does anyone know the big diff. between the 87 and the 89.have an 87 i want to restore.

 

some say the 88-89 was the best year. I just built one for my brother and used the top end of an 86 and the lower end of a 88. the reason i did that was because its hard to find the parts for a 88 or 89 because everyone thinks they are better. to do what I did you have to rebuild the crank and use the 86 rod so the piston doesn't hit the head.
the difference between the years is the rod length and porting. the tranny on the 86 87 is know to break up, gears cracking the cases when they explode kind of stuff. But the upper end of the 86 87 is supposed to be better power wise. do to the different porting and such. not a big noticible difference to me though.

I used a fmf fatty pipe and silencer with boysen reed valve and a smooth bore carb. Trick air box lid ( custom made ) and some other little gooddies that make it rip.
All I can say is if you are going to do it do it right. spend the time and money for the good stuff. Macdizzy.com has alot of info on it.
Hope this helps. over and out.....

 

A major difference between the 86-87 and the 88-89 are the front A-arms and the swingarm. On the 86-87 they had adjustable camber. The 88-89 the A-arms were reconfigured forward and lost the camber adjustment. The swingarm on the 88-89 is shorter than the earlier years. The suspension changes were supposed to help it turn better. An obviouse diff is the plastic; the 88 was the first year with the headlight in the nosepiece. If you want to put different year plastic on your ride, they all fit, just a change in the seat latch. The 88 was also the first year to not have gold wheels.

 

and i think on 88-89 the pegs do not spring back 88-89 had thicker seat foam 88-89 had aluminum swing-arm and the front bumper had the bumper skid 1 pice stamped the 86-87 had a larger bolt on skid. i know there are a lot of small things but the most was said above.