Just poke a hole in the spark arrestor on your stock muffler with a tire iron and big hammer. Attach a screen over the end if you want a spark arrestor. That will flow pretty well, will still be quiet, and won't cost you a dime. That's your best bet without spending a lot of money for something nice or making a muffler from scratch.

Reverse megaphones add flow resistence. I'm not a big fan of them.

 

Randy,
Been through the posts again and can't find what I wanted. Do you know of a difference between the LT230S carb and the LT250S carb?

 

Different needle and different main and pilot jet. I think the 250 has a richer needle and needle-jet and a smaller main and smaller pilot. The slides might have different cutouts as well, its hard to say for sure. Same carb bodies though.

 

Hey guys, happy thanksgiving.
I just put a 1985 230s back together and finally have the quad running the way it should be, but I'm having problems getting the chain tension adjusted.
I loosened the swing arm pinch bolts, just as the manual said, but when I tried to turn the rear axl like the book said it wouldn't budge,
so I soaked it in pb blaster for a while and finally got the left side loose, but the right side would not move.
Then out of curiosity I removed the bolt that holds a brace from the rear brake caliper to the swing arm.
When I did that the rear axl turned freely and my chain tightened and loosened just like the clymers book said that it should. The problem is that the entire brake caliper and the mounting bracket that holds it on moves with the axle, I'm sure that this isn't supposed to happen being that I am unable to reattach the brace to the caliper when I get the axl turned to any spot other than where it sat originally.
I am thinking that I may not have the entire story from clymer on how to properly adjust the chain tension.
Heck I may just see if I can take a link out of the dang thing and call it good.
Any info that any of ya'll have on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Randy.

 

Your brake caliper shouldn't be stuck like that. It should be loose enough to swing by its own weight around the axle. Just tighten the chain the way you described and then make sure the pinch bolts are tight. Now take a hammer and carefully beat the caliper back into position and put the bolt back in. Don't take a link out of the chain and make the chain so tight you wreck the swingarm bearings. You should be able to put your full weight on the grab bar and the chain should still be somewhat loose. If your chain is too tight, the bearings with get flat spots on them when you hit a big bump or jump. Once you get flat spots, the bearing will quickly grind to dust.

If your swingarm is loose, the bearings are already ground to dust. In that case, you'll probably be throwing the chain off all the time and end up cracking the magneto cover and leaking oil. If that is the case, you have 2 options. 1) buy new bearings and swingarm bolt and anything else that is worn + a new chain. 2) Just make the chain as tight as possible and ride it into the ground. Option 2 will also take its toll on the bearings in the engine and the axle bearings.

 

thanks man,
I think I'm gonna take it t the dealership today an let them tighten my chain.
Then I'll go ahead and probly order new swing arm bearings and a new chain.
Should I change out the sprockets too? And should I keep them stock, or should I change the size?

 

Thanks, was looking for a cheaper way to play with a 28 mm carb. Thought 250s was 28. Have you played with a 30mm? Am going to 260cc this winter ( 70mm bore x 67mm stroke ) Think the 28 is enough? Also I remember a post that said the 250 a-arms were 2" longer. Was that the 250 S, R or all 250'S? Just got a spare swinger to lengthen also. Thanks again.

 

I am new here.....I have read through alot of discussions and learned alot. I bought my 85 LT230s a few months ago for $400. It barely ran, backfired and the head pipe would get cherry red after about two minutes of running.

It has a DG pipe that had a Spark Arestor. The SA was so tight that the aluminum pipe blew out a weld. I removed it and fixed the seam.

I stripped down the top end. The cylinder was clean, the head was black as can be and the timing was off. The plug was white however. After I put new gaskets on and re-timed it. I then cleaned the carb. The jets were clean but what I noticed was the mixture screw was only 1 turn out. This thing was as lean as can be along with a ton of backpressure from the SA being tightened down. I put the carb back together and started with the Mixture screw 2 turns out and the Idle screw 3 turns out.

Once I put it back together I turned on the gas and waited for the bowl to fill. The first Kick it started and idled. I let it run for a couple minutes and noticed it would pop a bit after I reved the throtle. I backed the mixture out 1 more turn and it sounds great. It does have a twist throtle that I am planning to change out to a thumb throtle.

It is fast, My neighbor has a Honda 250ex he can not keep up with me. I'm not sure if the Pipe would give it that much more power. I did not mic the cylinder when I had it a part.

Now that it is running good I used orange gel stripper to strip three coats of paint from the plastic. My wife wanted it Neon Green. She won that one.

I am having a problem with the chain comming off when I jump. I set the chain to be 1.5" of slack when I sit on it. I tried that with out sitting on it and when I sat down The chain got tight so that I could not move it up or down. There was no slack. Does it sound like I am ajusting the chain correctly? Is there an after market chain guide I should use? Any thoughts would be great.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: red230

thanks man,

I think I'm gonna take it t the dealership today an let them tighten my chain.

Then I'll go ahead and probly order new swing arm bearings and a new chain.

Should I change out the sprockets too? And should I keep them stock, or should I change the size?</end quote></div>

Sprockets??? Most agree 13/39 is a good combo. If you don't change sprockets, your new chain will go bad quickly. I'd recommend the Primary Drive brand chain with the "windows" from rockymountainatv. Non-oring is what I use and highly recommend it, but if you don't really care about milking power and you'd rather have something that will last a lot longer, get the o-ring I guess. The o-rings really suck the power from a 250 though.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: MMZUKI

Thanks, was looking for a cheaper way to play with a 28 mm carb. Thought 250s was 28. Have you played with a 30mm? Am going to 260cc this winter ( 70mm bore x 67mm stroke ) Think the 28 is enough? Also I remember a post that said the 250 a-arms were 2" longer. Was that the 250 S, R or all 250'S? Just got a spare swinger to lengthen also. Thanks again.</end quote></div>

I'd like to try a 30, but I have a 28 and a 32 and its hard to justify spending more for yet another carb just to play with.... At least in THIS economy. From what I know so far, get the TM28. I think the 32 is a bit too big and the only reason you'd ever get it to work is by having a restrictive air filter. But I have the 246cc version though.... Not sure if 14cc will make that big of a difference. If you want to err on the safe side, get the 28. If you want to venture out into the unknown, get the 30. I'm sure a 30 will work, but is it the best? I don't know.

Yeah, the 250s arms are longer. If I said 2 inches before, I guess that's right because I measured them. I don't remember though. I don't know about the 250R arms. The bearings are longer on the 250 too.... As are the tierods. And the back axle is longer. I have a 250 axle out in the garage I have yet to install. I'm so wide as it is that its hard to tear it down and do more work just to take a chance on clipping a tree. I kinda like the back being shorter than the front.