Blue Meanie
19th December 2008, 14:46
I’ve just been told by my LBS that it’s highly likely my RG250’s motor has expired! A couple of months ago it developed a pretty severe misfire on the left hand cylinder and totally lacked any power. I had a play with it checking out the usual suspects and discovered that the coil had been botched. I managed to get hold of a replacement, stuck it on, test rode the bike and everything seemed OK. However, when I tried to use the bike a couple of days later, the misfire had returned - this time on the right hand cylinder! It was easy to tell which cylinder was misbehaving because the exhaust pipe was stone cold while the other side was running nice and hot.
Anyhow, I had to concede that in the absence of a workshop manual or decent tools I’d have to take the bike into my LBS for them to have a look at. I had a chat with the owner/workshop manager and he suggested that the problem may be with an internal crankcase seal that effectively isolates each of the cylinder assemblies. Apparently, this problem is common on RG250’s with high mileage and is terminal. Expecting the worse, I left the bike and told him not to spend more than a couple of hours working on it – just not worth it given the age of the bike!
I waited a few days and got a call saying the bike was done, running fine and I could pick it up when I wanted. Fantastic, I was back on the road. When I asked what was wrong he said it was a culmination of several little things and that he’d replaced a few bits like damaged plug caps and cleaned a few things up and the bike was running fine. I parted with $165 and away I went.
I have to be honest, when I rode away from the shop, I was expecting the bike to go like the clappers but it seemed to be holding back a bit. That said it was running a lot better than it had been!
A couple of days later I got the bike ready for a quick ride and off I went. I got 300m up the road and guess what? The misfire was back again but this time it was back on the left hand side!
Back to the shop it went. They’ve had a play with it but reckon that because the misfire is migrating from one pot to the other, there’s a strong likelihood that the centre crankcase seal has deteriorated or failed totally. In their opinion, it just ain’t worth spending any more money.
Has anyone else ever had this problem on an RG250?
Incidentally, I’m planning to put the rego on hold and have a go at repairing the bike myself. Trouble is, I know that while I’ve got the motor out I’ll want to replace everything else as well and buy myself some decent tools in the process!
What pisses me off the most is that once again, I’ll spend yet another summer fixing my damn bike instead of riding it! Bugger!
Anyhow, I had to concede that in the absence of a workshop manual or decent tools I’d have to take the bike into my LBS for them to have a look at. I had a chat with the owner/workshop manager and he suggested that the problem may be with an internal crankcase seal that effectively isolates each of the cylinder assemblies. Apparently, this problem is common on RG250’s with high mileage and is terminal. Expecting the worse, I left the bike and told him not to spend more than a couple of hours working on it – just not worth it given the age of the bike!
I waited a few days and got a call saying the bike was done, running fine and I could pick it up when I wanted. Fantastic, I was back on the road. When I asked what was wrong he said it was a culmination of several little things and that he’d replaced a few bits like damaged plug caps and cleaned a few things up and the bike was running fine. I parted with $165 and away I went.
I have to be honest, when I rode away from the shop, I was expecting the bike to go like the clappers but it seemed to be holding back a bit. That said it was running a lot better than it had been!
A couple of days later I got the bike ready for a quick ride and off I went. I got 300m up the road and guess what? The misfire was back again but this time it was back on the left hand side!
Back to the shop it went. They’ve had a play with it but reckon that because the misfire is migrating from one pot to the other, there’s a strong likelihood that the centre crankcase seal has deteriorated or failed totally. In their opinion, it just ain’t worth spending any more money.
Has anyone else ever had this problem on an RG250?
Incidentally, I’m planning to put the rego on hold and have a go at repairing the bike myself. Trouble is, I know that while I’ve got the motor out I’ll want to replace everything else as well and buy myself some decent tools in the process!
What pisses me off the most is that once again, I’ll spend yet another summer fixing my damn bike instead of riding it! Bugger!