Newbie here.
Normally I work on my old cages ('74 BMW 2002, 92 Miata), and do plenty of SCCA racing and Mid-Ohio track days.
I've got a 1983 Yamaha RX50 street bike. It's basically a mini-Virago produced with the same engine as the YSR 50, and supposedly there were only 2000 made.
Here's the last pic I took:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kfunk/Randomstuff/bike.jpg
I know you're not supposed to post about street riding
pocketbikes here, but this isn't a pocketbike. It's a fully legal, registered motorcycle and I'm licensed to operate it on the street.
It's an awesome little ride for getting around town with easy parking, and getting great mileage (70 MPG while running the crap out of it).
It's pretty much bone-stock and original.
It's been great and rock solid up till now, except for the electrical work, and its been occassionally dropping into neutral unintentionally.
It sat for 8 to 9 years and had flood water over it a couple times, and when gas hit 4 dollars a gallon, I got it legal! After a couple gallons of gas and blowing the floodwater out of it, away she went.
I've recently put in a new battery and charge coil, and got most of that working.
I've just been putting in cheap gasoline, and adding whatever 2-stroke oil to the tank that I can pick up at the gas station... and yeah, now i'm beginning to regret that.
On Sunday, it screeched to a stop. The piston ground against the cylinder, and theres deep scoring along the front and back of the piston, and just some slight scoring on the cylinder. I can't feel any up and down play in the rod bearing, so the crank seems OK.
I've ordered OEM new piston and rings, gaskets, etc. from Powersedge.com .
I just want to fire it up and go, no worries about being very fast. It would get a top speed of around 45 to 50mph at 9K RPM before the failure, and thats good enough for around town.
I figure I'll do some light honing on the cylinder just to break the glaze. Most scoring is light and below the stroke of the piston rings. I picked up a brake cylinder hone which has 220 grit stones, will that work?
I'm now wondering if a failing oil pump led to the failure, or maybe it was the cheap oil I was using. I'll definitely pick up the Yamalube next time.
I was wondering how I can diagnose whether the oil pump is working right and pumping the proper amount of oil.
It's around $110 for an oil pump, so I don't want to just get a new one. I may just start pre-mixing for the safety of my new piston, but that will take away some practicality.
Oh, and I can't find a repair manual anywhere. SpecII sells some parts but when I tried to call them they were jerks and hung up on me.
I tried calling TCR and got nothing but a busy signal, and they wouldn't return my e-mail.
So I'm kinda on my own here! Glad i found this forum and some past threads show that some of you know your stuff about YSRs!
Sorry for the length and thanks in advance for your help,
Kevin
