Greetings all ~

I picked up an '87 cyclone over the weekend. Parents were cleaning house and I happened to call and see if they had any old quads they wanted to get rid of. So anyway, I now have this '87 cyclone that was sitting out there in the desert. it looks ok when it's sprayed with water... and the pic is taken from a ways away... lol. The quad was free (had to buy a $230 Harbor Freight trailer to drag it around on though). They had put a new gas tank, tires, brakes, carb and had the seat redone (in some weird-a$$ blue), oh yeah, looks to have a new drive belt on it as well... I dragged it home, cleaned it up a little. It started after cleaning the plug but RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE! Pulled the head off. The thing is bored .060 over. The rings were a little worn and the bearing in the upper end of the rod is pretty loose. Put a bore guage in the cylinder and it matches the book for .060 over, honed it out lightly and it looks good. Hoping to order the new piston/bearings this week and put the thing back together. I've started with the paint stripper and degreaser for now. Need to get out the plasma cutter and chop off some bent up tow hitch and weld a crack at the right front, upper strut tower. (looks like a cold weld from the factory)

Anyway... I've done a search on cyclone on this board and found alot of interesting info on where to get mods, how fast it's supposed to be, a few pics here and there, etc etc etc. Here's a couple pics from over the weekend. I'm a picture taking freak when it comes to projects.. so I'll have alot more as I progress. Anybody know where I might find whatever badges go along the sides of the fuel tank? besides fleabay?

Pic 1
Pic 2

 

welcome , i hear those are fast.

You can check parts manuls for the p/n and try polarisoemparts.com for the decals.

Jim

 

that thing has lots of potential[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

welcome to the forums

 

Cool, thanks for the oem website info. They have a few things that I was looking for. Also a lot of things that are no longer available. I saw a rear fender set on ebay earlier but the guy wants like $40 for shipping the thing. Seems a little excessive. Dunno, they're not heavy... guess they're bulky though. anyway, thanks again for the oem site.

Oh yeah,

the piston kit, new rod and gaskets were all ordered this morning. Going over to pull the motor out of the frame after work today and start on the frame cleanup process. Racks have all been stripped and redone as have the wheels and tank. Kind of depressing to strip and repaint the frame when you don't really SEE it... but, well... I guess I'll know it's there... lol.

 

A lot of that rattle could be a worn out front clutch. They can sound just like a rod knocking.

That old Cyclone brings back memories of my early days at a Polaris dealer. And those Cyclone memories are more like nightmares.

If you have plenty of time and money you can make it work.

 

hehe, a cyclone nightmare huh? That figures. I always manage to get the projects that are notoriously problematic. The thing already has the new tank, carb, tires, seat, brakes and I just ordered the new piston, rod, bearings, gaskets to do all that. The frame stripping has begun but I was called away early last night while working on it. Hopefully today after work I'll get the motor/trans out of the frame so I can finish with the paint stripper and welding one spot.

Are there bushings anywhere in the steering components? you can turn the handle bars like1/2 inch in either direction before all the linkage catches. Guessing there's something worn out somewhere. Don't imagine i'd be lucky enough that it's just an adjustment. DOH!

 

Some of the bushings on the frame of the Cyclone will last one weekend's ride so unless someone has replaced them all very recently it will need bushings in every place it moves.

Some of these olds bushings MAY be replacable with updated parts that don't wear.

It has been so long since I worked on one I have forgot how the frames were made.

I do remember those old things ran and handled very well compared to other quads of those days.

 

Very cool, thanks again for the info.

Is there some type of interchangability chart for parts on these things? I notice alot of things on the polaris oem site that say no longer available. Just wondering which parts might have been used for multiple atv's.

Robert

 

Another question actually...

Right by the trans shifter for R-N-F... is the "rear" disc brake. The manual says NEVER use the rear brake when in reverse. Seems kind of odd to me, but, whatever. Anyone know WHY that is?


Robert

 

It will flip over backwards thats whey they have the rev limiter also.

Jim