A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

Happened to drive past a local salvage yard and they had this decent-looking bike sitting there. I spoke with the guys there and they said if no one picked it up by Friday it was going in the shredder. I couldn't leave it and decided to bring her home with me. 

I started with a bike that had no tank, seat, clutch lever, and a broken master cylinder, but for the most part it seemed like the key parts were there, motor, cdi, wheels, etc... They said it had been there almost 5 years or more. When I brought her home I put a jump starter on her and couldn't get it to turn over, and of course no kicker on these bikes. After much hunting and removing of some parts I was eventually able to find that switch wires had corroded on the inside and even though my multimeter said they were good, the connection was bad. I a little cleaning and some time and I had a bike that turned over. 

First carb work. Removed the carb gave it a good clean but the seals were shot and everything was just gross from the old fuel. Time for new accelerator pump parts and a carb rebuild kit. Unfortunately, it was late at night when I was working on the carb and it fell to the floor. I picked her up and thinking the floor met the top of the carb... I thought everything was good. Well, when the rebuild kit arrived I started to work on the jets and sure enough, the impact bent the main jet tube. So back to amazon.

I read on here that some had luck with the PWK carbs so I thought I would take a chance. Found a used carb in the amazon warehouse($7) and some jets($10). It was a larger one but for $7 I couldn't pass just trying it before spending $50 on a new main jet tube. At this point I know the motor does turn over, I have spark and she will run for a moment or two with the original carb. So I stick the PWK carb on the bike using if I remember a 38 pilot and  150 or 155 main(can't remember) and she runs a little better than she did with the original carb. I may still rebuild the original carb but uncertain at the moment.

So after finding cheap controls on amazon and putting them on the bike I was ready to give it a go. To my surprise it road out really well for the few laps I did around the yard. Was able to use 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears without issue. I was not able to get it into neutral while it was running though, is that normal?

So now I'm hunting for a compatible tank and seat combination. Right now I see there is a Suzuki DR650 seat and tank combo on eBay but it's a little out of my budget. I would like to be around $100 USD for both parts.(Wishful thinking I know, but I'm patient.)  I'll probably ask in another area about seats and tank combinations that may work. At the moment I don't plan to make it street legal as I don't have a title or any paperwork or any of the lights, just trail and farm use.

I'll probably need to take the forks off and get a better look at the seals. I'm not 100% certain that oil/grease is from them or something else that spilled on the bike at the yard. Yes there is painters tape holding the CDI in place, I do have the airbox and battery holder but they were off to find the wiring issue, and then of course my lovely "gas tank"