THH

Slowly progressing. Had a few stubborn nuts and bolts but I have all broke free now after a couple days of penetrating oil. I have always kept it under cover so most everything is coming apart nicely. Swing arm and wheel bearings are ordered along with Shindy kit for the carb and a few used parts from e-bay. I got the engine pulled today and getting ready to pull the rear end out of it. I have found a couple engines for consideration, Im not finding many originals available so the search continues. Pictures of black engine is one the two I have located.

@_Wilson_™, Not sure about the effects of the sealant but engine has always run good with no issues that I'm aware of. It would be interesting to see how everything looks on the inside though. I just dont think with the condition of the crankcase it would be worth sinking money into it, I have a couple leads on transplant engines. The electrical hack work was by PO but I own some of it too, I changed the harness before due to rodent damage and hacked it in the way it was to get riding again! I have replacement harnesses to make it right.

Got into it a little deeper and found some problems with crankcase that are not good. Couple of missing bolts in clutch side cover and threads are stripped out. Part of crankcase is broke on bottom on same side filled with silicone at bolt location. Lots of utv sealant at both side covers. Oil drain bolt is SAE 1/2" coarse thread bolt with what looks like heli-coil in plug hole with some kind of material stuck to bottom of crankcase at drain hole. Quite the wiring job behind the headlight!! I believe the engine is out of 250ES because its silver and I think the SX came with black engine, crankcase serial number indicates correct year. All issues found so far are from previous owners handiwork, I should have looked it over closer back when I bought it but I got a lot of fun years out of it and all I ever did to it was change the oil. I dont think with the condition of the crankcase it would be worth putting money into this engine, but will likely try to find a replacement that I can work with.

Weather has been real nice here lately and enough snow has melted for me to get my 250SX out of the lower level of my barn. I drove it in and parked it there in 2012 and its been sitting ever since. I hooked a strap to it and pulled it over to my garage with my 450 Foreman. Time to blow the dust off and see what its going to take to bring it back to life!! I have owned it for close to thirty years and used to ride it pretty hard. All I know at this time is the swing arm bearings are shot, kick start does'nt grab all the time, muffler is shot which will be tough to find a replacement.

Welcome Masterblaster.

Welcome Robb!!

Congrats @freebo86, Great job not giving up and figuring it out!!

Welcome to the forum John65.

Congratulations @freebo86, You did a real good job sticking with this project!!! ATV HONDA sure has a great group of knowledgeable members willing to share their expertise. Very impressive!!

Does that aftermarket carb have the screw next to like shown in this picture? Did you remove the screw? If not it may be pressed in and difficult to remove if not impossible. I have run a tap into difficult ones to get a better grab for removal, 8mm or 5/16 UNC taper tap.

@_Wilson_™ the one I made is longer than the one i saw, his was probably 2" wide. I made a cardboard template off my honda rim and traced it to the steel to cut it out. 2" id pipe fits on press with no slop and holds it in place real good.

I agree with all that have stated a shop press is real helpful and the fact you can never have enough tools!! The recessed atv lift @oldmxrider has is a great idea!!! Hmmmmm This is where I make repairs.

I made this recently to break tire beads with shop press. I have the HF tire changer and the bead breaker on that tends to bend on the tough beads. I got the idea from watching a YouTube video where a guy made one similar. The holes drilled in it are to put screws in the sidewall to keep it from slipping, if you are throwing the tire out.

I did do solder repair and used heat shrink tubing. The reg/rec I ordered came in this morning, got it installed and system is charging like it should. Up and running again!!

@Fishfiles Thanks for looking and trying to help out, I understand the difference now and will keep looking. Funny you mention be careful of sellers sending wrong part, I thought I found one this morning and asked for a pic from him and he sent one and It was the ES part. I told him it wasn't what I needed and he said he was sure it was so I asked him to compare his to pic I sent of mine and finally agreed he was wrong. I did notice the red wire in your pic was chewed off like mine was. I was able to repair the damage on mine and have it put back together.

$1200, free shipping, delivered in three days. Also came with a nice service jack. https://www.apluslift.com/collections/motorcycle-lift-tables/products/apluslift-motorcycle-lift-mt1500x

I recently bought this air operated lift table. Table is 8'x2', Removable side extensions make it 48" wide. 1- 24" wide removal ramp for motorcycles and 2- 12" wide removable ramps for atv's. Has front wheel chock and removable rear tire drop out panel for motorcycles. 1500 lb. capacity, operates on 90-110 psi. Makes ATV maintenance so much easier for me.

Thanks for the pesticide tips and offer to help!!

Wilson, The wires for the solenoid were also damaged. I found the damaged wires within a nest in the battery box so am assuming it is rodent damage, there was also a nest in air cleaner housing. I recently bought this machine that has been in storage for a long time so no surprise to find the nests. I check my other machines regularly and mostly find acorns in the air cleaner housings which i assume the rodents enter through the snorkel with. I have gone over 95% of the harness and so far the damage in battery box is all I have found. I will finish checking the rest of the harness today, all connections I have come across so far have been cleaned and greased with dielectric.

Sounds good, I appreciate the help!! This might be a little bit better pic than the first one I posted.

I think I hit the wrong button on my last reply, oops. I agree it looks close

I did just that with the solenoid this afternoon, good to go!! I think I'm close to being able to fix the fuse box wire as well, I'll go back at it in the morning. It stopped charging the battery the other day and at first check I was thinking the problem was the regulator/rectifier until I found the mess in the battery box, I cleaned the battery area when I first got it but didn't notice the bad wiring until closer look today. I wouldn't expect anyone to part with limited stock of discontinued parts. Thanks

Welcome to the site WillB!!