We're rebuilding our completely stock 88 250r and wouldn't you know, there is a hole in the boot of the ball joint on one of the upper A-arms. Any suggestions as to who we should find another from? Service Honda? Should we replace with stock or after-market. The bike will be pretty much stock, nothing fancy. 95% of the time it's in the sand, no trail riding.

 

I was faced with this exact problem, I was told by the honda dealership my options were to buy a new stock a-arm, or to buy aftermarket a-arms, they told me I could not get new rubbers or ball joints.

 

Yep, we learned that already too. Hubby kept insisting that we just needed a new ball joint until I showed him the little "NOTE" in the service manual that stated the 88-89 cannot be replaced, you have to replace the whole a-arm. That wasn't what he wanted to hear, especially because the stock one from Service Honda was like $168+.

That is why I'm doing the research....which will he like better. He's the original owner of this bike, hasn't be on it for 10 years and now is finally doing something with it. The frame has been welded and new paint, engine gone through.....now it's time to get it all back together.....

 

You can replace the stock a-arm with a new one for $168 and still have 3 others that are 20 yrs old. Or you can spend about $500 and get 4 brand new ones with replacable ball joints.

 

That is my hubby's idea but I wanted to do the research first.

Who would you order from?

 

All of the major aftermarket companies make excellent products. But I would opt to go with +1 a-arms. When I rebuilt my R, I didn't want +2 arms (too wide) but I wanted the bike to be more stable than stock. The +1s are the best of both worlds. They are not too wide for the trails and stability is greatly increased. My arms are Burgard Cycle +1 up 1 and I love them.