I just bought a 2001 LT80 for my son. I bought it off of a friend and got a screaming deal. Thing is, I know my friend didn't do much like change/clean the air filter, replace brake drums, plug, etc. So, I decided I am going to tear it down a little and clean it up and tune it up. It starts immediately, but smokes a bit.

Now after looking at it and toying with it, I came up with some questions?

1) Do I have to remove the fuel tank to get to the air filter? It looks as though the box sits right under the fuel tank.

2) Because of question #1, I decided to take of the fuel tank, but I cant get the front hood off. The two screws that mount the hood to the fuel tank wont come out. They are phillips screws, and I stripped the hell out of them trying to remove them. I bought a screw removal but, but the screws just spin and spin and wont come out. So...is there some trick to removing the two screws holding the hood to the tank?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

You don't need to take the fuel tank off. Just disconnect the 2 rubber tubes that come off the air filter unit, unscrew the screw that connects the air filter to the carb (The screw with the metal jubilee type clip on) and then the 2 screws at the top of the air filter unit (one either side). You may need to turn thr bike on it's side to see them. They are a bit fiddly but once you've done it once, it's easy.

 

As far as those screws, you may have to cut them off, you are talking about the ones in the front and not the ones in the top on the tank?

 

as for the screws,my sons did the same. i drilled them out and just replaced the fasteners and the screws. picked up everything at the hardware store.

 

The screws I am speaking of are at the top of the front hood, and screw into the tank. Are there removable fastners in the tank? Maybe they are just spinning freely, because as I attempt to loosen the screws, they just spin. I will drill them out tomorrow and see how it goes. Just don't want to have to buy a new tank.

 

They are inserts in the tank, be careful not to drill too deep.[img]i/expressions/beer.gif[/img]

 

If they are inserts, then it sounds like maybe they are spinng free, which won't help me much when I drill the screw out. I assume they were pressed into the tank, but have worked there way loose. I doubt they are replaceable by themselves. Same thing happended on my kids Chinese 50.

Think I will have to jerry-rig the thing to accept new screws??

 

the post i stated earlier was about the frot bolts sorry. if you can remove the tank inserts maybe you could replace them with furniture inserts, something that could be found at a hardware store. just not sure they will have your size. or you could fill the void with a jb weld for plastics (epoxy). something you could drill and tap. hope this helps.

 

I take a chisle and put a crack in one side by one of the bolts. Then you just turn it to get under the hood.

 

Okay, I drilled the heads of the screws off to take the hood off. Problem... one of the screw got so hot, it melted the plastic loop on the hood and it broke off. Not too big a deal, a replacement hood is not too expensive.

Then, i noticed that the screws were frozen to the brass inserts which are epoxied into the tank. Don't know exactly what i will do here. Only thing I can think of is to cut them out, and try to expoxy my own back into the tank. Replacement tanks are almost $200, and there aren't a lot of used ones that i have found on ebay or whatever.