My rusting hulk has become a roadworthy daily driver, weather
permitting. This originally yellow, now blue-something, tr250
has gone from 10 years in a barn to the highway. It's not a
pretty site, but is as much fun to drive as anticipated.
I concentrated on just making it safe: tie rod ends, lower
steering knuckle, brakes and gas line leaks. I also did
the head (new valves, not the hardened type, springs) and
rebuilt the carbs.
After it passed smog (1%) and was licensed for California ($48), it
immediately started running badly. If it wasn't fully choked, it
wouldn't idle. I'd reset the carbs (ZS 175cdse) a little richer and
it would run fine for a few minutes then fail. It looked like
the firewall carb was failing. It sometimes was dripping gas,
but that didn't really explain the symptom. The big problem
was a leaky manifold gasket. It was a too-thin paper gasket
from a Head Gasket Set from M*ss. Replacing that helped
and made finding the "sinker" in the carb much easier to
diagnose. Replacing the float with one that didn't have a hole
in it solver that problem. I now have two carbs and 6 cylinders.
This was spend-the-minimum plan, drive it for awhile and see
if I should spend more later.
Currently it leaks at the pinion seal at the rear end and possibly
the timing cover. Also, there appears to be 4 welds for
supporting the mount points for the differential. One of
those is broke. It sounds just like u-joints going.
Worse, there is a racketball ball-sized rust hole in the frame
by the left rear. Does it make sense to weld a piece of
steel across this member?
--
Don Thorp djt@craywr.cray.com
Cray Research, Inc. dthorp@fnoc.navy.mil
Fleet Numerical Met. and Ocean. Center Phone: (408) 656-4649
Building 700
Monterey, CA 93943-5005
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