New member | DFW | 99 Bayou 220

[frostyflammable]

Hello all, wanted to sign up for this site as I am sure I will have lots of questions soon. One of my coworkers has given me a free Bayou 220 that does not run, I was told it needs a new wiring harness, however I cannot confirm any of that yet.

Next weekend I am going to drive up to the place and pick it up and get some hands on but right now trying to find some service manuals so that I can trace and find out what is going on. My plan is if I can get it to run to do a full restoration and use it to putt around the trails around my house.

I have some experience with small engines, currently have six mini bikes and a buggy with a GY6 motor that I brought back to life and I am hoping I can do that same with this. Really hoping the Bayou has good compression and it's only a electrical problem.

In the mean time I am going to be reading this forum to learn as much as I can and hopefully find a service manual. I have attached the only pic I have of it so far.

Thanks!
Daniel

[Ajmboy]

Welcome! There are a few bayou 220 owners in the community so you’ve come to the right place! I used to own one myself, nice atvs.

[frostyflammable]

Thank you, for the price of free I could not say no to this.  I just hope the wiring is salvageable and it won't take too much $$$ to get it going.

Finding parts for a 99 is getting hard, Rocky Mountain ATV has some things but this will definitely be an adventure.

Thanks.

[Frank Angerano]

Welcome to Quadcrazy, chances are unless you see burnt or melted wiring then the harness is probably fine.   The only way one would burn up a harness is by installing a battery in backwards.  Very possible but it’s a far and few thing to see. But even at that most of the time it’s a fuseable link or main fuse that goes.   

 We have had plenty of bayous come thru here in a past few months and all were salvageable and the outcome was good.  Including one of mine. I picked one up where the previous owner said the same thing. Big electrical problems.  Turned out it was a safety switch that was bad.  So get familiar with the bike, take some of the basic stuff off to expose some of the wiring and start looking for anything burnt.   My guess is it will be the usual suspect which is the  (neural safety switch) or a faulty kill switch.  Order a new battery if needed and try to avoid jumping it with a car or a crazy strong jumper pack. 

The bike looks great otherwise so for the price 🤭hey you cant complain! 

The plastics alone are worth a few hundred bucks if the bike was beyond repair. 

 

[frostyflammable]

I will definitely know more once I pick it up, which right now should happen weekend after next if everything goes according to plan.  The coworker that is giving this away is pretty clueless when it comes to machinery so who knows what it really is.  All I know that it no longer wants to starts, which was four years ago... since then it just sat in the garage collecting dust.  

Daniel