I just got my '02 Rancher from the shop from gettin my vavles adjusted, and I had not been able to get it started since the last time I took it out. Well while at the shop I got the tech. to look at it and see if he could get it started for me. No luck, so he tried a few things to see if he could figure it out. Finally he put a compression tester on it and it had none. I mean he said it was REALLY low. I've had it under water a couple of times but never hurt it, just flushed it and went on. Before I took it to the shop for the valves I pulled the muffler off and it was completely clogged with mud. I guess some water got trapped in the header pipe because when I pulled the muffler quite a bit of muddy water came out of the header pipe. I dont know how long the water had been trapped because once I got to looking the drain plug on the bottom of the muffler was clogged with dirt also. I never saw any water come out of the spark plug hole, and the oil looks to be fine. The tech said that he thought the rings went bad and caused the loss of compression. I have an extended warranty but dont know what I should do to prep the bike so that if they look inside the motor they dont find mud or water on top of the piston or in the head. Can anyone give a suggestion PLEASE. I really need to know what to use to flush the motor. Oh and it is not locked up, just wont start, turns over fine. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

I really can't say I have ANY sympathy for you - you go submarining then get Honda to cover the damage that you did under warranty....

Well, I would do the same thing if it happened to me so.... Flush your oil a couple times at least until it comes out clean with no sign of dirt or water.

Flush out the exhaust so there's no sign of dirt or water.

Generally clean the bike so it doesn't look abused.

Umm, that's all I can think of. You can use kerosene to flush the crank case then refill with oil and flush the oil and refill again, for better cleaning. If you have dirt or water up in the head or cams then that might be tough to clean out. When you refill it with oil, crank it over some to get that circulated and flush the top-end as much as possibel.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply, and I wasnt really submarining the quad. It's just the dang Honda backpressure through the tailpipe that got me. I've never taken in water through the intake, just the tailpipe. Besides that I paid $800.00 extra dollars to Honda for the extended warranty, so I feel like I am intitled to some repair work. I know nothing else will go wrong with the quad.

 

I would agree with WyoDuner and have the bike looking clean and I hope they get it running again soon. I cannot believe that honda would charge such a price for a warranty, $800.00 is a lot of money, I felt like I was getting ripped off when I paid $600.00 for rubi's warranty. Honda need so set a price for all extended warrantys and things like that, come on, six to eight hundred dollars is BS.

 

Yeah it is rediculous to charge so much for a warranty on a quad. My mother bought a new Honda Accord and only paid $900.00 for a hundred thousand mile warranty. I dont know I guess its because they know the type of abuse that these things go through.

Well yesterday I flushed out the crank case with diesel fuel twice. I stopped at one of the atv shops on my way home yesterday and they told me that was the thing to do. I pulled my header pipe off and wiped my finger in the exhaust hole and it was gummed up pretty good, but the stuff was black as could be. I didnt notice any mud. And also when I drained my oil it didnt have any water in it what so ever, it was just kinda dark from needing to be changed. I didnt notice any thing at all really. I'm really kind of stumped.

 

The first thing they will look at is if the oil if fresh. They might think that you never changed the oil and as soon as it blew, you thought you should change it.

The second thing is they will remove the airbox lid. You probably have dirt and water inside the airbox. Clean it out. When you get the bike back, look inside the airbox and you will find they have Armor-alled it if they suspect you have been in water.

You can tell by simply looking at the cases and head whether it has been rode in water repeatedly. Take the bike to a car wash and use lots of soap on the engine.

Learn your lesson, riding in water is not worth it. What actually happens is the cylinder is hot and expanded from riding. When you drop it off in water, it is forced to cool in a matter of seconds. This shrinks the cylinder while the piston is still expanded. The piston then goes through enormous friction and wear due to the tight clearance. When you shut the bike down and everything cools, the piston to wall clearance is HUGE. This is why they start smoking or loose compression all of a sudden.