1987 250WR

The swingarm bolt was a bitch to remove. The needle bearings were completly seized and rusted. I guess this was to be expected for a bike of this age that apparently had a very poor maintenance history, but unfortunately the swingarm itself was cracked in multiple places. Even worse, some of the cracks were in areas that couldn't be welded. Proper repair for this swingam would have been cutting off the pivot points and rewelding new round stock and mill/bore back to size. Although on my wish list, I do not have a milling machine, so I again turned to ebay for a used replacement. Although promised no cracks, the replacement did have 1 crack, but it was in an area where I was able to tig weld it.

you wont have the cracking problem as long as the bearings stay good and greased. if they start binding up there will be cracking! i have tigged them as well and they hold up

Start of engine tear down - found a cracked piston skirt on the original sized piston (66.44). A NOS 1st over Mahle was purchased from Andy and sent with the cylinder to PowerSeal for a bore.

The kickstart gear had a crack that started at the bore and was spreading toward the outside of the gear. The crack is too small to see in the photos. Luckily, I had 2 good spares available from my parts collection.

There was minor corrosion in the RH crank chamber, LH was perfect. It cleaned up well though and the minor pits filled with JB weld.

The rest of the bottom end / transmission looked great. The engine was reassembled with all new gaskets, seals, crank bearings and needle bearings for the kickstart gear and idler gear.

hahahaha

Down to the bare frame and then painted.

NOS radiator shrouds are had to find and there are no aftermarket available for the WR/XC (at least not that I am aware of), so I was forced to spend a lot of time refinishing the ones I have. I used brake fluid to strip off the spray paint and a razor blade to scrape a layer of the deteriorated plastic. After that it was wet sanded through various grits up to 2000 and glazed over with a heat gun. I used the same method for the black side panel and airbox cover. There was a you tube video linked here not too long ago showing a similar method.

Anyone know what plastic is used by Acerbis? I have a plastic welder to play with on my RS saddlebag and need to know what rod to use for the 84 side cover I have that has a long split in it.

Looking great! I think mine is in worse shape than yours but will look as good painted hopefully.

nice work so far...enjoying the thread as its my favorite swede!

Thanks for the compliments - I've wanted an '87-'88 ever since they were new and now that I own/ridden one, I think I agree that it is also my favorite... although I only have an '84 and previously a '79 to compare to.

Engine back in frame. I had a water pump guard squirreled away in my parts collection, so that got installed. Can see the new seat cover in the background waiting to be installed.

since you have that spread of years, maybe you also notice that all 3 bikes have a similar feel, yet are different.

where did you find the seat cover?

I don't know about favorite as it is a difficult choice, but I will say it is hands down the best 250 engine out of all bikes I've ridden and definitely a missle in tight rough terrain. The 86 and 87 Honda trx kinda had the same feel to it even though it's in a quad. Very nice build man

Exhaust, shock and radiators on. I had some aluminum tee's for the coolant hoses in my spares, so those were used in place of the original plastic pieces.

I bought the seat cover from Husqvarna-parts. It is a nice cover, but delivery was few weeks... not everything on the site is in stock as stated. Here it is installed along with handlebars and rebuilt brake master.

Is the right radiator a stock one.....the lower outlet pipes are usually a rounded 90 degree elbow & yours looks to be squared off. Also, is that radiator shroud one that you cleaned up? It looks really nice. I've never seen a piece of rubber under the pipe mount strap on the back bone of the frame. that might give it better grip so it won't rotate from vibration. Your bike looks like it is brand new. Great job.