1. Starting Procedure. I have been following what the prior owner said to do and quite confused why? I am told that you have to shut off the petcock and let the fuel system empty out prior to shutting off the quad.

At first I didn't follow this procedure and then and a bear of a time getting the quad to start. Even since following this procedure (I don't let the quad die out, but empty out the carb a little) it has been running awesome.

2. Dry Head....prior owner mentioned something about his mechanic saying this is a dry head system and that i needed to follow the procedure above after driving teh quad.

3. No Reed Valve....I've done a lot of work on 2 stroke dirt bikes and never seen a engine system without a reed valve. I can look inside the intake boot and see the piston?

4. Also, at first when I couldn't get the quad started, I took off the carb and put my hand over the intake and the quad started and ran (without a carb)....I then shut off the quad without a carb, put the carb back on and the quad ran well. I believe my problem was too much fuel in the crank.

5. I just ordered up 2 new struts because one of my was blown. Are these struts going to last or do these quads burn through struts?

 

This is a piston port engine,the earliest design of 2-stroke engines,no reeds, no water cooling,etc!
If you have to turn the fuel valve off (which is not a bad idea on all machines then it's probably because fuel is bypassing the float needle valve in the carb and flooding the engine if left on! Have had a ton of these do this!
Either replace the needle valve assembly and any worn carb parts,then it's not necessary to "drain the fuel bowl" until it dies or drain carb bowl after you turn the engine off! Also a compression check would tell you a lot also! 100 psi MINIMUM, if less then could be another source of problems! Strut cartridges are wear items and blow the oil seals usually after a few years,just depends if it's ridden over soft land or rugged terrain,heavy loads,etc. Nothing lasts forever and the answer is NO they don't blow through strut cartridges,no more than any other machine! OPT

 

thanks again for the input "old polaris tech" ! ! Yes, I am good with Keihin and Mikuni carbs from my dozen or so dirt bikes I've had......and I thought that it didn't make sense that I had to keep shutting off the gas before shutting off the quad. I will probably take off the bottom of the carb and see what's going on with the float plunger, probably all worn, or the float levels are too high?

I just finished rebuilding my RM250 (just top end, piston, sleeve, etc) so I will probably take a measurement on the compression soon and see if it would warrant me to pop that head off and rebuild.......QUESTION....how difficult would it be to get the motor off this quad? And if I have the motor out, I would proabably rebuild the bottom end....are these cases difficult to split and how difficult are obtaining crank and bearings for bottom end?

 

LOL...my youngest daugher saw your picture old tech and was all scared and stuff.....runs away.

 

I do have another picture I will put up for awhile,my grand daughter loves it,but is a bit distracting
Seems like nobody likes my real face
Engine is easy to pop out,the transmission stays in. You have to have a clutch puller for the front clutch (either a designated clutch puller OR some have used a 3/4" Standard fine bolt, so they say!) The engine is METRIC,but a lot of the mounting and frame bolts are SAE!! The rear clutch just unbolts and pulls off,then remove the clutch backing plate and all THREE motor mounts are visible(top,front,rear). Pull the recoil housing,you can use a steering wheel puller with metric bolts to pull the flywheel,then pull the stator and remove out of the way(this way you don't have to disconnect the wiring,plus if you did pull the wiring, the stator would have to come off anyway when you split the engine!) Then the other stuff is obvious,air box,carb,exhaust,etc. Once out just pull the 12mm head nuts ,head,cylinder,then the engine cases can be split. Get a MANUAL for anything you aren't familiar with such as the oil pump,etc. Make sure the rod is ok,no up and down play,plus always replace the crank seals(if you've worked on two-strokes then you should know!) Best place I've found for OEM parts is Cycle Parts Warehouse,BUT on the piston(if needed) I would recommend the Wiseco piston only!! Hot Rods make a good cheap replacement rod kit along with Cometic gasket kits or you can just get the Wiseco complete gasket kit with the piston. Simple engine,has two crank bearing on load side(front clutch side) and single bearing on magneto side. No counter balancers,just a plain simple engine with an oil pump,but the 300 is a bit noisy,even when they were new new out of the crate!Make sure if you have to bore the cylinder,have no more than .002 MAXIMUM final clearance between the piston and cylinder! Good luck. OPT