Well... its been quite a while now since I posted anything, so I'd like to say right up front, sorry for lagging on all you guys here and, again, thanks for all the previous info which really helped me get passed some of those tough early moments of disassembly.
I thought I'd pop back in to let you all know, if anyone cares at this point, that I finished the project. I plan to post some photos to picasa soon to show some friends. I'll post a link here if anyone is interested. Unfortunately, shortly after my last post a little over a year ago, I ended up w/ a major family health problem. Suffice it to say, I spent a few months visiting the cancer ward w/ regularity. For someone who has never had someone close go through that, it was pretty hard. Riding, moto projects, etc. were the furthest thing from my mind.
Eventually, I got going again, around last summer and I am happy to say the project is complete! Well, I still have to bleed the brakes and deal w/ the CA DMV which will be ugly and time consuming I'm sure. However, it was kicked over a few weeks ago and sounded GREAT! Forks were disassembled and cleaned w/ new bushings/seals installed. Shock disassembled and cleaned, linkage relubed, etc... but the biggie was the motor. It was my, and my friends, first bottom end project, so we were happy that was a success... well, so far as we can tell to this point w/ just a couple laps around the block.
The corrosion issues were many. In the end, I bought a new right side case cover and all new water pump parts. The old stuff was shot. I soaked the rad hoses in 50/50 mix of CLR and water. Team Calamari Racing in Salinas, CA handled clean up of the h20 pump cover, cylinder and head h20 jackets w/ bead blasting... also bored the cylinder for me and balanced the crank. Myler's Radiators in UT cleaned my rads out and welded on new fittings. Found some parts on ebay, ordered most straight from Honda... many parts are still available, though some are long, long gone.
In the end, I have a pretty darn clean, nice running (so far) 1987 CR125R motocross bike. I look forward to getting it stickered so I can get it out for some trail time and start dialing it in. I hope to be able to race it in a vintage class for it at some point... though early searches haven't indicated much availability for it. I also have much more mechanical knowledge than before I started; partially attained through trial and error, reading, etc and partially through talking w/ the various people I contacted throughout this project... and some of that was here at dirtrider.net in the Vintage forum. Thanks again for all the input guys! Happy to post the pic link if anyone would like to see (once I get those pix uploaded).
@SMMWest: Sorry to hear you had to sell that 85 CR you'd worked on. Having recently finished mine project, I have an new perspective on what it means to restore one of these bikes. Couldn't have been easy, but like 2T'erfun, I think you made the right move given the circumstance. I'm sure another will come around... funny thing is, now that this one is essentially finished... I have this weird feeling like I need to wrench and caught myself cruising Craigslist for a broken down MX'er to work on, and they are out there! ...better just get this one out on the dirt first, eh?
Thx again to all. Enjoy the ride...
