Jan 12 2014

And no I did not sneeze !

 

That’s what it’s called.. It’s an amphibious 6×6 ATV.. Or AATV.. very much like the Argo that everyone is familiar with.  This Bazoo was made in 1971..  yes it’s old and kinda rare.  Made here in Canada by Otaco Industries in Ont.. there is very little info on these, just a couple of copied brochures and one or two running ones on the forums  .. So I’m thinking a cool project indeed..  and This little buggy looks like WAY more fun than a quad. It seats two people… side by side !  has room to carry stuff.. is the same size as a quad..  and goes in water, snow and through the bush..  What’s not to like about that !

So here I have one in my garage. acquired from a fellow lawn tractor guy.. who did not want to bother with the Bazoo..  Mostly original , and a little cosmetically challenged.  Just dying to have me put some love into it.  Oh.. and the orange is the factory color.. and I intend to keep that.. however newer paint.   I’m excited !

Not to forget we are talking about a 42 year old mechanical device here..

The tires are old and cracked / flat .  However two unused tires came with it.. so that still leaves four crappy tires.  Not really a problem since you can buy six new ones for a reasonable price.  I’ve been told the drive chains are “newer” but until I get into this buggy and start testing things out it’s very hard to say what is needed.  I can put tubes in the four bad tires so as to be able to drive the Bazoo around.. I can do a compression test on the motor to see if it’s worth spending time on.  Then there is other parts such as the transmission that may or may not be good.. anyway I could go on .. but I really need to get the Polaris Quad finished up and gone so I can get going on the Bazoo..

Hmm I was about that age.. in the ad. the kids in the top photo that is !  So the big question ?  Is Bazoo spelt with three “o”s ?  I’ll be sure to use three in the new decals.  As for this post.. I’m lazy and 2 will do.

And Now :

Here’s a quick photo of the motor in the Bazoo. A twin cylinder 2 cycle snowmobile engine.  Very simple indeed, at least compared to the Polaris Quad I just worked on.. Now here’s a little info on the motor.. This is a CCW.. or Canadian Curtis Wright 290 cc , and yes Curtis Wright … of Wright Brothers fame makes airplane engines.. But here in the great white north.. the Canadian division made motors for snowmobiles..  Go figure !  The carb on this wonderful piece of history is a Walbro WR6.. and Walbro still makes carbs. so there is parts and info still out there. I printed the carb diagram.. and did a quick dismantle… conclusion..  I’m suspecting there is three missing springs inside the pump in the carb and thus the carb may not work , but we have not tried.. so I’ll be sorting that out first.  After tests on  the motor.

A Note Here :  A bit of news I found out later.. I was told by the fella I bought it from that the motor was a 400cc..  well the label and the model number on the motor disagree.  This is the 290 cc twin that was offered as an option for the bazoo.  The standard motor being a single 240 cc. That explains why other photos of Bazoo’s have singles in them.  Also of note is that the “Bazoo” was only made for two years.. and Otaco industries went though many changes and was bought by American Seat Inc.. and up till 2007 they made seats for buses and trains..  Then closed the doors.  They are better known for the tin & cast toys they made in the fifties.

Thinking to myself:

How fortunate that this Bazoo came 99% complete.. all the inside covers, the original seat in good condition, all the original controls.. and a few questionable extras ..like a trailer hitch and some ugly mud flaps.  The fuel tank in the front has been abandoned and now one sits in the back next to the motor. I’ll find out why ?   The potential for improvement is churning through my mind..  One is the complete power train..  I can get the Hydrostatic drives from a zero-turn mower and then use a Briggs & Stratton V-twin motor that would be newer and easy to repair.  That would mean no more transmission, clutches & brakes.  Hydro drives would chain drive right to the wheels.. and provide instant reverse and braking on hills.. Think about it …. I am !

Hey While your waiting to see & read what I’ll be doing with this little gem.. or if you’re scratching your head thinking Rob’s lost it again..

Jan 24 2014:  and the work starts..

Tonight Dave and I pushed the Bazoo into the shop.. let it thaw out a bit.  See those two ply wood cross dividers .. they are gone.. first thing I removed .  The second thing on the agenda was to pull all six wheels off. and I was anticipating a problem.. was told by the previous owner that he could not get them off.. stuck ” you need to take a torch to those wheels” .. OK .  Well he must have loosened them or??  because they came right off with a bit of a tap of the hammer. Looks messy , but it’s very simple.  Dave & I tested the function of the drive line.. and it works good. The transmission shifts ..forward /neutral / reverse like it should .. the chains  all seem good and the framework that holds it all together is not rusted or broken. There’s a bit of play in the levers, and the throttle cable was broken..  Minor stuff.. I’m impressed for such an old machine.  But as far as use goes…. The Hobbs hour meter.. which looks original .. says 165 hours !  Wow that’s low ! Does it work ?  Also it looks to me that someone at sometime replaced five of the drive axles & hubs.  I know this because I’ve seen a photo of the factory inner hub.. and there is only one left. And the wheel nuts on that hub are 1/2″ and the others are 9/16″  ?  That axle is also the loose one of the bunch.. So it may be the leaking one too.

I took a few parts to work and gave them a bath.. It’s sure good to have the two interior covers.

Testing The Motor:

Before I go taking too much apart.. I need to know the condition of the motor.  Part of that involves the use of the starter.. So I needed to sort out the rats nest of wiring..  People do make a mess with the wires.. tons of tape & cable ties.  There’s dead end wires , there’s dirty connections and fuses that don’t work…  Well then I like to study the wiring diagram..  and in this case it’s not for the Bazoo but instead for the motor.  And it turns out to be dead simple.. just like a lawn tractor.. kinda simple.  Even the key switch is from a lawn tractor. It has four positions.. off/kill… on with lights… on without lights.. and start.  I thought of using a new key switch till I realized that it needs to have a kill circuit in the off position. So I’ll keep the key switch ..it works ok.  And what’s this in the photo below ?  Checked the compression on the cylinders with two different gauges and we have 118 in both cylinders. That’s respectable considering the age.   The spark was good too.

Check out the video..  After having a snowmobile mechanic look at the Walbro carb and tell me that it’s good and we are not missing parts .. Dave & I put it back on and hooked up the gas tank. Had to do a bit of adjusting but finally  ..vroooommm… Dave is seen tweaking the mixture.. and the clutch is working too… Bonus ! So now we are getting six tires up and working.. Two are new and two will have tubes put in.  These tires are badly cracked.. but I just need them to hold air for a test run..  And I need a new throttle cable, which is a bicycle brake cable.  And a new belt for the drive.  Then we should be  BAZOOING !

Slight change in plan:

I had everything ready, Tires mounted, throttle cable… except the belt was on order.. Then we are standing there looking things over.. and we noticed the motor was not lined up with the secondary drive.  And on these belt clutch / drives alignment is everything.  So the motor would have to be moved over 3/4 “.  Totally not to big a deal.. but a bunch of work none the less.  The motor runs good… the Drive line could use a few adjustments.. So I made the decision to forfeit the test drive and get right into the “taking things apart” job. Hey we had the motor out.. anyway..

With the frame removed from the Bazoo it will be easier to work on stuff like mounting the motor. So I went to work on removing the axles & seals … They hold the frame in. I was right about the center axle on the left side.. needs to be replaced / or machined.  One out of six … not bad !

 

All the chains had master links , and so once they are off and the set screws loose on the collars on each axle… they just slide out.  Each of the outer seals has four bolts through to the frame rail inside..  The frame is loose now but I need help to lift it onto some saw horses.  Then I will have two separate things to work on.. The fiberglass body.. and the frame with all the mechanical stuff. Oh I almost forgot the motor.. I can’t leave it looking like that.. It needs some love too.

Well the frame is out and on the saw horses.  And that’s one greasy place where it came from.  I also got a few of the external stuff removed like the muffler & the stupid mud flaps.. Just need to remove the plywood from the sides and the top and bottom will separate.

It’s going to be easy to work on the drive up here on the saw horses.. way better than bending over the side of the Bazoo.  I plan to remove the transmission and the chains.  Then degrease the whole thing at work in the wash bay.  Same thing with the bottom fiberglass tub.  Lots of cleaning ahead of me here..  I need to think of a way to keep the chains lubricated without the mess.  I believe there is a sticky chain lube that won’t get “flung” all over.  We can do things better !  I ordered the paint I need for the fiberglass..  I use Interlux Brightsides polyurethane boat paint.  I’ve used it before ..  pricey but tough. Not wanting to get things mixed up..I used colored cable ties to mark the chains as to where each one goes.. there is nine chains. Same thing with the axles, want them back in the same place they came from.

Here’s the frame stripped of the drive parts and ready for the bath. This weekend I hope to get the body split in two and washed.. as well as the other parts.. The workshop is going to be a bit crowded with so many parts..

Here we have the top & bottom in two pieces.  Now I can clean them properly.

Here’s the old gas tank .. looking at it from the underside.  I see they had problems with a leak.. It’s been patched , but the outlet is not there.. I’m guessing the outlet fitting would leak and so the new tank was the easy solution..    I would like to fix this and use it again. So that would be one of the improvements..  I have some others that we’ll see about later..

Rub-A-Dub-Dub.. Scrubbing my Tub :

Sunday Feb 2 2014:   It took a lot of scrubbing to get the greasy mess out of the bottom of the tub..  All clean now..  so I can see what’s going on .. Found two holes drilled in the bottom.

It would never float for long with all the holes I had to fill today.  Once it was warmed up in the shop I mixed up some resin and plugged those UN-needed holes.  A lot of messy patching has been done over the 42 years.. so I’ll be trimming some extra lumps down.

That’s quite the heavy duty hitch there !  I had to cut the ball off.  Dave & I tried to wrench it off.. no way was it coming off.  I’m deciding weather or not to remove the whole hitch .. and put it back on later.. I will keep it though.  Ok I did remove it..  cleaning it up and it will get the satin black paint treatment.  One thing missing .. is drain plugs.  The holes were there.. but they’ve been fiber glassed over..  Need to deal with that.

I’m taking the time to fiber glass the front corners to be like the rear ones… As seen in the photos.. This way I can wrap the edge guard completely around.  I will be bonding the top & bottom when I’m done painting..

Funny what you find when you sand the spray paint off..  There’s three LIFE GUARD signs on the Bazoo… all painted over with BLUE ?  paint.. on a orange Bazoo. ?  WTF.  Hmm what stories it could tell…  Anyway all this body work is messy / dusty stuff..  so I want to get it done before I work on the frame and motor..

If you look at the photo back when I brought the clean tub back to the shop.. you will see that there is red primer all over the bottom..  And under a very messy layer of fiber glass was two metal plates. One is easy to see.. Presumably to protect the front of the bottom from damage.  That would be OK.. but they are badly rusted.. and in a year or two would have dissolved into muck.  On top of that they were leaking.. I found that out when I was washing the inside.. Mostly because not much of Buddies glassing job stuck !  I’m careful to sand & clean the surface before putting resin on.. Anyway they are removed and the holes filled and three coats of glass & resin go on the bottom.  I have an idea for protecting the bottom from damage. It’s been a lot of work to fix up the bottom tub..  But if you do all this taking apart… don’t put it back together with things wrong.. I DON’T want any leaks. Nor do I want damage from rocks & stuff.  So here’s what I have dreamed up for protecting the front of the Bazoo..

Yup.. I’m thinking this would serve best to protect the body of the Bazoo from unwanted bangs & scrapes..  I would make four strong attachment points while I’m glassing.. Build it out of square 3/4 ” tube. Attached to the bottom with metal skid plates…  And … Once all the resin on the bottom is dry, I’ll do some more filling and then flip the tub back over and do a bit of reinforcing..  Got my supplies from the fiberglass shop.. including the Interlux paint.  The bottom tub is all done ready for paint now.  Time to start the top half.. not worried about leaks up there.. but I would like to have it cosmetically nice.  Lots of work needed on the left front where Buddy fixed some damage.

Decal Time:

Nailed it !

It’s these little details that really make the restore.  I’m having the decals made. Had to do this before I scraped it off..  Another weekend.. more time working on the Bazoo.  It’s the top of the body that’s getting the love.

I’m continuing the body work stuff..  like I said I want to get the messy stuff out of the way and clean up after.  Above you can see the motor cover is getting a few patches where there was holes.. and Buddy cut slots for the fuel line.  Same for the front cover that goes under the seat.. With the body work finished., I cleaned the shop up.. Getting ready for PAINTING !   one of my favorite things to do..

I cleaned up the two interior parts … And mixed my paint.. 1 Quart Fire Red + 1 Quart Yellow.  and the color was a pale orange.. most likely because yellow has a touch of white in it.. but after brushing some one.. I liked it.

It’s not a vivid orange for sure.. but it’s easy on the eyes..  Interlux does not have a ready mixed orange.. so this is what I get.  This is a polyurethane paint with a hard glossy finish.  I used a good brush on these small pieces , but a foam roller will be used on the other big stuff.

I’m slightly ahead of my time…

Actually I’m trying to think ahead..  By gluing these pieces of pipe in there I can keep the wires tucked up out of sight.  The long one across the rear is for the tail light wires.  Yes there will be tail lights .. Yes they will be LEDs .  I can’t help myself.. just got to pimp my ride.

Rolled the first coat of orange on the tub tonight..  It will have overnight to cure good, then it gets a sanding and second coat..  The plan here is after the bottom is all painted then I’ll glue the top on. Then I’ll paint the inside.  Last will be the top.

This Post is getting long… So I’m creating a second page

Page 2

 

 

 

 

Got to go Quading with my Sister..

July 14

Yes That’s Me ! First time on a quad

My sister invited me to join her for a Quad Adventure.. hosted by the Nelson Club.  what the heck this is something I’ve never done before..  Kathy had two good quads , I used the 2004 Polaris 500 AWD. She had a newer Artic Cat , so away we go.. To the Bombi Pass on Hwy 3 .. Lots of logging roads and trails.  And our leader / straw boss got a bit lost..and none of us had GPS.. or even a compass. What !   Live and learn.

Lot’s of Quads that day I think a dozen or so

He wanted to go to the power line .. we were heading the totally wrong way. .But it was fun.. and for a bunch of beginners we got a work out.. some very steep rocky trails.. and some just plain old logging roads.  In the end it was all good DUSTY fun.. We just had to reverse back along the way we came..Good thing I’m good with directions..  The Polaris & I got a long just fine.. Even better when I remembered to take the parking brake off.  I’m amazed at where this things can go.. It was a hot day too.. Here we are found some shade to wait for the others to catch up. The Quad I was ridding is the one she sold to my friend Dave.. It’s great. The red Artic Cat that Kathy is on she has sold as well..  So now I’m fixing up one of my own.. See Post..  Let the adventures begin.

Kathy & me ..  This was the start of a love for quading for me..  The Polaris 500 that I’m riding has become Dave’s quad.  He loves it.

Not mine ..but what it should look like.

Dec 9 2013:  And I’m at it again !

In my search for something to work on / putz with in the shop.. This Quad popped up and got Dave & I’s attention.. Cheap ! Beat up , dirty, not running good… and left outside .. PERFECT for me.. And more so because these are one of the best quads out there..  Not too big ..not too small.. go anywhere.. I know cause Dave has a 2004 version of this quad and I rode it for a whole day. .SEE POST .  But mine is missing a few things, like the rear rack. And some of the body parts are broken.. but I’m good at fixing that sort of thing. Needs a new muffler too.. and as I get involved there could be more things. For now it’s getting stripped down and cleaned.

My Quad …the good side.

It’s green ! that’s ok Daves is yellow.

I’m waiting for a warm day to do the cleaning.. or maybe take the quad to the shop at work..  Anyway what you see in these two photos above is me placing the body parts on for a photo shoot.. and another one from the net.. To show what it would be like in nice shape..The one I have came all in pieces. and one interesting thing was the carb wrapped in a bag and hanging by the throttle & choke cables…  Was told that the quad would run but barely .. and would stall out.. thought to be carb issue.  And that was correct !  And it wasn’t just the spider making a cozy home in there.. nope the first thing I found was the choke spring not in it’s proper place. See the following photo..

With a hole in the diaphragm the throttle would not open all the way.. So I’m thinking once I get a new one the quad will run fine..Or there could be more..won’t know till I get the parts and try starting the motor..  In the mean time a bath is needed.

Ya I know.. they are suppose to get dirty.. but wash it when you get back from getting it dirty !  For me it’s way easier to work on.. and this poor quad has not seen a grease gun or an oil can for a while.. So take note of the photo above.. cause it WILL look different after the bath.  One other thing that is of concern is bent stuff.. this quad had a rough life.. and the owner had replaced the front suspension …so it’s good to look at the frame carefully.  First thing I noticed was the bent down handlebar.. a common thing but I will fix that. You can see in this photo below..

But which is bent ? Well it’s a little of both.. the bars are bent down on the right side, but there is also a slight “skew” to the right-top frame rail.  not enough to be overly concerned about. If I’m able to pull it straight then great.. if not.. no worries.

Now it’s had the much needed bath. And under the dirt you always find stuff.. Missing screws, missing front disc brake.  Hmm.  I would have discovered that when I pulled the wheels off anyway.  Just another part needed. Last night I took the pull starter off and cleaned it up.. wound the rope in a bit.. and put it back on.. one more thing fixed.

Today we tried in vane to pull on the upper frame.. just to tweak it a bit.. wouldn’t move.. So I’m thinking leave it alone.  We also pulled the valve cover off to see if the cams are worn..  nope everything is fine..  I bought a motorcycle lift today and now the quad is up higher and easier to work on.. pulled the front wheels off and found … the right side had a brake disc.. but no pads left.. the left side is missing the disc but has wore out pads.. So there’s more stuff to buy.  Then I moved on to the speedo cable .. and where it goes on the transmission.  That part was seized.. so I took it apart and freed it up.. but I need a long square key to put it back on..

I’ve now ordered all the parts I need. and they are: new front brake pads, new front brake rotors,  new carburetor diaphragm, new key for speedometer, new shifter switch. Then there is the stuff I will fix: the muffler, the plastic body parts, the speedometer, the rear rack.  I have a few days before my Sister brings the parts.  So I’m working on some of the small stuff.. I took the rusty but functioning starter solenoid off and cleaned it up and bench tested it for function..  Works fine, but I have a bare wire that will have to be covered.

I was also working on the Rear/ Drive train brake.  Unlike the front bakes this one is all there and working good.. So I just pulled the caliper off and cleaned / lubricated stuff and made sure there was enough brake pads left. Oh and today I ordered LED lights to replace all the bulbs except the high beam light.

Rather then flipping between the different things..  And now that my parts are on the way.. I’ll list the fixes.. Starting with:

The Speedometer:

My poor sad speedometer.. I’ve taken it apart a week or so back and left it for dead..  Basically it has not been working for a while.  And upon investigation… it was the right angle drive off of the transmission that was seized.  And that twisted and sheared the square 2 inch long drive key. It is supposed to do that but then you fix it 🙂

This little baby with two 45 degree gears was the problem. Normally you would get a new one.  NA  I was so bold as to take it apart ( you can see where) and clean it and make it work . I may not have done the neatest job but It works again..  So once I get the new key (not able to fix that) then this goes back on the side of the transmission. The cable is good. .. but the speedometer had a broken glass..

Letting mother nature into the speedometer is never a good thing. You can see what’s left of the glass..  I CAN FIX.  So I took it all apart too.. (I have no fear with this stuff)  I clean and lubed it up and it works fine now.  I made a new lens from some lexan I have .  And …

I say “almost” because the black face is weathered.  And it’s in miles !  what’s up with that ?  Speaking of .. there is got to be more than the 2603 miles that shows in the ODO ., but I’m leaving that alone. Dave says set it to 0.  I’ll just be happy to know how fast I can go before I get scared.

The Battery:

And the holder ..and the solenoid.  I was contemplating removing or cutting the battery holder to fit the battery I have but I’m thinking it would be better to just buy the correct size battery.

I removed all the rust and gave it a paint job… new positive red wire too.  Seams a little exposed for a hot lead.. I need a second rubber boot.  I’ve still to go over all the electrical, but I have not found a problem yet other than the shifter switch and a few burnt out bulbs. Speaking of those.. one of the burnt out bulbs was the AWD light.. a tiny bulb , never seen anything like it.. So in my bag of tricks I found a blue LED tiny bulb that I soldered on to the old bulb holder.. and now the AWD lights up blue.. very cool..  I took the handlebar off and all the switches that mount on the bar.. and I’ve tested and cleaned all of them now.. The exception is the brake switch, I’ll need all the brakes installed to test that because there needs to be pressure on the brake lines.   If that works there should be no electrical woes ..  Hopefully.

The New Parts:

It’s Christmas.. and the parts arrived with my Sister.

Not shown here is the shifter switch .. I was antsy to see if it would work.. It’s a new design.  Seems ok.. it fits and should do the job.

I’m a bit nervous putting the shifter back together.  The service manual tells you to be careful because the switch needs to work !  but does not go in great detail.  And this being an expensive part I do not want to damage it.. I can see now that it’s a more robust switch, it’s metal not plastic like the old one.. The shifter went back together without a hitch.. the switch works good too.  Yessss..  Now I can finish the carb.. and work on the front hubs.. Today is Boxing Day..  I thought I would take the handle bar over to Peter’s shop and use a torch to take the slight bend out.. So I heated it up carefully and got it perfectly straight.  I sanded the bar and gave it a new paint job.  I also cleaned and polished the bar clamps and replaced the missing bolt.  Done.  When I was taking the grips off I noticed there were a bit ratty.. so some nice new ones … maybe heated would be good 🙂

Them’s The Brakes :

Now that I had all the parts I needed it was time to do the front wheel hubs and brakes.  You need to pull the hubs off to replace the disc rotors.  It’s a good thing to inspect the locking hubs for wear and broken parts..  Everything was in good order despite the fact that one hub hadn’t seen much oil for awhile.  Your supposed to  fill them 1/3 up with oil.. there was a bit in one side only.  So they got some oil and put back together with new rotors.

So the brakes are like new.. and the brake light switch is working too.. There does not seem to be any air got into the lines.  So them’s the brakes 🙂

Sunday Dec 29 th :

I thought I’d get a lot more done today.. but I ran into a snag or two.  I did get the carb back in it’s proper place.. I now have the proper battery.  And with those things I thought I’d be starting the motor.. But I wanted to have ALL the electrical in place and working..

The other evening I got the handle bars all fixed and painted .. installed with new grips. So today I figured I better get the pod back together.. witch meant fixing the broken mounting holes.. I used new metal to reinforce the plastic . Worked great. Even did a bit of plastic welding with the soldering iron.

I placed the top here so I could check out the lights .  See the little red light in the middle. That’s my new brake light. It will tell you when ever you use the brakes.. but the idea is for you not to drive with the parking brake on… Something I did and not proud of.  Will it be annoying..  ?  I’m not sure yet.  Anyway I got to testing all things electric.. and found that the starter would not work.. Wow whoda thunk..  I seriously could not get it to turn over. 🙁

So out it came.. not to hard .. two bolts. When I did get the shaft to turn it make some BAAAD noises.  I printed the instructions for taking it apart, and got to it..

Boy was it dirty, no lube , and one of the brushes was welded to the armature..  None of which was good, but explains why it was a no-go.  So Clean-Clean.. lube-lube and back together.  And it works.  Yay.. :)….  Until I put it back into the motor.. it cranked the motor over about six times and click..  nothing.  Took it back out and apart.. The brushes are too short.. or wore out too much.. need new ones if I’m going to have electric start.  So I’ll move along to something else:

Bonus !

Dave Had a motor brush that worked ! With a little modification and some solder I repaired the brush.. and the starter now works great.. all the time every time..

You can see the difference in length in the photo above.

I also got the pod all together and as you can see all the lights work, red speedo light , and the bright red one is the brake light..  coming along nicely. 🙂

The high beam light got a new H4 bulb, and a polish to take the yellow and scratches away. It’s mounted properly now and you can adjust the angle..  It always should be that way..

Where are we at :

Time to take stock:  I’ve yet to start and run / test the motor.. But as of tonight I could, it’s mechanically all together,  but there is no muffler yet. Here’s what I do know..  The starter and all electrical is working. The brakes are excellent. The wheels go round & round.. Ok that’s silly.  Maybe it’s easier to say what I know needs work.  The left hub did not engage when I tested the AWD .. That side had a bent disc that I straightened, it’s also got a bad rear oil seal.. so that’s work to do. Strangely the tail light won’t work ?? it worked before ?  not a big deal but it bugs me. The Unknown: How well does the motor run ?  Does the belt drive do it’s thing ? Does the charging system work ?  Will the wheels fall off.. That’s silly again. Seriously though I’ve done a lot of hours of work.. and spent some cash here .. so crossing my fingers.

We have a running motor !

Took most of the day to fart around with checking for fuel..and trying to mickey rig a muffler.. but it started and it ran good enough for a boot down the street and back.. but the muffler is to restrictive and the motor runs like crap with that.  The good news is it RUNS, The Drive line works good too.. and things like the fuel pump are working good.. But I need a proper muffler.

Welding Plastic 101 :

Well I’ve heard of it being done.. but never tried it till today..  I have a flat tip for the soldering gun.. that’s just the ticket.

One of the foot rests for the quad was broken right in half.  not anymore !

Exhaust & Muffler :

Breath in … Breath out.  Instead of spending hours TRYING to build my own muffler I found an “off the shelf” one at Lordco that is perfect.. and cheap.

This seams to be working fine.. the mounts are a bit of a compromise, but I’m thinking the muffler will do the job at a fraction of the cost of the Polaris one. Once we get the motor running better we’ll see.

Dave’s coming over and we are going to check the gap on the valve cams.. Very important that they work good.  But what I found today while removing the fuel tank ..  may be the problem with the motor performance, or a good part of it..  I noticed that when I pulled the fuel line off the shut off valve .. I saw the fuel just dribbling out of the fuel line.. even though there was lots in the tank. So I replaced the two fuel lines coming from the fuel tank.. better flow..  While setting the valve clearance the starter calved again..  I’m buying a new jobber one it’s not expensive.. so why fart around with the old one. Also seemed the carb was not working good .. pulled it off and apart to check the float setting and found the jet seat loose in the float bowl.. All these fixes should mean a running motor when I get the new starter.. So no more work on quad till new starter comes.

Wee Haa !

Yup Got the starter installed and Dave & I fired up the Quad …  runs great, idles nice .. so we put the air box back together and the seat on and went for a boot… Even better with all the stuff properly together..  Much quieter .. Gobs of power… and go.. Speedo works  ! It was dark so I did not video that.. maybe on the weekend. A few tweaks are still needed.. and the left hub needs it’s parts to function properly.. will get this stuff done on the weekend.  So I also need to build a new rear rack and put the body back on. Oh and the problem with the tail light was a bad bulb.. Ha.

More Tweaking:

I got the parts to fix the Left hub.. and after getting that done Dave was anxious to test that the 4×4 was working.. The Polaris fired up without choke in seconds..  It’s running great.  So here’s the Video..

Short little clip, but shows the 4×4 working in the snow.  I’ve got all the front body and rack on today.. after the bit of fun… I went cruising all over the back yard.  We set to work on a rear rack..

This is what we came up with.. it’s only to mount the box that I have for the rear..

This box will be at home on the back of the quad.. It’s roomy , weather proof.. and will hold plenty of stuff.   I decided to work into the evening.. and see what I could finish.

If the LED’s ever show up and go in we are done..  Up for sale now.. we’ll see what happens.

Lots of action on the sale.. someone came and took it for a ride.. really liked it.  Others want to trade everything and anything for the quad..  Guys like quads !  ??

Sold…. On to the next project….