I fear I may have ruined a classic...

[greasyjohn]

Hello, just joined, glad to be here.

For years now, my brother's 1981 Yamaha XT250 has been rotting in the backyard, housing spider colonies and starting to rust.

So about a month ago I decided it was time to give it some well deserved attention and started disassembly. At this point, I've pulled out the engine and removed its cylinder head with hopes of rebuilding it and upgrading the piston, valves and so forth.

Today I called the nearest dealer and checked on just about everything I could think of, and lo and behold, most of it's been discontinued. Their advice was to scour aftermarket companies and ebay. So far I haven't had much luck.

My biggest questions are:

-Does anyone know if there are any aftermarket companies making gaskets for this engine?
-Do I have any options for performance pistons and rods, cam and valves etc?
-Do any aftermarket exhaust systems/carburetors exist, or are there compatible universal parts?

This bike was extremely faithful in its heyday and I badly want to bring it back to its former glory. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[schmanman]

www.bikebandit.com

www.denniskirk.com

and keep an eye on ebay!

 

[spw1993]

go to thumpertalk.com and go to the vintage section there's a guy building one of these motors and putting it in a yz frame I think the title is yz/xt build up

 

[podfish]

I've been able to get parts from the Yamaha dealer for my 81 TT250 without much trouble. I think the last part I ordered was the throttle-cable pair.. and I got valves and springs easily enough a few years ago.

'course I'm just using it as-is, for tooling around the hills a bit, so I only care about the basic functional parts. I'd guess that it'd be harder to get cosmetic parts, and performance parts would be tough. Although 'performance' and '81 Yamaha 4-stroke' aren't really two compatible ideas....