Hello all, hopefully someone can pin point me in the right direction so I can get my quad running again!

Here's the story, spent the last month fixing up a 87 quadsport 230S I picked up for $500 (I have 3 kids and 1 on the way so money is tight). Quad ran great, so i figured it was worth the investment. It has a jet kit and a dg pipe slip on. The quad ran great when I would take it out behind my house in the woods, problem was I never rode it more than an hour or so at a time. I've jumped it, went through tire deep water in it, and have wound it out on my local roads

OK, so I figure I was ready to go play with the big boys! I went out with 2 friends and had a great time for an hour and a half or so. We went through a decent water hole, nothing I hadn't done before, and I noticed the quad was breaking up a bit at throttle (maybe 5 min later). Not bad enough for me to stop, just I could tell it was alittle sluggish compared to normal. About 15 minutes later it started losing power and began to back fire and sputter. It died but I was still moving so I dumped the clutch and it started again, for about 15 seconds, then it died again, and I couldn't re start it. I had to be towed home by my buddies raptor 660, and even when I tried to dump the clutch it wouldn't fire. I mean it sounded like the quad was running when he was pulling me when I was in gear, but if i gave it gas it still wouldn't fire.

Things u should know: For the first time I noticed the air filter was not installed properly, it was just hanging in the air box, so before going out with my friends I fixed it, the air filter didn't look too bad. I even pulled it off when the quad died. It's definately getting fuel because i flooded it trying to get it started again. Also, I think I had about a quart too much oil in the engine, about 3 and half quarts. I pulled the spark plug but it didn't look too bad, I plan to replace it anyway. I haven't checked to see if I have spark yet because I don't know how, especially when I have to kick start it to see.

Sounds to me like it's a spark problem, or an electrical problem, but it's weird because I've been through water before, but who knows. Just hoping someone who knows more about this bike could give me some hints on fixing it because I don't have the time or money to pull or replace everything on the bike to fix it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!!

PS - just wanted to reitterate the fact it was back firing heavily when it was dying.

 

Here's the spark plug wire, I got mad an pulled it apart the day I broke down (when I got home, and before checking for spark). I cut off the rubber piece to see whats inside, it has a screw end, and the wire is just a wire, I don't get it! Does the screw screw into the wires sheathing? If so, i should still be able to check spark if i screw it back together, I screwed it together and inserted the plug and held it to the fin, and kick started it, and no spark. Tomorrow I will get a new plug and check it, is there anything else I should check? Here's 2 pics of it:

http://img2.freeimagehosting.n...age.php?af0d33b2bc.jpg (big pic)



and

http://img2.freeimagehosting.n...age.php?e82a4af961.jpg (big pic)



Figured I throw in a pic of my quad with the tow strap still attached!

 

check compression, spark, fuel quality dont take much to make em quit. you will need a new spark plug cap tho, they are cheap. so check the compression, check for spark, if they are good drain and flush gas tank, rmove and clean carb, fuel filter is a good idea.