Hi cupsz71,

Thanks for the note that you're not passing judgment. I'm actually the owner of the machine, and cdn pete is a friend of mine who is more adept at ATV repair than I and is helping me out.

To note, this was not an intentional swamping (these incidents never are, are they? "Lake" is a relative term. It's actually a water filled gravel pit. I was riding at the edge of it in about a foot of water, bike tilted about 5 degrees (to the side). As I was riding, the ground beneath both my left tires crumbled and the machine tipped over. Since the pit was dredged out, you can imagine how steep a drop it is. I'm honestly surprised it didn't sink, but thanks to the folks I was riding with (cdn pete being one of them) we managed to get it out before that worst case scenario.

Thanks very much for your suggestions on the go-forward plan - and we are following them, with some other steps added. You're right, it was submerged for a few minutes. Once we got it out we drained as much water as possible by lifting, pulled the dipstick and let excess flow out, pulled the spark plug and turned over to blow out the water until dry. We took a chance and tried to start it, just to see if it would (no driving obviously). It took a few turns, but she actually fired up.

Once I got it back to where I could do some preliminary work, I ran new oil through it 3 times, each time starting it and letting it warm up (again, no driving it). It actually fires up and idles just fine, believe it or not. Tonight cdn pete and and I got to tear down. We pulled the clutch cover and discovered that both clutches will need to be removed and cleaned up. The intake and exhaust hoses will need to be removed and cleaned out. Gear oil in both diffs appears fine, no indications of water at all, but we'll clean them out nonetheless. We got some diesel in there and ran it through as suggested. After letting most of that drain we also disconnected the hoses to the oil cooler and will let that drip overnight. We'll likely use air to blow it out tomorrow since I don't really have a better method for cleaning it out.

I figured after we get the cleaning done and get things back together, we'll run oil through it again at least once or twice more just to make sure that it's running through clean, particularly due to the oil cooler.

It's been a lesson hard and well learned - no more water filled pits for me. We're going to do some more work on it tomorrow night but probably will not finish until after next week some time as I'm out of town.

I still can't believe how lucky I've been thus far, since at this point it doesn't look like we'll need to do a rebuild. It would appear that the tilt sensor did its job. Oh and some other information, headlights are both dry (and work), and instrument pod appears to be working 100%. Unbelievable luck. I should go buy some lottery tickets...

I was so excited to finally get to try out the new Zillas I bought (along with ITP SS212 machined rims) that I made a stupid error in judgment and this was the result. Thanks again to you and everyone else who's posted their thoughts on what TLC to give her. I'll post again once we get some more work done, and with any luck I'll be able to take it for a short test drive in the near future, and will let you know the results. Thanks again.

 

...................welcome to the forum...as you can see there is alot of help ,in the form of info for almost any problem...thanks again to all that replied to "kitty took a dip"

 

NP! there DUKE & CND PETE!!

Your right, accidents happen. (a REALLY BIG MUD HOLE I dropped my TRV into comes to mind)

I've seen some people do some crazy/foolish stuff on/to their quads, and shake my head. I believe that most of us are brought up with a reasonable amt. of common sense, but also a healthy amt of BAD LUCK. lol

I'm glad you were able to get'r running w/o any obvious perminant damage!! You've proven to yourself that if you act quickly upon the "AHHH CRAPPP!!!" moment, your chances of the machine making a full recovery are good! That and it is a lesson well learned to boot.

AC's IMHP are rock-solid machines that with the proper TLC and "preventative" attitude will make them last a very long time.

Post up some pics and let's see this "submarine"

my TRV:

 

I WAS one of them foolish people that would try any mudhole or pond/creek crossings. I had a 2002 500 and had sucked or got water in to the intake several times. Most of the time i was able to turn it off before the worst happened,but i did manage to drown it twice. By drowning i mean up to the handlebars well over the racks and the motor shut itself off because i was too slow to react. Both times i had pulled the plug and used the pull starter to blow the water out and replaced the plug. drained the gas and carb., cleaned and dried the air filter and changed the oil then hit the start button and it fired right up! Ran it for about 3-5 minutes and changed the oil again and again and...well 9 times to be exact...untill the oil wasn't milky white any more. Both times I drowned it,it had about 2,000-3,000 miles on it. Now it has over 5,500 miles and has never had an issue,no smoking or anything. I dont own it anymore but i know the guy that has it and hes been riding it for 2 years problem free. Now i own a 2008 700 and i have a hard time getting the tires dirty. LOL.

 

Hi again cupsz71 - That's a fine looking TRV you have there! I love the color especially.

IMO, I'm not a big fan of the term "accident" when it comes to people doing stupid things on their quads. Up here in Manitoba when I read a story such as the one about a 13 year old riding a quad with two children under the age of 3 on it, none wearing helmets (true story) and the kid wipes it out, I have a hard time calling it an accident. The truth as we well know is that we sometimes make bad judgment calls and we have what I like to call "incidents". No offense meant whatsoever!

It is always sad to hear when people get injured or killed due to doing stupid things, and the sport gets a bad reputation from the negative media. Even more confusing, people often point to the machine as the problem, rather than the one who is driving it and doing the stupid things in the first place!! We see that in the media up here all the time, unfortunately. In this case I made a bad judgment call but so far I've been very lucky. First and most importantly, I'm alive. Hallelujah! I recall being in the water thinking to myself, "holy crap I'm sure glad I know how to swim!!" Second, my quad isn't going to cost a fortune to get back up to good working order, and third, I've got yet another learning experience under my belt, and thanks to cdn pete, a much better understanding of these machines now (thanks again Pete!). Onwards and upwards, I say!

To update: the clutch bearing that sits in the clutch cover was also shot, so that was replaced as well. Diffs are good... we put new fluid in anyways. Can't hurt! Tonight we finished putting her all back together and topped her up with new oil (+ filter). She fired up easily and let her run until hot. Shut her down and checked oil. Unfortunately still milky, but definitely better than before. I'm not discouraged yet. I know of people (such as mudslinginfool above) that had to do 7 to 10 flushes before they got it clean again. So, I'll continue to do so until clean. She's had 4 so far, along with the diesel we ran through it. After the oil is clean I'll take her for a short spin and see how things are working, check the oil again and then determine if I should change it once more.

I love my AC. I got it for a good price, but one of the reasons I had went with it is that in the few months of research I did, I read a lot of good things about the H1 motor. When this one came along for the price, I couldn't say no. And until this incident, I had nearly 900 trouble free miles clocked on all kinds of riding; trail, water, mud, etc. Actually, both rear axles needed to be replaced at 400 miles (warranty) due to clicking. I hear that problem was not uncommon after 2007? Regardless, it's been a good machine to me. After this incident, I am even more convinced!

I'll post an update again, simply because I'd like everyone to see how their advice has panned out. I'm on vacation for a week starting Friday so I may not be able to post since the only Internet access I'll have is from my Blackberry. Thanks much once again and hope to chat with you again soon. Here's a pic of Zak - my quad is a guy because my two kids are both girls so I wanted to have one boy in the family LOL!

 

Hi mudslingin fool,

I definitely don't have trouble getting the tires dirty, but I'll tell you those stock tires were not very nice even in minor mud! However, they were actually quite nice in sand, and especially when on the gravel fire guard roads up here. I'm looking forward to giving my new Zillas a more proper workout once the machine is back up and running well. So you had to do 9 changes before the oil was clean? I guess that's why I can't be discouraged yet. I've only done 4 thus far so still have a bit to go. I think I'll hold off using the ACX oil until I know it's REALLY clean lol.

Mine as cdn pete mentioned is a 2009 700 H1... one of the things I love most about it is that even when I was stuck in some minor mud, those wheels would keep turning. Low end power is nice for crawling through stuff! I'll bet the Mudpro with 4.0 gearing is crazy low! I hear they went back to 3.1 gearing in the 2011 lineup because customers were asking for more speed. Ah well.. even 3.1 does well.

A number of people who I've told my story too were amazed that after this incident it actually started up right there before any real work was done to it. I'm extremely happy that despite needing to clean it out more, it fires up and idles like nothing ever happened. Much relief here! Still need to get those lottery tickets...

 

What part of MB? I call Boissevain my "home town".

 

I live in Winnipeg and work in Portage la Prairie (yes, I carpool lol) but all of the best riding spots are at least a 30 minute drive - obviously since you can't ride in the city or floodway. If I recall correctly, the last time I had to drive from Boissevain to home (and it's been a number of years mind you) it was about 3 hours.

Glad to see a former Manitoban around here! In the future I'd really like to do a trip to the US and perhaps hit one of the ATV parks. From what I've seen online and from a number of times driving through the states, there looks like some fantastic terrain to ride on. I don't mind mud and water, but I usually prefer trails, particularly ones with nice scenery to enjoy. Very relaxing, and isn't that what the sport is all about? Having a good time and enjoying the outdoors?

 

ABSOLUTELY!!

We've got a group planning a 4 day atv ride in WALHALLA ND. (just south of Winkler about 2 hrs from Winnipeg) on Sept 24th wkend in the Pembina Gorge. If your interested in joining us PM me and I'll give you more details.

 

Hello Everyone, finally have a few minutes to provide an update after a glorious week of vacation last week! Here's the lowdown on the repairs:

Removed clutch cover, cleaned with diesel, Removed both clutches, cleaned with diesel. Replaced clutch bearing. Intake/exhaust hoses removed and cleaned. Airbox cleaned. Air filter cleaned and re-oiled. Both diffs drained (no water got in them) and new gear oil put in. 8 oil changes (9 if you include the 5th one which was pure diesel... let machine turn over for 1 minute, obviously no spark plug action lol) and a new oil filter. Also found that at some point my drain bolt went AWOL so got that taken care of. No wonder the clutches/cover were dirty.

I'll note that after the first 2 oil changes, it was firing up and idling with no issues at all. Took it for a 30 mile test run, mostly trails but a few hundred feet of foot deep water as well. No issues. Took it out Sunday for a group ride... 70 miles. Had a few issues. Stalled several times when I came to a stop, backfired a few times, and several times very briefly (1 second) lost power but kicked right back in. I'm going to replace the fuel filter and spark plug (should have done that anyways) and throw some seafoam in the gas tank as well and do another test run. On the whole though, it performed very well considering... I even got the chance to play tow truck and pull 3 machines out of the mud on the group ride. Love the low end and pulling power of this machine!

Oh, and as far as electrical goes, everything appears to be 100%. Gauge pod working fine, fuse box was dry, all lights are dry (no condensation) and working... rad fan is working fine as well. HUGE thanks to cdn pete for his assistance in the tear down, fixing and clean up. And of course, thanks again to all of you for your input. The Cat Came Back!