Linkage and valve clearances

[Aaron WildeMember]

After Coffs I thought I would do some maintenance on the CRF250x. There was some surface rust on the exposed parts of the swingarm spacers. STM and you other coastal folk I don’t know how you keep your bikes looking so good in those conditions. :ohmy:

There was a surprising amount of grease on the linkage bearings. So If you buy new I would only grease it after a little while as the job they did was ok. Obviously that would depend on the amount of time you spend footpeg deep in water.

Be a bit careful with the linkage joint that goes on the bottom of the shock. I had needle bearings everywhere as there is no case at all. So I used grease to hold it together and it was all good.

After that was done I had a peek at the valve clearance. They were alright. But I need to get some more accurate feeler gauges as the plus or minus is .03mm. Access is great and did not take long to do it as it shows you in the manual. The manual is not as detailed for assembly and disassemble tasks as a Yamaha one though.

[Nick JacksonMember]

That’s my one concern about the Crf now gone Aaron, I was hopeing the valve clearance were an easy check

What range feeler gauge would you suggest to get ?

[Aaron WildeMember]

Warning the following may warrant an response such as “DER!!!!” But it has to be said. :blink:
The inlet tolerance is 0.12 mm +- 0.03mm so you have to read 0.9mm to 0.15 if it is in tolerance.
Exhaust is 0.28mm +- 0.03mm so you have to read 0.31mm to 0.25mm once again if it is in spec.
I got my feeler gauges from Repco. They start at .05mm and go to to .635mm. I am assuming you cant stack them to get other combinations. :unsure: Some of mine have now got slight burrs on the tips that you can just feel with your fingers and they are blatantly obvious when you try to push it between the cam and the lifter. So I will be looking for some more in the .3 to .05 zone. When working on the WR YZ engines it is hard to get them in if they are not bent but on the CRF it is not as much an angle so not as important. I bent some of mine to make it easier on my YZ. But you can buy them like that. I also find that they are easier to use when they are not connected together with the bolt like you buy them, as the other ones don’t get in the way.

[scott bockingMember]

Aaron wrote:

After Coffs I thought I would do some maintenance on the CRF250x. There was some surface rust on the exposed parts of the swingarm spacers. STM and you other coastal folk I don’t know how you keep your bikes looking so good in those conditions. :ohmy:

Two words mate. TYRE SHINE. Just buy the cheap stuff and cover anything that is vunerable to rust.

STM

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