Hi guys, I'm new to the site so please bear with me. I searched a bit and came up with nothing, I also hope I am putting this post in the right spot.

Anyways, i have a 1988 Honda NX 250. Its a 4 stroke, water cooled, 6 spd. I am having some troubles getting it started. My headlight is not turning on. For some saftey reason the bike will not start without the headlight being on. This bike has no kickstart, only pushbutton.

This happened to me before and I took all the plastics off and found a ground wire that was not connected, connected it back up and the headlight worked, at least for a while.

Now its doing it again.

I checked that ground and it is still fine, there are no other loose wires that i can see.

Any of you guys have any experience with this type of bike?

try disconnecting the low beam power wire then put the switch in the low position to start it and high position to turn the light on.

let me know if you want to sell it.

thanks for the reply. i will give that a shot and post back the results.

i really dont want to sell it, ive put too much work and $ into restoring it. when i  bought it it was bare, no plastics, no lights, heck not even an ignition. i have been working on getting it road worthy and it was running fine until this headlight thing happened.

let me tell you one thing, replacement parts for this bike arent cheap! my local Honda dealer wants 300 bucks per side for the radiator shrouds and 400 for the headlight shroud   just one of those is more than i paid for the bike!

Got pics? Do the dash lights work? How's the battery?

no pics yet, right now all the plastics are off as i have been trying to get the bike running. once i figure the problem out and get the plastics back on ill take a few pics of it.

when i put the dash together i did not have any bulbs to put into any of the sockets, so i am not sure if the dash lights work or not. i do know that the tail light comes on nice and bright, its just the headlight that does not come on. i have checked the bulb and it is fine. the battery is only about 1 yr old and it has plenty of juice.

just a update, it turns out the headlight issue was unrelated to the starter issue. the start button on this bike does 2 things, it turns off the headlight and it engages the starter. well the turn off headlight part of the switch was worn out. so bypassed that and the headlight works again. as for the starting issue, i had removed part of the case to repair an oil leak. i used gasket sealer instead of a gasket when i put it back together. turns out the tolerances are so tight in that case that without the thickness of the gasket it binds up. new gasket in and all is well

thanks for the help

heres a couple pics

I've always like those bikes.  A lady-friend of ours has one and she has had no problems whatsoever with it.  I think they look stylish with that half-sport bike, half-dirt bike look.  Glad you got it running!

so, just out of curiosity, does anybody know how much this thing is worth?

ive never seen one for sale

I just bought a 1988 Honda NX 250 yesterday, white/blue. I've spent a lot of time searching the internet and have not heard anything significantly bad about the bike. Two comments keep coming up though: 1: the suspension is soft, 2: the seat can get uncomfortable on a long ride, both can be corrected so I think I got a good deal. I paid $1800 cdn.

I've found several for sale on the internet and all seem to go for between $1600 and $2400.

I haven't actually rode mine yet, but am really looking forward to it. Of course here in Ontario we have snow right now so it may not happen for a while!

I have a 88 NX650 that I am converting to a supermotard styly bike. I got the bike with the front fairing busted up, the tank dented and no side panels.

My vison is to put CR85 front fender. Have a 88 XR500 gas tank. 06 CRF250 side plates (dual exhaust), UFO headlight/turnsignal combo, same in rear, trailtech computer, and FMF exhaust for XR100's. (Same pipe od).

Just starting the project, will keep posted. Will try and take some pics as it comes together.

 Neville1, on 17 March 2005 - 01:48 PM, said:

hey u have a 1988 honda nx 250! the headlight wasent working so i took apart the throtle switch cleaned and put it back toghether! now my high beams are working but not the low beam and my dash light is not working my fuse's are good as well.... any ideas? thanks for your time!!

Edited by magaman, 20 May 2012 - 03:16 PM.

hey i have a 1988 honda nx 250! my headlight wasent working so i took apart the throttle switch and clean quickly and put it back together! now my high beams work but not my low beams and my dash lights wont work!! all the other lights work fine! my fuse are good to any ideas any one? i might have to clean it again i think?