This is a crazy arguement. Is there another quad anywhere made today that is a solid front end? There is a reason for that. The Yamaha is a tank and will lst a long time. That is it's only advantage to anything else out there. Yamaha should be assamed to put the Raptor name on that old machine. The Raptor name is a race name. If they wanted it to target trail riding, then change the plastic and call it a Grizzly 80.

 

They did that for us... Please re read my last post... you have to remember that this is a proven machine from a bygone era. The Warrior was finally updated last year too. Maybe we can hope for a more modern design in the future on the 80/50.

 

Yes, I've considered that, but it woud probaby be tough for me to drill through it nicely and evenly, and I'd hate to really muck up the whole thing. I was hoping for something like roughing up the grooves and put on some lock tite or something simple like that. I guess I'll just have to wait until the new shifter gets here and see how tight it fits. maybe try to convince the boy to stop gorilla footing the gears!

 

Perhaps if he was forced to start earning and saving the money to have it repaired, his perspective might change?

 

Ragsman, Without seeing the shaft it is hard to know how much of the splines are left. Here are some thought's. The most important thing with shift levers is that they are tight, very tight. That is what ruins them in the first place, the shifter is loose and with every shift it wears it self out and gets looser which wears even faster. The one thing I do with all shifters, even good ones is install a hardened bolt in them, so I can over tighten the bolt without it breaking off in the shifter. In some cases I also will drill out the threads in the shifter so I can use a nut on the end with washers on the bolt head and the nut to spread the clamping pressure towards the shaft. If the shifter clamps on it self and not the shaft you can use a hack saw or a file and make the slot wider so it will clamp on the shaft.You can some times also shim the shifter with anything that will fit in between the shifter and the shaft, a piece of coter pin , paper clip, small nail etc... I would use loctite on the bolt and re tighten it after shifting a few times.

Now if the shaft is ruined and needs replacement it is not very hard to fix.You dont have to split the cases, just pull the clutch cover and the clutch it self and you have access to the other end of the shift shaft. If you dont want to pull the case just yet there are still options. The first would be to drill a hole in to the end of the shift shaft and shifter that splits the difference between the shifter and the shaft and then tap the other end of the drill into the hole and break it off. You would be making a very large spline this way. The other option is to weld the shifter on to the shaft, the bummer is that it will have to be cut off to fix it right later.If you do decide to weld it just have a hose ready to cool things down as soon as the welding is done so you dont melt the seal and end up with a oil leak too.

 

Thanks mywifesquad! That's exactly the advice I was looking for!

Once fixed, I will also ensure he knows to let me know if the shifter feels loose so I can keep it tightened better in the future.

Thanks again!

 

Perfect quad would have the lt 80 motor with reverse in a new preditor frame style/size with double A arms 6.5 inches of travel front and rear. Maybe even more but I am talking about a stock quad not A out of the box racer.

 

Change that to a cr80r motor and I'll agree! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Amazing that old machine is still ticking.. You aught to call it a timex..

 

No I like the cvt trans