400ccHomemade
11-11-2005, 12:11 PM
Kind of a long story, but I'll try and be brief. My dad called me and said he found a free atv if I wanted it. I said sure. Even if it's trashed, I could use parts for my go-cart, or homemade trike, or something. I came over to see it. It was rough. The body was in a few pieces, and scattered around. The engine was taken apart. 3 flat tires, 2 bald tires. It had 10,000 miles on it. 10,000!!!!!!! The guy said he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start, so he doesn't want it anymore. Some plusses: electric start, reverse, generally no damage, seat not even ripped, not bad overall. So, I took it. He said he thinks there is a cam timing problem. I work in repair work, so I have learned never to trust what anyone says. I decided to do my own troubleshooting. I put the head and everything back together. Went through the carb to make sure there was no gumming. Checked for spark. Nice spark. Spray some starter fluid in it, nothing. Then I went for the old put some oil down the spark plug hole for a "boost" in compression. Usually works on old, tired engines. Then, it started right up, but ran like crap. Pulled it back in the shop. Noticed a lot of oil leaking around top of the head, so I decided to pull it back off and try to reseal it. Then I noticed the missing valve adjusters and jam nuts. Great, so the last guy didn't tighten them, and now they fell in the engine. I luckily fished them all out though, and put them back on and adjusted them. After that, it runs AWESOME now. Plugged the tires just so I could test ride it, and it works great. It still starts hard, but what do you expect, it has 10, 000 miles on it. I also fixed all the damaged bodywork.
Over the winter to do list:
1) I'm going to re-ring it. This will make it start easier, and run better. $30 to $40 for rings and necessary gaskets, etc.
2) New battery. After this, the electric start will work. $30 to $50 for a motorcycle battery.
3) Here's the big one, 2 rear tires. They won't be cheap. At least $80 I figure, probably more.
So, bottom line, I got a nice LT250E 4 wheeler with electric start, reverse, nice shape, for free so far. After $200 or so it will be a fine running machine. I like it. And a side-note: it is way faster than I expected! You wouldn't think a 250 would pull on you're arms like that!
Over the winter to do list:
1) I'm going to re-ring it. This will make it start easier, and run better. $30 to $40 for rings and necessary gaskets, etc.
2) New battery. After this, the electric start will work. $30 to $50 for a motorcycle battery.
3) Here's the big one, 2 rear tires. They won't be cheap. At least $80 I figure, probably more.
So, bottom line, I got a nice LT250E 4 wheeler with electric start, reverse, nice shape, for free so far. After $200 or so it will be a fine running machine. I like it. And a side-note: it is way faster than I expected! You wouldn't think a 250 would pull on you're arms like that!