250-500cc 2012 WR360 Project

Well gentlemen, it was a productive evening.



I did not take a bunch of pictures.

Drilling the cases
Piece of cake. I honestly expected it to be a bit more eventful, but it went really well. I started the holes with a 7/8" twist bit until I had it about a 1/4" deep. Hindsight, I could have stopped with that one at about 1/8". At that point I could switch to my 3/8" Dewalt (versus a more cumbersome 1/2" drill that is older than the 360). With the 3/8" drill I had a 7/8" hole saw in it. I found that cut much smoother and faster than the twist bit. Most importantly, it did not grab. Afterwards, I cleaning out all the shavings and pushed the bushings in. They needed a tap with the hammer each. So, the holes stay tight enough.

Putting the case back in the frame
This was even less eventful, it dropped right in, I got the swing arm lined up and pushed the bolt through with a bit of wiggling and adjustment alignment of the parts. The engine is big in the frame but fitment is as would be expected by two engines so closely related.

Intake boot
Since the engine dropped in so nicely, I figured I'd take some time and see about opening up the intake a bit as Walt had shown way back. After searching for it, I found his pictures in a TT thread. I wasn't really sure how much I should try to open it up, so I kept it pretty small and matched the two pieces.

Cooling hoses
I had already picked up a few feet of 5/8" coolant hose and the lower hose from a 2008 250, the plan was to remove the thermostat set up on the 300, but this project came along, so I installed these tonight. You can see in the picture above if you look real close. The bottom hose is right on the powervalve, so it fits pretty tight, but it fits. The top hoses I cut at 12.5" inches in length and that seems to let them do their needed bends without and kinking.

Lectron Fitment
This part had me a bit panicked. I had to undo the top bolt of the shock to get the carburetor in place. It's a tight fit, so I'm glad I had already decided to use the Lectron, as I should never have to take it out. I can still access the top of the carb to get in and adjust the metering rod.

Countershaft Sprocket
The 360 had a 15 tooth sprocket on it. That's nice and all, but the largest you can fit on the 300 frame is a 14 tooth. I found some 13s I had laying around until I realized the spline is different and they will not fit. Looking through the box of extras from the 360 I came across a 14 tooth, score! On it went, I now have clearance for the sprocket to not have to worry about the swing arm.

Clutch cable
This is my current problem. The cable from the 360 had a 90 degree bend which is needed to clear the water hose. That cable is about 8 inches shorter than the 300 cable, so I was messing with routing it along the left hand side, straight up. That's when I realized it had a much different cable end that wouldn't work with my ASV setup. I grabbed the perch and lever from the 360 and realized that that lever was way too long to fit my cut down bars and my Cycra probends. I have a spare 300 cable, so I'm going to see about pulling the end off that, shortening the sleeve a bit, and putting the bend on it. Hopefully that can get me by for the time being, and I will get measurements from that so I can try to get a terminator cable from Motion Pro made up.

CDI and Coil
There isn't a good mount in my opinion on the 300 from to fit these electronics. I'm working on making up a bracket. Nothing fancy, but I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

Great thread mate.

I will do the same this year.

I have a snapped ACL so a year off to tinker.

I found my 360 clutch to be very hard work so I am going for a Rekluse and LH Rear brake setup instead. Got used to riding my mates 525 and its fantastic.

Cheers for the efforts in the thread as they will come in very handy!

Stu

Does anyone have experiences with pulling the cable end off and replacing? It sounds like really not recommended, but I'm certain it's possible.

I've got an inquiry into Motion Pro concerning a #10-0154 with a 90 degree bend added. If they don't have a cable meeting those needs, then it will be a while probably for a custom one, but I'll eventually have that.

I was thinking I might try to race this beast this weekend, so if anyone has suggestions on that, I'd like to hear them.

you in about taking the nipple off then putting the 90 tube over?
its possible just heat the nipple up and force it down the cable you may be able to pulll it straight off but i push it furyher down then re twits the freyd wires together then with it still hot pull the nipple off and bash all the solder off it. if that makes sence.

p.s. didnt realsie the swing bolt was such a close fit thought it was huge in my head.. good effort tho keep it up

hope you can kick the motor over

I only started it 3 times prior to pulling it apart, but it was a piece of cake. Same technique as the 300. Even started it 2 of those times in Tevas.

Ktm guys drill out older 200 cases all the time to retrofit the motors into newer 125 frame.

I'll just post this here.



I'll update on details tomorrow, I'm too giddy now.

And sorry about the darkness of the cell phone video, you really can't see that it's a 360 in there. I'll try to get a better one tomorrow, but hey, can't beat a one kick start. First time that engine has been started with a Lectron on it, needs a bit of adjustment, but super stoked.

Did the 82kdx 175 into 88kx 125 had to cut and weld the frame so could fit the motor. Was a great blend bike was a blarst to ride. Sad thing sold bike in the 1990 .Still kick my self hay.

you checked your compression? that started like a 125... mines a tough bugger but i am about 5'6"

I'm 5'9"...it kicks about the same as the 300 did with a fresh top end. Much more kick than a 125. I'll still check the compression, but by the foot it's on par with what it ought to be. With it being up an a stand like that there's no kick going down through the suspension, and no problem getting the right angles to it, so that makes it easy.

I had a 92 still have a 93 and bought a 99
the 92 and 93 are easy to kick the 99 is a bugger
after 97 the 360 top end changed, not sure I like it everywhere, bit flat on top but pulls harder below 1200
if I had to choose between the 93 and 99 I would keep the 93
easier to start, broader power band, feels more balanced

the funny thing is my 93 and 99 have the same cable but according to Motion Pro the 99 should have the straight not 90deg end

Ha, that's good stuff, there is no way that cable could work without having that bend.

The cable I'm using now is the 2012 cable, with about an inch of the cable sheathing cut (past the metal end that slips in the hole), and the bend put on from the 92 cable. I'm a bit sketchy on the end of the cable. So, hopefully that will hold for the next two weekends. I'm going to take measurements off of it, then send them over to Motion Pro.

The 360 with the ASV lever set up is a stiff pull. There's no getting around that. With the other lever from the 360, which was probably 8 inches, the pull was super easy. The power of physics! But of course it was unusable for me. The perch was all the way down on the taper of the handlebar, and still hitting my handle bars.


Anyway, the other bits of info that are important for this swap:

1. Exhaust - The entire 360 exhaust had to be used. The 360 pipe has a long stinger, and does not bend to an angle that works with a 300 silencer. The silencer that was on the 360 looks to be a universal fmf turbine core that had the pipe to plug into the stinger from another pipe welded on. It then had a clamp that I could move around to bolt it up to the 300 frame. This is not an ideal setup and I'm going to continue to look for a better solution. The '92 pipe is a tough one to find, so depending on how awesome this thing is, I'll probably look into modifying a 300 pipe. I have some racer friends who happen to be machinists, so I'll see if I can get one to make me the piece that slips over the flange on the cylinder. That way I should be able to mix and match silencers to fine tune things.

2. Earlier when I mentioned that a 14 tooth sprocket was as large as you can go on the front, The clearance is tight, and my chain slider is worn. It's possible with new chain slider you would be limited to a 13 tooth.

My project 360 had a pretty stiff pull and I found that playing with the adjustments on the pressure plate to get the actuator arm close to perpendicular with the cable helped quite a bit.

The other option is one of these ez-pull thingies:



Or you could lengthen the actuator arm if it won't interfere with anything.

The arm seems to come pretty close to the intake, so I don't think lengthening it is an option.

There's always the other option...

The dude has a severe case of arm pump

Ok, just put the rest of the bits on, tuned the carb up (I actually had to lean it out compared to the 300) and road it around the neighbor.

Holy crap. That is a beautiful bike. I seriously need to repack that silencer, but it'll have to wait until after this weekend's test race. This thing is going to be awesome. The 300 is a sweet setup, but dang, why'd they quit making the 360?

The clutch is completely manageable, it seemed quite a bit stiffer yesterday, but after the engine was warm, it started to feel closer to the 300's.

This is great. Im looking forward to vids and more pics