Kawasaki Z250 engine back in the frame
Steve and Chairman Phil re-fitted the engine back into the frame, I then assisted by setting up the contact points using nothing more complex than a spanner (to turn the crank), a screw driver to loosen the contact point screws and a piece of glossy paper to slip between the points to tell when they are beginning to open. This is not very scientific and will only give an approximation of the point at which they open. As we don’t yet have a timing buzzer or multimeter, it’s the best we’ve got and the timing should be good enough to get the engine running. Once running a strobe light could be useful to help with final adjustments. In days of old a cigarette paper was the tool of choice if you didn’t have something posher! However you need to be careful that the surface of the points are free from pits. In other words a build up of metal transferred from one contact to the other by the arcing of the electrical current. Pitting will make it impossible to set the correct gap and of course will rip your fag paper. The contact that doesn’t have the build up of metal will have a hole in it. Sometimes the build up can be filed off with a small flat file to get some more mileage out of the contact points. As a matter of interest we have resorted to using the contact points that came with the engine because the aftermarket points do not fit properly. Getting them to fit properly is going to be a case of filing some material off the foot of each contact point to reduce the amount they open. A good example of why it’s sometimes best to stick with the genuine article. One of the most common causes of misfires and pitting of the points is failure of a condenser (s ). Typically you will see a bigger spark between the contact points than you will see at the spark plug.
On the chassis side of things, I was able to remove the fork seals from the replacement forks with lots of careful applications of force using a large tyre lever. If you are doing this at home, make sure that you pad the gap between the lever and the fork leg so that you don’t damage the fork leg when applying leverage.
Things to do next time...
- Locate the small plate with the rectifier/regulator attached.
- Install the airbox and check the condition of the air filter and connector rubbers.
- Re-fit the carburettors.
- Make up the wiring to fit between the contact point leads, condensers and the ignition coils and connect the ignition coils to their live feeds.
- Re-fill the engine with oil.
- Check the valve clearances.
- Possibly maybe – wire up a battery.
- Possibly maybe – Fire it up.