I HAVE A LT500 IVE GONE THROUGH AND DONE EVERYTHING TO IT,,ITS READY TO ROCK.I HAVE TO SELL IT TO HELP PAY FOR MY RAPTOR .I JUST ASSEMBLED THE REAR END WITH REBUILT SHOCK,NEW BEARINGS,SEALS,ROTOR,PADS,SPROCKET ECT .THE MOTOR HAS NEW SEALS CLUTH WATERPUMP POWERVALVE PISTON. THE TOP END IS NOT ASSEMBLED YET.I HAVE ALL OF THE PICES AND PARTS NEW BUT WAS WONDERING IF I WOULD DO BETTER SELLING IT WITH THE TOP END OFF SO WHO EVER BUYS IT KNOWS IT HAS BEEN DONE AND DONE RIGHT.OR WOULD I BE BETTER OFF SELLING IT TOGATHER AND WHO EVER BUYS IT WILL HAVE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT BEING NEW..I MYSELF HAVE BOUGHT "REBUILT ATVS" ONLT TO FIND OUT THEY WERE NOT DONE RIGHT.ANY INSIGHTS ON THIS WOULD BE HELPFUL.

THANX EDD

 

My insight is......keep the damn Zilla!!!! To hell w/ a raptor!!! Seriously, save the reciepts, and put it together so a potential buyer could hear her roar, or leave the head loose so you can pull it off to show the top of a brand new piston. I personally would rather buy something I could take right home and ride(even though now I'm in complete resto mode thanks to that idea), but if people call you on the phone tell them to come check out the new parts, and you'll put it together if they're serious....by the way, how much ya asking?

 

take it home and ride it,im the same way i want to ride it asap.i started building it too keep it not to sell it so i have a box of old parts not a lot of reciepts.
it has a 39mm carb,fmf gold series pipe,maier 911 silencer,fmf ram valve,aluminum nerfs.new swing arm pivot bolt,chain roller and slide,the new rear rotor is vented,i had a stainless steel shaft welded in the steering stem to fix the cracked factory one.all bearings and seals are factory not aftermarket.it has the factory thumb throttle on it still.
the pressure plate is also new.i also have a brand new rear fender.,like new fronts and the hood is cracked..the head has been worked to accomidate the overbore.the frame has never been bent or welded but the front of the frame has a few surface rust spots.the shocks have a few chips on the springs the paint on the a arms is excellent,,it had lower a arm protectors for a large part of its life.i ve never had any transmission troubles.
.it has all of the factory lighting.it has like new hole shot rear tires but could use new rear rims as they are dinged up. the items it still needs are,1 a chain, 2 2 balljoints but you might as well change all of them and front pads put on wich i have new.an air filter,the box is elminated,and some reeds for the ram valve.

i tell you all of this so some of you could give me an idea of what i could get for it..ive seen baskett cases go for 1700.and ive seen slick ones sell for as little as 3000 as much as 4000.i have 2 of them to sell to pay for the raptor,
so i need every penny i can get..i had planed on selling it on ebay i hate to see my old toys around town.IM SORRY FOR RAMBLING ON and thankyou for taking the time to read all of this. thanx edd

 

Well if your bike was in Australia, I have a mate, who after taking a ride on mine, would probably snap it up for around $7-8000 Australian. So thats about $3500 American easily. Problem is theres like about 10 zilla's in my state and i only know of about 4 in great running order!!! Mine probably rates as the best considering its just had an overhaul. Finding one over here in good condition is very hard. We had one in the local paper for $8200. I went to check it out for my mate, and every plastic had a break in it (repaired with black ties!) had good tires, chassis had a bend in it on the left front, needed a helluva lot of TLC, ripped seat etc etc etc. He even had it siting in bits. I just laughed. I had mine on the back of my Ute when i went to see it and i explained i got mine for $5000 even, including a new set of douglas rims with paddles etc etc etc. He wouldnt even negotiate on price! If thats anything to go by, Im gona sell mine for at least $7500+......but thats IF i ever sell it hehe [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I'm with fasternu; I would keep the beast... And like he said keep all the reciepts to the new parts and hand them over to the person who buys the Zilla, but I would definately put in back together in running order. Nothing helps sell a Zilla like having a prospective buyer come back from a test ride with tears blown dry on the side of his cheeks and his fingers locked in a death grip from the mach-2 speed.

Besides you can tell if the compression is good by almost having it throw you over the handle bars from an improper kick start.

 

Keep the Zilla and sell the Raptor!

 

You bring up an interesting point, ZOO. Not one person who has ridden my Zilla(now in resto mode) has ever been able to start it, because the kick starter comes back up after the 3rd or 4th kick and bites 'em all, and then the back of thier calf hurts to dam bad to try it again or they get scared of a second "attack". It hasn't done it me, and I hope it doesn't cuz I laugh like hell at the fools hopping around on one foot, grabbing their right leg and swearing up a storm[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img].....

 

Oh, I paid $1500 for mine, and if ya go to the "Project Quads" topic here in the Suzook forum, you'll see my list of problems that came w/ it. In the local "swap-it" books, every now in then I see an ad for a completely restored Zilla, usually between $3,000 and $4,000(the latter was said to have NOS), but I only see one maybe once every 2 months, so people that have one either

A. want to keep them, or

B. totally destroyed them beyond recognition.

My advice is to put $3500 OBO on the 4 sale sign, or put it all together and take it to an auction and set the minimum bid around 3k or so....I dunno.....

 

thank you that is excatly what i was looking for an idea of value..as far as getting bit kicking it,ive about broke my foot before,,too lean on the starting circuit in the carb i think . kicked my wife once and that was it i started it from than on,,when she saw the raptor had an electric starter she was sold..i held out for about 2 months befor i wanted one..if i can sell one of my lts for enough i can try to keep one lt to play with..belive me there is no quad ive evan sat on that felt like my lt,not to mention the power,it just seems to fit me perfect.some say they are too big i say they just dont know how to make the power work for them,im rambling on now so i better go.thank you guys
edd

 

At no time is an LT500 supposed to be breakin' your feet. Try kicking an ATC 350x with no auto-decompression cable on it. It will absolutely break your shin, I hate that forward kicking crap.