, as the broken switch also controls the headlight, so to remove the switch I had to dive into that massive wiring harnass. Gogar, that switch has been a pain in the rear to locate. Its listed as NLA, but I have one more place to try, anyways, it looked like a pretty simple switch, so I have a toggle switch soldered in there temporarily that works like a charm. I think the switch housing from an early 80's Honda Nighthawk is an exact match, so I may go that route if I have to.

Here is a spot of some smiling goon, I am surprised the flash off my dome didn't ruin the picture (notice the Porsche content):



more to come.....

[911boost]

I know it looks like a mess, but I do have a method to my madness, where parts are when I working on it, etc. I also only had the weekend to work on it now, as its still cold, and my wife needed her parking spot back.

Anyways here is my little helper. He was pretty good at grabbing the tools I needed and then running away from me when I needed it.


As I said earlier, I hate changing out tires. The front 21 inches aren't that bad, the rear 18 and 19's, that is a whole different story. The front went pretty easy. The back, yeah not so much. I caught the new heavy duty inner tube with the tool and punctured it. Soooo, I got to take the tire partially off, and install an extra tube. Needless to say, I made a very concious effort to be careful.

Bill wrestling with the tire for the first time:


After doing some more clean up (I have ofcourse not given you a play by play), I bolted everything back up, put some gas in her, and on the third kick she fired right up. Its idling a bit high, but I am not worried about that right now. The first step is done and was successful.

All of the oil has been changed, plug, everything greased, etc. I have been gathering parts for a while, so as time permits, I will keep working on it. I still want to take the exhaust off and clean it and give it a new coat of black bar-b-que paint amongst other things.

Bill

[911boost]

After putting everything away last night, I figured out what is wrong with the idle, so I'll fix that here this week.

[Eric 951]

Bill,

Nice work. I love wrenching on old bikes even more than cars.

And I feel your pain on installing tubes---pinched both tubes when I put tires on my Morini--so I got to do the job twice.

[jyl]

Nice to see a classic bike getting some love.

[911boost]

Glad to hear that Eric, I am not the only one that has done that. I have figured out some tricks to it, but man, nothing is worse than getting a flat on the trail, and all you have are the little tools that fit in your back pack. The bigger ones make the job a lot easier, but still.....

I still have some work to do, but like I said, my goal is to just get it in good running shape again, then I'll work on the cosmetics, which I don't think are that bad to be honest. It is a dirt bike, and if you aren't crashing, you aren't riding hard enough, smile.

Bill.

[GDSOB]

It's easier to wrangle the tires on if they are not cold. Put a halogen work light on them for a couple hours before you change them and they strech much better.

Looks like a fun project.

[mike2357]

im Refurbing the exact same bike as yours 75 MT250 fun project if u haven't already done it i would pick up a engine seal kit off Ebay for $30 and replace the service side main seal mine was sucking oil out of the trans and fouling plugs it can be done with out cracking open the main case from the service side u have to pull off the clutch and crank gear but u can pull the bearing out and the seal a little tricky but not bad if u have the rite puller i made a puller from some 1/4 " steel flat bar 2 hole 2" on center and 2 6"x 1/2" bolts long shank cut them to 2 1/4" ground the tip down to a small oval so i could slide them in to the race and turn them to lock in and just back it out with the crank gear bolt i have pic's of it on my face book page if u need them

good luck on the project
mike

[911boost]

Where did you get the MT from Mike? I sold mine...

Bill

[mikeferg75]

Cool!

[HHI944]

There's been one on the local CL for a while that's been tempting me...seems like a fun little toy and I bet I could make a carrier to load it up on the back of the Landy...