Hello, everyone. Nice forum you have here.

I pulled my 1985 LT230s out from behind the shed and decided to rebuild it. I have owned it since it was new and had many hours of enjoyment (not to mention broken bones and concussions) riding it. It has been sitting for the past five years or so and unfortunately the engine is locked up. The frame is rusty, the brakes are shot, etc. I just purchased some land out in the mountains and thought it might be fun to have it back on the dirt again.

I have already talked to Vince (at mrcrankshaft) about the crank and many other things (guy is awesome, BTW, took lots of time talking about the ATV with me). As he said, this is my time machine and I plan on rebuilding it to as close to original condition as possible. I want to strip the frame and paint it or have all the parts powder coated, replace bushing/bearings, etc. We will see how it goes.

I have the engine out and partially broken down and plan to have the crank removed as soon as I get the timing puller. I imagine I will have lots of questions and maybe around often.

 

The first thing I need to repair is the repair manual, and also in the picture is the original sales documents that convinced 13 year old me that I "needed" to buy it .

 

Looks good. Get er done. Those lt 230/250 look way cool.
cheers

 

Thanks. The engine work is going to have to be put off a night or two. I am going to strip everything off the frame so I can take it to have the frame, a arms and swing arm stripped and powdercoated.

 

Should be a fun project. Please keep posting updates and pictures.

Be sure to check out the steering shaft for excessive rust. They've been known to break.

 

Thanks, if there is one thing I am not short of, it is excessive rust.

 

A couple of more pictures

 

Nice project, I am actually doing one myself. I just repainted my frame and going to start putting her back together tomorrow after I paint the a-arms. I wish I could afford to send mine off and get it powder coated. To give yeah a heads up, make sure you got a breaker bar for the a-arms. Mine was quite the job to get lose. Same with getting the swingarm bearings out. But, good luck with your project. My project just started out with the clutch, but ended up being alot more because of the previous owner. If ya wanna check it out look for the lt230 clutch thread thats a few below this one.

good luck and keep posted.

 

Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it. I debating about getting things powdercoated or just painting them. The guy that is doing my coating did a bunch of stuff on my motorcycle and I sent him some other business so he is cutting me a little deal. The frame will be coated and the swingarm, but I am thinking I will just strip and paint the rest. The frame has some serious rust in a couple of spots and I want to make sure it gets taken care of.

The A-arm bolts were a pain, but an advantage of weighing 250 pounds is I can lean all my fat on the wrench to break things loose! The upper shock bolt was worse on mine, I had to use an impact to get it spinning. Hopefully by the end of tonight I will have the bars, wires and brake parts stripped from the front so I can start on the swingarm tomorrow.

 

BTW, does anyone know if these front shocks can be taken apart so I can get the springs coated?