Tips on fixing up old trx?
 

My buddy has a 1985 trx125 and he lives on a farm and had this little "beater" quad his whole life. Now i am going to buy it off him for $125.00 just to fix up (as much as i can). Right now the condition is absolutely horrible. The one rear tire has a hole in it, cannot hold air at all. The rear grab bar is bent, the front light is broken off and don't work it hangs on the handlebars by the wires, i checked the oil (which hasn't been changed since god knows when) the oil is gunky and pure dark black. But for being a Honda (their bullet proof haha) it starts right up with a few pulls to the pull-starter. The choke is broke off the handlebars so it is hard to pull the choke out and push in, and the throttle sticks. This is what i am going to do to fix it up a little. The seat is also tore up a little.

This is what i already plan on doing:

-Take the front light off completely'

-Put new oil in with the old gunky oil, run quad a while then drain. repeat this step a few times to make sure all old oil is safely drained out.

-Zip tie the plastics together and make a tight, nice looking fit.

-Take the rear grab bar off (it is bent completely)

-Drain all gas out of tank and carb, run clean premium 93 fuel and some carb cleaner through.

-New spark plug

-Patch up the tire (if possible) otherwise i'll have to rig it up with a spare tire laying around that fits it

-Put a thick, cloth around the seat for a tight fit and staple it under into the plastic as a "new" seatcover.

-Weld (or zip-tie) the choke piece back onto the handlebars

-Open up the little throttle box thing on the handlebars and check the throttle cable, if its good then i'll lube up the springs and see if that stops the throttle from sticking

What else should i do or do i pretty much have a good set plan that will keep her running for a few more years. Rebuilding the engine is OUT of the question, i do not plan on investing that kind of money into this quad. It will just be a quad for the children in my family to drive around in the yard. Any other precautions should i take or things to do? Thanks!

sure could use some more tips n pointers anyone help???

My advise is make it "look" good and sell it. Nothing against an old quad like that BUT at some point, (probably already) you are going to be hard pressed to find parts for it. Plus, even if you replaced everything, it would still not run or handle as nice as a newer quad, like say a Recon. And you could prolly pick up a nice 5 year old Recon for $1200 or so. Heck, you'll spend $700 - $900 fixing up your 125, plus you have to count your time (unless it's not worth anything) and it won't perform like a newer one. That's my 2 cents.

Remove the carb order a rebuild kit or buy another car dratv has alot of stuff for the older 125m motors only thing bad about them bikes is the lack of suspension

Its a HONDA, so it's never a bad deal at the right price, saying its running, clean the carb, cosmitic is nothing ditch the head light their ugly anyways toss a couple fog lights on there grab some good tires n rims cheap on craigslist and let them play! If she smokes grab a set of valve seals and some rings n gaskets and take a couple hours to put them in then sale value after the riding will be much better with a good honda motor. Choke cable cheap, Seat Cover, all in all less than $250 and can have a great toy for a few years lasted that long right, Change that oil and filter too ;P

Ride-TL hit it on the head and is right my first quad was a trx125 an I beat the snot out of it along with my siblings for years we rode it like we stole it every chance we got