Khunangkaro

At my SR250 When stand for a while the oil comes down from the filter. This makes a lot difference to the level after running some time. Wait for your intro. Welcome & take care.

That head gasket looks very wet. My simple (unexperienced) question is: Is the head flat, and did you use a new head gasket? I know from car engines that after lifting the head it usualy has to be machined flat and anyway must use new gasket. Good luck.

Sure, you can bypass. Use a thick wire or just any thick piece of iron will do. Best to first fix one thick wire on the lowest one of the solenoid terminals. This is neutral, connected to startmotor. The upper one goes to battery (+); put there some thick wire on but carefull that its blank never touches the frame (-). When you connect these wires you get sparks (firm touching = less sparks) and the startmotor turns if not at fault. If startmotor turns then solenoid is at fault. Repair might be easier, much cheaper and faster then finding a new one. Just use some time, solder, a smooth file and effort. You unscrew the nuts of terminals. Unsolder the two thin wires from the small bushes that go inside; unsolder more and pull separating the solenoid so that the inner wires come loose from these bushes. (Solder all clean, so you can easily put back later) Take things apart. You can turn upside down the contact plates. File (careful) all contacts flat and clean. (If you like, finish with rubbing paste or very fine sandpaper flat on piece of glass.) Put all back together, guiding inner wires into copper bushes, solder full and solder outer wires back on. I did this one month ago. My solenoid is now as new, good for another 30 years. .................... This repair won't do no harm, but I am afraid your startmotor needs attention. .................... Take of left footrest, shift pedal and carter cover. Undo wire and clean contacts (also at solenoid and battery). Try start with all wires connected, clean and greased contacts. If NO Start. Repair startmotor. If you take off the startmotor its sprocket will drop into right cartercover. So you must take this off. Drain oil first. Take off right footrest, unscrew oil filter and remove carter cover. Keep brake pedal down on hold. On right side you must (let) make new gasket. Replace oil seal in right cover. On left and right cover replace all old screws with stainless allen screws.

When I put the gasket into water it swells up to 1.7 mm, becomes moch mor flexible and shows fibres and centered lining, it can be pressed back to 1.3 mm. Oil does not have this effect. If pressed water comes out. I wonder what happens... Can this easily evaporate out of carter?

Did the clutch a year and few thousand Km ago. There was some dripping of oil after repair, but most came from seals on left side. Replaced except the highest one on the main axle behind the flywheel a few months ago when I had to repair the starter motor. Because its sprocket drops into the right crank case, I took this off and put all back with a thin paper gasket (self made) and liquid bond only on outside. I knew it might not seal, but this repair was 1200 Km away from home where I thought to have a good thicker blue gasket extra made in Bangkok the year before. The man who made this was right when he said that I could not keep and use this blue one over time (I don't know why, as it was carefully sealed in plastic bag and never bend). Anyway, Back home fed up with some oil dripping, I put on the extra blue gasket with silicone bond on each side and when I pulled the bolds again with right torque the next day.... it started to drip furious. Take off again cleaned and dry, put on with only three bond, which is very liquid thus thin and quickly dry (it advices to put on in one minute, impossible). So now it realy drips (20 cc per day). Living up-country outside small town 700 Km from Bangkok, I could buy a carton colored 1.3 mm thick gasket sheet feeling like paper, but not, quite tough to stretch. The man said to put it into water; I guess after cutting? Would it be better to put into oil or keep dry? Use three bond on either side or none? The gasket reads "GUAMO TOR G". Cannot find this on the net. Thanks for any experienced advice.

Look up in the manual. Little ticking are valves: adjust. Rattling is loose distribution chain: adjust. Mine has irregular ticks (like electrical sparks) at low revs, mostly when cold starting. Guess this is/are sticking piston rings loosening. I do not care. Also have a slight knock down, when starting cold. Stops after 15 seconds or so. Guess this is main bearing loose/wear dry with little oil when starting up. Just carefully wait till oil is pumped there. These engines are thirty or so years old. So i do not drive faster than 100 km/hr (~6000+ revs) and usually keep it around 80. Drive most of the time with two up. My wife weights only about 55 kg, but it makes a difference with driving one up. Where we live the roads/country are/is almost flat. On very steep hills it was hard work in first gear when we made a 1200 km trip to North Thailand.

I have a picture of self made tool. It worked easy. Even the smallest seal on the shift axle just popped out in one second. How to get the picture here??

Welcome as new members, but... Please... Please... STICK TO THE TOPIC. puddle of oil I appreciate your useful discussions, and it would be smart to open these as new topics with its specific heading like: XS400 VIN? XS400 Manuals? Is win win. Good luck.

Thanks for your post Daryl, I have same question although not yet a puddle of oil. On my SR250 I am loosing oil when I fill it up to high level. Drips out while hanging low on the side stand. Dirty mess. Still driving..... But want to change the seal on the drive axle and that on the gear shift. I think of first cutting the rubber and get rid of the spring, then carefully drilling one or more holes in the metal seal casing. Then try to push the side inward with very small (watch) screwdriver and some other things. Hope it will come loose that way to easy pry out. I ones got the seals out of the front shocks by first carefully filing the rim with very small key files and then braking the rim as above. But I must say, it took me a few hours and those seals are much wider and easier to get at without disturbing axle. Any other ideas are welcome. Good luck to us.

Hi Wabba, I don't know about your cutting out problem, wish you solved it. (Did you check the ignition relais under the seat?) I am most interested in your and anybody elses experience with the drive sprockets. I need new ones badly. I ride now 15/40. It pulls terific up to 4th gear, but is weak in 5th. I do not get it over 100 km/hr. At 5000 revs it goes 70 km/hr. And I use between 28 and 33 km per liter. (I usually ride two up and my wife feels fine if I not go faster than 80. Which is reasonable safe on Thailand traffic. You must drive very defensive here, so I don't mind not to go faster than 100.) From pictures in the manual I count 16/46. Would that be less economic? Or.....?

On my SR250 I need to replace (secondary) DRIVE CHAIN and SPROCKETS. The drive sprocket now has 15 teeth. The driven sprocket now has 40 teeth. The drive chain has 98 links now. When driving in 5th gear it shows 5000 revs at 70 km/hr Looking in the manual I found: Page 3-2: Drive sprocket (picture) 16 teeth. (On engine drive axle) Page 5-4: Driven sprocket (picture) 46 teeth. (On rear wheel) Page 7-8: Specs Secondary drive chain:: Type 520 DS :: 102 Links. My bike has plenty of pull and used 28 up to 33 km per litre when I drove over 1000 km with two up (73+53kg) and some luggage (~20? kg), from Eastern to Northern Thailand. Does anybody know factory recommended specs? Or can anybody share experience from use of any distribution(s)?

In the manual I read: Headlight "sealed beam" 50W/35W. With mine there is a plane reflector and it is not worn, with a complcated lense. The H4 bulb in place looked worn and gave no good light. So I replaced with OSRAM Bilux H4 NIGHTBRAKER 60W/55W. ("90% more light" ??) The low beam shines OK, but the high beam goes everywhere except where I expect it. What might be the right bulb???

The right side fork gives up oil. Like to replace the oil seal & dust ring. The dimensions are not given in the manual. Does anybody know, please? PS Few weeks ago I put fresh oil in the tubes. Before that I had a hard time to get the rusty stoppers out on top. Forced them down with a bamboo rod and hammer just enough to free the clip. Hardly moved...... .....UNTIL next morning.... When I loosened the upper telescope clamps the stoppers rocketed into the air LOL I learned my lesson as there is no such advice in the manual

The pushrod and ball look fine and oily. So I took off the too badly worn thrust plate and all and found a shop to show the whole assembly. They found me new clutch plates from Japan but could not find new thrust plate. Than they let it weld on and machined cheaper than new, looks like a very well done job. When put all together it sticks solid with minimal pressure. Hope to fix it on the bike to-morrow. Also have a new spring (made for free) to replace the weak one on the lever. Guess this will all do well. (Cannot start yet waiting two weeks now for modified carb replacement)