This guide is for the Yamoto, Redcat, and XXXXXX machines with the Honda clone engines. This is for the larger model ATV and not the small 50cc, but most applies here..


I hope this will help somebody out there, but if you just bought or are intending to buy, I recommend that you follow these steps..

1. Once you receive the ATV in the crate form, go a head and remove the card board box and un-bolt all the metal framing that surrounds the ATV. In the crate you should find; 4 tires and a small box with nuts & bolts, and maybe a owner's manual in Chinglish..

2. Go ahead and mount the tires with the bolts that it came with, they will be the largest one's in there. From there go ahead and adjust and tighten the handle bars to the best fit for the intended rider.

3. From here do not just add gas and go.. This is what everyone will tell you, but continue onward..

4. By now the ATV looks like a complete machine and ready to ride, but it's not.. Far from it. This is where you are going to want to remove the plastics. They are made up by 2 large pieces of plastic and some small pieces. First you should start with the front piece, it is held on by 3 8mm bolts and some screws. First bolt will be the 8mm just under the front nose (just below where the nose comes to a point. The other 2 8mm bolts are in the front fender well connecting the plastic to the frame by a bracket remove them. I recommend that you keep all the hardware in a box so it doesn't get lost. Moving on, there is a center piece of plastic that goes over the gas tank, there are two screws at the top that have to be removed, careful, for the have nuts under them that will fall if you don’t hold them with your fingers from the back side. Now you will have to remove the seat with the latch at the very back, there are 2 more screws under there that hook to the front plastic, remove them. Once the bolts are removed, you can pop apart the center small section, be gentle, it's only plastic. With all the above mentioned and the ignition switch unplugged you can now remove the front half of the plastic. (some models have front mud guards and they may have a screw that connects the plastic to the metal cover).

5. Now, to remove the rear cover, there should only be 3 screws that hold this on. First if the battery is in the housing, then remove it, and pull the cables that hook to the battery through the plastic, so they are completely on the out side. Behind the battery housing (bucket), there is 2 screws there, remove them. Next there will be 1 screw remaining at the front of the plastic, remove it. Once you have ensured there isn't any extra hardware near the foot pegs, then go ahead and pull off the rear plastic.. Now you should have a bare frame with an engine and wiring harness. Installation is opposite of removal.

6. Check every wiring connector and ensure that they are plugged in tightly. Not take a zip tie and tie the connectors together so they can't come apart unless the zip tie is removed. You should do this to every connector, even the CDI and Rectifier (the little boxes that the wires plug into). This will eliminate 80% of the no-start problems. Don't go cheap, and lazy do them all!!

7. Now all that is complete, move forward by "changing the oil." This is very easy and should be done to every new xxxxx company ATV. I now you're thinking, but there's oil already in there, but that's "shipping oil" low grade oil that will eventually burn up and/ break down and cause engine failure. To start there are 2 bolts at the bottom of the engine, a 17mm and a 14mm. To drain the oil you must remove the 17mm and not the 14mm!! Some people assume that the second bolt is for gear oil for the transmission, it's not. It's a bolt for the timing chain tensioner, don't touch it. After draining all the oil and tightening the 17mm bolt, now add oil to the engine on the right side only!! On the rear of the right side, you should see a chrome dip stick, that is the only place you add oil. The engine and transmission share the same oil 10-30 automotive engine oil. Use only the sight glass to fill the oil up with.

8. Now all that has been done, you will want to check every bolt that you can get to. You should get some lock tight for the bolts (blue). Loosen and re-tighten every bolt that you can and apply the thread lock to them. Even the sprocket bolts should be checked!! Check all the bolts to the muffler, especially the ones to the engine. *important* There are some zerk fittings (grease fittings) you will need a grease gun to fill them all. Add grease to all of them.

9. This next step is a little difficult for the non-mechanic person, but it should be done. It's adjusting the valves. As you are looking at the engine from the left side, you will see a center cover that is in the shape of an oval that has 4 small bolts holding it on, remove it. On the top of the casing, there is a chrome screw that has the shape of a flat tip screw driver, go ahead and remove it. It is the inspection cover for the alternator/ stator assy. Looking down the hole you will notice it has two marks that are horizontally apposing each other. The first cover you removed, you will need to put a socket on the shaft nut inside there and spin the bolt to rotate the engine. There are several markings on the alternator assy, but you will need to line up a straight (really thin) line between the markings. Once you have the engine properly lined up, you will need to remove the timing chain/ sprocket cover. At the top of the engine (cylinder head) left side, there is a cover there, it will either be round like a old hub cap, or be some what round with ribs going up and down it. To remove this cap, you will have to remove the center bolt, which is on the opposite side (right side of the head). Holding the cap with your left hand, remove the bolt with your right hand. Once the cap has been removed you should see the timing chain and sprocket. Do not loosen the bolts that hold the sprocket to the cam. Now with the inspection cover removed you should see two punch marks, one on the head and the other on the cam sprocket, if these are lined up you are now at TDC. If the markings don't match, rotate the engine with your socket by the lower bolt (where the oval cover was). You will need to rotate the engine 360 degrees, or one complete circle until the mark is lined up via the upper inspection cap. Now the marks for the head and the cam sprocket should be lined up. If they are not, you are using the wrong marking on the alternator.

Once everything is lined up, you will need to remove the upper and lower chrome looking caps that are on the cylinder head. With the caps removed, you should see the rocker arms inside. If the arms can be moved up and down loosely then they will need to be adjusted. On the end of the rocker arm, there is a screw with a jam nut, you will need to loosen the jam nut and turn the screw to adjust the gap between the valve and rocker arms. You can use a feeler gauge from any automotive store to measure the gap. The gap should be set between .004 - .006. Or you can use the old guesstemate theory and lightly screw the nut all the way down till it stops and move back 1/8 turn and lock the jam nut. You will have to do this for both the intake and exhaust valves (tom and bottom). Once the valves have been set, then go ahead and put all the covers back on. However, never put any oil in the alternator area, for it will ruin the alternator assy.

10. If your atv came with a remote, remote start and a tether kill switch, you may have to bypass these, for they commonly fail. I will leave this up to you to determine.

Once completed, you can add gas and enjoy your ATV and avoid having it break down and live only in the repair shop..

If you properly do all the above mentioned steps, you will have a ATV that will last you a long time. There might be some small things that I missed that I'm not aware of, but if anyone wants to add to this, please do.

 

Kind of makes that $2,700 Honda TRX 90 look like a bargain!

Jaybee

 

It depends, $2,000 cash difference, or just a couple of hours of work.. Honda is one of the top 4 manufactuers, but too bad they have most of their parts made in China.. I know parts are always there for the Honda's but ouch are they expensive..

 

The honda just doesn't get taken out of the box and handed over to the customer! It gets a going through like you mentioned also. Then after few months or so many hrs it has to come back for a check and valve adjustment at the customers expense!!!!!!!!

The build quality is not up to par on most of the chinese quads to begin with. Add the no dealer PDI

 

I just bought the 06 Black Honda trx 90. It was $2500. But the dealer threw in a 42 months full warrenty. Free. He likes my son.You cann't beat the honda. Believe me I've seen them put threw some serious crap for years. They just take it. My friend I just met this year in the nationals is racing an 01. His kid is nery big and finished #3 on it right behind some Hetrick quads and riders. You can't beat the Honda for dependbility.The frame is made real good.

 

Bluetickracing,

Not sure what your post has to do with setting up these chinese quads? I dont think anyone will debate that Honda is a great quad. Yes they are great but expensive. Most people either dont want to spend $2500 on a new quad, first quad for thier kids and some just cant afford it. The point here is that the chinese atv's can be very reliable and will last if it is set up from the beginning. Alot of people that buy these complain that they are junk because they are falling apart because they put on the tires, put gas in it and go. The rest of us that take the time to put them together have great luck with them. By no means are they race quads. Just general trail riding, back yard or corn field. Great first quad to learn and when they get bigger and more agressive then you flip for the more expensive one that you know can be beat. If you take your time and mantain them they are great for the money. You cant hardly find a youth quad with electric start, reverse, lights front and rear, front and rear hand brakes, etc... They are loaded! The major thing comes down to customer support. All the name brands have support no matter where you are. You have to do research on these chinese quads before you buy to make sure you have support after the sale. It is guys like Raceway atv that try all they can to make a good name out of these but other companies that just dont care and bring them right back down. I allplaud Raceway for sticking with it and helping out people. Expecially people that did not even buy from them. ChinaRider put up this post for everyone that has or is buying a chinese atv for reference and to make them realize you cant just gas and go.

 

their's two other things i like to do,learned the hard way, is when you have the plastic off is to take the electrical connections apart and squeeze alittle di-electric grease into them, then reconnect them and cover them with rtv to make um water proof, after that you can pretty much go thru water puddles and strems and wash the quad without worrying about it not starting. one more thing don't forget to oil the airfilter,they are shipped dry.

bill

 

May I also say that when you change the oil, please use a "motorcycle" grade oil and not an automotive oil. Oils that are labled "energy conserving" should be avoided in a wet clutch system.

 

GREAT thread guys!!!! I just bought a 90 from raceway and as soon as I got it out of the crate I noticed several things that needed attention.. the chain is way to tight, the front wheels are toed in really bad and it has a gas leak..it's just little things that if taken care of now will prevent problems later...

BTW I'm not sure what to do about the gas leaking.. it coming out of the carb from around what I'm guessing to be the air fuel screw.. it's the screw right next to the ideal (sp?) adjusting screw.. it leaks just enough to keep the bottom of the carb wet.. is there an o-ring on this screw that may be bad??

 

Very informative Chinarider, Thankyou.

Couple of Questions.

I did remove the 14 mm bolt on the bottom before I read your post and it is very hard to get back in place with the spring. My question is some oil came out when the bolt was removed should I be concerned about getting oil back in there? about 2 table spoons full came out.

I did put a very small amount of oil in the left side (alternator) How do I go about getting that back out before I ruin something?

Also on the Redcat vx110 which is the bike I have. How can I decrease the turning radius?
This bike has a very very wide turning radius. Looks like they have istalled stops on the frame to keep it from turning tighter. Can they be grinded down or removed?

Any help would be appreciated