Fixing up my 250sx on a low budget.......

[mcgahen88]

Hello everyone. I am fairly new to 3 wheeler world, and 3 wheelers period. I just got my first one early this yr, since then I've had 6 of them come into my hands, 4 of my own, 2 for my buddy, and I've been addicted to them from day 1. Anyways, this is going to be my first thread, and what I would like to do is show what I've done to make my 86' 250sx look and run a little better so far with very limited funds, and continue to update as I go along. If your like me and can't afford to go out and buy all new plastics, rims, performance upgrades, expensive pipes etc right now........"can we try a poor mans restoration?" lol. Id like to hear other ways you've cleaned up/ fixed your trike other than just replacing components, even if it might be a longer or harder task. Weather you want to sell it and bring the value up, or just want your trike to look/ run better,(I know you can't make a showroom trike out of a pile of junk, or fix a broken valve or something if you spend enough time with it, that's not what I'm trying to do here lol) but there's an endless wealth of knowlage around this forum. If anyone has suggestions, pointers, ideas as far as mechanics, performance and reliability, cosmetics, constructive criticism, old school tricks, whatever you got would be greatly appreciated guys, thanks.
Matt

[AtcFactoryRacer]

You can wet sand and buff the fenders(inexpensive, but time consuming) Repaint the gas tank, you can get reproduction decal kits for pretty cheap from members on here or on ebay. You can get seat covers for about 30 bucks....

[Billyboy34]

Checkout the thread below. You can apply the same "means & methods" to restoring the fenders, as you will see in the first post of the thread. It's a little time consuming, but has great results!

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php?127611-250R-quot-Tank-Polishing-quot

[Dirtcrasher]

IMHO, it's far more important to get things mechanically sound. The SX, when kept full of oil has a near bulletproof engine aside from some shifter parts under the left cover (easy fixes).

I personally don't care how my trikes look, but I want them to perform perfectly. I build them and they look great but soon enough, they are covered in mud/scratches etc. I ride, I can't be concerned with pretty plastic....... I'd rather have a tight trike than a pretty one.

Check your diff oil and make sure it's clear. If not, get it hot and change it. I believe you have an 86 or just the tank?? But the 86 rearend/swinger are superior to sealing. The 85 had a service bulletin for water entry it was such a poor design. An exposed brake drum isn't a good thing......

[mcgahen88]

Thanks guys!! up until right now i set this thread up using my phone. When I tried to post pics it was starting to become a real pain, plus ive never really used a forum much so Im still trying to figure it out. Thanks for the links and Ill have some pics up soon.

[mcgahen88]

Dirtcrasher, I agree with you 110%. What good is a pretty trike if it just sits in your garage, or busted and blown up on the side of a track, trail or wherever you end up when it happens. In my opinion its not a good ride unless you come home at least 3/4 covered in mud lol. But for my first thread I just figured I would do something fairly simple to help me figure out how everything works on here and maybe get to meet a few people that know a heck of a lot more about trikes than I do lol. But you couldnt be more right and i appreciate you bringing that up. What I wanted to do was cover situations like mentioned above, and for example, When i first got my trike, my tank was rusted, leaking and dented pretty bad. I cant afford to get another one, or have a profesional fix it, so i used cold weld (JB Weld), a file, dremal tool or grinder if you have one, but not necessary, sandpaper, primer, a couple good rattle cans of paint, clear if you want it to really shine, and i got a nice set of HONDA and wing decals i found on ebay for about $7.00. Its a very common situation, with a common fix, I want post my progress as i go along and hear some other ideas and opinions along the way, I have some stuff to share, but I still have A LOT to learn. Anyways, that is way cheaper than a new tank and can actually turn out quite well if you take your time, and pretty much any average guy can do it. But Im sure you already knew all that lol.
The mechanical aspects that you mentioned(and more) are also slowly in the process of being taken care of. I checked the differential oil a couple weeks ago, its thicker than its supposed to be, Im getting fresh SAE 80 when i get paid next week, hopefully. Ive already went through the carb, oil filter o ring leaks slightly, so an oil change, kicker slips 4 out of 5 time you kick it so i need to tare the side cover off and see if its a gear or..... after all that and more I would eventually like to do the 200x tree and fork conversion with a 350x headlight, i just think that setup looks amazing, with added benifit of front disk breaks and narrower tire. Thanks for your comments and thoughts, sorry I went off ramblin again, Ill try not to make it a habbit lol. I appreciate it and i hope to hear more from you and others soon.

[Dirtcrasher]

It's not the/a gear. The SX has 2 one way clutches; One drives the starter and allows it to freewheel and the other allows you to kickstart it and freewheel. Often referred to as the "one way clutch". That one wears out and is about 60-70$ to fix which is why so many 250SX riders simply love there electric start.......

[mcgahen88]

Ok, thanks for the quick feedback. When i do start it up i usually jump the sullinoid* from a truck battery or a battery charger. But i dont want to get out on the trails, need to shut it off and ''hope'' the kicker feels like working that time. Ive noticed that the shaft actually comes out the side of the case maybe 2-3mm. If i put pressure on the kicker in towards the case it catches more often, when it slips it makes like a ratchet sound.

[mcgahen88]

Finally got pictures situated, these ones were taken on the day i brought it home, except the one on the far left. That was the picture from the Craigslist posting

[mohadib]

looks pretty clean. Congrats

[mcgahen88]

Thanks, it actually looks a little better than it did in those pictures.............Im about to post more now.

[Trip]

it looks in good condition. i would say, buy some offroad chain lube (this is a must or you will be snapping chains) change your oil with some good 4stroke honda oil...get a spark plug.... that shouldnt cost you more then 40$ and rly, chain lube and fresh oil will always be a good bet.

something i intend on doing next oil change, i got a tip from someone on here, take some gas/kerosene/diesel...some kind fuel...and put in where oil goes...shake trike a bit..and let that drain out...tip trike on side! to get everything out, this is apparently like rebuilding the engine the lazy/cheap/i dont know how to rebuild way/ lol then put fresh oil in.

There are manuals on this site to (somewhere) you can download them, if you are mechanically smart...you could follow them to rebuild the whole engine/top end. And then you would be running smooth, that i would suggest (and wish i could do..but im worried i will break some part that i wont be able to order/find).

G/L to ya.

[mohadib]

http://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-M4016-Vinyl-Rubber-Cleaner/dp/B0002SQYV4

That stuff really makes plastic and rubber look good. Just have to dry the surface off really good with a clean towel after applying. Then let dry for a day. That way dust doesn't stick to it. Then you can sand and paint your bars, grab bar, throttle housing etc. Good cleaning and a little paint go a long way.

[mcgahen88]

As you can probably tell the tank was pretty bad, it was actually worse than i originally thought because someone had painted right over a bunch of surface rust a long time ago. I taped off the warning sticker, petcock, and bottom part (SX) of the 2 decals on the sides. It took a while to sand it down to where it would be good enough for primer and paint, but it really wasn't bad too. It also had cold weld gobbed on it that no one ever filed down, sanded or paintet, so i did that too. Over all it looks a lot better than it did, no more leaks, and didnt cost much at all. Only thing wrong with it now is all the dents but hey, what are ya gonna do right.
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[mcgahen88]

Hey thanks for all the tips man. The 250sx is a shaft driven wheeler so it has to have SAE # 80 gear oil for the differential, thats what the 250SX manual said anyways. I was actually able to download the 262 page actual HONDA manuals for my trike, the 83 250r (my buddy has one), 85 atc110,(I have one of those also), the 200m,(had one of those and traded for the 250SX) and the 200s (my buddy has one of those also lol) right onto my droid x which is awesome, no matter where I am I always have my manual in case something pops in my head and i want to check it out or whatever lol. That actually sounds like a really good idea putting gas or maybe even some sort of mineral spirits in the engine, it would probably dissolve old oil build up and clean it out pretty well. But i think if I was gonna try it, I would buy an extra court of oil, or maybe even 2 or 3 and run that through right after the gas or whatever just to make sure you got it all out. I wonder if some happened to get stuck somewhere inside if it could potentially thin your oil out. That could cause some major damage, If its even possible, I dont know, Im probably wrong has anyone else ever heard of that trick? Thanks again for your suggestion and tip, im gonna go th the store tomorrow get a notebook and start writing this stuff down lol.

[mcgahen88]

Awesome, Ill have to check it out. I went over mine with some heavy duty rubbing compound, and then carnuba turtle wax (those are just what I happened to have lying around) and it made a noticeable difference. I was just messing around, only doing it by hand, i hadn't even tried to sand them yet or anything else. If i do decide to really try to bring them back to like new i think i would probably get some sort of buffer, or actually one of the attachments they sell for drills would probably be pretty cheap. Thanks!!

[Chazz of Blades]

DC, I would have swore on my firstborn it was the '86 that had so many sealing problems in the shaft.



Huh, learn something every day on here.



Sweet SX by the way! One of my favorite trikes.

[TatTooL23]

Dirtcrasher, when u say get the differential oil hot then change it. Do u mean drive it around a bit, or actually heat it up?? I'm guessing so that it thins out and drains all out easier.

[mcgahen88]

I got some tires for the rear at my local cycle/atv shops for $10.00, a pair! They are'nt anything special, but they hold air and have enough traction to do what i need them to, for now. Plus, they are 21x10-8, smaller than the ones that were on it and I think they look a lot better, but thats just me. I would like to get a hold of some v tread with knobbies, whooly boggers I think they're called? Also, I was riding around in the yard the other day trying to adjusting my carb in a little better, and my front tire went flat, it was dry rotted bad. So I traded my buddy a split rim tire for one that fit on mine. Its almost like brand new, lots of tread left on it. I just mentioned the plastics like 2 or 3 posts back, but like i sad I haven't really put much effort into them yet, i can see a difference already, I probably will do them this time to see how good the outcome is. I believe u can probably make some pretty rough plastics look really nice with the methods that are linked to the first page of this thread. And... rubbermaid, yes go ahead and laugh if you need to lol, i was sick of looking at that stupid light that doesn't work and all them wires/cables hanging out so I took the lid off a rubbermaid container and made a number plate for the forks, just for now until i can find a 350x headlight assembly........ In these pictures i put 2 of it from the first day, and 3 most recent one, still have a ways to go and Im far from done but what ya think so far? As of now Ive had it about a month. Thanks to everyone who has given me suggestions and ideas, and I hope you keep them coming....