Tag Archives: YZF-R125 engine rebuild

RWYB at Dakota, 16th August

So, with a bit of luck we should be drag racing this weekend at Dakota Raceway in South-west England.

This should be quite good timing as this is as far as I’m planning to go with the current tuning setup (PCV + Autotune, 11.5k limit) so it should be a nice benchmark of how far we’ve come.

Assuming the bike (and rider) are still functional afterwards, I’ll hopefully be taking the bike apart and doing a bunch of updates, including switching to a tuneboss-based ECU setup which ought to make tweaking the ignition timing a lot simpler and also add a quickshifter.

I also feel like the timing chain has maybe stretched somewhat and is pushing the power band higher than I’d like, and we’ll hopefully be fitting an adjustable top gear (vernier cam pulley) to correct that.

With a bit of luck I should have some help from a friend at Sword & Fiddle Productions who should be filming the whole thing (thank you!), so with a bit of luck we should have some cool footage afterwards. Also thank you to my other sponsor NewJerseyIsALifestyle.com

I don’t really know of any other real-world testing (videos/timing) of R125s so I’m very interested to see how we do. For me this will serve as a reference point, and perhaps once the bike updates are done we can try again and see how we do in comparison.

I put the bike on the roller the other week and tbh it felt great so let’s see what it can do 🙂

It’s 1/8th mile racing rather than 1/4 mile, so we likely won’t be setting any top-speed records and will likely have to gear right down in order max out before the finish, but the plan is to start off on a 14t (normally I run 15t), till I’m used to the track and then gear down to 13t if needed. Hopefully that means times should improve towards the end of the day.

If you’re planning to attend the event, either racing or spectating, please do come and say hi 🙂

Below is a quick clip of how she was running…seemed to have power to the limiter so let’s see how we do!

B-motor – 1200mile update

ok so we’re about 1200miles down on the rebuilt B-motor with rebalanced internals and right the way through break-in miles I felt like the clutch was slipping. I sorta expected this because on the previous motor it slipped from too much power so didn’t really think much of it. Every now and then it did seem to “catch” properly and would dig in and take off but it seemed to be random. For those times it happened though.. wow.

But then at the end of break-in miles since i had to change the oil anyway I put the upgraded clutch (R15 clutch basket with 6-spring boss + uprated springs) from the old engine and it still wasn’t quite hitting the speeds I was expecting. It would get to about 85mph but not any further and given this engine has the power band back in the correct place and screams from about 8.5k right thru the limiter this was unexpected behaviour.

I had been expecting the map to take a while to adapt to the new engine but really it ought to have done that by now. I had recently done a 2hrs each way run which was all main roads so we were in the 8-10.5k range most of that run which meant the autotune had plenty of time to do its thing and sort the map.

The other week I thought I’d just try it on the 14t front sprocket as a test and weirdly it was still not catching right…so I dug into it a bit more and discovered I’d put the clutch cable in a different position from how i’d had it before to see if i could lighten the pull, and then forgot I’d done that. It’s a 1 finger stunt clutch with 3 cable positions so you can vary the travel/pull-weight and as it turns out in the “lightest” position where I had it (which gives the least clutch movement) it was never fully engaging the clutch….

So then I switched it back to the middle position back to the somewhat heavier pull and holy chickenballs what an instant difference.

Continue reading B-motor – 1200mile update

The B-motor runs!!

woop! it runs \o/ (so far).

This has been a massive learning curve for me, particularly the sheer number of operations which have to be completed, as well as having to build at least 2 special tools to get the job done meant (for me anyway) it wasn’t really possible to “see” the whole process from start to finish, which in turn makes me very nervous on a project.

Continue reading The B-motor runs!!

YZF-R125 180cc “B-motor” engine build photo catchup

I started a thread on the forums a little while ago but meant to mirror it here. I may add in the old posts here if i get time but otherwise this will have to serve as a little photo-catchup. please refer to the forum thread for the full story. I’ll try and update both moving forwards..

Whilst not pictured here the cylinder and head are loosely on now while I set up the timing chain etc. Hopefully in the next few days it should be ready to fit.

[EDIT: pics updated, engine fitted and runs!]

Splitting the crankshaft on YZF-R125

Biting the bullet here and using the ebay hydraulic pless to separate the halves of the crankshaft and replace the con-rod etc. This is getting serious now..

Removing lower timing gear on YZF-R125 attempt #2 – success!

This is the second attempt at removing the lower timing gear and the captive bearing on the crankshaft of my spare “B-motor”, which I’m trying to build up for my bike.

Idk if this is how it’s supposed to be done but I’m working with what I’ve got.

Whether this turns out to be a good approach or not long term remains to be seen but for now let’s see how far we get with it…

How not to remove lower timing gear on YZF-R125

This is the first of my “descent into madness” series of videos where I’m trying to rebuild this spare R125 engine.

I bought the engine as broken and when I took the cylinder off the bearing surface of the little end was damaged, which means the crank needs to be pressed apart to fit a new connecting rod.

So basically I have to take the entire engine completely apart just to get to this one dumb piece to replace it.

The videos are out of sequence but I have such a backlog and there was going to be a plan and it all went to crap. Every expert I was hoping to get to help me with this basically just disappeared or didn’t follow through, so I’ve finally resolved to buying the kit and figuring out how to do it myself.

Even though the engine in my bike has issues (from when I messed up a couple of years ago), despite that it’s done another 5k on the 180 cylinder (even wiht the timing chain issues) and I have not gone easy on it 😉

I’ve had a few people asking me to rebuild engines and do upgrades etc which is very cool, so it seems like it’ll be worth learning how to do it.

Hopefully this all ends with an engine dyno and building mad engines as was always the dream/plan 🙂 I’ve added this video to a new playlist for the B-motor rebuild so I can add all the other videos to it as I work through them. Thanks for watching and thanks to SXparts.com for sourcing hard-to-find components like the lower timing gear.


UPDATE: I said in the video (at 2:08) the lower timing gear wasn’t available, well it turns out i was wrong on that and you can get it here. Thanks to A for the link 🙂 https://www.cmsnl.com/products/sprock…

#YZFR125 #R125Life #bikelife #bikewife

Removing the flywheel on YZF-R125

This is just a quick little edit i’ve put together because I know that at least one of my viewers is about to do the same process, so wanted to show a little what to expect (and see for myself!) what wonderful mysteries line beneath the stator cover etc.

This is working on my “B-motor” which is a motor i got as a non-runner, hoping to just put a new cylinder on and get it in the bike, but then whilst removing the seized wrist/gudeon pin the bearing surface on the little-end got scored, which means now I have to pull the crank out, get the crank separated, fit a new con-rod and then re-assemble. So since i have to split the casings and whatnot I might put a forged con-rod and fresh bearings where I can, though in general this motor is a lot less shagged than my current one .

I’m not looking to do a mega-rebuild on this, just get it back to working, stick a 180cc cylinder and a stage 2 cam on (both of which I have already), and then get it into the bike so I can start work in rebuilding my ‘A-motor’, which will be getting The Works (with a view to forced induction)…so this is a bit of a trial run.

With a bit of luck this build should see us comfortably into the 90-95mph sorta territory, given we’re already knocking on 90’s door on the current (very knackered) A-motor.

I’ve not had one of these motors apart to this extent before so please don’t use this as a “how to”-video, it’s likely to be more useful as a “here’s some mistakes to avoid”-video (like losing the woodruff key, as you’ll see), and perhaps might be useful to see what special tools are needed to actually take these beasties apart.

STUFF YOU MAY NEED:

replacement woodruff key in case you lose it like I did:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-YAMAHA-WOODRUFF-KEY-90280-03X00-YZF-R125-WR125-R-X-CW50-AEROX-JOG-RR-TY/114045590439

set of box wrenches including an 8mm which should fit in the tight hole indicated in the video (though this is only needed to split the casings):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7PC-BOX-SPANNER-SET-PLUMBERS-TUBULAR-NUT-WRENCH-MONOBLOC-6-17MM-TORQUE-BAR-20B/331623284582

cheapo ebay flywheel puller (requires additional bolts in order to be of any use (see below):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/13-PIECE-HARMONIC-BALANCE-CRANKSHAFT-GEAR-PULLEY-PULLER-FLYWHEEL-BALANCER-TZ/324497829601

Additional/longer bolts needed to make the cheapo ebay flywheel puller work (get 3 of M8 x100mm ):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M8-8mm-PART-THREADED-BOLTS-HEX-HEXAGON-HEAD-SCREWS-STAINLESS-STEEL-DIN-931/383682199386?var=652081107590

#YZFR125 #BIKELIFE #BIKEWIFE

Wideband O2 sensor on YZF-R125 with 180cc kit, for street tuning

Short video running through installing and testing my wideband O2 sensor to try and get the fuelling right on my YZF-R125 with 180cc kit. I was kinda nervous about hacking a big hole in my nice shiny stainless exhaust but I guess that’s part and parcel of getting into the more interesting tuning stuff…

links:

LDPerformance wideband O2 sensor: https://ldperformance.co.uk/product/wideband-controller-for-bosch-lsu49/

carbide grindy bits:https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?ff3=2&toolid=10044&campid=5337039155&customid=1&lgeo=1&vectorid=229508&item=254299095337

motorcyclespareparts.eu (clutch diagram & parts): https://www.motorcyclespareparts.eu/en/yamaha-parts/2008-yzf-r125-motorcycles/clutch

6-spring clutch boss conversion from MOTOGAGA (untested, mine hasn’t arrived yet): https://motogaga.com/clutches-clutch-housings/567-6-spring-sports-clutch-conversion-yamaha-r15.html

 

My links:

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Refitting the engine on the YZF-R125, now with 180cc big bore kit

 

not a lot to say here really – engine is rebuilt on the 180cc big bore kit, this is just putting it back in the bike..if it runs then we’re pretty much back in business!

My links:

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Patreon (support the channel): https://www.patreon.com/northcust

Twitter (realtime updates): https://twitter.com/northcust