YAMAHA TZR250 3MA

Ahhh, the reverse cylinder TZR… another bike for our Down Under drinker Jeff Ware to bring back to life!

Jeff starts on this reverse-cylinder race-rep classic!

“Darren, either you have yourself a special eco-friendly prototype TZR that only uses one cylinder or this thing is rooted. I’m going to put my money on the latter. Get around here for a beer”!

You guys have Postman Pat over there and over here we’ve got Postman Darren. Now, Postman Darren is originally from Brighton. He somehow found his way Down Under and, once the novelty of that big hot round orange thing in the sky wore off, he started to tinker in the shed – restoring all sorts of cool stuff.

One day he delivered my mail and we got chatting about his bikes and I rode one of them for a test. I soon found out about his TZR 3MA purchase and, as he was busy restoring another air-cooled RD, I offered to restore the TZR for CMM articles and a case of (Malc Paul, calm down), low

carb beer (now I can drink AND get skinny!) He dropped the bike off and I ripped into it quick-smart, knowing it could be near impossible to get parts here in Australia for the reverse-cylinder horn-bag, which was only released into the Japanese market…

I have to admit, there is no sexier bike to the eyes in my opinion. The early model 3MA just oozes real Grand Prix styling and is incredibly trick for 1989. When you compare it to a 1989 RGV, or any other 250 two-stroke proddies of the era, they look like they are a decade older. Well, perhaps not the NSR… But the 3MA was simply miles ahead in my opinion and these early models are hard to come by. The 3MA only ran for a few years before the 3XV (V-twin) arrived. It closely resembled real Marlboro YZR250 250s of Alex Criville, Luca Cadalora and John Kocinski. Aside from the Pepsi RGV, nothing came as close to living the dream of GP stardom…

The 3MA boasts YPVS, CDI, Gp-like fuelling with trick TM32SS carburettors and computerised ignition control, reverse-cylinders with undertail pipes, a close-ratio gearbox, 56 x 50.7mm bore x stroke with a 7.4:1 compression ratio and only weighed in at 139kg. Sadly, it was restricted to 45hp @ 9500rpm being a Japanese model, but this is easily fixed and we will get to that next issue.

In 1989 the bike was expensive, retailing for around £4300 (600,000 Yen), so it was an exclusive Boy Racer model, that’s for sure. I owned a 2MA myself when I was at high school and in my first year as a motorcycle mechanic apprentice (see images at end of last page!). Like you, we only got the 2MA version here Down Under. I’d only seen the 3MA in a single magazine image once as

there was no Internet then or way of knowing what was going on outside of the small town I lived in. That image was enough to start me dreaming though, and having Darren’s bike in my shed has definitely allowed me to tick one more thing off the bucket list. While it is here, I’ll be living the dream.

So, where are we at with it? I stripped it as quickly as possible and unfortunately the results were not what we expected. We were hoping for a holed piston. What we didn’t realise was that the con-rod in the left cylinder was gone! Next time we'll sort the rolling chassis, assemble the engine and get the 3MA on our test track.

1 1/ The first job was to undress the sexy beast and have a look under the fairings. So trick these things, the battery and toolbox are here in the bottom of the bellypan.

3/ Oh no! The moment I realised everything was not so good… the plug from the right-hand cylinder. Ouch… 3

6/ Under this plastic cover are the pipes, loads of wiring and cables and all sorts of complex stuff. It was a massive job… 6

8/ These pipes are Jackal. They have been sent off for sand blasting and re-painting. The mufflers are being re-packed by Darren. Should look and sound mint. 8

2 2/ We gave the bike a good wash before stripping it down as it had gathered a bit of dust en route to Australia from Japan. Please note child slave labour is alive and well in the colonies!

4/ With fairings removed, it was radiator off, air-box off, carburettors off and then we could start freeing that engine from cables and wires. The temperature sensor on the head was gone, possibly a sudden loss of coolant the reason for the massive blow up… 4

9/ The glorious reversecylinder 3MA engine ready to drop out of the frame. It’s such a work of art. 9

5 5/ My youngest son loves bikes. He is only five but a great help in the workshop.

7 7/ The airbox was a pain to remove. The bolts are on the underside. Makes no sense. Also, I always thought these were ram air, but they aren’t. They have a seriously restrictive intake system.

14/ The trick cassette gearbox, very small and very Gp-like. Love it. 14

13/ Clutch basket removal using a universal clutch holder tool. 13

12/ Flywheel off to split the cases and remove the destroyed crankshaft. It really is an epic blow up and must have happened at maximum rpm and speed. 12

17 17/ The three engines Darren bought. We will make one good one.

18 18/ Jeff, younger and what he did to his 2MA!

11/ Anyone interested in a nice piece of industrial art for the wall? 11

15 15/ So there we have it, one very damaged 3MA motor. The cases are cleaned and have been sent to my friend Dudley Lister for repair (ex Mick Doohan and Kevin Magee mechanic). We have sourced a few spare motors to build one from, so more on that later.

16 16/ Darren laughed his arse off when he saw the bits of bearing and con-rod… “Can we salvage this needle roller?”

10/ I ripped straight into stripping the engine; first job was getting the head off to inspect the damage. I laughed when I turned the motor over and only one piston went up and down while the other stayed on TBC. Ouch! 10