to anyone painting plastics. i have been doing some reading and watching videos. it seems you have to take a propane torch and heat the plastic up before you paint it. from the factory they use wd40 or something similar for a release agent to get the plastics out of the mold. by heating it your getting the release agents out of the plastics and the paint will adhere to it a lot better. thought i would let you guys know this to help out since some of you have been talking about painting plastics lately.

 

I'm confused... 250s bearings are needle. Right? I'm even thinking the 1st 2 yrs of the 230 are heim and the last 2 are needle also. Its just the needles in the 250 are longer than the 230. I have the heims in mine. With the needle, all your frame mounts and arms have to be perfectly straight. When I started making a-arms longer I noticed the mounts on the frame aren't all straight. That's probably why they used heim to begin with. They got lazy welding those things on at the factory.

Can't you just order bearings from a local bearing suplier? They're probably like $5 each lol. I'm sure they can get seals too. Up there so close to motown they probably grow on trees lol

http://www.rbcbearings.com/literature/pdfs/Heim.pdf Starting at page 32

 

I appreciate that! But my plan is just to touch up my paint as part of washing it. Its been working well for the last couple yrs on my honda. I can't stop it from coming off, so I'll just treat it as a maintenance chore.

 

This comes with one needle bearing and one spherical bearing, the needle bearing allows for less noise (friction) and the spherical bearing keeps the a-arm in place. Plus, it only costed me $35 for two a-arms and it includes everything. You would also have to buy spacers for the spherical bearings, to keep the a-arm in place and you would also need seals. When that guy first did the lt250s a-arm mod, he did two things wrong. First, he didn't use the lt250s spindles (he used the lt230s ones which are different, resulting in a horrible camber and he also wasn't able to use the dust caps and washers, which help to keep the a-arms in place. His a-arms could then slide back and forth on the needle bearings. I have looked alot of places for the correct size spherical bearings and the only way to get that size is off a kfx700. I looked everywhere. I even tried chinese bearing manufacturers cause they make everything. Plus, spherical bearings are not cheap at all. To get one spherical bearing, if you can find the right size, it costs about $6 bucks a piece, plus shipping and thats just for the bearing. In this kit I get two spherical bearings, two needle bearings, 8 seals, 2 shafts for the needle bearings, and 4 spacers for the spherical bearings.

Also, for my westcoast swingarm, Im going with 4 needle bearings instead of two. Ive seen a couple different swingarms with 4 instead of two and they seam to hold up. This will then distribute the load of the lt230s over more distance, reducing the load on each individual bearing, increasing bearing life.

On a side note, I'm going to look at a raptor 660 this weekend for $1000 , so I might have a new addition into the family.

 

You get that raptor and you'll never touch the 230 again lol. We've lost many that way.

It will be years and years before I'll need a-arm bearings, so I'll probably forget all this 3 times over lol.

I would get a raptor, but I really want a zilla. The raptor is heavy (like 400-450lbs). The zilla is 300. The raptor has a tall engine, making the whole thing tall. And the 660 has really tall gears. Especially reverse. Reverse sucks badly, but it beats the reverse on the zilla i guess

 

My quad of choice is also a zilla, but that will run me close to $2000+. Plus, anybody that is selling a zilla around here is selling it cause its on its last bore and no one wants to pay to go back to stock bore. Also, mechanically, you have to rebuild the engine more often, so in-turn more money put in. Yeh the zilla is sick and crazy awesome, but I can't pass up a raptor for that cheap. The guy just did the clutch and I believe it has brand new tires all the way around on it. He was asking 1500 and that was with a bad clutch originally. Heck, even if the engine was blown (which its not) it would probably be worth 1000.

No worries, you won't lose me. My 230 is going to be so aftermarketed (yes I just made up that word) out, peoples faces are going to drop when they see it. Also, Im starting to build my official lt250s engine this week. I have a stock one in right now (nothing wrong with it), but its going to be my backup engine once im done with this one. I'm polishing up the cases that I got from you (the whole engine will be polished to a mirror finish), getting the crank re-done, putting all new bearings and seals in the trans, cylinder bored. She will be pretty, maybe ill save the polished one as my backup engine, haha it will be too pretty to run it.

 

If I made anything that shiney ever again, I'd put it behind glass lol

Raptors routinely sell for $1000 - $1500 around here. A zilla should be easy to rebuild. No valves, just pop the top off and slap and new piston in. I've seen jugs and all sorts of stuff on ebay for the zilla. It can't be too bad lol

I passed up a lt400 for $400 because I just didn't want anymore atvs unless its exactly what I want. Tired of settling for something not quite what I wanted just because its cheap.

After everything I've seen in my life, I think the quads to get are the zilla, LT4WD, and some sort of 250 that any idiot can drive (if the 250ex had a cvt tranny, it would be perfect).

My friend has the 700 king quad and I've seen that thing stuck so many times or he just too scared to go where I can easily go on my 250ex. The only use for the thing I've found is to see who has the biggest quad. I've seen him stuck between 2 trees and can't move for 30 min. Or just can't go at all because the thing is 52 inches wide and I'm 38. Or can't go up or down hills because it flips too easy. We have to winch it several times a day and there's no way to move it by hand even with 2 guys. Those big honking quads are more trouble.

 

Dang, most raptors around here go for around $2000-$4000. I'm not getting it anyways, its in beautiful condition, with full skid plate, nerf bars, and dg front bumper, and probably not a mark on it but its an 01. The worst transmission ever is in the 01. Almost guaranteed to break. I asked the guy if he upgraded the trans, but he didn't sadly and I just don't feel like tearing apart another engine right now to replace a trans before it goes. It would probably only cost me maybe $100 bucks to replace it, but I just have too many things on my plate right now.

 

What breaks in them? I knew the gears were tall, but didn't know they break.

So as soon as I typed that about not wanting something just because its cheap, my buddy tells me he bought a 300 king quad for $600 with me in mind lol. I didn't really want the 300, I wanted the 250, but I looked at it and how different can they really be? The 300 is supposed to be 50lbs heavier, but I don't know where it would be hiding. Its a good color. Dark green and black. Will be hard to see in the woods. Has new tires and seat isn't ripped up. Engine runs well and doesn't smoke. And most importantly all the gears work! 15 forward speeds! 5 gears in each range, high, low, and super low. Speedo registers 60 and it will probably do it. Super low is awesome. We chained it to his old fullsize pickup and I had to ask "Are all the tires spinning?". All 4 tires were digging holes and I couldn't tell (it was dark)... that's how smooth it is and the engine doesn't even slow down. It will spin them in low too, but the engine slows a lot and the quad bounces around. Super low is the ****! Nice smooth controllable power. If it could have gotten traction, it felt like it would have pulled the truck around the yard with its wheels locked lol.

Its 42 inches wide, which isn't too bad. His 700 is 52 inches and the 250ex is 38. The wheelbase is 46. The 700 is 50. Overall length is 80 inches on both the 700 and 300. The racks stick way out the back on the 300. I'm hacking that off first thing.

Not sure what it weighs, but I can pick it up at both ends with my arms bent, though I'm lifting mainly with my feet. At least I can move it. The 700, neither of us could pick it up at all. If I stand on a block I can shrug it, but no way I'm bending my arms. You'd have to be some kind of hulking freak to curl that thing. Which reminds me... the pull start on the 700 is a joke lol. The 300 at least is in the range of most humans.

All in all, I'm thinking this may be as near perfect as I'm gonna find. And the best part, thanks to you, I know all the Kaw 1000 pistons will fit! Make it a mean lil b!tch!

 

Its only in the 01 model. What happens is the 2nd gear will pop out of gear and then the shift fork will break in half and take out the other gears in the process. They fixed it in 02.