hey cdr, good luck man did you finally get it out of the woods and up the hill lol Hope its not a major, but i can say this, I rebuilt the top end of my 250r in the back of my truck, honed the cylinder put new piston and rings in and ran like a top, maybe took an hour,

 

they are fairly easy to work on for sure.

 

Thanks again for all the advice guys. I removed the carb early this morning. It was really easy after all. I'm going to bring it to my mechanic buddy and have him clean it and check it just to make sure. If that doesn't work, I'll tow it out of the woods somehow and go to work on the cylinder. My uncle has a Sportsman 500 HO (which I love!), but he's on a work trip for another two weeks. I don't want to go and take it w/o his OK.