95 CR 250 Honda Rebuild back to mostly stock

Thanks Chance.. I cheated by ultimately painting the exterior of it.

Triple Trees.

So I purchased a set of 2004 trees from a CR250F model. They were only $38.97 and had rubber mounted bar mounts.
The 97 set of forks also included the triple trees. My plan was to use the 97 lowers with the 2004 upper.
I had read about the fork swap and issues you need to watch for if you go from one year to the next. I wanted to avoid having to change out stems and changing the steering lock on my frame.

The first thing I had to do was cut the lower bearing off the 97 lower. Again I used the dremel to cut through the bearing housing and then cut the race itself.








With that done I put the stock 95 lower tree on and made some cardboard cut outs in an effort to measure the amount of side to side full lock. By finding a common place between the actual tree and frame on both side I guesstimated how much I was going to modify the later model stops. These are in an entirely different location.
I know guys have made their own stops and my complete lack of experience along with no real tutorial on doing so I just thought I would mill (My fancy word for using a dremel) out reliefs for the stop on the forward bottom edge of the head.
I carefully haha used a sharpie to basically mark out what I was going to cut away.



I started the cut.



For whatever reason the mold lines began to really bug. Plus I wasn't super confident in what I was doing so I decided to like so many other parts rid those of those hideous mold lines.
Again the dremel (mill) with some sanding drums I started grinding those away.






It does take a little time to do that and fortunately the sanding drums last longer then you would think. I did go over it with some 3m medium and find wheels again on my dremel. The coarse sanding drums will leave deep gouges in that soft aluminum.

Confidence restored I went back to cutting out for my stops.

I first made the long cuts and was hoping i could just use a chisel and pop those pieces out.
That didn't work so I cut under also with the wheel. Obviously due to using wheels I over cut on the stops that were to remain.





Some how I screwed up and started to cut further up from where I needed to on the right stop. Oh well.




Man that does not look good. We will see what Mr Epoxy has to say about that.

Since the top tree is from a later Honda I had to add a hole for the top of the number plate and I epoxied the existing hole that was there.



After that I I went ahead and Cerakoted the parts. And yes, I actually repainted my hose clamps. I could have purchased new but I wanted to use as much of the old hardware I could. Just so I could say I did.



Now that I was done it was time to seat the lower bearing. I had some new ones and some new covers. Again I was at a loss on how the hell I was going to do this.That steering stem obviously creates problems. I really couldn't an african engineering solution to this on the interwebs. Somehow my brain was sharp that day and I came up with my own solution that didn't involve freezing and heat.
I had a long piece of square thin wall steel. This just so happened to fit over the stem. Next I used the following Home Depot supplied seating tool. Or Black Malleable Iron FPT Floor Flange as they incorrectly call it. That clearly is a custom bearing seater and is obviously mislabeled.
Buy Yours Custom Steering Head lower bearing Seater Tool- Press Me

This and a block of wood and of course a power tool to apply adequate and precise pressure to seat.
Precision Bearing Driving Tool- Press Me



This worked extremely well. No damage to the bearing and I was able to drive it as not to crush the lower bearing cover.
Unfortunately I had chose to drive the upper bearing onto the lower bearing position. If you don't know what this does I can easily tell you. I went ahead to install my forks. Got those bearings all nice and greased up and installed the trees. I carefully installed my forks and following the precise torque values I tightened those legs into the trees. I carefully put my bar clamps together with the rubber inserts and installed. Positioned my handle bars and tightened them down. All done carefully.
Went to turn my bars and had a crazy amount of free play or slop with the stem. That damn lower tree had slop all around. What the hell?
I tightened down the top tree some more and still had slop.
I actually thought of just leaving it............................ I couldn't understand what I did.
Then I looked at part numbers for the bearings........................... Damn Honda with making the lower larger then the top.
So out came the tools with another disassembly and some more of this.



Cut it out and ordered a new one from Rocky Mountain ATV. They ship with the quickness.

Here is the finished project for my trees.










Finally getting to motor... Another stupid amount of images.

The clamps look great Chance. Like new. So I assume you are just using alcohol as a degreaser. I have never known someone to use it in that fashion. I use lacquer thinner as a solvent but I am careful with it since it has a high flash point.
I had bead blasted mine as a cheap means to clean. Without any doubt my inexpensive Harbor Freight blast cabinet has paid for itself over and over.

Been lagging or lacking initiative to get new content up here. I started a 92 CR that was the worse one of the (4) I have. So it's kicking my butt due to the massive work it will be. I guess it comes from knowing what I am in-store for. Hard to cut any corners on this one since it needs so much.







Hard to believe I bought this roach.

So far I have a set of 97 Forks for it, skid plate, case saver, used subframe and a used FMF silencer. I had the cylinder re-plated so that and a replacement crank will sort out the engine. So much still to do. I'm turning it into a 93.

Engine Update on this 95-

I never even tried to fire this one when I purchased it. I knew I was going to rebuild it anyways. Compression on it felt very good.
I had looked through the intake and the exhaust port to see what the piston looked like and I was encouraged.

I was never in a rush to do the motor. It was the last major component I took on. This was partially due to my fear of what I would find inside along with it made sense to wait until I had the chassis done.
I had purchased a complete Hot Rods rebuild kit since I was able to get a smoking deal on it.
Wrench Rabbit Complete Rebuild Kit 95 Honda CR 250 -Press Me
This build will be ran but it will not be raced nor seen as a primary bike. As much as I would have liked to go all stock Honda parts I had several others to do and needed to be cost effective.

It had a Boyesen Rad valve with reeds that had been in there forever. I have no experience with the Rad Valve.
Here's a linky anyways.... Boyesen Rad Valve Direct from the Man..-Press Me
Back side of piston skirt looked good.






Horrible picture of the exhaust which was hard to take and get light up there.



Exterior motor images. Someone had placed a Bills Pipes metallic sticker over the flywheel for some reason. I thought it covered a hole. I wondered why Bills would have a metallic emblem with adhesive. Obviously wasn't meant for the pipe.







The motor looks in pretty good shape but those seam marks on the cylinder HAVE TO GO! I'll get those later in this post.

I started pulling the head off and see the usual state of the power valve drive train. I have no idea how quickly they look like this. I assume this was last serviced when the top end was done. No surprises in removing anything but I did break a tab off a actuating part which I replaced through eBay.



I saw the condition of the studs and merely shrugged as I thought I'll just pull those out and clean them up.



No way would those come out later.

Bottom end looked pretty good. No up and down play with the rod and I was pleased that this engine despite the exterior condition saw some routine service of the air filter. The interior of the airbox snorkel to carb was clean and the backside entrance of the carb looked clean.




I went about further disassembling the motor.
I had noticed when draining the tranny oil it seemed very thick. I assumed complete lack of regular changes. But when I disassembled the clutch I could see where all the metallic particles were coming from and they had contaminated the oil and left massive residue under the clutch.

Aluminum plates to the right.







I cleaned that up and went about splitting the cases and laying the parts out for further cleaning.





How to remove old gasket material, clean up studs and make metal purty.... If you have been following this thread you know I make mention of Dremels and Cameron Niemela's fiber wheels he sells.
Camerons Fiber Wheels for expert re-finishing of metal parts - Press Me
I have re-purposed my worn down ones and use on my Dremel. These make easy work of mating surfaces. I did razor blade scrape as much as I could before using the wheel.
Scrape the worry away for a $1.90 - Press Me




That stuff SHINES! Super easy to do. Be careful when you use the wheel. You want to try and keep the wheel parallel with the surface. Kind of like a wheel rolling down a board. Avoid coming at the surface laterally. This can wear down
the edge of the mating surface easily. Thus reducing surface contact.



Those seams from the mold.
Since I had addressed so many of them before on other parts I saw no other option but to keep doing it.





By themselves they look hideous. No way to leave so much ugliness.

I bead blasted the cylinder in preparation. This also aided in cleaning out the area where the power port linkage sits.




A quick check to see how hard it was going to be to remove those lines. A Dremel with a sanding drum.



It worked well. Now to get after it.





You can also see how well the studs came out above. I wasn't too worried about leaving them unfinished since I was going to Cerakote the block and cylinder.




Off into my custom made dryer. I didn't get crazy with taping off. Cerakote sprays super fine. I did spray the cases and cylinder the same color and darkened the right side cover and clutch cover. I had cleaned up the outer cases also with the fiber wheel. Getting rid of some damage from a thrown chain. Easy work with those fiber wheels.



Cylinder looks way better.

Before..

After..


Before..

After...


Before...

After..


Since I was going to spray I cleaned up the kickstarter and the gear shifter.







I didn't take a whole bunch of picture of putting new bearings and seals in. In fact I took none. I did replace all the fiber and aluminum clutch plates with Honda brand. New springs too. I dislike the horrible over lap of the gaskets but finding a complete Honda set was not happening.
I talked to a friend who had offered custom porting and engine building for mini and micro sprints if polishing up all the power valves resulted in anything. It didn't so I did clean them up but that was it.
I put a Wiseco forged piston in it.

So here it is engine complete.







With that done above all I need to do is show the process of finally building it.


Soon....

That is a super clean 92 Rob. Your 92 looks as good as any of the 92 and later steel framed CRs.
This 95 looks as clean as yours now that it’s all put together.
It still causes me pause on days as I just admire it where I have it parked. Amazing how much satisfaction it provides even several months after being done.

Thanks for sharing.

Finally getting to actually putting it together post.

It was quite a process for me to get to this part. I was glad that I waited to get every single part ready in anticipation of bolting everything up.
Like anybody else the bolt together goes near as quickly as the tear down. Routing cables and hoses takes a little thought unless you have another CR already together.
I am fortunate to have 3 other 90 era CRs to reference from. Many times I would go and check those to either note bolt style or length or correct placement of other parts.



I decided to seal the hollow bolts with the product shown. I spent a fair amount of time cleaning each one out. I have no idea of the shortcomings of doing so.



Swingarm in and no issues.


Shock and rear wheel on. I used a couple of the clamps from my Works Connection skid plate to hold the frame to the stand. Not enough support so I backed it up with a tie down.



Forks On.




Pretty proud of the detail and time I spent cleaning up my calipers. I wish I had a similar shot from that angle as a before. I just never anticpated doing so much work on them.



Hard to believe those ebay purchased forks look as good as they do. They were a great buy for me. I'm sitting on (3) sets of extra forks now. Fortunately (2) are late 90s cartridge.


Motor in. I couldn't remember what side it came out. I now know from the right side. I was being super careful not to ding the paint on the frame. I did this by myself and not the easiest thing to do when being gentle and holding up that complete motor. I finally was able to get it settled and was pleased that all the paint I shot created no problems with fitment.


I did buy a new PWK Airstryker from JD Jetting since this seems like a very popular replacment.
JD Jetting Carbs and what not-Press Me
Would like to try a Lectron but since this will be occasionally used I do not need the very best.



Radiators, electronics, chain and other parts.





I used O-Rings in order to tighten up the fitment on my pins. I had also recut the teeth on my pegs prior to Cerakoating.
























Tried to take images from the same point of view while putting it together.










I still have to post the images I took when I photographed it before tear down and was all together.
I placed it in the same location and again tried to match shot for shot. So I have that post and another one with all the screenshots I took of other persons builds or info I found on the net. I had started collecting info several months prior to my build.

I tried to mirror images after I was done. Below is the end result.
I'm currently not really making much effort to do the same as this thread with the 92 I'm currently restoring. Those who have done this understand the immense work just to try and make an entertaining thread.
I have a another 95 and a 94 to still do.

It still sits and has not been fired. I'm hopeful I can continue to be strong and just wait for the 92 to be done to have a rider. Hard to express the satisfaction this 95 gives just in its pristine like new condition with no dirt/mud/grease stains on it.

To be clear I replaced the following,
Tank, all plastics except radiator inner shroud and airbox, seat cover, graphics, rims, tires, spokes, later model front forks, some control elements. All hardware is original except less then 10 screws/washers.






























Last post in this thread will be all the screen shots I saved of info I looked at for this restore.

Thanks guys.

I enjoy this forum very much. I’m pleased I could contribute something that a few find entertaining.

It was later in the afternoon and slightly below 100 degrees. Shot some new images.
It still delivers satisfaction just about every time I see it. Amazing how just having it sit there never fired and still looking brand new can create a sense of balance in the world.

Yes.....All show no go.






Oh and I am passed the black rim affair. This is the last one like that. The next 95 I restore will have standard aluminum color.