Have you ever actually twisted a crankshaft removing the flywheel bolt?

 

mywifesquad, you mention the key for the flywheel may be sheared, the fywheel turns with the crank and everything as normal, but it's just the starter gear labelled one that will turn and not engage the engine. is that still symptomatic of a sheared key or is it just purely a dud starter clutch? sorry again for all the q's guys, just want to have a clear idea of what i'm looking for

 

So the flywheel moves wiuth the e-start button but the gear wont move? I figured the gear moved the flywheel?

 

yes i have, thats why i feel i need to teach others how to do it correctly. my wife and son road raced the 50cc gp class from 86-91 on a 2.5 mile road course willow springs and at 2.6 mile riverside . we used to have ed toomey @ toomey racing do the machine work on my wife ysr's and gary @specII do the machine work on our son's, with and without the crank being welded they could be twisted using a breaker bar, ed toomey said to me the only way that could happen was not using a impact wrench when assembling the flywheel or clutch on the engine, both ed and gary said almost the indentically thing to me, never use a breaker bar on a crank shaft always use a impact wrench, no matter which bike i was working on at the time tz250,rz350,fzr400,fz600,nsr50, just to name a few. have you ever streighten out a crankshaft ater rebuliding or welding it? you'd be surprized how easy it is to move it around, just a little tap with a brass hammer. if you feel comfortable using a breaker bar then go right ahead and do it, but i learned the hard way and was taught by some of the best not to (never)

 

I think i understand what your saying, and it makes sense to some extent. But if you hold the flywheel and loosen the nut on that side, what could twist? Certainly not the small section of crankshaft in the flywheel. If you held the flywheel and loosened the nut on the other side I could see twisting the crank some. And I have only rebulit one flywheel and it wasnt that easy to adjust in by knocking it. It was on a '92 WR 250. Please dont think that Im argueing with you Bill, but Ive never heard that before and Ive been working on engines for 3 decades or so.

 

i see what your both saying, i'm going to use a puller to take the fly wheel off but i think that if i hold the flywheel steady and just loosen the nut then all should be ok. like you said mywifesquad if it where the other side i could see the length of the crankshaft being a problem and twisting occuring.

if you see from the picture of the complete quad (pic 5) there is a small housing with a chrome plate near the starter which contains some simple gearing, and then from the pics with the main startor cover off there is another "double gear" labelled 2 (pic 1 and so forth). all i'm saying is that the power from the electric starter motor is transferred through all gears fine and gear 1 the main gear behind the flywheel just spins. the flywheel turns over the crank fine when i do it by hand as i can feel compression resistance and here the piston move, it's just as if gear "1" isn't catching the flywheel to crank it over to force a start. took the plug out and put the gearing back and yes gear 1 just spins, like the starter clutch isn't catching??? not sure if it's a centrifugal thing or what but i have had the engine running for a few months since this problem (obv rebuild with oil etc) by tow starting it... have found a uk sight selling parts for a very similiar quad, and i beleive this is the flywheel i have. there is a shot with something on the back of the flywheel and i would suspect this is some sort of clutch... any ideas, here's the link

http://www.china-parts.co.uk/acatalog/ATV.html

and it's part with Ref: EL015003 if you just click the pic next to it to enlarge you may see the part i mean...

lil side point, any luck finding ebc replacement brakes for your wife's quad...mywifesquad (that sounds odd to say)... there's brakes here for these ...... Ref: BR011003 http://www.china-parts.co.uk/acatalog/Brakes.html but they are those laughable compressed board type!!!

anyone you can think of with any idea on any issue please invite to help, just plain stuck here. not hard to start the bike by tug starting it and it runs all day long no worries but when friends want a go they may stall etc and it's just becoming a pain. i think one of them engaged the starter with the engine running which caused the problem in the first place...

 

what's the biggest engine that could be simply plugged into this quad, honda gy6 type engine? i looked and the mountings on most smaller engine are the same, and even similiar to an xr400 engine, but would that be too big?

 

If it would physically fit it could be made to work. Especially iff you have some decent fabricating skills. Biggest concern would be how long the frame would hold up to the increased horse power.

 

i'm handy enough and have a friend who has the resources to laser cut steel so i could make different mountings and do some welding. which part of the frame would be most vulnerable from failure??

 

I would keep a eye on the area around the swing arm mount as well as the swing arm itself. And the motor mounts you make. I would box in all the mounts and not just use tabs. It sounds like fun to me, Id love to see some pics when your done.And even during the process [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]