1992 Yamaha yz250

Pulling the bike a part

No major damage but old and crusty.
Rim was cracked, pipe had nice dents, surface rust here and there.

Frame prepped for blasting/paint.

Frame and pipe blasted, pipe dents fixed.. cleaned up nicely.. all the big dents came out so pretty happy with the result.

Poor lighting but the frame was wet painted, I wanted the original color and also to be able to see cracks as the bike will be ridden.

I tried to track down the original code for the paint but no luck. ”Purplish white solid 1” and its abreviations were the only thing to go by but the details/formula for the paint were missing and Yamaha could not help with the details.

”Yam 912” name could be found from one paint chart but PWS1 was apparently used for later models of other Yamahas thru out the years but with varying ”tint” apparently. Eventually the painter found a Toyota paint that, according to him, had the ”correct formula”.. I think it turned out great and the price of 150€ was a steal.

All swingarm and linkage bearings/seals were removed. Old ones were pretty rusty. All bearing surfaces were protected and the swing arm was blasted as well.



Rear rim was welded and rims were painted

Pipe welds were blued, was thinking about painting but I liked the raw look. Clutch, power valve and water pump covers were painted.

Radiators were a bit tacoed but they will have to do for now, cleaned and painted.




New hose kit with a bit of color.
Wiring was cleaned, it was in pretty good shape.


Painted the front brake master cylinder, throttle housing etc. small bits and pieces. New throttle cable and some NOS spare parts like brake lever cover, throttle housing screws and top cover from cmsnl.com

Frame was done by a pro but all other parts and wheels were done by me.

Wheels were painted with a can and have several clear coats, will see how they hold up. Brake cylinder has glossy black, several coats but no clear coat as they looked quite glossy enough without it.

Radiators (and some other bits) plus clutch/power valve cover were painted with a heat resistant matte paint (silver and black), these should harden when heated but have no separate clear coat.

Thanks!
Early 90´s Yamahas have low/mid power with the stock pipe, new FMF and PC pipes are readily available and can change the character quite a bit. For slow hobbyist like myself, its easy power to ride.. someone faster would want to put a PC pipe to make it rev longer with more top end power.

Cmsnl is the premium source for NOS parts, in general, things that are wear items / smaller parts are available, larger parts like cylinder, cases, tanks, air boxes are harder to source. Suspension parts are available and can be serviced easily. Pistons, cranks etc as well. You should be fine with a WR as most YZ stuff will fit, -91 is a bit of an odd year so parts are a bit harder to find.

Heres a list of sites that have a selection of parts, sometimes for unicorns as well.
I have bought from some of these.

Vintage parts
https://www.cmsnl.com/
https://www.enduroklassiker.at/
https://www.v1mx.nl/
http://www.vmx-service.eu/
https://www.jkracinguk.com/

Graphics
https://www.evo-mx.com/

Here are some added, not original parts.
Modern larger foot pegs from https://www.vandijckmx.nl/
They also have oversized pin sets (I bought new originals as there was no play)

Polished the original brake lever


New HEL brake lines. Caliper was cleaned and new pads, pins etc

HEL line in the front as well, new Renthal bar, cant remember the bend but this was new on -06 yz if I remember correctly

As I wrote earlier, this is going to be a bit different, some new parts, some original, some traditional color schemes from the past (more on that later) but not a 100% copy.. it will be a combination.



Shock has new bearings and was serviced, new bump stop. Painted the spring, several coats and clear on top as well. Will see how it holds up.


Wanted to do a carbon silencer (a hint of the color scheme), contacted Arrow but no measurements remained of the old stuff. Will need to do a custom silencer.

As an experiment I painted the silencer with matte heat resistant paint, should harden when heated but might not last. Bike has been run with spikes and silencer has taken hits so the silencer is something I will most likely need to redo at some point.. carbon sleeve most likely, will see.

As a side note, hubs and spokes where cleaned up with steam, wd40 etc but not painted at this stage.
Most likely I will ride the bike and see if the rim weld and paint holds up, excel rims are available so those might be on the list in the future. I cleaned the wheel bearings, new grease and seals to the front.




Swing arm was blasted, bigger marks where removed and the swing arm was cleaned up. Wanted a dull finish so no polishing or paint, just wd40 and abrasive pad. If something was used a lot in the project it was wd40 and 1500 grit abrasive pad, all alu parts and small parts like nuts and bolts really cleaned up well with this combo.

This is sort of the worst of the worst that you can see close up, these will be dealt with later.

Added disc and fork guard, UFO plastics.

Looks like 2 bolts, 2 minutes and done but it was not Needed to change the brake caliper bolt to a longer one (35 to 50mm), created threads inside the front axle (8M) and bought 2 x 7mm wide rubber grommets for the bolts so that the disc guard would sit correctly.

Fork guards needed a bit of cleaning up with a knife, not exactly perfectly molded out of the box but no issue on visible parts

So I finally got the bike to a semi-finished state. Still debating if I should go for all the decals/stickers. Its a version after all with the white frame, silver engine parts/covers, red spring, modern foot pegs.. so not a spitting image of the 1992 factory bike (the -93 would have been closer to factory -92).

Good to see you working on the bike.
Sandman and 450exc pretty much nailed it.
Shock preload looks like its about the default, so normal for the era, measure/adjust preload before installing (forgot myself, extra work on the bike) .. and your dics is toast.