I agreed to buy a 2001 Lakota Sport online today, sight unseen except some picture of it sitting in his barn.
$350 and the seller says it won't start. (yeah...I know...stoopid!)
He says I can bring tools and parts when I pick it up and if it looks like a major issue I can back out of the purchase.
I've read the threads on Lakota start issues and it seems there are only a few things that will keep it from starting...spark, fuel and timing.
What would you take with you to buy a 2001 Lakota Sport that won't start that could be a quick on-the-spot fix before I hand over my money?
A battery obviously. A carburetor? Don't they bolt on pretty quickly?
What else?

 

Don't know US prices, but over here that is scrap price. If I were the vendor I would be giving no guarantee and if I was a buyer I would take pot luck. You would get a lot more than that on eBay, in the UK.

Plug spanner and plug are the first things, if you do want to try to get it running, so you can check for a spark and do a thumb over the plug hole compression test. If you have a spare carb and time, then OK, but it isn't a five min job on most ATVs as lots of plastics, airbox and the tank often need to come off. Never worked on a Lakota so can't say how difficult it is.

 

So I bought it. Loading it on the trailer I thought about my unheated garage. It was 23 degrees in a mix of snow and ice and I decided that my mechanic would enjoy fixing this quad more that I would, so I took it to him.
It has a left foot shifter.
I don't have a left foot. Or leg.
Does anyone know of an adapter to change a Lakota to right-foot shift?
I can have one fabricated but don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Also a bucket-style seat that wraps around your hips like a Honda Road Trike's seat does, used is fine. I can only ride this thing sitting down but don't want to be sliding off the motorcycle-style seat that's on the Lakota. I can drive my wife's trike but left turns are tricky without a left leg to hold me on the seat.
If I'm going to restore this old ATV I might as well do it right and make it 'my' ATV!

 

Back before autos and ES were common, we maintained a couple of Honda 300s with a long piece of flat bar welded almost vertically onto the foot change lever, to provide hand change for riders with a "bad" left leg. The same idea is quite common now on "forward, neutral, reverse only" Chinese children's quads.

I suspect you will have to get a special seat made. Each model of ATV has a different seat pan, so I doubt if there will be a bucket seat available for a Lakota, which wasn't a big seller anyway. We get standard seats re-upholstered for about £50, give a picture of what you need and the old seat, to an upholsterer, and you should get what you want for under $100

 

there is a adaptor to make it a hand shifter it bolts right on foot shifter you can definitely find it online I have a 03 Lakota and love it