1996 Ninja EX250

[slandis]

Brought home a project-level 1996 Ninja EX250 last week - $500.

Initial look showed a decent oil leak around the drain plug/filter area, possible carburetor issues and some missing/broken fairing. But it fired up and ran! After getting it home the problem revealed itself to be much worse: the drain plug and filter cap had been JB-welded in place due to some damage to the lower crankcase!

Not one to back down from a challenge, I hit up eBay and soon enough I had a crankcase (sans cracks and JB-weld), filter cap, filter, carb rebuild kit and a couple fairings on the way. Total spent so far: $760. Crankcase swap begins next week...

Link to the project page for pics!

 

[champion221elite]

Sounds like a fun project! My dad and I brought back a 1974 Honda CL200 that sat dormant in my grandpa's garage for 20 years.

It took lots of work, but it was a rewarding project.

 

[QwickFliCk]

how r u planning to repair that drain hole?

 

[dpaul007]

Sounds like a good project! I'd love to fix up a bike some day.

 

[slandis]

how r u planning to repair that drain hole?

Bought a crankcase in good shape from eBay. It's a clamshell design, so I'm going to remove the cylinder head, flip the block upside down, remove damaged lower half and then replace with the good lower half from the new set.

 

[slandis]

Bought a crankcase in good shape from eBay. It's a clamshell design, so I'm going to remove the cylinder head, flip the block upside down, remove damaged lower half and then replace with the good lower half from the new set.

"Self," I said, "This is going to be a piece of cake. Just unbolt everything, rip off the lower crankcase, swap out the parts needed, and put 'er back together!"

Well, it all seemed easy. I removed all the bolts I thought I needed, removed the clutch and stator covers. Tried prying the crankcase apart; no bueno. So I scratched my head and found a few more bolts I had missed (hidden, under the starter.) Still no luck.

So I poked around, and thought the clutch needed to come off. And in the process I broke a mounting boss off of the clutch hub (that'll teach me..) I finally found the last two bolts I was missing; they were inside the oil filter housing, which had been JB-welded on. Nothing a mallet and a screwdriver couldn't solve!

Good news is that all the journal bearing surfaces look good, transmission and clutch pack look good. Just need that clutch hub.

tl;dr - Crankcase is split apart, but I had to order a new clutch hub and have to figure out how I'm going to remove the old one.