1995 YZ-250 long rod. Tom Morgan porting magic. :)

Prior owner should not have been allowed to work on the bike and should be stopped in the future for any other bike work. Looked like he just used whatever TF hardware was laying around. Phillips in the cases? Really? There was even an SAE bolt here and there! *triple face palm*

I was relieved when the swingarm bolt finally came out, with much pounding. But I figured it had to have been out at least once in the last 20 years since the frame was powder coated.

Left center case has pieces broken off around the shift shaft and motor mount. I should be able to fix these but will also keep an eye out for a used one and if it comes up cheap enough, that would probably be the preferred route.

I have been keeping an eye open for a clean 91-95 yz250... I wonder what the parts availibility is for engine parts, like tranny gears, clutch & powervalve parts....keep us posted on your progress !

Nice, 1995 was a nice looking bike. Evo mx can do a purple seat cover for you. I'm not sure if they do the 95 graphics, but there are plenty of companies that can make them for you if you are going with the stock look.

My favorite 95 yz250 Emigs

FWYT wrote:

Prior owner should not have been allowed to work on the bike and should be stopped in the future for any other bike work. Looked like he just used whatever TF hardware was laying around. Phillips in the cases? Really? There was even an SAE bolt here and there! *triple face palm*

To be fair, all new YZs use phillips for the ignition cover. Maybe he was upgrading

I can neither confirm nor deny that this might have just happened ....... If I were to confirm such, the takeaway lesson would be....... Be very careful when you go to someone's place to buy a $10 clutch perch and then innocently ask- "So what else are you getting rid of?"

Love the build. I’m almost done with a 1995 YZ125 and starting on a 1995 YZ80.

The first brand new bike I bought with my own money was a 95 YZ250. The day I brought it home i put it in the house and just stared at it. I put the gytr blue kit like Emigs bike in 96. I never could find a nice 95 to fix up. If I did I would make it look original for sure.

swodown348 wrote:

Love the build. I’m almost done with a 1995 YZ125 and starting on a 1995 YZ80.

Sweet, man! I might message you to get a source on things like a seat and such.

Working on it today, taking some things apart.... You know what I find so incredibly frustrating, is seeing the absolute what-the-fuckery of the prior owner. It's like I want to bitch slap the moron for being such a hack. ...... *must take deep breaths*
?????

Well, my project took a detour. I had been reading about guys putting later model front ends on ’01 era YZ’s. So I looked it up and even my ’95 uses the same steering head bearing #. Hmmmmm . . . Not something I was planning on doing but if it is really that easy…

Found a set of ’08 clamps laying around at a local shop and they appear to fit my frame perfect. (Though I still have to check about the steering stops).

Then came across this well-used suspension stuff. In all honesty, the coatings don’t have a lot of life left in them but for me, and this project, it will work just fine. And the price was right because they aren’t much use to the guy I got them from as he wasn't going to bother with re-coating them and he just got all new stuff. He was just getting rid of them.

Then got the front wheel in primo shape with spacers, rotor, axle and brand new front tire for cheap from Damaged Goods. http://stores.ebay.com/Damaged-Goods-Global Good source for used stuff!!

Sooooooo, things are moving right along!

Damaged Goods is a great place. They’re 15 minutes from the house and often have deals that are too good to pass up. Great find on suspension!

swodown348 wrote:

Damaged Goods is a great place. They’re 15 minutes from the house and often have deals that are too good to pass up. Great find on suspension!

Yup. Thanks!
Hey, are you the guy with the primo 95's I see on CL? We'll have to meet up at some point so I can pick your brain a little. I'm always in the area going to NCY or whatever.

Must be someone else with bikes on CL. I have a tendency to not get rid of bikes lately. They’re just piling up in the garage.

Shim geeking this evening.

Forks qualify as "bling" ? Ha ha... A lot of builds start out as no frills no bling....

sandman768 wrote:

Forks qualify as "bling" ? Ha ha... A lot of builds start out as no frills no bling....

I don't know if they do, and these ones are well seasoned, for sure. But I was just planning on
rebuilding the '95 stuff so that's the detour. Famous last words "This will be a simple, low budget project . . ." hhahaha

A little fork assembly today. The forks are off of an '08 YZ450 (Correction! '06 or '07!). For now, I'm just going to leave the valving as
it is, put in some .47 springs, 375cc of fluid and just see how it feels. Then go from there.

Welp, you know how these things go. Parts get replaced along the way. All those parts that are off the bike are what were originally on it when I purchased it and have been replaced.

First was the swing arm. The one that was on the bike was hammered and you can find them cheap on eBay so why not. Gonna trash the one that came with the bike.

Then, as shown above, i realized a later model front end is pretty much a bolt on affair with a little mixing and matching so there goes that. Later model shock bolts on, too, so what the hell.

The subby that came with the bike was bent and re-welded poorly in spots so, aw heck, found a decent one to replace it.

I knew the bike was kind of a mess so I knew going in there were these issues and I didn't really have any intention of replacing things. I wanted to just fix what was there. But some of these parts upon closer inspection were just better off, time and money wise, just getting better used ones from eBay. Plus, I think it's important to exercise the tweaker demons that have infiltrated the bike.

Then the frame . . . I knew the rego was past due and I knew about how much it was going to cost, but when I started looking closer, man, it was fucked up. Cracked and poorly welded in spots. I think this bike at one time was well cared for but it fell into the hands of a crack head and just got some neglect. Shame.

Anyway, I wasn't super excited about the frame so after looking around, found a frame in better condition and who's registration, in the end will cost less than the white frame so *boom*, out goes the frame, too. I'll probably be able to eventually sell some of these old parts for a couple/few hundred so, yes, a fair bit of leg work but dollar wise, not all that bad. I think I'll keep the white subby and see if I can't repair it properly to keep as a spare. Maybe.

There was a thread about doing a build just buying parts here and there and in the end, I'm practically doing just that. Hahahhahha.

It's funny what parts go for on bikes. For example, the swingarm I picked up was only $35.00 and in very good shape. But seats for these are very hard to come by. You can get the foam and covers aftermarket, of course, but the base and brackets are long since discontinued so you see just shit seats going for over $100. The fucking tweaker that had this bike had fabbed seat brackets out of a tin can (no shit) and somehow managed to pull three of the four inserts out of the base. Probably used them for a crack pipe or something.

Anyway, I somehow lucked out and some brackets came up used on eBay fairly cheap and so I grabbed those. Yes, they would have been an easy part to fab but it was even easier to hit "buy".

Since the seat base inserts are gone, I welded some bolts through some flat stock to attach the bracket. Luckily these won't be visible. I definitely have to get better at my fab skills.

Today was a parts brightening day for the Project '95 YZ250.
Just wanted to do a good clean up, not go crazy grinding off seams or the pits and dings from
the years. One thing I found was using a brass (softer) wire wheel on a slow speed. Gives
a nice finish and doesn't leave very big marks.

Note the linkage drilled for safety wiring the bottom shock bolt. Again, I think this was once a well
care for machine before it fell into the hands of a tweaker. Sad.

Interestingly, the bearings were in great shape. Which is super strange considering how fucked up
other parts were.

Added some material to the steering stop so that the later-model clamps would make full contact.
Still need to grind them down a touch for decreased turning radius.

The subframes- originally I was going to toss the one that came with the bike because it was so jacked. So I picked up another one on eBay that I realized later is actually for a 125. (The purple subbie; see that one extra bracket on the lower tube that the other one doesn't have? Purple is a 125, the sand blasted one is the 250.) Luckily, despite what I read online and have heard from others, the 125 subbie seems to fit. I bolted them both on with the plastics just to make sure. Decided to keep and fix the original subbie. You know, just to have more straightening, grinding and welding practice!!

Both subbies had the front cross member broken off and were bent at the back of the triangle. Straightened things out, added the cross members, and added some gussets at the top rear where these always bend.

When I bought my 95 new it came with ti sub frame and a top end kit. Probably a needle in haystack situation but there must be some ti sub frames out there.

byronf29 wrote:

When I bought my 95 new it came with ti sub frame and a top end kit. Probably a needle in haystack situation but there must be some ti sub frames out there.

Here is a new GYTR Ti subframe you are talking about:
https://nh.craigslist.org/mpo/d/titanium-subframes-for-crf/6436763668.html

He’s had them for sale for almost a year now; I would see if he would ship all the way to CA for you.

$250 plus shipping I would imagine. Or maybe he’d do $250 shipped.

byronf29 wrote:

When I bought my 95 new it came with ti sub frame and a top end kit. Probably a needle in haystack situation but there must be some ti sub frames out there.

TrailDigger wrote:

Here is a new GYTR Ti subframe you are talking about:
https://nh.craigslist.org/mpo/d/titanium-subframes-for-crf/6436763668.html

He’s had them for sale for almost a year now; I would see if he would ship all the way to CA for you.

$250 plus shipping I would imagine. Or maybe he’d do $250 shipped.

Whoa! Thanks for the info, guys!!

Hmmmm . . . That's something to consider! There's also AC racing which does an aluminum subbie.

Progress got de-railed today with a broken bolt. These bikes use a couple motor mount tabs that bolt to the frame.
Went to take the second one off and SNAP-OLA. Crap......


Too deep to and no way to get a straight shot with a drill for an EZ Out. Kinda doubt it would have worked anyway.
I did consider coming in from the outside of the frame and then welding up the carnage. But would have to go through two tubes (it's the boss on the right in this photo) and that seemed like a lot of damage to do the repair.


In the end, I decided to just add more material around the boss, then I can easily and safely tap it for a 10mm. I have about 20mm of depth to work with so that's plenty. So I'll have one mismatched bolt for this assembly but it will still be structurally sound.

Broken bolts happen on these old bikes, Before I perform a teardown on a new project, I clean it good, then put large peice of cardboard under it & spray every nut/ bolt/ axle/ stud ect with PB blaster & let it soak for at least a day...it helps. With that said, I just snapped a cylinder stud off a Bike I"m working on, I soaked it, heated it, but it still snapped, all the other studs came right out... Sometimes bolts just snap...be thankful you don't have a seized swingarm bolt to deal with...

sandman768 wrote:

Broken bolts happen on these old bikes, Before I perform a teardown on a new project, I clean it good, then put large peice of cardboard under it & spray every nut/ bolt/ axle/ stud ect with PB blaster & let it soak for at least a day...it helps. With that said, I just snapped a cylinder stud off a Bike I"m working on, I soaked it, heated it, but it still snapped, all the other studs came right out... Sometimes bolts just snap...be thankful you don't have a seized swingarm bolt to deal with...

Good tip, Sandman. Thank you!