1987
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"The beaner year", many different changes occurred within this production year, sometimes making parts hard to match up.
The major changes were in the frame, engine, swingarm, and a-arms. The most visible change is in the frame right in front of the cylinder the 85-86 frame has a single down bar, but the '87+ has a single wishbone down-tube. The 85-86 exhaust goes out the side of the cylinder and the '87+ goes straight out the front in between the split downbar, hence the head pipe design changed for '87+. For '87+, a head motor mount was added and connects the engine to the backbone of the frame (under tank). The 85-86 is also a non powervalved motor as the '87+ have powervalves (Suzuki Automatic Exhaust Control). [4] The counterbalancer, bearing and seal were changed in 1988 from the 1987 design. The front shocks are also about 3" longer than previous models. The air intake from the carburetor to the cylinder is in a 5 bolt pattern and larger than the other years providing more air flow and was the same as the 1987 lt500r reed cage. Hence, the 87's are desired by tuners and racers for the larger base air flow. The 1988-on LT250R and the LT250R's big brother, the LT500R or Quadzilla, used the 6-bolt intake design. Also the '87+ used a 6 speed transmission [4] [1] instead of the 5 speed used on the 85-86 models. [5] The engine color was changed from silver used on the 85-86 models to blue for the '87+ models.
For the '87+ model, the swingarm design was changed to a more "beefy" design after cracking / breaking issues with the 85-86 swingarm design. Clearly, the Suzuki engineers underestimated how hard their customers could ride their product. However, the '87+ swingarm will mount to the 85-86 frame with some other minor equipment swap (i.e. rear shock, link). The '87+ rear axle carrier includes forward-reverse slide chain tensioning rather than the 85-86's rotary tensioning method. The '87+ carrier housing slides forward and reverse and then is held in place by four vertical bolts and two rear horizontal bolts whereas the 85-86 carrier was held with a clamp or pinch design.
The '87 and '88 rear axles continued to have 24 splines axles that were the same as the 85-86 models. In '89, this was changed to a 26 spline axle similar to the LT500R. The hubs on the 1987 models went to a 5/130 bolt pattern similar to the LT500R). This was in contrast to the 4/130 bolt pattern of 85–86. The front fenders are the same and will swap between any year. The rear fenders will swap between any year, but the '91 and '92 model years were different under the seat in order to access the air filter which was relocated due to the redesign of the rear suspension. The '91 and '92 rear plastic actually has a curved metal bar riveted under the seat to help support the plastic due to the larger void in the plastic moulding necessary to access the air filter. (Note that the original rear plastic for '85 - '90 is no longer available from Suzuki. All new rear plastic is the '91-92 style with the riveted bar under the seat.)
The seats changed drastically in '87. They flare out at the rear (like a "T") [4] while the 85-86 has a straight seat. There are also some cosmetic differences between the seats of various years. '85 had yellow hollow letters spelling "Suzuki" on the sides. In '86, they changed these letters to white. On the "T" seat in '89, they added the words "QuadRacer" to the back in white letters. In '91 and '92, they added splashes of teal all throughout the blue seat in a "camo" type of pattern.
