[lpburke86]

Just picked up an 04 250 for my son. Hasn't run, been turned over, or even rolled 3 feet, in 4 years. spent the evening flushing the fuel system and charging the battery. Damn thing started up with no trouble. Apparently, these things don't die...

But nonetheless, I am looking for an owner's manual, a factory service manual, and hopefully a parts manual. Preferably electronic not paper. I don't like Clymer manuals. I abhor Hayes manuals. Learned that with my last 2 hondas. Price isn't so much an issue as accuracy is, but all the Honda manuals I find are paper. Does anyone have some direction for me?

 

[Emil]

Welcome to the forum!
I know someone here knows where to get that. Personally I've never looked, as I've always preferred to have a hard copy.
You'll have an answer soon, I'm sure.
You're right, these are hard to kill. I've crashed 1 of mine at 55 mph & it was still roadable. I bought 1 that had set 20 years & it started right away, after doing similar prep. Great bikes! And nice looking, comfortable, economical, & most of all fun to ride!

 

[flitecontrol]

Welcome to the forum. I don't care for Clymer Rebel manuals either as they contain errors. Honda guards it's copyrights pretty zealously, so all the PDF copies of their manual are bootleg, but they do exist. Someone must have drained the carb on your bike, or it definitely wouldn't have run without a thorough cleaning. Think you dodged a bullet on that one.

 

[lpburke86]

Someone must have drained the carb on your bike, or it definitely wouldn't have run without a thorough cleaning. Think you dodged a bullet on that one.

Oh, it took a pretty thorough cleaning. Soaked the carb for an hour in chem dip, then spayed everything out with b12. I was more amazed by the fact that the only thing really wrong was bad gas and a dead battery. One of the things I want the book for is to rebuild that carb to make sure I got everything and to rebuild the brakes that are very soft.

Also... Is it just me, or is the shifter travel ridiculously long on these bikes? And the friction zone seems really tiny.... Are those just in need of adjustment, or is that just the way they are?

 

[flitecontrol]

An hour in chem dip isn't long for a Rebel carb that's been sitting. I generally recommend a week just so folks don't soak, install, find it doesn't work, remove, soak, and so on until it's clean. Think the record here on the forum was five times before it finally got clean.

To me, shifter travel isn't much different on the Rebel than my other bikes. It's usually a good idea to grease the entire shift linkage if it's been sitting a while or has over 3,000 miles on the clock. That would include parts numbers 15 and 2 on this diagram as well as the shifter shaft needle bearings in the left rear case cover. Honda Motorcycle 2009 OEM Parts Diagram for Pedal | Partzilla.com

If the engine is running well, more than likely you assembled the carb correctly. If the carb isn't perfect, the engine lets you know very quickly! Here's a parts diagram of the carb. It's for a first generation 250 but that diagram is more accurate than the later models. Honda Motorcycle 1985 OEM Parts Diagram for CARBURETOR | Partzilla.com There's also a pictorial here: Carburetor disassembly & reassembly | Honda Rebel 250 & 450 Forum (hondarebelforum.com)

I don't use the friction zone much, but the Rebel has one. May be a matter of getting familiar with the bike.

 

[Emil]

Oh, it took a pretty thorough cleaning. Soaked the carb for an hour in chem dip, then spayed everything out with b12. I was more amazed by the fact that the only thing really wrong was bad gas and a dead battery. One of the things I want the book for is to rebuild that carb to make sure I got everything and to rebuild the brakes that are very soft.

Also... Is it just me, or is the shifter travel ridiculously long on these bikes? And the friction zone seems really tiny.... Are those just in need of adjustment, or is that just the way they are?

If you're comparing it to a souped up sport bike, it would seem overly long. It could though just be in need of adjustment.
I was thinking about your want for a manual that wasn't paper, & thought that this forum runs pretty close. With the knowledge base of some of the members here, that's about what you've got.

 

[lpburke86]

If you're comparing it to a souped up sport bike, it would seem overly long. It could though just be in need of adjustment.
I was thinking about your want for a manual that wasn't paper, & thought that this forum runs pretty close. With the knowledge base of some of the members here, that's about what you've got.

To me, shifter travel isn't much different on the Rebel than my other bikes.

Im comparing it to my 81 Goldwing, 06 Boulevard, and 11 Roadstar 1700. All three of those the shifter only moves about an inch in each direction. This thing moves 2 and a half inches each way... On my old crotch rocket, you barely had to touch the pedal and almost never had to touch the clutch to shift, so I definitely wasn't comparing it to that.

I don't use the friction zone much, but the Rebel has one. May be a matter of getting familiar with the bike.

The friction zone on every bike I have ever ridden starts about a 3/4 to an inch out from fully held down all the way to just short of fully open. On this one, it seems to be fully engaged right after you start squeezing the clutch