Well, let me first by saying thanks to those that sent me a few parts. It was a big help as I was a bit short on parts in the end there. Jimbo, timbo, brad, wistech, 27, ACEwrench, and Mike, much appreciated.
So, now onto the build. This will be the LAST time I do a build from scratch. This quad was not a roller and did not have a full motor when i started it. I have collect a lot of parts of the years and thought I would put them to good use. The motor was the hardest part. I got the case in a trade for labor as it wasn't good any more. It was an old fx400 case that had the bearing go and the guy bought a new 03 case as a replacement. So, I had the bearing sleeved and went ahead and converted it over to a hydrolic clutch case. Couple hundred dollars later after I had replaced all the bearings and was ready to go. Got the big crank in from Timbo and went to work on it.
So, how did the motor build go? oof Started April 19th and my dune trip was April 25th.
Wednesday April 19th:
Recieved the crank in the mail and the piston, but no sleeve
Case is at the shop getting the very small roller bearings removed.
Thursday April 20th:
Went to go get the case and it was damaged from a bearing removal. Guy was resleaving the small roller bearing and just didn't finish. I could have cried.
Received the rest of Tim's shipment and was told that the sleeve in the box was defective. I looked at it and it had a chunk of metal missing from manufacturing. EEK! It was in the water jacket area but it could be usable if needed. Tim talked with Doug and he was sending me out some new sleeves he had left over over night. woot!!
Friday April 21st.
Got the case back today. Very nice work so I got it cleaned up and bearings installed.
Got sleeve in the mail today. It was used, very used, and too tight to to work with the new CP. EEK!! Talked with Tim and we decided to go with the defective sleeve. I epoxied up the defect and let it cure.
Installed the crank and tested side play. Was a bit too big so I shimmed it out. Reinstalled the crank and it was a bit too tight, so I had to pull the crank again. One of the small bolts decided to seize on its removal from the cartridge plate. Spent a good hour or two removeing it and rethreading its hole. So I get the crank installed and its working find. I get the plate all mounted and the oil pump seems to be turning fine. We are behind at this point but no point in staying up till all hours with a few days left.
Saturday April 21st:
I go to install the tranny and it slides right in. But I decide to shift the gears a few times just to be sure and it seems to be locking up and not shifting into 3rd or higher. I removed it and reinstalled a couple of times and scratched my head. Then I remembered the last gear on the tranny falling off a few times when moving it around in storage. I yank the tranny back out and sure enough the gear was on backwards. doh! Fixed and its good to go!
I go looking through old valves looking for a best sets and decide on a few keepers. Get them installed and put the head on. Build the rest of the motor and install a set of cams and went to shimming. When I installed the shims I noticed that they were sitting VERY deep in the pockets. As it turned out I couldn't get the exhaust shimmed anything less than .009 without the bucket sitting on the retainer. What happened was I had a full set of old style clips sitting around and grabbed them with the newer Ti retainers. I installed them by hand and it appeared they would "keep" just fine so I installed them. As it happens they do fit and secure just fine but they sit higher on the valve than the newer ones. So, I stared at the motor for an hour. Oh yeah, this was like 1am on Friday night. Decided to pull the head back off and replace the keepers. Got that done and finished up the motor yet again and went to bed at like 3.
New Drag Quad--and dyno king :)
Sunday April 22nd---3 days left!!:
I reshim the cams and the new keepers worked great. I go ahead and degree them now. Ug, hours later after swapping the cam gears around on the intake and exhaust I end up with like 107 and 106. Happy with that I get them all installed and loctited. Woot, done!! I get the new side covers on there button it up.
Before installing the motor I decided to make the fuel system as it would be easier with the harley injectors. Couple hours later I call the wife out and we install that bad boy. I go to install the new battery and realize that it is a bit taller than the old one. stinking ytx12bs. I remove the starter and install the battery. ug I spend a few more hours messing with the fuel system getting it all installed and ready. About 7pm on Sunday I am ready to go!
I have the oil installed, gas tank on and am ready to start this bad boy. I turn the key on and nothing. The fuel pump didn't turn on. WTF?!! I check all the power and its got power, i check the grounds, its got ground. OH NO!! I disconnect the pump and hard wire it, nothing. %@#$#@ I get another spare pump in the garage and check it, its bad too!! what is happening here??!! I call Mark in a panic and he had one he just got from Doug. He brings it over and it works. I get it plugged in and it primes right up. WOOT!! At this point its late on Sunday so I can't test ride it but I can fire it up. I cross my fingers and push the start button, turns over!! But it doesn't fire up. I have NEVER had one not fire. I looked at it baffled and decide to check the plug. Its purty, no black or nothing. Bad coil. Son of a!! What are the chances?? I swap coils and boom! it fires right up!!
Sounds good so Kim and I install the exhaust. Sounds mean!! Gotta wait till the morning for a test ride though.
I reshim the cams and the new keepers worked great. I go ahead and degree them now. Ug, hours later after swapping the cam gears around on the intake and exhaust I end up with like 107 and 106. Happy with that I get them all installed and loctited. Woot, done!! I get the new side covers on there button it up.
Before installing the motor I decided to make the fuel system as it would be easier with the harley injectors. Couple hours later I call the wife out and we install that bad boy. I go to install the new battery and realize that it is a bit taller than the old one. stinking ytx12bs. I remove the starter and install the battery. ug I spend a few more hours messing with the fuel system getting it all installed and ready. About 7pm on Sunday I am ready to go!
I have the oil installed, gas tank on and am ready to start this bad boy. I turn the key on and nothing. The fuel pump didn't turn on. WTF?!! I check all the power and its got power, i check the grounds, its got ground. OH NO!! I disconnect the pump and hard wire it, nothing. %@#$#@ I get another spare pump in the garage and check it, its bad too!! what is happening here??!! I call Mark in a panic and he had one he just got from Doug. He brings it over and it works. I get it plugged in and it primes right up. WOOT!! At this point its late on Sunday so I can't test ride it but I can fire it up. I cross my fingers and push the start button, turns over!! But it doesn't fire up. I have NEVER had one not fire. I looked at it baffled and decide to check the plug. Its purty, no black or nothing. Bad coil. Son of a!! What are the chances?? I swap coils and boom! it fires right up!!
Sounds good so Kim and I install the exhaust. Sounds mean!! Gotta wait till the morning for a test ride though.
Monday April 23rd:
So now I wake up on monday around 9:30am and get to work. Gotta finish installing misc junk on the quad.
I am missing somehting in the timeline here....so lets just say Monday was a wash for some stinking reason.
Tuesday April 24th: day before the trip
I finally get it out after lunch and runs like a raped ape. So much power. Soooooo happy. I only wanted to run it for a few minutes so it was very quick. Then on the way back I notice coolant on the side of the motor. I pull it in the garage real quick and look at my coolant bottle and its full to the max!! I was uh oh. I pull the cap off and it hisses. I start the motor back up and bubbles come out of the bottle. oh no!! Did the defect already break??!! I saw my hopes to take this to the dunes running down the drive way. I just stared at it for a little bit. Sure enough who calls me like 10 minutes later. Timbo!! We start chatting about it. He was shocked it could be cracked so quick as well. Then it hits me. What about the cylinder O-ring? I run over to the bench which has tools all over it at this point. And start digging around. Tim was saying no way I could have left it. I didn't find it then I saw it. Big, ugly, brown o-ring just sitting there waiting to be installed. NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! In my weary state a few nights back when I tore the head back off I moved the oring out of the way so I didn't get slicone on it. Must have forgot to reinstall it. I am out of time now. We leave the next day. I still have to get my other quads ready. What to do??!!
I decide to get my other quads ready and IF I have time to get this one fixed. Sure enough around 10:00 that night I get done. Time to rebuild that motor, AGAIN! 11:00 I have it dropped and on the bench. It takes an hour to get it torn apart and the head off. by 1 I had it most of the way back together. By 3am we had the quad rebuild with everything reinstalled cept for the plastic. I was out of oil so I couldn't start it up. We went to bed and went for oil the next morning. Got up around 9am again and went to get oil. Got it installed and fired up on the first shot. No time for a test run, just throw the plastic on and load it in the trailer. I will finish up the plastic up at the dunes.
Man, what a weekend.
So, now we are at the dunes. I was sooo burned out from the last week of building that I just chilled out the first day and rode for about an hour just to break the motor in. I also went hunting for some paddles. Nothing to be found! The only straight paddles were a 20" 7 paddle hauler. I was better off getting a set of sand stars. I spent hours running around trying to find better tires. Ended up with the V paddle sand stars.
The next day we were all fired up and ready to go out. I hit the button and it fires right up. We hit the dunes and I got for my first jump of the day on it. It feels kinda weird. I hang a U turn and hit the throttle and notice the clutch is slipping bad. Oh no!! Burned up clutch. I sigh and laugh because I put in some of the ugliest clutch plates I have ever put in. It even had the really old aluminum metals plates. I get towed back to get back to work. Of course, I bring spares.
The spares were like new though. Yeah, I am a goober. So I spend a while working on it, have to run to town for an oil pan and new oil. Get it replaced and by that point the guys next to us were heckling me about drag racing. They were some good guys and were being egged on by my friends. So I hit the button and boom! Fires up. We are ready to go.
The guys next door had very nice 450R and YFZs. The fastest of the bunch was a 480R full port and polish with 8 paddle haulers. I hadn't tuned the quad yet and was running the V paddles. He would get me off the line and hold me off by around a length maybe more. I was sick of being beat so I put my small friend JAred on there. He was getting beat off the line for some reason and then we noticed he was on the bars at the start. We wave him down and tell him to sit on the back of the quad. It has a +6 swing arm on there and to start in 2nd gear. He burns everyone that time. Now we were in business, nothing was touching him.
Next day is dyno day.
We hit the dyno and get it tuned. I swap tires with Mike and we go dragging. King of the hill baby. I would get beat off the line but after my first couple of races it was smooth sailing. Was beating all the 4 strokes out there. Then we put Jared on it. He was gone. Smoking everyone! Didn't even need the NOS for it.
Here he is, as you can see noone with him. Kim should have zoomed out to show the other riders.
Here are some picks of the quad mostly cleaned up. I will get pics of the dyno stuff up tonight. I would like to enter it for quad of the month also.
So now I wake up on monday around 9:30am and get to work. Gotta finish installing misc junk on the quad.
I am missing somehting in the timeline here....so lets just say Monday was a wash for some stinking reason.
Tuesday April 24th: day before the trip
I finally get it out after lunch and runs like a raped ape. So much power. Soooooo happy. I only wanted to run it for a few minutes so it was very quick. Then on the way back I notice coolant on the side of the motor. I pull it in the garage real quick and look at my coolant bottle and its full to the max!! I was uh oh. I pull the cap off and it hisses. I start the motor back up and bubbles come out of the bottle. oh no!! Did the defect already break??!! I saw my hopes to take this to the dunes running down the drive way. I just stared at it for a little bit. Sure enough who calls me like 10 minutes later. Timbo!! We start chatting about it. He was shocked it could be cracked so quick as well. Then it hits me. What about the cylinder O-ring? I run over to the bench which has tools all over it at this point. And start digging around. Tim was saying no way I could have left it. I didn't find it then I saw it. Big, ugly, brown o-ring just sitting there waiting to be installed. NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! In my weary state a few nights back when I tore the head back off I moved the oring out of the way so I didn't get slicone on it. Must have forgot to reinstall it. I am out of time now. We leave the next day. I still have to get my other quads ready. What to do??!!
I decide to get my other quads ready and IF I have time to get this one fixed. Sure enough around 10:00 that night I get done. Time to rebuild that motor, AGAIN! 11:00 I have it dropped and on the bench. It takes an hour to get it torn apart and the head off. by 1 I had it most of the way back together. By 3am we had the quad rebuild with everything reinstalled cept for the plastic. I was out of oil so I couldn't start it up. We went to bed and went for oil the next morning. Got up around 9am again and went to get oil. Got it installed and fired up on the first shot. No time for a test run, just throw the plastic on and load it in the trailer. I will finish up the plastic up at the dunes.
Man, what a weekend. So, now we are at the dunes. I was sooo burned out from the last week of building that I just chilled out the first day and rode for about an hour just to break the motor in. I also went hunting for some paddles. Nothing to be found! The only straight paddles were a 20" 7 paddle hauler. I was better off getting a set of sand stars. I spent hours running around trying to find better tires. Ended up with the V paddle sand stars.
The next day we were all fired up and ready to go out. I hit the button and it fires right up. We hit the dunes and I got for my first jump of the day on it. It feels kinda weird. I hang a U turn and hit the throttle and notice the clutch is slipping bad. Oh no!! Burned up clutch. I sigh and laugh because I put in some of the ugliest clutch plates I have ever put in. It even had the really old aluminum metals plates. I get towed back to get back to work. Of course, I bring spares.
The spares were like new though. Yeah, I am a goober. So I spend a while working on it, have to run to town for an oil pan and new oil. Get it replaced and by that point the guys next to us were heckling me about drag racing. They were some good guys and were being egged on by my friends. So I hit the button and boom! Fires up. We are ready to go.The guys next door had very nice 450R and YFZs. The fastest of the bunch was a 480R full port and polish with 8 paddle haulers. I hadn't tuned the quad yet and was running the V paddles. He would get me off the line and hold me off by around a length maybe more. I was sick of being beat so I put my small friend JAred on there. He was getting beat off the line for some reason and then we noticed he was on the bars at the start. We wave him down and tell him to sit on the back of the quad. It has a +6 swing arm on there and to start in 2nd gear. He burns everyone that time. Now we were in business, nothing was touching him.
Next day is dyno day.
We hit the dyno and get it tuned. I swap tires with Mike and we go dragging. King of the hill baby. I would get beat off the line but after my first couple of races it was smooth sailing. Was beating all the 4 strokes out there. Then we put Jared on it. He was gone. Smoking everyone! Didn't even need the NOS for it.
Here he is, as you can see noone with him. Kim should have zoomed out to show the other riders.
Here are some picks of the quad mostly cleaned up. I will get pics of the dyno stuff up tonight. I would like to enter it for quad of the month also.
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ozarkdaler
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