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 Post subject: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2009 11:24 pm 
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80 cc

Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:12 pm
Posts: 94
Ok - so the bike is a jap import XR250 (S)

It has given me lots of fun trail riding but finally has gone on strike until I deal with some of the abuse it has suffered

My most pressing problem is that it won't start.
It started playing up after a wet ride - including some deep water, then when playing in Wiltshire I had to admit defeat and cut the ride short in the afternoon.

The symptoms were that it would lose power for a while - not start for a bit (leccy start) then restart and run OK until it met the slightest bit of damp.

I have now got a new spark plug in, new cap, HT lead and coil - I'm getting a nice big blue spark that will jump a good distance. The spark before was a little anaemic looking.

I stripped down and cleaned the carb, even getting the little 'wide open throttle' cam thing to work again (hadn't since I bought it).

Petrol is getting to the float bowl OK.
There is compression (pushes my finger off the plug hole when turned over).


Have run the battery flat a few times trying to get it going (the only time I've missed a kick start).

The nearest to life I got it was with a fully charged battery, squirting petrol down the air intake side of the carb, it chugged into life for a second or so.

At the moment I am working on the assumption that I have messed up something carb wise :roll: and the original problem was down to a faulty coil/cap/lead.

The clue that something is amiss with the carb is that it is leaking slightly from where the float bowl meets the carb body.

My next problem is getting hold of a rebuild kit - as I say it's a jap import so doesn't seem to have the same carb as other folks XRs - lots of emission control bits and a needle and floats that are one position only.
I have clymer and haynes XR manuals but neither of them have a carb diagram that matches the one on the bike.

As a luddite exponant of cornish engineering ('hit it with a hammer') I would be grateful for some kind soul to give me some thoughts.

is it possible that with a leak from the float bowl/ carb body this means the carb is not able to suck petrol into the venturi?

Any body got any carb specialist links or contacts who might be able to source kits for a jap import bike?


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:49 am 
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125cc

Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 206
Location: Melton Mowbray
Adam,

Don't know if it helps but I found this Dutch website with loads of parts for XR's.

http://www.cmsnl.com/honda-xr250_model377/

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John Kitching
Yamaha WR450 / BMW R1150GS Adventure
RoW East Midlands TRF


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2009 5:56 pm 
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80 cc

Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:12 pm
Posts: 94
thanks john i'll have a look


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2009 7:55 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:52 am
Posts: 487
Hi,
I have an XL250 which is a "cousin" of the XR250 and in 20 years of ownership every starting problem has been carb-related. I got my carb kit from CMS too as John suggsted, watch out for their shipping costs though; they can be steep. Billing in Euros doesn't help either, especially when they choose the rate :oops:

Your carb leaking may be because its overflowing. This may be caused by the float not rising up smoothly and closing off the little pilot jet its attached to. A cheap and cheerful "fix" for many carb-related ills is to loosen the clamps on either side (i.e. airbox side and cyl head side). This hopefully allows you to swivel the carb body around so that the float bowl is facing you. From there you can remove the float bowl, the float and its little jet. Now liberally spray in carb cleaner. On mine its pretty easy to remove the other jets from here too. However, if you're having starting problems these jets won't be coming into play yet. This way is quicker than removing the entire carb.
Finally you may be able to remove the seal around the float bowl, wash in soapy water and let it "rest" for a couple of days and then put it in upside down. Sometimes they're still a bit convex on the other side and this gives you enough to make a seal.

Good luck.

cheers
axa


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:00 pm 
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200 cc
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Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 7:21 pm
Posts: 259
Location: North-West Kent
If the bike has been stood for a while after a dunking in water it may be that condensation has set into the float chamber. A good cleaning may well show up a blocked pilot jet may well be the outcome of this water. On many bikes nowadays the pilot is not removeable & so causes many problems when fault finding. By removing the carb & squirting carb cleaner (from Halfords) up the two pipes that face the air filter, the chemical should...should squirt out of the jet. This pipe is the air jet.

Some float bowl 'o' rings are not reversible...they can only be put in one way. I use blue 'Hylomar' for sealing such surfaces, utilising the 'o' ring.

As for problems with the bike anywhere near water, I found that my XR400 was shy of H2O until I diverted the carb breather pipes into the airbox. The only one that I left pointing downwards was the carb overflow one.

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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:14 pm 
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80 cc

Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:12 pm
Posts: 94
thanks guys - on nights at the mo so will be having another crack at it on Sunday

Let you know how it goes,

I don't think i've got any blocked jets as I stripped it down and could see no blocked holes on them.

I wonder if the bowl is overflowing - everything seems to do what it should with the carb off the bike - i.e I blow through the fuel in pipe and tilt the carb till the floats shut off the float needle.

Good tip about the float o-ring - I have turned it over to see if that made a better seal but will try a bit of soaking and supplementary sealant (hylomar).


Once again thanks all.


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:19 pm 
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300 cc

Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:01 pm
Posts: 863
Hi, Adam, hope you get it fixed. Getting back to the original 'wet day' scenario, have you had a look at the connectors to all parts of the ignition system? Is it possible that something has corroded or a small component/relay is breaking down? A mate of mine had a similar problem on his CCM 400 (the one with the DRZ engine and electrics). It turned out to be a small relay just breaking down and needing direct replacement. Alternatively check all the usual earths inc. kill switch, side stand switch etc. If all else fails the combined intellectual might of the north midlands will be winging their way to you soon - including Graham who's a dab hand with Royal Enfields..............


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2009 12:33 am 
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80 cc

Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:12 pm
Posts: 94
steve cartwright wrote:
- including Graham who's a dab hand with Royal Enfields..............


Enfields :?:
he'd fix it like a shot then.....

s'not electrical I don't think - good spark and all that.

mind you that's not to say there isn't an electrical fault elsewhere as the instrument pod display is playing up as well,

not to mention the busted speedo cable,


or the leaking forks,




or the half functioning brakes,



or the almost bald rear tyre,



but apart from that it's a perfectly running machine.


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Sat May 30, 2009 7:49 pm 
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300 cc

Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:01 pm
Posts: 863
Adam H wrote:
mind you that's not to say there isn't an electrical fault elsewhere as the instrument pod display is playing up as well,


Funny thing is when we had the problem with the relay on the CCM it also had lighting issues until the relay was 'fixed'.


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 Post subject: Re: poorly XR250
PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2009 11:03 am 
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200 cc
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Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 7:21 pm
Posts: 259
Location: North-West Kent
I worked on a friends DRZ-S recently...I was surprised how many 'safety' switches there were on the bike...so differant to the DRZ-E. I removed the sidestand & clutch switches as they were both intermittant when tested with a multimeter...not what you want when halfway up a steep hill. There was also a lot of dirt & corrosion in many of the multi-pin connectors. The good thing about a Honda is that they come as standard with rubber boots that fit around the outside of a multitude of connectors...& so help to divert much of the water & dirt thrown onto them whilst out laning. This is something that I have done to modify my KTM wiring.

As far as the brakes are concerned, the best way to cure seized brakes is to pull out the pistons, replace the seals & damaged pistons (plastic fronts/steel rear) & to reassemble with proper seal grease...works wonders.

With leaking forks try passing a 20 thou feeler gauge around between the fork & seal so as to displace any dirt...worked on my XR.

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