I feel your pain (see my above posts). After all of this, I adjusted the valves, cleaned the carb., air filter, changed the oil, replaced spark plug, set air mixture/idle, adjusted breaks, even checked the tire pressure, and added as necessary. And guess what, the intake BROKE again. This is the third time in the past month that this thing has broken. The guy we purchased it from has had it more than we have.
This is the last straw, I'll be bringing it back to him tomorrow, with the option of 1: fix it like new, 2: replace it, or 3: give us our money back. We haven't had it quite five months and the problems with it have been going on now for 2 months. I just hope to God he doesn't give me the run around on making this right.
Wish me luck.
Mark

 

I bought two of the meerkat 50's last fall for xmas presents. I haven't had much of a problem with them except for a broken intake manifold. My kids mostly ride on flat ground in my pasture but the one time I built up a little mound of dirt to make things more interesting I had a broken manifold within minutes. Investigation shows that the _only_ thing holding the carb steady is the manifold.... as soon as the carb takes a shock it cracks the manifold. I haven't torn back into the bike after replacing the manifold but I would think that finding another way to stablize the carb would help e.g. strapping the airbox<->carb flex tube to the frame or something similar.

 

We're now on the 4th intake manifold, soon to be the 5th. (we've had it less than 5 months) This is rediculous. Much like you, my son rides on FLAT ground...barely any bumps at all. If you'll notice in one of my previous posts, what I found to be the problem, is that the carb, actually has little to no room at all and when the bike is "flexed" it hits the frame. I managed to bend the frame just enough to give it more room, but apparently not enough. I've decided that purchasing this thing was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. I called the company that wholesales these to the guy I bought from, and they wash their hands of them once they leave their facility completely. I paid $900 for it and have now heard they're going for around $600. This makes me sick.
Thanks,
Mark

 

Hi I just wanted to say we have now had ours about a month and 1/2. My son had ridden it almost daily. At first I didn't think he would do much more that ride around the yard but me and my brother in-law have 4wheelers to and we have taken my son with the meercat out on the trails. We go through water, up and down hills, over rocks and basically my son has ridden the merrcat as hard as anyone could. So far the only problems I have had is its hard to start and stay running till its warmed up. It doesn't have much low end torque so I have had to teach him momentem is his friend which sometimes means he is going faster than he should with no shocks, etc. and the little cat has stood up fairly well considering. The other problem is the chain keeps streching. Today was probable the 7th time tightening the chain since I bought it. I am about at the end of possible adjustment for it. I have bought another chain for $10 but haven't put it on yet. This seems like excessive streching or is this normal? The chain has poped off twice also since we got it. I just put it on the sprocket and turn the wheel like you would do if the chain come off a bike. Also I noticed the rear wheeles wobble slightly if I put it up in the air and spin the rear tires. Not sure if its a bent axle or ifs where the wheels connect to the axle? I haven't had any intakes brake or anything and considering how much abuse, bumps, rocks and stuff we put our through you would think we would of experienced it but now so maybe is specific to certain ones that got produced? All in all a decent little amchine but I definatly should of gotten hima bigger one (he is 7) and just barely fits on it. Plus for trail riding I don't know how much more it can take but we will contine to abuse err test it. Wish I had boughten a name brand machine for him I'm sure it would be alot less problems but for $1000 less I guess I can put up with the problems for now.

Also another problem we had was the gas tank started leaking around the rim. I bought a new one of those to and make sure not to tighten the gas cap real tight as I think this might cause the top rim to seperate from the tank.

I have yet to be able to adjust the valves either. I can't get a feeler gauge in there at the angle its at. Anyone have any luck doing this? It runs ok I guess so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

By intake manifold are you refering to the piece that connects the carb to the engine?

 

Yep!

 

Yes, the intakes are a tight fit on the Meerkat. One-time cracking is usually a big pot hole, or after an adult joyride.

However, repeated intake problems are usually one of two things: 1) Motor not sitting square (this will also sometimes cause chain problems) or 2) a bad shock (too much extension, causing the front of motor to ride higher). With a bad shock, the rear end will sit higher than another Meerkat. A good dealer will sight along a row of new machines and pick out the problem children before reaching the customer. On a well adjusted / maintained machine, the manifold shouldn't keep breaking.

Valve adjustments are the other biggie on the Meerkat. Some bikes will go forever without being touched, others need a couple of adjustments. Usually, its after the first couple months from new, and usually they are too tight.

 

I used a cable tie to tie down the choke lever on my son's meerkat, it
vibrates closed after a while....

 

all i got say is two thing that can go wrong with these atv's the biggest is valve adjustment, first thing you should all check is valve adjustment,i can't stress that enought, the second is the handle bar switch, their's two plugs, one for the starter and lites, the other for the kill button, the one for the kill switch must be unplugged, it corrodes and shorts out,

bill