Lakota help?

[tnhomestead]

Okay have an old lakota, died while riding several years back ( early 1500s or so!). Just trying to revive the dead again, recoil starter seems dead.  Hooked a car battery up half arsed and it did turn over although sloooowwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyy! When it died thought there was no spark. So any ideas on best steps to try and start finding the problems? Put some penetrating oil in cylinder to help loosen it up. 

[Ajmboy]

This could be fun...well if you got it to turn over that's good. Here's what I would do:

• Change the oil
• Check/Change/Clean the air filter
• Clean the carb/spray some cleaner in there at least
• Check for spark
• Charge the battery or replace it
• Try starting it again

[tnhomestead]

Sounds like a good start list, but don't think charging the battery will help, its on the toasted side of life! Now to figure out how to get this pos to where I can work on it! Wish me luck

[M C]

Hey TN! 

Personally I wouldn't run fuel from the tank to the carb if it sat for more than a year. I'd get a new battery and see if she'll crank over acceptably. Then (clean the plug) verify spark with no fuel. Once spark is verified. I'd just use starting fluid to see if it'll run. 

If it sat for more than a year, I'd go ahead and remove the tank, remove petcock and clean the tank. My buds sat for many years and then he got it to run, but he said it didn't run well. When I took the petcock off there was trash in the area where the petcock is mounted. The petcock itself was crusty inside.  I was able to disassemble the petcock and clean it (be careful removing o ring) and did get it to function without any leaks. We purchased a petcock but I'd already cleaned the old one by the time it arrived.

Ultimately the carb ended up needing a float valve and thorough cleaning.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

 

[tnhomestead]

[M C]

Hey TN!

She looks tired. Hope to hear some positive news in the near future. Good luck.

[tnhomestead]

She just needs a facelift and a new outfit for the ball is all!

Well, the cdi didn't even bother to test! Can you say burning down the cdi? New one coming later this week, hope to check the coil b4 then.

[tnhomestead]

Well tested the cdi and it was dead dead dead, as well as the ignition coil. Now to test the stator and pickup coil. Need to pull the plastic off for easier access. I really truly hate working in grass and mud!

[tnhomestead]

Pulled the plastic off and who ever worked on this bike b4 me needs his man card pulled, and a warning label tattooed on his face not to touch tools! Literally baling wire and 10 to 20 lock washers and regular washers on each too small bolt but waaaaaayyyyyy too long!

Now onward and upward I hope! Fuse blown, handlebar switch bypassed (not by me) and I hate wiring along with work and wrenching but that's another subject!

Edited June 23, 2020 by tnhomestead
Additionally

[Arizona]

Sounds like most the ones i end up with. Part of the fun and or headaches!

[tnhomestead]

Okay, well threw in a temp patch on the wiring, now have neutral light and power to the front and rear lights if they had bulbs in them. Still no spark, but the handlebar switch looks really bad so will check the kill switch next and change spark plug as well. Tested pickup coil on multimeter and showed okay so hope that's good. Have not tried yet to see if I am getting a pulse from it though. If anyone has ideas feel free since I have no clue what I am doing! Lol

[MarkinAR]

How do you know the CDI is bad?  Just curious since there's no way to actually test them.  Not being smart, I genuinely want to know if there is some way that I don't know about.

[tnhomestead]

According to the manual for the lakota, you can check resistance between the wires and it should fall in specified ranges. In my case, when I checked several of the wires showed open circuit, ie broken connections where they should be resistance.  I took that to be bad! Lol But there are several you tube videos showing how to test all of these but all seem to say it can pass but still be bad.

Like I said. I know very little on these quads, so its possible I messed up big time! But its 14-17 on the Lakota service manual where I got my info if that helps 

[tnhomestead]

Well took a look at the starter switch wiring while the better half was milking and what do I see? battery side of solenoid was never connected!

[Arizona]

I have just finished dealing with major wiring problems on a bayou 300 and 220 

I know the pain Az

[tnhomestead]

No pain no gain!

[tnhomestead]

Ready to pull my last hairs out! Please help b4 I end up looking like I am in basic again, I dont look good bald! No spark. Replaced cdi, tests good. Replaced coil also tests good. Appear to have power to cdi from pickup coil best I can tell with a normal multimeter. Appears to have power to coil from cdi. New plug

WHAT AM I MISSING? Please?

On the good side should have a small cramped space to work next week!

[MarkinAR]

Have you tested the plug wire and boot? I had a bad boot once new in box. It was cheap chinese so my fault. 

I'm still not convinced it's not CDI. There is no way to properly test a CDI so my advice would be to bake the CDI for 5 minutes or so at 250 maybe and see if you get spark then. CDI doesn't even really do much until its powered and triggered to work so resistance testing wouldn't tell much. 

[tnhomestead]

Well, worth a try if I dont mind sleeping with the fishes- better half is a bit protective of her new stove! Wonder if you could rig an led light to flash when the cdi gets triggered? I sure do miss points at times, working on stuff smarter than me is a pain! Thanks, will try the idea this weekend

[Arizona]

I would bypass the kill switch just to rule that out. Also what readings you get on the pick up coil? 

With the kill switch bypassed do you get a pulse from the p/u coil? That would be my next tests. 

Good luck, Az

[tnhomestead]

Think its time to make a direct voltage adapter so I can check coil etc properly. Took an led, stuck in output from pickup coil and when turning engine over, the led pulsed in time. So kill switch and coil working. Hooked to output from cdi and led lit up and stayed lit. That doesn't sound right. But started raining so not sure if I had plugged the coil back in. Can't wait for a slab of concrete and a roof! 

[tnhomestead]

WE GOT SPARK! Woohoo! Replaced cdi box with gm hei and sparks magically flew through the spark plug! Lol Now to get a battery and see what happens. Nest step order a start solenoid to replace this wired up hack of a starter button. And find a battery for it and a solar panel to keep it charged. Took forever the gm hei ignition module to get here, somehow the usps sent it to Florida instead of Tennessee! 

[Arizona]

using the gm hei module are you going to get any timing advance? 

probably stall or backfire, why not use proper cdi? Keep us informed

Az

[tnhomestead]

From what I have read the timing advance works but has to be hooked up right. Main point of trying it was to test what was going on as cheap as possible, cant throw too much money at this until it runs or it may start to rain cast iron skillets! Lol will let you know but may be a few days.