Was having lunch with some friends the other day and we were talking about plans for outdoor fun this Summer. I lost my Yamaha Kodiak 400 in my divorce and haven't been able to replace it.

My one buddy said he had a couple of Yamaha Big Bear 350s sitting in his shop that he got ten years ago and that if I wanted "the green one" it would be free.

So, I went to his place today and picked it up. Two tires were flat, but they took air and no dry rot visible.

He said it ran fine before he parked it a couple of years ago, but that a buddy had ridden one day with the parking brake engaged so the rear brakes were shot. The thing barely rolled and the back drum on the right was making some horrible noises.

It had plenty of clean oil in the engine and a newer battery. Didn't try to fire it up. Seat is absolute garbage; not sure if I can even save the foam and simply recover it.

Front tires have probably 50% tread, but the rears are closer to 10% and will need to be replaced; especially being a 2wd. The rear axle looked pretty similar to the one on my 2001 Kodiak, which was a bullet-proof rig.

I plan on doing a light tear down to paint the cargo racks, foot pegs, guards, etc. I have zero experience working on ATVs since my Kodiak was always so reliable.

This one will just be for putting around the mountains and while I would normally never consider the idea of a 2wd machine, free was hard to turn down(I did have to buy him a 12-pack of Sockeye IPA, however).

In my area, ATVs are ridiculously priced and I suspect I could probably clean this one up, re-do the seat, brakes, new rear tires, touch up the paint, and ask $1500 for it in a year or so when I'm financially able to get the Grizzly 450 4wd I had my eye on.

I guess my main concerns are how difficult are these machines to work on? Are parts spendy or hard to find? Good online source for replacement parts?

The rear tires looked pretty fat; about 1 1/2 times the width of my Kodiak tires. Is that normal or were they custom? The tread looks like a stock style and the machine has 2270 miles on it so they may be the original tires...

 

I looked and the rear tires are 25x12x9 Maxxis tires. Any advantage to going to a larger diameter rim like a 10" or 12" and keeping the 25" overall diameter?

Wheeling the machine into the back of my pickup required having to let the air out of the front tires since I have a ladder/roof rack on my pickup and the handle bars were hitting the crossbeam of my rack. Made me think of going to smaller diameter front tires...

 

Oh, and the guy also threw in a snow plow as well... So, for a $16 12-pack, I don't think I did too badly.

 

You did fine.
Sounds like most of it is an easy fix.
Seat foam is kinda pricey. Might a upholstery shop.
Your brake parts are found on ebay or your local dealer.
Show us some pic.
Good luck and have fun

 

Yep you did ok.. Even if you don't want to fix it you can part it out and buy a whole lot of beer..

 

Will have to take pics today...

 

Pictures:

 

eBay will be your friend. Last year I picked up a 1996 Polaris Sportsman 400 cheap. Got everything off eBay cheap, fixed it and sold it for $1,600. Had fun working on it and riding it, made about a grand for my time. Even if you don't like it, perhaps you'll come out smelling like a rose.

 

Was going to put it in my dad's giant shop today to store for a couple months while I finish my deck and fence, but I'm chomping at the bit to start bringing it back to life so I unloaded it in front of my tiny shop and tarped it up.

Would have loved to get going on it today, but I'm right on the border of Northern Idaho so it was rainy, then sunny and warm for an hour, then it snowed, then it hailed, then it rained, and then a beautiful sunset.

Such is Spring up here...

 

Pics taken and posted, but since I'm a newbie, they've been awaiting a moderator to approve since noon today.