So I have had my brother's 1987 TRX250R sitting in storage for about 12 years. I have recently decided that I am ready to dive back into this project.
First a quick history on this quad. In about 2000 my brother found this ride sitting in the trees at a farm. It had a straight frame but the owner hadn't ridden it in over 8 years. I believe he got it bought for $500. He had it running in less than a day but the plastic was destroyed, spockets etc. had been replaced with farm parts and generally hadn't been taken care of. David didn't have money to do anything to it but make it decently functional. Fast forward 5 years and he was serving a tour in Iraq and decided he wanted to have a quad he could be proud of when he got back. He started buying parts off Ebay and shipping them to me. Me and a friend worked to put it together for him and barely got it togetherish in time for him to ride it when he come home for a week of leave. Shortly after this he died. So it has sat in my garage, unfinished, since he passed in 2006. I couldn't bring myself to touch it or sell it. Now I am ready to and have the funds to do this thing correctly.
As you will see in the pictures we had cobbled together mixture of aftermarket and oem parts that are likely multiple different years etc. I believe the engine came from an ATC machine. The rear axle is aftermarket and you can see we had to machine a spacer to take up room because we ran out of threads on the expansion nut. We also didn't finish mounting the plastic as he liked the look of the 88-89 machines. The engine runs but I has non professional repairs done to damages cases.
Anyway I am trying to come up with a build plan to build this machine back to the way it deserves. I was thinking I would send the engine/trans off for a complete rebuild as this is beyond my competency. Possibly switch plastic back to 87. Eliminate the tunable LRD exhaust for something simpler. Possibly put a stock airbox back in. Rebuild the elka suspension. Basically I would like to make this a quad that I can be proud of, rides somewhat better than stock and has the fit and finish we were unable to accomplish before he passed.
I am posting this because I am reasonably handy but am by no means an expert on these machines. I am just looking for input on how to move forward as well as trustworthy shops/parts suppliers. Especially since I remember the parts my brother ordered would end up being different than what he thought he was purchasing. If it matters I am in Bismarck, ND.
Any help would be greatly appreciated....
