mrbones has gone retro outlaw with an '86 ATC250R!

[HondaATC]

(some) side to side play is ok, its the up down or any roughness in rotating it that you can't have. Don't part with it, just get it back up and running again. A topend is super easy to do and not that expensive.

[mrbones]

Ok, I'll check it out more closely. I'm not selling it but will rebuild!

[HondaATC]

Good deal, have to keep these antiques around so the youngins on quads will learn a little bit of history 

[JackL]

Ok, I needed something different to make the same old trails at Croom seem more exciting. So I drove up to Ocala and bought an '86 ATC250R today. It needs a little engine work and cosmetics but on the way home, I stopped at Croom and rode it for about two hours. It doesn't have any low end whatsoever so it must need some tuning. When I get the revs up and keep them there, this thing takes off. I was quite surprised on how well it handles. Maybe becuase its hitting 1/2 the bumps up front with only one wheel. It was a blast to ride, even with it's engine quarks. I hadn't ridden a 3 wheeler in 4 years and never rode a 250R before. It took some getting used too, but after that, awsome. I'll have to fix it up some, but for $700, its hard to go wrong.

I have n 84 air cooler and the thing is insane. It is the most fun you can have on two wheels. The front spends very little time on the ground when you ride it. It has no problems lifting the front right up in top gear
It is funny when people come up and tell you those are banned and illegal. I think I'll drag it out of the shed and take a spin...

[Fox17]

sweet bike. hope you get it runnin soon. BE CAREFUL though. my dad knew 2 people that were killed on 250Rs when he had his so he sold it and got a mustang. anyway just be careful. have fun.

[cheropride]

Hell, I think I am going to ask my neighbor for my 185 back, it's the 1st year Kawaski came out w/the 4 wheelers.  I used to love riding around on that thing.  When my husband bought me a brand new Kawi-360 Prairie, I gave my old one to my neighbor. Yea, I was drinking that night, and he's a nice kid and all, but hell I just put brand new $200 worth of tires on the thing.  I miss though, that old thing would run and run and run.  It's just been sitting in his backyard, getting all weathered.  Just don't know how we would fit another 4-wheeler on a our trailer, but I do miss it.....

PS Bones, man that really stinks, I can't believe that....  Keep us updated on the progress....

[mrbones]

Alright, I got the engine ready for reassembly. I got all the pieces back from powder coat....well...actually I painted them with a spray can. I've gotten pretty good at that over the years. Rustoleum wrinkle finish silver is the best spray can paint I've used in awhile. It looks like powder coat and is pretty tough, too. Check out the pics.

I had to replace a lot of the internal bearings on this engine as most of them are worn out. I'm also replacing all the gaskets and seals. Cylinder was rebored with a new .50 over piston. This thing should run like new when I'm done!

I got the transmission in last night and the crank.

[mrbones]

Cylinder with polished top.

[mrbones]

Left side cover.

[mrbones]

Right side cover. 

[sykolincoln]

lookin good man!! did you do any crank work? what kind of piston did you use?

[HondaATC]

Looking great! Like I said in my PM, it'd be great to have you come on out and flat track sometime with us other trike guys. Theres a race back down at Thunderbowl on the 2nd of December (thats in Ocala). Or Vadosta, GA on the 18th of November. My 250R is still all apart right now too but I'm gonna try and get it back together in time for the GA race.

[mrbones]

lookin good man!! did you do any crank work? what kind of piston did you use?

I bought an entire crasnkshaft assembly with a new IMS crank installed off of ebay for $50. It has new bearings, too. The old ones were shot. I'm using a Pro-X cast piston. If you look carefully at the first pic you can see the little Pro-X box in the upper right hand corner.

[mrbones]

Someone PM'd me about the paint I used and prep for it. The Rustoleum wrinkle paint can be bought at Wal-Mart or Home Hepot for about $5 a can. Wal-Mart only carries silver, rust color, and black (although black comes out more like a dark gun metal). They used to have copper but maybe its discontinued. Home Depot has a few more colors. They have the color gold that I might use on the wheels or swingarm at one point in the future.

As far as prep, the can says you don't need to prep at all and you can paint right over rust. I'm a bit skeptical about that. The engine parts I painted were taken to a 10" wire bench wheel for a quick clean off. You don't have to get everything as when I was done, you could still see the old black finished in where the wheel couldn't reach. But I got as much as I could. Definitely stay away from the edges that a gasket may go on. If you round that off, it may not seal properly.

Then I started painting. This paint works a little differently than regular paint. I noticed I had to recoat every 15 minutes @ 80 degrees outside. It starts to look pretty good after 3 coats. I really don't think you need more than 4. If you don't recoat within 15-30 mintues, you are going to have to wait 48 hours. I made the mistake of adding some more paint to the right side cover after noticing a spot that wasn't covered after 24 hours. And after 3 coats there was hardly any gloss. No matter how much paint I added the gloss wouldn't come back. So, I waited another 48 hours and did it again and it was nice and shiney. This was on the right side cover and there's now so much paint on there that you can hardly read "Oil Check", lol. The paint goes on thick, if you get the coverage right, it will be nice and smooth and resist scratching. The hardest part is sparying the coverage on just right due to the small spray coverage of a spray can. When painting the right side cover, the overspary from painting one section can kill a section you've already done. So just work with it and try and get it right.

Now, the can says to wait 48 hours for curing, but give it at least a week. I started putting together my engine and handling the right and left engine cases without a problem after a week.

And one more final thing, I did a test on the cylinder with a black rustoleum paint before the engine blew up for heat resistance. The paint stayed on just fine. I'm assuming the wrinkle paint will be the same and it won't flake and crack off from too much heat. If you are painting the head of an air-cooled engine which gets much hotter (mine is liquid cooled), you better do a test first. If it doesn't prove durable you'll have to use an engine paint. Duplicolor makes one that can be bought at Wal-Mart or Autozone. And since I'm on the topic of heat resistant paint, I once used a Duplicolor silver exhaust paint on a header and muffler of an ATC200. Within 10 minutes of runinng it all smoked and flaked off! The only paint I've found that can withstand the heat on a header is the flat-black barbeque grille paint. I painted the pipe on the 250r with that and used engine paint on the silencer. It looks the same as when I painted it. I even have about 1200 miles on street bike headers that look the same, too. Good stuff!

[mrbones]

Looking great! Like I said in my PM, it'd be great to have you come on out and flat track sometime with us other trike guys. Theres a race back down at Thunderbowl on the 2nd of December (thats in Ocala). Or Vadosta, GA on the 18th of November. My 250R is still all apart right now too but I'm gonna try and get it back together in time for the GA race.

It sounds pretty cool. Get someone to video tape the 3 wheeler race. I'd like to see that!

[LonesomeTriZ]

Nice trike and a damn ine deal.

[mrbones]

I got it back together! 

Time to put it back in the trike!

[mrbones]

It's a work of art!

[mrbones]

I forgot to mention I installed a new mechanical water pump seal and bearing yesterday. I won't have to worry about that for awhile!

[lugnuts]

wow looking sweet 

[NYRAPTOR]

looking good mr. b!!! i'll have to bust out the video camera again at croom.

[The Quad FaJa]

Looks like new!...A+ work

[klutchbuster400]

nice job! My neighbor has one of them 250's that works great, he just never rides the dang thing lol.
I'm trying to get my little 70 working perfect now, dang thing runs for 30 minutes, then just shuts off, but then the very next day it does the same thing lol.

[arod]

 i have painted many exhaust pieces with the same results as you, flaking peeling,etc. then one day i got the exhaust system hot(normal operating temp) and painted it. the first coat actually 'burned-on' and really stuck. then i sprayed 2-3 coats while it was still hot,which i guess baked-on. lasted longer than i expected.

[mrbones]

Really? Hmm..I wonder if it says to do that on the can and I didn't follow instructions, lol.