ssanddemon

I had a deal with mine a while back that I chased for a long while, sounds just like your problem. It ended up being an air leak from the left side crank seal. Caused when I put it in backward after welding the crank. Just something to be aware of...

Well, I hate my Pro Flos. The grommets on the boost bottle leak (sand into my motor)! Fixed now, but a real POS design.

The main thing that a 13 (or shorter) will do for you is to close up the gaps between gears. It will get into the band on the next gear easier. Mine went from almost, maybe, no not quite pulling 4th in the TALL stuff to pulling right into the band and topping 4th out- a huge improvement! And first gear is for the parking lot/campground.

I can see how you could make a blaster super fast, and if a guy had a real motor lying around and the skill/equipment to get the transplant done, it could be a hoot. BUT: It's tiny. It's got drum brakes (unless it's a newer one or been upgraded). The suspension is pretty lame. Really, it could be a cool second bike, but for all the extra work to make it even close to a REAL quad, it is hard to make it pencil out. I certainly wouldn't want even a crazy built blaster for my main machine.

I have run Benol @ 60:1 since new in late '02. Always in the dunes, and usually pegged out. Tore down the topend for sh-ts and giggles a couple months ago and put in pro lites. No real reason, they just fit tighter and give better power than the stockers. Found pistons and jugs perfect with crosshatch all the way up . Richer mixes are better for the bearings, but give a leaner mixture, less power. Something like 40 to 60:1 is in the safe range for the good oils. I have heard of guys running 80:1, but they may be doing teardowns every few years.

The conversion is a major fab job and the vito's kit is like gold spraypaint on a turd- He won't be satified by a long shot. He should sell it and step up to the plate.

The Toomey holds mine just fine. Stock slipped with nothing more than paddles and pipes!

Actually, the center crank bearings are open, are they not? I think oil or gas could get beween sides quite easily since there is supply (of gasoline) on one side and suction on both sides, fluids could theoretically transfer back and forth. Never seen it myself, but sounds possible...

Once I landed a jump wrong and broke my nuts on the gas tank... does that count?

Sounds right. It was flooded out for some reason, needle/seat being most likely. Again, it would only happen on one side normally, unless the bike was tipped over or some such other thing, although I guess a very plugged air filter could make it do something like that.

Similar to what I have, do you need to know about mounting location or wiring connections?

I took mine out when I installed the elka dunes. Seemed like the better quality shocks didn't like sitting out there due to the decreased leverage factor. It rode much plusher with the shocks mounted inboard at the factory locations. Dunno on the 450 shox, but I would play with preload first and see how it goes.

Tried the 'mexican impact wrench' yet? Use a big-ass hammer on the other end of a box end wrench. Works just like an impact. Tip the sucker on end to really get in there without having to stand on your head. Just make sure the wrench is a tight fitting 14mm or you will mess up the hex and be kinda screwed. Or you can heat things up with a torch to expand the area, thus alleviating some pressure- it'll burn the paint tho, so BEWARE.

Mine got harder to find neutral on when I put in the toomey clutch. Modded shift star helped, but then I put on blaster pegs and needed a shorter shifter which made it worse again. I can find it about 1 in 5 back-and-forths with the engine running. Off, of course it snicks right in. And yes, the clutch is properly adjusted.

Seems like it's not bad on a bike because the bike follows You, rather than the terrain. A quad is always going to follow the angle of the terrain, and the rider has to hang on; he is often holding his body out to one side or the other from the footpegs and handgrips, resulting in throttle bind as he hangs on. I have not noticed it so much with wide open terrain, but in the off camber tree chutes I love so much, it can be a problem especially when the paddles grip hard and it launches. When the slot is only 4 ft. wide with trees or a dropoff on either side, it can get a little hairy.

Nope, it was from trail riding with the buds at Glamis. We were going out for like 3 or 4 hr. trail rides a couple times a day when we were there for vacation. I like to hillshoot, but the buds like the 'follow the leader' crap and after a couple of days of zapping on and off the throttle to stay in the band while with the group, my thumb just started to give up. I could feel the tendon for my thumb muscles creaking and binding and my forearm swelled up. Hurt like a bitch, made riding agony. Switched back to the twist and it was like heaven.

I put on a twist right after I bought mine, and it worked great until the mods started bringing bigger power. I got the 'deathgrip' a few times and almost had some problems. Put the thumber back on, but it gave me such a bad carpal tunnel-type thing in my forearm that I had to put the twist back on. Just gonna have to be careful in the off-camber stuff I guess.

I blew up a set of V-Force cages because I had the spacer on the wrong side. The center section needs to be up against the intake to keep it all together. My bad, not a problem with the cages themselves. New set coming soon, it sure sux to go back to the factory reeds!

Got 'em last month, right before a week trip to Glamis. Nice shock for the price ($450). Unfortunately I saw on the sticker what Elka charged my vendor and it was like $200. Steamed me up a little to pay that kind of markup.But they are still on the low end for quality aftermarket shocks and a massive improvement over the stockers. Were I to buy them again, I would ask Elka if they sell to the public (probably not).

I rode Glamis last week for the first time, found my bike liked 13/41 much better that 14/41. Easily picked up 4th on Olds. Thinking about adding another 2 or 3 teeth to the back for the next trip, but the sand was so wet, that may have changed things a bit from the usual. But really, how often does anyone max out in 6th? Seems like gearing down for sand makes sense because it closes up the gear spacing, makes it so much easier to keep it in the band.

The swingarm roller is junk. Mine failed the first time in the dunes. You gotta cut that sucker off and install a chain slider. It will hold up great, totally bulletproof. To adjust the chain, I kneel on the grab bar to squish the suspension and grab the chain. It should be pretty snug, like 1/2" deflection. The less weight on the susp. the looser the chain is. The more, the tighter. Ergo, when you go over a jump and compress it all the way, you had better not have it too tight or it can damage the output shaft bearing, break the chain, or similar- something's gotta give. On the other hand, a loose chain eats sprockets, so you gotta find the happy medium.

JEEZ! You can spend too much on a banshee? I didn't think it was possible! 11k and counting..... Look on ebay, West TX. You'll find factory arms for pennies.

"Comp" is compression damping, or the speed in which the shock will compress. "Reb" is rebound damping, or the speed in which the shock will extend. You have a nice set of rezzie shocks there, so you have both adjustments as well as the spring preload adjustment (that big ring that can be tightened down on the spring). You might want to play around with the adjustors to get a baseline setup before riding. Crank down the knob on the reservior (clockwise) and you will feel much more resistance when you push down on the bike. Crank down that knob on the shock end, and it will come back up very slowly. It's just a matter of playing around until the bike rides as smooth as you want it. I like mine super soft on compression (since I don't weigh much, it doesn't bottom too easy) and as quick on rebound as possible without having it bounce in the chop or whoops. I set preload as soft as possible as well, going off big jumps and cranking it down until it just keeps from bottoming out. Hope this helped!

The lighting coil is a seperate section from the magneto section in the stator. You can have a nonrunning bike or a running one and still have a bad stator if the lighting section is bad. Just make sure to follow the steps in the book regarding switch and wiring tests before throwing the stator away. My lights were dead and the lighting coil was just barely out of spec on the ohms test, so I gambled and bought the Ricky Stator 200w deal; problem solved.

Well, OK there is this: DON'T pull the brake lever back all the way. See, during normal use, the piston inside the master cylinder never travels to the end of the bore, so crud, corrosion and etc. will build up. Remember brake fluid attracts water. This is a fact I learned many years ago as a rookie car mechanic- push the pedal down to the floor that first time, and you just killed the master. It may not crap out right away, usually takes days or weeks to really start fading, although it could be instantanious. This only occurs with several-year-old cylinders due to the corrosion build up. New cyl, no problem. Just something to keep in mind. For bleeding, I like to crack the bleeder and keep my finger over it while pumping the lever repeatedly. That allows air or fluid out but doesn't allow air to be sucked in. It's an easier way of pumping the air out, much faster as opposed to cracking and uncracking the bleeder over and over, and saves wear and tear on the bleeder hex. I'm not a big fan of the one man bleeder set up with the hose going into a bottle from the bleeder. It's easy to get air sucking from around the threads of the bleeder, and will never bleed fully. Just some .02 from a guy who's been there