I went a little off the beaten path... I picked up a non running quad. Before everyone flips out... it a 2 stroke utility quad... and it is truly a project... It's a 2002 Polaris Xplorer 400 that I was told it had blown a head gasket and would overheat. This quad was a working machine on a dairy farm. So when I picked it up, it was still covered in cow shit... yes covered in cow shit. I'm sure it had not had a bath in a long, long time. The farmer offered to try and start it... I declined knowing I was going to rebuild the top end anyway. The tires were almost flat, dry rotted with little to no tread, but everything was there, and they had a repair manual (BONUS
). When I pulled into the house, I had to hose it off before even taking it off the trailer and putting it into the garage. Yes it smelled dairy farm fresh.
I began by removing the plastics and disassembling the motor. The head gasket had definitely been reused, as the over use of silicone was appalling. Half of the water jackets were closed off by the overuse of silicone. The head had a small imperfection but I didn't that was the issue. As I dug deeper I found a coolant hose from the cylinder to the water pump completely blocked... no way any coolant was getting through. I took an air hose an blew out the water pump inlet port... tons of crap came out the outlet port. Yea I think found the reason for the overheating. This poor machine was so neglected... The starter which sits at the bottom of the motor in front of the transmission did not work. Lots of disassembly required just to get the starter out. After I dropped the starter out, I see what looks like another wire hanging down... What the hell is this wire to... I pulled on it and its not a wire, but the tail of a mummified mouse... Yea I had a good laugh over that one... that's when I knew i had to give this thing another bath to get to the stuff I missed before, as it still smelled dairy farm fresh.
Now I knew it had gotten hot before, so I had some concerns about the piston / cylinder. It had a wiseco piston which didn't look too old, but definitely had a slight seizure. The cylinder had previously been bored 1 over. Yes it too had signs of slight seizure. I gave it a quick cleanup, and did some work to deglaze the cylinder walls. I installed new wiseco piston and rings and began the reassembly. Just because the part was cheap, I replaced the head for piece of mind. Then I find the quad has lost it's spark. I tested the stator & pickup coil, and all checked out. The coil was giving weird readings. Now I am happy to wrench on anything mechanical... mechanical issues I can usually see and understand the cause and find a solution to repairs them... electrical issues drive me to drink... My cousin who had a similar machine had a similar issues and replaced the CDI and coil only to find his pulse coil trigger just needed and adjustment. He gave me his old parts (coil and CDI) as he sold the machine a few years ago. I dropped in his coil, no spark, swapped CDI's, still no spark. Put in my CDI back in, still no spark. Ordered a new coil, still no spark. I'm about ready to set the quad on fire... I swap the CDI's as my son walks into the garage, an finally there's spark... He claim's it was because of his electrical personality the machine sensed his presence and began to work... yea ok son... I don't care other then there's spark...
I needed to correct a few other things before I can remount the gas tank. So being curious install the spark plug and shoot a little starting fluid into the carb, hit the starter and she fires right up....
That my friends is why you get a smoker over a stroker. I still have a lot of work to do to the quad. The brakes are metal to metal, It does have a lot of grease fittings, I emptied an entire tube of grease into the quad, and it could still use a bit more... I need to change the tranny fluid, and front diff oil. Refill the cooloing system, and tidy up the rats nets of a wiring. So the project continues. The main reason for the quad was to mount the snow plow from my tractor to the quad... I need to be able to plow snow faster than the tractor can go, as well as not get stuck (hence the 4x4). And of course my vehicle of choice had to be a 2 stroke, even if it does have four wheels.
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I remember when I got my 1974 Honda Elsinore CR250M out of moth balls.. had the same issue, ran like crap unless I turned off the fuel, then it cleared up and ran like a scalded ape... that one took a new carb to clear up... of course I didn't know enough about jetting to know what to do. Now I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous... 