new hawk 250 issues

[thehawk]

regarding the rear wheel seal, is this the seal or a bearing? if I am going to the trouble to remove the wheel to straighten this thing, is it better to replace it with a racing one? or at least a new one? or should it do fine just to straighten this one?

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by thehawk

Thanks for all the information guys, it looks like I got my work cut out for me. To be honest, this could be fun if I had a garage to do it in (I will in 2 weeks, I'm so excited). But not today, today is my sons birthday so I got to spend some time with him. I'll start looking into getting the parts and figuring out how to remove the wheel and chain tomorrow.

I did bend back the chain guard, and sprayed a healthy coat of chain greese on the chain. After which I couldn't help myself but took it for a ride up and down the street yesterday (put like 1 mile on the bike during 3/4 trips to the corner of the street and back).

I will take your advise (that's the reason I was asking) and will either dip the chain into oil if I can find some, or purchase a new chain if the price is negligibly different. Just sprayed it with oil now because I had already bought some and have not taken the wheel off yet.

I did notice two more things, the idle is sporadic, it revs high and then the next time you come to a pause from running a little it almost dies without any consistency after running for a while and being warmed up. during cold it is hard to keep running, but then afterwards when it is warmed it either revs really high, or really low. giving it extra gas to see if the idle will set at a more neutral place does nothing. but it you ride it for a minute and come back it will be the opposite most likely, then next time you move it and come back it will be the opposite side, sometimes (like once) it idled where I thought it should after moving it. Turning the idle screw on the carbarator will adjust it, but that does not help if the next time it is idling at opposite because now it is worse on the opposite end.

The front tire originally it had oil under the speedometer sensor next to the wheel. I wondered where it was from but wiped it off because surely the sensor doesn't have oil in it right?? but then when checking it again it I found more. It is dark brown oil (not grease) and looks like it is coming from the open space right next to the speedometer sensor (opposite the front brake) where I would imagine the front wheel bearings are located inside. Its a space between the tire and the axel. I will get pictures and upload them.
Also, I checked the rear sprocket, you are correct, it wiggles. Not really really loose, but it does. the odd thing about that is that the screws seem to wiggle with it too.
I also checked the chain guide, it is rubber and seems to be in the place it is supposed to be. BUT, the chain rides directly on top of it. I can see how this may not last long as I imagine that chain would eat up that guide pretty quickly once the bike is actually being used. I will get pictures for you and post them.
I hope you all are having a great weekend!!

Sporadic idle speed is usually caused by throttle cable problems, and are not uncommon on just assembled motorcycles. Make sure there are no tight bends or kinks in the throttle cable. With the engine shut off you should be able to hear a 'thunk' in the carburetor when you let go of the twist-grip, after twisting it open all the way. The screw on the side of the carb is the idle speed adjustment, and has nothing to do with the idle mixture. The idle mixture control is a screw located under a plastic plug underneath the rear edge of the carb body, next to the middle rear of the float bowl...ARH

[Megadan]

Sporadic/unstable idle speed is a condition of idle mixture either being too lean or too rich. As ARH mentioned, if the throttle operates correctly, then this is most likely your culprit. These bikes don't come tuned very well from the factory unless you live at high altitude, and tend to be on the lean side of things. This will cause the idle to "hover" at higher RPM's when coming off the throttle, and then it will eventually drop, and then proceed to hunt trying to equilize.

The standard approach to setting your idle mixture screw is to turn the screw in, and count the number of turns or half turns until it just lightly seats/stops. Make a note of that somewhere just in case you need a known "running" starting point.

From there,
1. turn the idle screw out 1 1/2 turns. This is the middle ground between 0 turns and 3. Install the carb back on the bike.
2. start the bike, then ride it around for say 10-ish minutes and get it up to temp. bring it back home.
3. set your idle speed, preferably with a tach to 1500 rpm
4. This is the tricky part because of where our idle mixture screws are located, but it is doable.
a) turn the pilot screw out a half turn at a time until you hear the idle
drop. During this procedure you may hear the RPM's rise, this is a
good thing. Keep turning half a turn at a time until you notice the
rpms drop.
b) Turn the mixture screw back in a half a turn at a time until you find
the position with the highest and most stable RPM.
c) Re-adjust the idle if necessary back to where you started. If the idle
is stable at this point you can call it good. If it is still a bit unsteady
you can repeat this process by turning the mixture screw a quarter of
a turn in or out at a time (giving the idle a chance to stabilize) until
you again find the highest and most stable rpm.
d) At this point you should have a good stable idle. You can go into even
finer tuning if you desire, giving the screw 1/8th turns, but this
usually isn't necessary on most bikes/carb setups.

The key in this entire process is to always keep a note of how many turns you have on that mixture screw. I.E.: If you start at 1 1/2 turns, and turn it out 1/2 a turn and the idle drops, you are at 2 turns out. Back it off half a turn, you are back to 1 1/2 turns.

Also, this is just one method, and there are variations of this method out there, but the end results are very similar.

2 things to keep in mind if you want to go through all of this.
1, it's a good idea to have a fan flowing on the engine to help keep it cool. If you feel the engine may be getting too hot, shut it off for a few minutes or so and let it cool. Just don't let it get cold, or you will have to wait for it to warm up again.
2. Before you dive in head first with all of this, see how it simply runs at 1 1/2 turns out. You may find that it holds a steady idle right where it is. There are many Hawk owners that have simply set the stock carb to this position and it has worked for them with no need for further adjustment.

[thehawk]

Ok, time to get busy on this. I got some gear oil to soak the chain, I think. On the bottle it says gear lubricant 75W-90 by supertech. Is this the correct oil? If not I can always return to Walmart as its not opened. I was looking at changing the chain to be safe, but can not find it. I did find a site that had something called a 428SO-130 but they were no longer selling it. What is an o-ring chain? and is that recommended for this bike in comparison to what is already installed?

For $34 the mikuni sounds the way to go. I found one from the hawk250.com site. If the 1.5 turn doesn't work out well, I will order one and go from there.

I'm thinking if good rear bearings are only like $10 I am going to go ahead and change them rather than risk it. What bearings would be good to put in here? (how do I know it will fit? is there a recommended part number? size? etc)

For greasing the pivots/swing arm, do I need a special grease gun? what grease do I use, WalMart had several different types. (Multi-duty, general purpose, poly lithium, marine, etc). they also had hi-temp in a round tub.

Megadan, the screw you are talking about, is it inside the carborator? I think I want to try this 1.5 turn prior to changing the carb. Do I need to remove the carb to do it? anything to be careful of while doing this?

As for the assembly fee, I tried and asked for a refund but that didn't work so well. I didn't think it would because after receiving this bike, I first called the seller with the questions. The lady who answered the phone was nice, the shop manager was nasty. The lady asked me to send pictures, I sent those I sent to this site and a few more, and then the shop manager called me back. Rather than assisting, he berated me. His answer from the get go, (before even asking me what was wrong) was " It was in perfect shape when it left here so you broke it not us". I had to listen to his ranting about people like me always trying to get more and never be happy for like 15 minutes before I could even say (do you even know what's wrong with the bike and the reason I called?). It's even supposed to have a warranty from this company, good luck with that! Kept referring to it's people like me who always want more, and those that pay 1900-2000 for this bike never had problems. I should have paid more, etc. reminding him that it is 1399 on his web site and I did pay more than that did nothing to ease his criticism. But that's a story for another time.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by thehawk

Ok, time to get busy on this. I got some gear oil to soak the chain, I think. On the bottle it says gear lubricant 75W-90 by supertech. Is this the correct oil? If not I can always return to Walmart as its not opened. I was looking at changing the chain to be safe, but can not find it. I did find a site that had something called a 428SO-130 but they were no longer selling it. What is an o-ring chain? and is that recommended for this bike in comparison to what is already installed?

For $34 the mikuni sounds the way to go. I found one from the hawk250.com site. If the 1.5 turn doesn't work out well, I will order one and go from there.

I'm thinking if good rear bearings are only like $10 I am going to go ahead and change them rather than risk it. What bearings would be good to put in here? (how do I know it will fit? is there a recommended part number? size? etc)

For greasing the pivots/swing arm, do I need a special grease gun? what grease do I use, WalMart had several different types. (Multi-duty, general purpose, poly lithium, marine, etc). they also had hi-temp in a round tub.

Megadan, the screw you are talking about, is it inside the carborator? I think I want to try this 1.5 turn prior to changing the carb. Do I need to remove the carb to do it? anything to be careful of while doing this?

As for the assembly fee, I tried and asked for a refund but that didn't work so well. I didn't think it would because after receiving this bike, I first called the seller with the questions. The lady who answered the phone was nice, the shop manager was nasty. The lady asked me to send pictures, I sent those I sent to this site and a few more, and then the shop manager called me back. Rather than assisting, he berated me. His answer from the get go, (before even asking me what was wrong) was " It was in perfect shape when it left here so you broke it not us". I had to listen to his ranting about people like me always trying to get more and never be happy for like 15 minutes before I could even say (do you even know what's wrong with the bike and the reason I called?). It's even supposed to have a warranty from this company, good luck with that! Kept referring to it's people like me who always want more, and those that pay 1900-2000 for this bike never had problems. I should have paid more, etc. reminding him that it is 1399 on his web site and I did pay more than that did nothing to ease his criticism. But that's a story for another time.

First, the part number is written right on the bearings. If in doubt, take out the old bearings and go to a bearing shop, they'll have replacements. Chinese quality control is not where it should be yet, so I would only buy bearings made in Japan, England, Germany, Italy, or the USA. Grease. Use marine grease, it does not wash out from water intrusion. I would soak the chain in kerosene to get the old grease out of it. Then hang it up and let it dry, or as dry as it gets overnight, then cook the chain in a pan of hot oil for a couple of hours. The oil you got is fine, but I used to buy 240 weight gear oil, commonly used in Model 'A' Ford steering boxes, for chain lube before I learned the canning wax method. If you decide to get a different chain, juat google up "UniBear Chain", and it, along with other quality chains will come up. They are available on Amazon, and other places. O-ring chains cost three times as much as high quality regular chain. A well lubed chain will last many thousands of miles....ARH

[thehawk]

On the bearings, any way to find the size without ripping it apart so that I can order it and have it on hand prior to ripping it apart? I don't want to leave a half assembled bike in the parking lot.
As for the chain, I did a search for uni-bear chains, and found two things. the first is that unibear is made by a chinese company named Hangzhou, the second is that there is the 428H or the 530. The 428H looks to be the non-o ring type. They are all different link numbers though. I am guessing that is the size? I saw where someone had recommend the 428H 130 link but I can't find one of those. The closest I could find was the 132 link. I also found a 136. How do I know what size I need?
They are very cheap though, like $15 for the 428H. If I get one of these, do I need to do the Kerosene/hot oil cooking? or do they need it as well?

[JerryHawk250]

428h 130 link is what you need. You can get longer and cut it to the length you need.

[thehawk]

anyone have any tips on how to re-route the clutch cable so it doesn't get pinched when turning? that and the speedometer cable which looks like its gonna get tangled in the horn?

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by thehawk

On the bearings, any way to find the size without ripping it apart so that I can order it and have it on hand prior to ripping it apart? I don't want to leave a half assembled bike in the parking lot.
As for the chain, I did a search for uni-bear chains, and found two things. the first is that unibear is made by a chinese company named Hangzhou, the second is that there is the 428H or the 530. The 428H looks to be the non-o ring type. They are all different link numbers though. I am guessing that is the size? I saw where someone had recommend the 428H 130 link but I can't find one of those. The closest I could find was the 132 link. I also found a 136. How do I know what size I need?
They are very cheap though, like $15 for the 428H. If I get one of these, do I need to do the Kerosene/hot oil cooking? or do they need it as well?

Megadan replaced his rear wheel bearings, I'm sure he knows the numbers. Maybe he'll chime in on here and give you the numbers. UniBear is good chain. Plenty of guys on here have been running it, some for two years with no reported problems. Grease both axles, and the swing arm pivot bolt with marine grease, and grease the steering head bearings as soon as you get time....ARH

[Megadan]

Rear bearings are 6302-2rs.

If you go to Hawk Talk, page 60, bottom post. Wamey linked to both front and rear bearings on All Balls Racing. You can either order 2 there, or take those numbers to any place that carries bearings and get them that way.

[thehawk]

Megadan, Thank you. I appreciate it. I will get 2 of those ordered.

How did you route your speedometer cable? mine looks like its gonna get hooked on the horn when turning.

My clutch also had problems and was getting pinched between the two turn stoppers (on the frame, and fork). But I ran it behind the horn and now it doesn't look like its gonna get pinched any more.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by thehawk

How did you route your speedometer cable? mine looks like its gonna get hooked on the horn when turning.
.

I didn't route mine. I installed the digitl tach cluster when I first assembled my bike. It uses a speed sensor in place of the cable and drive unit.

[BlackBike]

https://www.google.com/search?q=6302...w=1024&bih=768

Also if your city has industry , most times you can find these guys that will carry all kinds of crazy bearings. Usually have counter sales. https://www.motionindustries.com/pro...alogSearch.jsp

[Megadan]

If not All Balls, then I recommend Nachi, FAG, Korean or Taiwan made Timkens or SKF from Germany or Taiwan. Or any other German, Japanese, UK, or U.S. made bearings. These will all be made from better materials and to much higher QA standards. Anything else is a gamble

[timcosby]

mine caught on the horn while ridding..talk about makeing you pucker! zip tie and no more catchy