Mech

The colour !

The workshop manual will tell you exactly where and which way each gear should be on it's shaft, with spacers etc, and which shift fork goes where. The cases don't have a gasket, just sealer, and I'd highly recommend you buy a tube of loctite master gasket and use.. It's clean to use and doesn't leave long strands of squeezed out silicon inside the engine to block the filters.. It doesn't really matter what gear it's in as you assemble the cases(if that was the question). As for the gear shift, I'd put the center cases together temporarily and try every gear change by turning the shift barrel from in the side case, whilst turning the two gear shafts. It would be good to have the lever and wheel in the side case that rubs on the shift barrel and holds it in each gear. That wheel both holds it in a gear once selected, but also makes sure the shift travels all the way into gear if you don't move the shift lever full travel. The shift barrel may be a little tight to turn if it's all dry in there, but you should be able to turn it with your fingers as long as you turn the shafts enough. Sometimes you will need to turn the shafts quite a few turns to allow the cogs to line up and engage, but they should all slip nicely from one gear to the next with enough turning of one or both shafts. Be patient, test it carefully up and down through all the gears. If you can get all the gears at that point, it suggests the problem is in the outer/side case, something in the shift mechanism before it gets to the shift barrel. Possibly the return spring on the lever, or the spring on the ratchet mechanism, or the ratchet mechanism itself. Post photos if it's easier than trying to describe things, or, get the manual or look things up in an online parts place, and describe parts as the book does.

It's a bit strange that water could blow a fuse. Normally it takes quite a bit of current to do that, and water doesn't conduct much current. Are you sure it's the water causing it, not something else associated with the water, like the big drop into the river say ? If you are sure it is water causing it, use a garden hose and carefully wet one bit of the electricals at a time, allowing time for it to sink in, till the fuse blows ?

If it has an oil pump and auto lube then, you can probably move the oil injection pump's control a little and check the smoke increases as you rev it a bit. The pump probably has a bleed screw/bolt too for bleeding the system if it's been dry. You could undo that and check the oil's getting through. And the last and best way is to drive it and look back every so often and check there is smoke..haha.. More smoke after a bit of boosting and less when it's just ticking along.

It sounds like shift, or worn engagement dogs on the gears. I've never seen shift forks so worn they allowed changes to occur though, but worn drive dogs under load eject themselves out of one gear, and into another.. often.. If the engagement dogs are worn it will be effected by throttle quite a bit, it'll jump out of one gear and into the next with a crash/bang under load, generally throttle loads, but also sometimes heavy overrun loads. But if it's dodgy shifters it's as likely to just rattle into the wrong gear because you cornered or were driving along with no load and things could move. Not necessarily the shift forks, but the shift drum or shift linkages. You don't actually say that heavy throttle causes the problems, and it could be that when you are driving briskly you just don't change as carefully, but I'd guess the engagement dogs have rounded shoulders, and that it's heavy throttle that's causing a gear to be spat out, causing it to slide into another gear. Either way, whatever causes the changes under load, the shoulders on the cogs will soon be rounded anyway, or could be now. I'd drain the oil and dredge through it with a magnet looking for bits of steel. If there is steel shards then it sounds like a strip down, but if the oil is pretty clean, noting but metal dust in the oil, then I'd pull the side case and inspect the shifter mechanism and the shift drum/barrel for end float.

Top of this page in "more", then service manuals, and on the new page over on the right you choose your make.

59240-22A04https://www.mickhone.com.au/partFinder/fiche/suzuki/1993/lt-f250/front-brake-hose#partid-45245403 I wonder if these would fit.. LT250.. it's the nearest we have here.. If they have a price, they should be available. If you go to that site you can choose a part and then click an arrow over on the right and it shows you what other models the part fits, and/or even better for you, in a diagram page, if you go to the top of the diagram and enter your part number(Search for part.. 59240-22A04), in the search box there, it will drop down a long list of comparable parts.. There's another search box at the top of the page but it searches the whole site, it doesn't come up with the drop down list.

If that's your manual, for your model, then yeah, that's the cam timing. The timing mark on the flywheel will be a "T" I think. It's easy to see if the mark on the cam is more than two mills out, which is about the minimum degree of accuracy we can adjust them to. If the mark is more than two mills out(a quarter of a link), then it could be adjusted better.. But if it's less than a tooth out, it won't be your trouble. It would appear that the problem is throttle, and so carby, related.. Any vacuum hoses on that thing ? Are the carb and tank breather pipes clear ? I'd be pulling the carb apart again.. And checking the jets are correct sizes for it's use. Most aftermarket carbs are set pretty average and may not run right in all situations and all bikes.

If a valve clearance is set too tight, way too tight, the valve can hit the piston. More commonly though the cam timing is the problem. I'm guessing you must be setting the timing wrong. You are finding a "T" mark on the flywheel, and aligning a slash mark on the cam sprocket with a mark on the center top of the head ? Once the timing is set, turn the crank carefully for two full turns, feeling for any sign of a valve hitting.

When did this valve hitting the head problem start ? After you'd adjusted the valve clearance ? Or is this valve hitting the head problem the thing you were trying to fix with a valve clearance adjustment ? I think first you should recheck your valve adjustment, possibly even backing the adjustment screws about a turn or more and seeing if that fixes that problem. If the valve hitting the head isn't curde with a different valve adjustment, then it might be caused by the cam timing being out. That you do as I said earlier, you take a bung out at the flywheel and take the cam chain cover off and align the marks on flywheel and cam with head. Best download a manual and have a read though.

Oh. That's called valve clearance... I don't have the manual and don't know the clearances, but there should be a service manual somewhere here that will have the information you need, and much more.

I think the later models do have a large valve clearance.. 2-4 for the inlet cold, and 9-11 thou for the exhaust cold.. I'd expect 9 thou to be noisy though.. On the old models even 4 could be noisy. If it was noisy , I'd check what the clearance was hot, and then reduce the clearance a little. allowing for that change from cold to hot..

There will be a small bung you take out to see a T mark on the flywheel, and there will be a mark on the cam sprocket that lines up at the top. Best to read the manual though..

That diagram you are looking at is not like the suzuki system Randy.. "Yes they do because that is all that is possible for them to do"... Oh ? I'll leave you too it Randy..

Some yamahas have a 12 volt feed into the cdi when the starter is used, I'm not sure what it's for but I'd suspect it's to retard the timing for easy start. Perhaps you could use the timing light and check the timing doesn't go right out of range when you release the starter button.. Best look in the manual though and check whether that bike has that 12 volt starter feed...

Well you're observant !! The plugs wet despite spark to the last rotation.. Bad plug or sparkplug cap or lead perhaps.

The consistent three second thing is the vital clue. Good work on identifying it. And.. don't be offended but.. you have counted the three seconds have you.. sometimes people say three seconds(off the top of their head) but when we check.. it can be one.. to ten.. And. if you give it throttle and revs, is the time the same ? It couldn't perhaps be twenty revs say always ? The timing light test.., you are saying that the spark is firing right down to near zero revs.. That is to say, the spark doesn't fail till after the motor starts dying ? It keeps flashing right to the last rotation of the motor ? I'd doubt the stator is the cause, the readings are good. I'd be suspecting the cdi unit if it is electrical. If the spark keeps going right to near zero revs though.. it won't be spark. Blocked exhaust, tight valve, carby problem still. Does using the throttle make any difference to how long or how it runs, and what about the choke ? Is it hard to start initially, and when it dies, does it start straight back up or do you have to wait a while ?

The evidence in your mind perhaps Randy.. I'm not going to try and explain all the various electronic components that may be in those regulators(because I'm not sure what's in there), or how they are intended and do work, because that would be a waste of my time, but you should understand that those regulators have a key controlled power input to them, and they don't operate as you claim they do, and just short the excess power to earth. You have used a winch and you must have noticed when we put a load on the electrics, even turning the headlight on, it causes a load on the motor. Think what would happen if the regulator started tying to drain all the alternators output to earth. Use some power and hear the load on the motor, turn the load off and hear the load on the motor lessen, then wait and watch as the voltage rises to the point of regulation, and see what happens to the load on the motor. They say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing Randy. Why you would want to dissuade someone from doing the tests that suzuki recommends doing in the case of charging problems, is your business. I can only put it down to your attitude that you know better than the people that make the bikes, or people that have been trained in the business of diagnosing and repairing machinery, all of which points to a most alarmingly superficial understanding about these things, which equates to... a little bit of knowledge,

Ha Randy you really are too much. If you can't read, it's not my problem.

Ha. Randy, that's not rational thinking.. Thinking there's nothing I know that could cause the problem, and so I'm not checking for what could cause it, is a commitment to ignorance. I've already mentioned what should be checked. Why would you be so averse, and try to deter the person we are trying to help, from doing the simple checks for possible contributing factors ?

Read a manual Randy. It's not just my recommendation that the circuits should be checked for faults. It's what mechanics and auto electricians do.. It's what the bike manufacturers say to do. It's the prudent thing to do.

Eight to go...

The faults you don't know are possible..

Ha.. so there's never any fault except in the regulator.. And so we shouldn't bother checking. Brilliant !

And so you don't think it's a good idea to check for faults that may have caused the failure ?