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poser
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- Joined
- Mar 25, 2007
- Messages
- 12,044
- Reaction score
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- Location
- COS
- First Name
- jason
- Last Name
- bohac
So I guess I'm a sucker for a basket case. After I finished my last 4wheeler project, I started the hunt for the next one. I came across the LTZ on craigs list, and also being a sucker for sport quads, I had to check it out.
The story goes, it was his brothers, and his brother owed him some money but didn't have it, so he gave him the quad. He really wasn't the sport quad type, and had a big beast of a 4x4 ATV he used for hunting, so he put it in the garage and there it sat until I came along.......... 3 1/2 years later
My original thought was it would just need some carb work and I'd be out ripp'n it up. I was correct, the inside of the carb was like glue from the old dried up gas, but as I got into it, it was MUCH more work than i originally thought. [several piped in on my thread where I was trouble shooting it here]
I started with the carb, general cleaning, and new jets. Heck I probaly pulled the carb and cleaned, cleaned, recleaned, and then cleaned again. I now consider myself an expert at removing/cleaning/and reinstalling the carb
.
Still no worky, and started looking to other areas. Thanks to some help from bronco78 aka "super DRZ guru", I set the timing and adjusted the valves. Talking to a dude at a motorcycle shop, just kicking ideas around, he mentioned maybe the flywheel was off, which would cause the timing to be off even if the cams "looked right". That lead me to pulling the cover on flywheel side, and replacing the woodruf key. Of course that didn't work, that would have been to difficult, it needed to be much more dificult.
Skipping forward, I borrowed a compression tester from JTM, and found what I had been fearing [and trying to ingnor] for a while.......not enough compression and some motor work would be needed.
Meanwhile, most of my time on the web was spent lurking thru ATV forums and on TT looking for possible causes/solutions, as well as tips and write ups. This quad having the same motor as the DRZ was really a blessing as there is TONS of info out there for that motor, and it also happens that our own bronco78 knows more about this motor than even the guys at Suzuki
. I had come across a few guys that had problems with the ring oxidizing and/or seizing to the piston after extremely long periods of time sitting. I figured 3.5 years qualified as an extremely long period of time.
I ordered new rings and top end gaskets and one evening started pulling it apart. Sure enough, got down to the piston and the rings were pretty jacked
The rings weren't going anywhere, so a new piston was in order, not to mention I gouged it pretty bad trying to get them off.
A few more pics of the taking apart...
A side note: one thing I negelected to do was drain the coolant from the motor, so when I pulled it apart I had quit a mess on my hands and much of it went in the motor
. Well you live and learn and drain it and fill it with oil and drain it again and know how to do it next time .
I sourced a good used piston for cheap from Eddie on TT. I also learned to plan a little better, and make sure I know what to order, or at least next time I'll know what to order. I can tell you its very frustrating, ordering something, waiting nearly a week for it to get here, and then realize you left off a $.99 part and have to place another order, and pay shipping and wait another week.
Finally this past friday I had everything I needed: piston, rings, gaskets, hone, etc... All I needed was some time. Busy weekend kept me from touching it, and by Monday evening I couldn't take it anymore, and I headed out in the garage about 10:00 pm. Got it mostly back together, Monday night, and Tuesday night about the same time I went out there and finished.
Then......the moment of truth........I checked, double checked, and then checked again, making sure I hooked everything up and didn't have too many bolts left over. Hooked up the battery, turned the key and let 'er rip. A few turns later............VAROOM!!!!! she fired right up! I only let her run for a few seconds and shut it down. Tomorrow I'm gonna take her to work and after work, I'm gonna take it out back lfor about 20 minutes to get in some ride time to seat the rings. I have to admit, after it fired and I shut it down, I did a victory jap / danced a jig around the frond yard.....at 12:30 am
I would like to say a HUGE "THANK YOU" to bronco78
, between the write ups he has on TT, the phone calls and hundred or so PMs, this was pretty easy and smooth sailing. All in all, I say I had fun. I've never done this much motor work before so it was kind of cool digging in. For me being in the garage working on something trying to figure out why it won't work is therapy. No matter what's going on, I leave all of it at the door and can be free for as long as I'm out there 
Here's a few more pics, I'll take some more outside in the daylight tomorrow...
the header was in rough shape...
After cleaning it up all nice and pretty I painted it black, though for some reason i neglected to take a pic of the finished product...
and the finished product...
the brother painted [and did a crappy job] the wheels and the front bumper red. Soon enough that'll get cleaned off and I think I'm gonna paint 'em black. New tires will be in order. I'm gonna put some extra lighting on the front [more for bling factor], and he gave me some nerf bars that I need to install.
Well that's about it, like I said, I'll post a few more pics of it when its light outside, and I'll update as I continue to clean it up and repaint some stuff.
What's next?
The story goes, it was his brothers, and his brother owed him some money but didn't have it, so he gave him the quad. He really wasn't the sport quad type, and had a big beast of a 4x4 ATV he used for hunting, so he put it in the garage and there it sat until I came along.......... 3 1/2 years later
My original thought was it would just need some carb work and I'd be out ripp'n it up. I was correct, the inside of the carb was like glue from the old dried up gas, but as I got into it, it was MUCH more work than i originally thought. [several piped in on my thread where I was trouble shooting it here]
I started with the carb, general cleaning, and new jets. Heck I probaly pulled the carb and cleaned, cleaned, recleaned, and then cleaned again. I now consider myself an expert at removing/cleaning/and reinstalling the carb
.Still no worky, and started looking to other areas. Thanks to some help from bronco78 aka "super DRZ guru", I set the timing and adjusted the valves. Talking to a dude at a motorcycle shop, just kicking ideas around, he mentioned maybe the flywheel was off, which would cause the timing to be off even if the cams "looked right". That lead me to pulling the cover on flywheel side, and replacing the woodruf key. Of course that didn't work, that would have been to difficult, it needed to be much more dificult.
Skipping forward, I borrowed a compression tester from JTM, and found what I had been fearing [and trying to ingnor] for a while.......not enough compression and some motor work would be needed.
Meanwhile, most of my time on the web was spent lurking thru ATV forums and on TT looking for possible causes/solutions, as well as tips and write ups. This quad having the same motor as the DRZ was really a blessing as there is TONS of info out there for that motor, and it also happens that our own bronco78 knows more about this motor than even the guys at Suzuki
. I had come across a few guys that had problems with the ring oxidizing and/or seizing to the piston after extremely long periods of time sitting. I figured 3.5 years qualified as an extremely long period of time.I ordered new rings and top end gaskets and one evening started pulling it apart. Sure enough, got down to the piston and the rings were pretty jacked
The rings weren't going anywhere, so a new piston was in order, not to mention I gouged it pretty bad trying to get them off.
A few more pics of the taking apart...
A side note: one thing I negelected to do was drain the coolant from the motor, so when I pulled it apart I had quit a mess on my hands and much of it went in the motor
. Well you live and learn and drain it and fill it with oil and drain it again and know how to do it next time .I sourced a good used piston for cheap from Eddie on TT. I also learned to plan a little better, and make sure I know what to order, or at least next time I'll know what to order. I can tell you its very frustrating, ordering something, waiting nearly a week for it to get here, and then realize you left off a $.99 part and have to place another order, and pay shipping and wait another week
.Finally this past friday I had everything I needed: piston, rings, gaskets, hone, etc... All I needed was some time. Busy weekend kept me from touching it, and by Monday evening I couldn't take it anymore, and I headed out in the garage about 10:00 pm. Got it mostly back together, Monday night, and Tuesday night about the same time I went out there and finished.
Then......the moment of truth........I checked, double checked, and then checked again, making sure I hooked everything up and didn't have too many bolts left over. Hooked up the battery, turned the key and let 'er rip. A few turns later............VAROOM!!!!! she fired right up! I only let her run for a few seconds and shut it down. Tomorrow I'm gonna take her to work and after work, I'm gonna take it out back lfor about 20 minutes to get in some ride time to seat the rings. I have to admit, after it fired and I shut it down, I did a victory jap / danced a jig around the frond yard.....at 12:30 am
I would like to say a HUGE "THANK YOU" to bronco78
, between the write ups he has on TT, the phone calls and hundred or so PMs, this was pretty easy and smooth sailing. All in all, I say I had fun. I've never done this much motor work before so it was kind of cool digging in. For me being in the garage working on something trying to figure out why it won't work is therapy. No matter what's going on, I leave all of it at the door and can be free for as long as I'm out there Here's a few more pics, I'll take some more outside in the daylight tomorrow...
the header was in rough shape...
After cleaning it up all nice and pretty I painted it black, though for some reason i neglected to take a pic of the finished product...
and the finished product...
the brother painted [and did a crappy job] the wheels and the front bumper red. Soon enough that'll get cleaned off and I think I'm gonna paint 'em black. New tires will be in order. I'm gonna put some extra lighting on the front [more for bling factor
], and he gave me some nerf bars that I need to install.Well that's about it, like I said, I'll post a few more pics of it when its light outside, and I'll update as I continue to clean it up and repaint some stuff.
What's next?
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