94 Owner....I think

I just bought a WR250.  The guy wasn't sure of the year (dirt bikes aren't titled in NC). It's a 2 stroke so it's in the mid-90ies age range. Can you folks give me a web site where I can check the vin to see for sure what year I have purchased?  Engine number is 4JW-001692 which matches the vin....so I guess this is the original engine.

Bike is in good overall shape.  Sucked something into the cylinder and scored the piston and cylinder so I'm in for an expensive rebuild there.  I'm assuming I can bore and sleeve the cylinder - haven't seen to many for sale on Ebay.  Is a YZ cylinder/piston the same?  Or being this old would an IT engine be a closer fit?

Thanks in advance

Alan

This forum is dedicated to wr250r and wr250x motorcycles.

Model years 2008-current year only. (only years our bike were made)

4 stroke.

Dual purpose and/or Supermoto.

I doubt you have a wr. Sounds more like a yz.

At any rate, while somebody here might be able to help, this isn't a place you'll get much information from.

Good Luck.

Sounds like you have a 92 (guessing going off the vin) wr250
Its quite similar to a yz.
Get a new piston and replate the cylinder dont put a sleeve in it.

The yamaha 2 stroke section on thumper talk will likely be your best bet for a forum to find info on your bike.

Thanks. I will check in over there.

Finding information is complicated by the change from 2 to 4 stroke engine, and my not knowing the exact year of the bike.

Alan

Does the VIN have 17 digits like bikes do that are imported into the USA?
If so, what's the 10th digit?
That's the one that tells the year.

With a 4JW model code, I'm guessing 1994-1996 WR-250Z.

I must say that Yamaha really did a stupid-ass dumb thing to call our bikes "wr".

Why not a whole new lettering describer?

It's way too confusing and very difficult to keep up with.

You are exactly correct, motokid - it is confusing, especially if you have been dealing with all of the bikes called WR over the years.
 
Actually, the first bikes that the Yamaha factory called WR (that I know of) were the bikes the original poster is asking about.
These were the off-road versions of the then-current YZ-250 motocross bikes (liquid-cooled 2-strokes back then) having changes to make them better for riding off-road away from the motocross tracks such as larger fuel tanks, 18-inch rear wheels instead of 19-inch, a stator that was capable of powering lights (although the lighting equipment was not included with the bike when it rolled off the showroom floor), a round-slide Mikuni carburetor, and the feature that gave the bikes the WR designation:
A Wide Ratio transmission, or at least wider than the YZ-250.
 
1996 was the last model year for the WR-250Z in the USA.
 
In 2001, another WR came out, the WR-250FN.
This bike was based on the 4-stroke YZ-250FN motocross bike of the same year and had similar changes from the YZ that year as did the WR-250Z did a few years earlier:
Bigger tank, 18-inch rear wheel, and it actually came with lights as original equipment.
Once you uncorked the WR-250FN, it was basically a YZ-250FN with the mentioned changes.
I own a 2002 model, myself, the WR-250FP.
 
So, we've had the 2-stroke WR-250Zs from 1991-1996 in the USA, and the 4-stroke WR-Fs (in 250, 400, 426, and now 450cc) since 2001, and these have all been bikes with competition in mind as they were all based on the then-current YZ models of the time.
 
Then, the Yamaha factory debuts another line of bikes designated WR what are, basically, dual-purpose bikes with lots of street riding in mind, sharing zero components or designs with the past WRs, and not being based on any YZ.
I, too, feel these bikes should have been called something else, like XT-250R and XT-250X, or something like that, but the marketing men got the upper hand and decided it would be better for selling bikes.

That was very informative YZetc. Maybe a good model designation for our bikes should have been WC250R/X? The C standing for "commuting" where as R sort of implies "racing".

My first pick has always been something with the designation XT in it, as the XT models have always been the Yamaha factory's 4-stroke dual-purpose bikes since the XT-500C of 1976.