"Fresh again" overhaul (valves, bearings, sliders, sus.)

Hey guys,

I came to a sad realization that the little guy ('08 WR250X+X/R wheels) needs a lot help today as it bounced, wheezed, and creaked along the trails.

I bought the bike with 12k on it from the previous owner, and found it had been in a major crash and neglected pretty badly (tweaked subframe, butchered electricals, really old oil and dirty air filter/throttle body full of fine dust).

It's sitting at around 24k now, and here's what I was planning on looking at:
1) Head, wheel bearings
2) Valve check (also want to take a look at valve ends and piston/cylinder for signs of wear and tear from dirt getting past filter-- not sure how to check valves for good compression)
3) Chain sliders seem to be completely worn out, it was run at stock gearing until I got it, at which point I switched it to 14/48 gearing.
4) Suspension needs to be serviced, the shock feels blown out, forks leak from time to time but stop leaking once I clean out the seals (forks and shock seem like they bottom out on landings).
5) Swingarm/shock bearings?

The motor feels a little tired as well, but I'm crossing my fingers that it's just the valve clearances and not a prematurely worn top end.

Would you guys recommend anything else? Any tips on anything here or otherwise is really appreciated, and replacement part suggestions (for chain slider, especially-- $100 for Yamaha upper and lower?!) are also really appreciated. I want to be able to ride this little thing as long as I can :).

Thanks guys!

24k is alot of miles on a bike thats been neglected by the PO.

I'd put a set of rings in the motor too if it was mine, if you found dirt in the intake im surprised they lasted this long.

You may be able to just regrease the rear suspension bearings and not buy new ones, you wont know untill you tear it down tho, some times they fall apart on tear down.

Theres a cheaper aftermarket chain slider avalible now, check out the chain slider thread to find out about it.

Thanks BigLake!

I assume a cylinder re-plate/hone/new piston+rings and the valve job is the order of the day?
I took a look at the slider thread and they mentioned that the two aftermarket sliders aren't compatible with the WR250R, am I looking in the wrong place?
Thanks again :).

You can get a slider from rocky mountain atv in the oem section for under 50 bucks.  I just bought my second one.  Not too expensive compared to most other things you will be doing to the bike.  Well worth doing it right.

Slider is $37.79 from www.yamahasportsplaza.com.  This is consistently the least expensive place for OEM parts I have found.

Thanks guys, just picked one up :).

What would you recommend I have done to the forks/shocks? I contacted Dave at Fastbikes and asked him about a revalve/fork seals.
I'm also looking around for a big bore or a good spot to rehone/lap valves to OEM specs, open to suggestions.

definitely do the rear suspension linkages if it has not been apart.....i found the smallest bearing on mine looked burnt   

theMISSIONARY wrote:

definitely do the rear suspension linkages if it has not been apart.....i found the smallest bearing on mine looked burnt   

Good to know   thanks! I feel like mine's may look a little worse...

Sounds like the original chain slider. Take a close look at the underside of the swingarm for chain damage. Not uncommon on these bikes. Careful with the needle bearings in the linkages, they can fall all over the place.

duelist13 wrote:

theMISSIONARY wrote:

definitely do the rear suspension linkages if it has not been apart.....i found the smallest bearing on mine looked burnt   

Good to know   thanks!  I feel like mine's may look a little worse...

that was at 40,000 something km's tho