Rebuild or Re-Cycle with a little help from a Rabbit?
Just like a broken down racehorse, sometimes it’s time to put them out to pasture. With regard to dirt bikes, it means pushing or dragging the old beast to the backyard or strategically placing a pile of parts in mismarked boxes in the corner of the garage to get lost in the abyss and tossed out in another decade.
There is a cycle of life with dirt bikes and there comes a time when they simply break or the engine goes and it often costs more to fix than the entire bike is worth running. This is especially true with modern four-strokes.
Just the other month a buddy that used to race, but still rides his 1997 Honda CR250R smoker, said that his engine finally let go. He called a few shops and most said they would not even consider taking in an engine or dirt bike that is over 10 years old. A few independent shops wanted over a thousand bucks to rebuild the engine with parts and labor.
Not that the ’97 CR250R was the best bike that year, yet Honda’s were built very solid for the time and the engine was amazing. This bike was, and still is, in good shape—except the crank just took a crap. I took on the project because I wanted to see how difficult it would be to rebuild a bike nearly 20 years old. The answer is, surprisingly, very easy. Yes, most shops will not touch it with a 10-foot pole but if you are a fairly decent mechanic, it’s possible for the average Joes or Josephines to do the job themselves.
We discovered very quickly that a division of Hot Rods, Pivot Works, Vertex, Hot Cams, and Cylinder Works, called WrenchRabbit.com, still stocks a complete line of engine components to do a complete rebuild for models going back decades. There are even some bearings that crossover for bikes as old as the ’70s. For most rides going back 20 years, they offer cranks, crank rebuild kits, gasket kits, piston kits, bearing kits and seal kits.
After cleaning up and disassembling the engine, we realized that except for the crank, most of the components, as well as the transmission, were still in very good shape. There are several approaches we could have taken depending on the build. The bare minimum would have been to simply order a rod kit, crank bearings and seals, and a gasket kit from Wrench Rabbit to just get the bike back to running. The only issue is you still need to find a shop that will press and rebuild the crank itself. Second approach would have been to get a Hot Rods crank, crank bearings, seals and minimum gaskets from Wrench Rabbit. Then we discovered they offer a complete rebuild kit that has everything to freshen up the engine. Because this bike will probably be ridden for another 20 years, we went for the complete rebuild. This kit pretty much came with everything including a new crank, piston kit, complete bearing, seal and gasket seal kit for the entire engine including the water pump.
The complete kit retails for just over $550 but you can probably find it online for a better price. Or, if you have a good rapport with your local shop, they may offer a deal or you can ask if they will match online prices. Remember, if you are on a budget, Wrench Rabbit has several angles to get the old beast running again.
The kit was totally complete and there were even a few duplicate gaskets and parts because some of the individual component packets crossover when combined in the complete kit, at least in our situation. Unless you need a clutch, tranny parts or something in the power-valve is broken, the kit comes with everything you need to completely rebuild the engine.
There are a few tricks and a special tool or two you might need to do the job, we will cover that when we do the second part of the story about the process and how easy it was to do the job with mostly standard tools in the toolbox. (Yes metric). You will need more than your grandpa’s ball-peen hammer and channellocks—just saying!
Our buddy was ready to roll his old bike into the backyard to rust and corrode away until we let him know that for about $550, or maybe even less, (if you want do a minimum rebuild) we could get his bike fired back up. There are always options, ordering a one-stop shop kit seemed to be the best bet and Wrench Rabbit is what helped save the life of a 20-year-old Honda CR250R.
LINKS: www.wrenchrabbit.com
