'81 250 WR - Jetting / Fuel / Fouling plugs / Workshop manual

Getting the bike ready for 9 days of riding out in the mountains of Colorado...

I'm hoping that my questions are not repeats and I'll apologize in advance if the information is already on Cafe Husky. (I'll plead rookie)

1) I'm looking for the owner's manual, service / workshop manual and any other publication relative to a 1981 250 WR.

2) I'm fouling plugs and suspect I'm running to rich. Does anyone know the recommended oil / fuel mixture? I have been running 40:1, but at that mixture, the bike smokes a lot, the plug is damp and not a light golden brown in color, and I drip oil from the exhaust.

3) Relative to jetting, I'm looking for guidance at 500 ft. elevation (Dallas, TX) and then for 8,500 - 11,500 ft. elevation (Colorado mountains) recommendations for jet sizes and corresponding needle settings would be great.

Thanks in advance for your response.

Regards,

Steve (Luckypuck77)

The factory recommended 4% (25:1) but seems like most people run between 32:1 to 50:1 so you will be just fine at 40:1 but you need to jet you bike accordingly. (your fuel mixture is not rich but your jetting is) You really need to lean out your jetting for Colorado. Are you running the stock jetting? or what jetting do you have in the carb now? Go to the Vintage Tech Ref section then scroll down to Vintage Jetting & Tuning, click on this and read the Sudco manual and you will be a jetting guru in no time.

Luckypuck,
Check your messages I pmed you regarding owners & shop manual. Rick

I too live in Dallas and ride at high elevations in Colorado. Believe it or not if you get it running nice and crisp in Dallas it will do fine at 12,000. My 430 WR runs perfectly around the DFW area and also ran great last August at almost 13,000 around Lake City, CO. It also started on the first kick every time on that trip. We are going back a week from Monday and I expect it to do the same this year.

Start with the stock jetting with a clean air cleaner. Buy the next two smaller sizes of main and pilot jets and start with the main jet and experiment. The jets are cheap and you can get them anywhere (try a Yamaha dealer or Two Wheel World). Also, I run BelRay MC1 at 50:1 but mine is water cooled. If you lean out the premix ratio it will fatten up the fuel air mixture: more gas going through the jets.