Saturday February 22nd 2025

Kawasaki Z250A1 Scorpion

Steve, Don and there able assistants work to complete the project. There work included installing a second hand throttle from, all things, a KZ550. They also installed new handlebar grips, a new gear change lever, a new rear tank rear mounting rubber and new aftermarket fuel tap. When it came to time to start the bike there wasn't the slightest sign of life. Various things were considered such a loss of spark, faulty condensers etc. Because the bike had run at last year’s Llandovery bike weekend and its engine and carbs hadn’t been touched recently. It had to be something else. Checking for fuel in the carburetors revealed that there wasn’t a great deal of it. Disconnecting the fuel feed from the new fuel tap revealed that no fuel was coming out of it, despite a fair amount of fuel having been added to the tank. The fact that the problem was with the fuel tap was confirmed when the bike started and ran perfectly drawing its fuel from a remote fuel tank. At the next session we would have to have a look inside the new tap to see if it could be made to work.

Having welded the seat pan up to remove rust ridden bits, Keiran set about spraying the seat pan and then installing the foam and seat cover to finish the seat off.

Kawasaki KZ550 Limited.

AJ and others attempted to get the bike’s carbs balanced but it steadfastly refused to run on all four cylinders. The exhaust pipe for number 1 cylinder failed to get hot at all. To date the following things have been tried..

Carburetors stripped and clean and then stripped again once the problem with number one cylinder reared its ugly head - Nothing out of the ordinary found.
New spark plug installed in number 1 cylinder - No change.
Compression checked - all four cylinders producing around 120 PSI.
Operation of coils by switching No1 and 4 coil with number 2 and 3 coil - No change.
Run with neon plug showing the spark continuing on the non running cylinder.

This was proving to be a difficult problem to trace but trace it we would.

KZ550 Ltd proving to be a pain.

Yamaha Majesty 125.

Wade had kindly purchased a brand new generator stator for Yer majesty. Wade installed the new stator. Whereupon, the spark returned and after several years of non-running Yer Majesty sprang into life. Which just goes to show that sometimes buying used spares is not necessarily the best thing to do. It then remained for the bodywork to be re-installed. Wade seemed confident that he could work it all out.

Jiailing 125 trials bike project.

Guy did some final checks on this one. A new fuel tap had been installed, eventually curing the fuel leak. Before the leak could be fully stopped a new O-ring was needed between the fuel tank and the new fuel tap. A rear brake leaver adjuster bolt was found and fitted to the frame, meaning that the rear brake pedal was no longer resting on the clutch cover. An old piece of split pin was tapped out of the bolt securing the rear brake plate to the rear brake torque arm. This allowed a new split pin to be installed. Various nets and bolts were double checked for tightness. Now all that remained before the bike could be trialled out properly, was for someone to upholster the metal plate that will form the seat base. Luckily a new member had visited us for the first time that day and told us of his upholstering skills. Hope this would see the seat completed at the next meeting. The bike fired up easily and once the choke was off ran very nicely indeed. This gave Graham the chance to let out his inner hooligan belting up and down next to the chapel. The bike’s front needed truing up and some spokes may have needed replacing but because it would not be ridden at speed wouldn’t pose a too much of a problem. Re-spoking the front wheel could wait until we had had some fun with the bike.

Jialing ready to ride all bar the seat.

Other activities…

Andy continued putting the finishing touches to the seat base for Jon’s Ducati single racer. Hopefully Jon would be able to attend next time armed with a new ignition system. Rory continued his painstaking work to prepare his fuel tank ready for spraying. Finally, committee members checked each of the club’s toolboxes to check they were still fully stocked. Some tools had to be shuffled from box to box and one or two items would have to be tracked down but nothing too expensive. Mal continued his work to tidy up the paintwork of his Honda Vigor. Peter went through the boxes of hand tools and other bits that had been donated to us through the generosity of the family of the man whom the tools had belonged to before he passed away. Peter sorted them out into lots ready to offer them for sale to club members for a nominal amount.