Hey, so thanks to everyone who helped with my previous issue! My 2002 Quadrunner 500LTF has been running great for a while. Well recently I took out the air filter, because the previous owner notified me he'd never changed or cleaned it. This is from 2002 guys, it fell apart in my hands. Anyway, I purchased a new one, and installed it. I've never done this before so I got filter oil everywhere on the interior and the side of the quad, what a mess.

While doing this, I noticed the brakes weren't working properly, so I bled the brakes and put in some new DOT3/4 fluid. I then added a little tension to the rear brake, at which point the rusted spring cracked off, so I replaced it with a new spring, and put the tension back where it was before.

Tonight when I tried to start it, the starter just clicked. I decided to hand start it and noticed the pull cord was intensely difficult to pull. But on the 4th or 5th pull, it turned over and ran amazingly well, it almost sounded like it was new. However, when it turned over, a bunch of brake fluid forced its way out of the holding receptacle, which I had just recently repaired the seal on. Of note, the pull start has been fairly difficult in the past, but this was obnoxiously difficult. Sometimes the pull start is easy and sometimes it's not. Something else has gone wrong and I'm not quite sure what to do now. Any ideas?

 

As I was pulling it out of the shed today, it made weird clicking noises and was progressively harder to move. This despite being in neutral!

When I tried to start it, the starter still just clicked. But when I did the pull start, it turned over on the second try. It was also easy - very easy, which it has never been before. Brake fluid once again flowed out of the fluid receptacle.

Can a problem with the brakes somehow cause the engine to be difficult to turn over? Or maybe there's an issue with the pull start? I don't quite understand this.

 

You might consider intalling a new battery. Not sure what the clicking noise is unless you have and axle CV joint that is failing/worn.
The brakes have nothing to do with the engine turning over. The pull rope can be hard to pull....or easy, it depends on where the "stroke" of the piston is.

 

Okay, but why does brake fluid come out of the receptacle when it turns over? I just replaced the battery a few weeks ago, and the headlights are bright when it's off.

What you say about the engine makes sense, but it's always been hard to pull start in the past, up until I fiddled with the brakes recently. Maybe I'm just not looking at this from the right angle.

 

Pull out the spark plug , replace if it looks bad, pull the cord with plug out: should pull over easily. Now, as to what could cause extremely hard turning over of the motor= gas running into the cylinder and causing partial hydrolock , that might be only an adjustment of the float height. Lastly a bad head gasket might be sucking some antifeeze into the cylinder. Send a sample of your oil to Blackstone Labs, they will tell you if you have gas or antifreeze in your oil. Here's a test of the oil in my Arctic Cat= 500 miles.

 

Oh really, bad oil can cause that? Hm, okay, that gives me a few ideas how to tackle it. I'll consider that oil analysis if my theory turns out to be nonsense.

Speaking of oils, given that the previous owner mistreated the air filter, what of the rear diff oil? I am wondering if perhaps that is why the brakes seem involved even though logically they shouldn't be. Well I'll go look up some stuff.

I'm pretty confident the spark plug is fine. When it gets running, it sounds wonderful. We had it to the shop to fix the really bad stuff in the engine, what's left is a lot of little bits and pieces that I've been struggling to understand, LOL.

Thanks all.

 

Well water/antifreeze or excessive gasoline in the oil can not only be bad, but it can indicate where a problem lies. Example antifreeze from a leaking head gasket eventually will damage bearings. But if the oil test comes back showing antifreeze contamination you can fix the problem before it turns to junk. Water or gas in the cylinder can create a hard start or even hydro lock.

 

When I changed the oil last time, it immediately changed to black again. I sort of ignored this because I figured it was normal, but I think either I didn't change it correctly, or it was just that dirty.

I'm kind of embarrassed, still it's good to know.