Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Aluminum Frame Conversion (AFC)
2017 KX250F - 2004 KX250
umberto:
I'm out of practice on taking pictures. I promise more are on the way.
umberto:
I had to order some motor mount bolts for the CR cradle, and just happened to look at the 2001 CR radiator fiche. Low and behold, there was the perfect upper fitting! I then did a little more digging and found a fitting on a RMZ 250 that might work for the water pump. If they both work, that should wrap up my radiator issues.
umberto:
I got the frame and stuff down to my buddy today. Thankfully my wife isn’t crazy about Valentines Day, so she let me have the day off. After digesting all the specifics, he said, “I can’t really get started on it for a while.” It has been a while on this project, so I wasn’t too disappointed, but I was hoping for a fairly quick turnaround. Especially since he’s so quick on other things. Then he said, “I can’t really get to it until Monday.” :-o
Now we should start picking up steam.
umberto:
I got a little work done today on a few issues that aren't related to the frame. The first is the fuel tank. Because it is fuel injected, there is a large hole in the tank for the fuel pump and no petcock. I am going to fabricate an aluminum plate to cover the hole and mount a remote petcock from a 2008 KX450F.
I decided to do it in two pieces that will be welded together after I am done. The reason I did this was to keep the threads that mount the remote petcock from being exposed to gas. That way I don't have to weld over the threads to seal them, possibly damaging them. Anyway, I took measurements and cut out a circle from cardboard, marking the holes for the mounting bolts. I then cut out a piece to mount the petcock.
Here is the finished petcock mount. I chamfered the edge to the gas will be able to flow a little better. The hole in the larger piece will be sized to match.
I also got my radiators and hoses in today, and was able to look at hose routing. One issue you run into with the newer radiators is that the hoses are 16 mm instead of 18 mm like the older bikes. Also, the fittings bolt directly in to the head and water pump, unlike the old ones that attach with hose clamps.
Thankfully some older model bikes came to the rescue. The 2001 CR 250 had a top fitting that is 18 mm at the bottom and 16 mm at the ends. It is shaped exactly like the stock KXF as well. Score!
Here it is in the hoses:
The bottom one is a little bit trickier. It has a pretty funky bend to it. I found this one from a 2012 RM250Z. I think it will work if I flip the left side radiator hose and tweak the bottom hose a bit. I'll have to wait until I get the frame back to be sure.
That's all for now. Hopefully I will have the frame back in the next couple of weeks and will be able to post more updates.
umberto:
I have a couple more areas that I will need to tackle before the frame gets back. One of these is the triple clamps. The bike came with the stock 2017 triple clamps, but they are too large for my 2009 KX250F forks. I could use the existing Ride Engineering clamps that I have, but they are 25 mm offset versus the stock 2017 offset of 22.5 mm. I really want to use the 09 forks, because they were redone by Stillwell Performance and work really well. I checked with Pro Circuit Racing to see what clamps they had, and I noticed they only offered one set of clamps for the 2017 in 22 mm offset. Thankfully, Ride Engineering offers a set for the 2009s that is 22 mm as well. I pressed the 2017 stem into the clamps and the problem was solved. I bought a set in silver finish, as I might be going for a Pro Circuit theme with the Graphics and plastic. I keep going back and forth between that and stock look. Oh well, got to have the bike together before I worry too much about how it looks. :-D
My forks:
Next up is rebuilding the back brake master cylinder and getting the 2017 brake line installed. I'll keep you posted.
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