OK, I took the tank off and I have some rust remover. There is a ton of rust on the inside of my tank and the local ATV guru said the filter wouldn't have caught it all and it would have made it's way to the carb. He said it would be floating around in the bowl and when the main jet opened up it could suck up into the jet which would cause my power issues. So, I'm going to take the carb off and clean it up. Check the jets/drain the carb etc.

I already have the tank off, and I see the valve cover now. Do I just take out the 3 bolts holding the valve cover on, or do I also remove that 4th bolt that is horizontal? I don't know what it could be. I plan on checking the valve adjustment by simply sliding in the feeler gauge and look for very light resistance on .007 exhaust, .004 intake. The one at the rear of the quad is the intake, correct? Does all that sound right? The one at the rear of the quad is the intake, correct?

I also noticed my battery strap was gone, and the stock battery had leaked acid all over the place. It's possible that the battery has something to do with this also. I got a new $60 gel cell (liquid free) battery to replace it with, but it's 8AH instead of the 9AH on the stock one, but it should never leak or require any maintenence.

-JNY

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: pimpsmurf

OK, I took the tank off and I have some rust remover. There is a ton of rust on the inside of my tank and the local ATV guru said the filter wouldn't have caught it all and it would have made it's way to the carb. He said it would be floating around in the bowl and when the main jet opened up it could suck up into the jet which would cause my power issues. So, I'm going to take the carb off and clean it up. Check the jets/drain the carb etc.



I already have the tank off, and I see the valve cover now. Do I just take out the 3 bolts holding the valve cover on, or do I also remove that 4th bolt that is horizontal? I don't know what it could be. I plan on checking the valve adjustment by simply sliding in the feeler gauge and look for very light resistance on .007 exhaust, .004 intake. The one at the rear of the quad is the intake, correct? Does all that sound right? The one at the rear of the quad is the intake, correct?



I also noticed my battery strap was gone, and the stock battery had leaked acid all over the place. It's possible that the battery has something to do with this also. I got a new $60 gel cell (liquid free) battery to replace it with, but it's 8AH instead of the 9AH on the stock one, but it should never leak or require any maintenence.



-JNY</end quote></div>

Sounds like the rust might be your problem if you have that much crap floating around.

The horizontal screw you see appears to me to be a plug of some sort as there looks to be a passageway in the valve cover that supplies oil to the rocker arms. I'd leave it alone, as the other 3 screws attach the valve cover. Keep an eye on the o-ring gasket on the valve cover, make sure it is in the groove before you put it back on the motor. I wish someone could tell us what exactly the valve clearence is supposed to be. I set my exhaust valve just down tight, and backed it off a touch. I noticed the intake (which I've had no problems with) was set the same. Yes the rear valve is the intake, and the front is exhaust.

I lost the battery strap too, I never had a strap for the tools, so I rigged up something and it didn't work so we lost the tool kit. I kept the heavy duty twist ties that held parts down in the crate the bike came in, so I just used a piece of one of them on the battery. I'm such a packrat!

I've never had any issues with the battery, but I'm not going to press my luck. I will replace it this fall with the biggest amp hour battery that will fit.

 

I have lost all my rubber straps also, almost with in the first couple weeks. I am finding more and more most all the Rubber parts on these as well as all Chinese quads are junk! I just noticed my motor vent hose on one of my 250's was missing. I when out to find a new hose and had to go to an industrial hose store and found a 3/8 Silicone hose that will handle the heat to replace them. When I pulled the other 250 hose off it broke off. The hose was cracking and weak.
Added some more pics to my Mods page:Mods and Repairs

 

there might be somethin wrong with the chock my bros kazoma does the same thing when you push in the throtle all the way does it sound like its gunna die??????????????? the choke might be stuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pimpsmurf, my seat front conection fits under that bar as seen in these photos : seat
Is this where yours hooks to up in front? I had to bend them all down to fit under that bar but they all fit perfect and as you can see on this 150 I am missing that bolt that holds down the plastic there so it's not even used to hold the seat. Just noticed I am even missing a bolt on the seat down there, I must take back my original statement that I'm not losing nuts![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: outofline

I have lost all my rubber straps also, almost with in the first couple weeks. I am finding more and more most all the Rubber parts on these as well as all Chinese quads are junk! I just noticed my motor vent hose on one of my 250's was missing. I when out to find a new hose and had to go to an industrial hose store and found a 3/8 Silicone hose that will handle the heat to replace them. When I pulled the other 250 hose off it broke off. The hose was cracking and weak.

Added some more pics to my Mods page:Mods and Repairs</end quote></div>

If you havnt replaced the fuel lines yet. I would replace them soon.

 

Talking about big problems, the right front spindle on my jm broke while i was going about as fast as it will go. I was racing my daughter at the sandhills where we ride 90% of the time and my front wheel goes flying off, its a wonder the a- arm didn't dig into the sand and flip me. the spindle broke of clean right at the bearing on the hub, the bearing still turns so i know it wasn't the problem. It bent the brake rotor and the tire cracked the fender when it came up, it looks like the caliper is ok though. I can't believe this thing broke like this, i could understand if it was on hard ground or hit a big rock or something but in the sand all there is ruts and they feel pretty smooth riding over them. I think cheaper quality in china could really get someone hurt, there are some things you can't skimp on.

 

wow you where luckey...i geuss thats y they tell you in the manual to check all parts befor ridin...lol...... i will remember this..... cheack weels before riding

 

Hey pimpsmurf sound's like you need to do what i had to do with my 86' Honda TRX 350 Foreman 4x4, i got water in my tank from riding in a creek to deep to travel through with a passenger , i had ridden through the same creek with only me on the quad without getting water in the tank before ; but i had a passenger on it this one time ! The tank on my Honda was metal and it was located under the seat on this one , i washed out the tank and thought i had all the water out of it ; needless to say i stopped riding double through this creek ! About a year later me and my cousin were riding our quad's in the montain's when all of a sudden my Honda started running ruff kind of like it was running out of gas , we had ridden these mountan trail's before with out having to hit the reserve ; so we stopped and i used a flash light to look in the tank to check the fuel level ; it was at the reserve mark and i could see water and rust floating around inside the tank ! Well we made it back to truck and trailer , loaded up and went home , when we got home i noticed the tank was leaking ; i had to order a new tank that cost $289.87 + tax........Ouch that was a bummer ! I had to let it sit-up almost a year untill i saved the money for the new tank , well after i got the new tank i found out from a freind who was an Arctic Cat Dealer ; she had a kit called KREEM Fuel Tank Liner ! The kit was $26.97 + Tax with complete instrution's on installation ; this stuff will work on any metal tank's that even have a hole in it ; if i had known about this i could've saved a lot of money and wouldn't of missed getting to ride for nearly a year ! I would suggest you to look into one of these kit's to get the rust out of your tank and install the liner , i don't know what a tank for your quad would cost ; but i bet it would be less than one of these KREEM Fuel Tank Liner Kit's would cost ! The kit comes in three bottle's , bottle #1 is the Fuel Tank Liner, Bottle #2 Tank Prep Wash/Cleaner A ; Bottle # 3 Tank Prep Conditioner B ! The price i quoted was what it cost then , over 5 YRS. ago , i don't know what it would cost today ; but you can get it at most Dealer's i would check it out as it's worth the money ! williebee

 

Since the day I got it, the govenor has been engaged and it has been working it's way in until it finally screwed itself all the way in, loctite+jamnut = got my power back.

Wow I feel like a complete DE DE DE. One nut was too loose and before I noticed it, I put on a new fuel filter, new fuel lines, removed the gas tank and used acid cleaner and a presure washer to remove the rust, removed cleaned and adjusted the carb, and even bought a new battery. What a joke.

BTW: The battery box is too small to use a standard size powersports battery. I went to 3 different places yesterday and all of them had the exact same size of batteries. Apparently it's the CCA (cold cranking amps) rating not the AH (deep cycle/slow discharge capacity) that is important and the biggest battery that will fit in the battery box is a 7AH that has roughly 1/2 the CCA's that a 250 needs. Apparently China made it's own standard for battery sizes, CCAs, etc... great.....

Looks like you need to find a chinesse battery dealer if you want a new one.
EDIT: I ordered a new one from (EDIT) Raceway today ($60 shipped priority mail), and they are throwing in a 15 tooth sprocket. I want to see if I can keep up with this beat up rancher 350 my buddy has (52mph top speed, mediocre accelleration.)

Anyway, I'm sorry for the trouble. Hopefully the only problems I will ever have with this quad will be from my complete lack of experience. I did have one real-deal problem when I got the quad running again. I had to use a little plumbers tape around the threads on the mixture screw to get it to stay put. When it is at 1-3/4 turns out, it has a TON of play in the screw. I think my low end is set too lean ATM because I'm having a problem with the idle racing and I have to blip the throttle. It happens when I'm going a high rpm in gear and pull the clutch/let of the gas. At least I'm hoping it's that and not a problem with the throttle cable. I've zip tied my throttle cable to the right side of the frame so it won't get caught up if the seat falls off, and I'm going to figure a way to hold that seat bracket on if it takes me forever. With my new-found power, the seat pops off even from a full throttle accelleration in first gear. My front seat bracket IS under the bar where it should be, but it only goes a little bit under the bar. I'm going to try to rebend the front bracket again and see if I can get it to go further under, but that isn't really the problem. The problem is when I sit on the quad, the rear plastic flexes and releases the rear latch.

-JNY