Alright to start off with I have an idle problem, with my new (new to me anyways) '95 ninja 250. Origionally it wouldn't idle w/o the choke and now after running it some more I am able to run w/o the choke, but it needs to idle > 2k or it will die, sometimes it's as much as 3k. So far I have run a fuel cleaner through, and just got seafoam, which I hope does even better. I also changed the oil to a full synthetic. The next things that I was planning on doing was changing the air filter and then changing the spark plugs. I had the tank off earlier and pulled the plug cords to see what im gonna be dealing with, and excuse me if i'm missing the obvious. How do you get the plugs out/install the new plugs? The plugs look like they are deep within the cylinders and the bikes frame only gives a little room to work with above the cylinder. Basically a newb question... how do you change the plugs on a Ninja 250?

 

Changing the plugs in the 250 isn't hard to do, although they are in adeep cavity which makes gettinga socket somewhat difficultsince the frame sort of gets in the way. (BTW, you must remove the upper fairing to access the plugs.)

I would run through a tank of gas with your seafoam to see if that helps a little. idle problems are almost always due to dirty carb jets/needlesover bad sparkplugs.

Remember, if you do pull the plugs, it's best to always replace them with new ones even if they are in good shape since sparkplugwashers are unusable after the initial installation.

 

Thnx I was able to replace the plugs using the spark plugs. I also put in some seafoam, but i'm still having alot of trouble with the idle. I know i need to give the seafoam a little bit more time, but somehow i dont know if it'll do it. All that's left is cleaning the carbs then i guess? Also when i took the tank off water came out of the vacuum line that was attached to the tank. I was able to blow it out, but there was a good amount of water inside the tube and inside the circular vacuum thing. Could this also be a problem, how does water get in it?

 

Well, if you have water in that tube, there's a good chance water is in the fuel bowls also. Open the drain screws at the bottom of the fuel bowls to drain out any possible water accumulation.

 

well i drained the float bowls and the gas may have been somewhat watered down but i really couldnt tell. dont know if that was supposed to improve the idle or not, but its still the same, dies at anything lower than 2k.

 

Maybe you should check for an air leak by spraying some starting fluid around your carb boots and vacuum lines.

 

Off topic just abit: Mark ..... I do not follow that one. I tend to play with plug chops alot. So if things are good, I reuse the the same plugs. Just picking your mind. Why the washer issue?

 

Well, those crush washers once compressed, loose their form allowing for possible sealing issues when reused.

 

ie the same with new exhausts.
Next question: any indexing issues with the new washers? Personnally, have not had an issue, but still a Q

 

Can't really say. I've never aligned my plugs in any particular direction before. (I should probably start doing it though.) But, I would think you'd have more rotation to work with since the washer hasn't been flattened out already. IMO.