Been thinking about a restoration project for this winter.  So combine that with wanting to have a 250 2-stroke for a long time I picked this one up in Eastern IA off of Craigslist just last week for 600 bucks.  It needs a lot of stuff to get it back to really good condition.  It does not start when cold with out priming the cylinder with a  small shot of gas in the spark plug hole but after that it runs pretty good.

The plan for now is to:
- Pull the motor and split the cases for a full inspection of everything.
- Possibly replace the piston or at least the rings.  It has 120psi right now.
- Rebuild kit for the carb.
- New rear plastic
- Go back to a thumb throttle.
- Repair blown rear shock.
- Misc chassis bearings
-etc...

I'm pretty excited to get started on it and I'm glad this site exists!!  I'll post some pics along the way.  The idea was to restore and sell for profit, but I am starting to kinda get attached to this thing. 

Thanks in advance for any help I get from this site...   

That first picture is me on the left and my dad on the right.

Thanks
Jamie

...

looks lke a good start for a restoring

Finally got started on my restoration.  Just been collecting parts for a couple months.  Hopefully this goes pretty quick because I would like to race it in a local harescramble in a couple months.  I race the A class here in Iowa on a Honda 450 but thought it would be fun too try it on this LT.

Had a few surprises with the motor.  Some previous owner tried to fix an oil leak between the case halves with some sort of epoxy.  I had to chip and wire brush  that off so hopefully there is no hidden damage to the cases.  I was surprised to find a standard size Wiseco piston in it but a quad mechanic that is more experienced than me confirmed it has been resleeved at some point.  There is some porting work that has been done and again the same guy said it looked just okay and not a total hack job.  I welcome any input on that and I can post up some better cylinder pics if needed. 

One of the locating pins is gone out of the piston and it is damaged a little on the dome.  The cylinder looks fine so I think I am just going to order a new standard size piston and hone it.  Something else has rattled around in the motor case before because the clutch basket is beat to hell.  Sorta useable short term, I'll have so see how the rebuild budget holds up.  Any clutch part donations welcome out there... lol  I rode this quad prior to the tear down and it shifted fine and did not sound strange.  I hope there is no bad news lurking in the tranny when I split the cases this weekend.

My hard starting problem was probably the reeds. One reed petal was at least an 1/8 inch off the stopper.  The picture is of the reed flipped and it is better but still not perfect.  I'll be ordering a set of Rad Valve reeds for it.

I'm surprised more guys don't run YFZ front shocks.  It was a simple fit, just had to grind down the top mounting width of the shock..  Is there a reason I'm not aware of?  It doesn't seem to bind the ball joints.

 

Can someone give me some feedback on the following?

- What can be done to make a stock head better as far as machining goes? I'm familiar with milling a banshee head a little to raise compression etc...  I don't want it to run to hot and stay with premium pump gas.

-  Are there any other piston options besides Wiseco.  I'm okay running a Wiseco though.

- Can someone direct me to some LT250 specific powervalve info.  Is it supposed to spring closed?  I bought new springs for it prior to even opening it up because the OEM's were cheap.  This is my first powervalve work.

Thanks Guys!!  Having a good time with it so far!!