Bought 95 Bayou 300 - Need Help

[PineAppleCawks]

Morning all, hope everyone is off to a good start with their day.

 

about 2 months ago I bought a 95 bayou 300 for a hundred bucks. It was obvious the thing was gonna need some work and I'm up for the challenge. Just looking for some advice on how to get this thing going. The wheeler has an array of problems and I've done a good bit of reading around and learning about the machine lately, but I'm stuck at an impasse and not sure exactly what I need to do to proceed.

 

So to start with the stuff that was obvious to me; The wheeler has definitely been flipped, the handlebars and steering column are bent, both front and rear racks were bent and have been cut in places to allow the previous owner to bend them back into a rough idea of what they once were. Along with this the little box on the handlebars with the key and lights was completely missing, The ignition wires were hanging out the side and twisted together and the light wires were just freely hanging down below and were also cut, as they have no bullet connectors on them anymore. to deal with the loss of the reverse lockout they strung a cable through a hole in the plastic and attached a random handle to it.

 

As a preliminary I went ahead and purchased a info box complete with key and reverse lockout and a voltage regulator (as I had read they commonly go bad). I have a small question about the ignition wiring, but I will save this for later as this brings us to the actual problem. No matter how good I do at replacing parts such as this I will never know if any of it has worked because I cant get the transmission to shift at all, but most importantly I cant get it to shift into neutral. I did some research on the problem which consistently lead me to something having to do with the spur gear behind the secondary clutch. I pulled the clutch cover and inspected, Everything was in place with no loose bolts or anything. I went as far as to remove the spur gear and the levers and springs. I could not find any visual degradation that would lead me to believe this part is the issue. With time running thin in the day I went ahead and put everything back in according to the manual. for a brief moment I was very excited to find that the shift lever was actually giving me some sort of tactile feedback and felt as if it was shifting, but this was short lived and it all seemed to jam up and stop doing anything after a few seconds.

 

When I had the clutch cover off I had my son actuate the shift lever both up and down while I was laying on the ground looking at the spur gear. It seems that every once in a while it was able to grab the spur gear and spin it, but this will ONLY happen if im shifting up. It gets completely jammed trying to go down. Occasionally I can get it to spin partially as I am shifting down, but in those situations it freezes and wont spin any further even if I try to coax it along with a screw driver. What this feels like on the shift lever is there is no feedback. All I feel is the resistance of the spring and then it hits the a spot where it just stops the lever from moving. I get a very distinctive metal on metal "tink" and that's it.

 

Anyway this is my big hang up at the moment. If I cant get the wheeler in neutral I cant test to see if any of the electronics are working, let alone see if it will turn over for me. As a side note the pull starter is busted, when I pull it I just get the resistance of the spring and it doesn't seem to engage with the motor at all. When the clutch cover was off I grabbed the clutch and spun it clockwise which proved to me that the motor has compression and freely spins.

 

So that's where I am at now, and I am more or less out of ideas as to what I need to do to either further diagnose the transmission or (fingers crossed) fix it. I figure all the other stuff can wait, as this seems to be the big hinge point on the project at this moment.

 

I wont be at the farm till later, but when I am I will make a short video of the spur gear so you guys can see first hand what's going on.

 

I want to thank you guys in advance for any and all advice you may be able to give me. I am glad to have a resource such as this forum and look forward to hearing from you guys!

Edited June 21, 2022 by PineAppleCawks

[Mech]

Were you rocking the bike back and forwards as you  tried changing gears ?

If the engine isn't spinning the shafts, and the drive line isn't spinning the shafts, then you get two gears bumping into one-other when they are meant (by virtue of one being rotating),  to mesh.  You might just need to lift the bike and turn the wheels back and forwards while you are shifting. It might be in a high gear, and it might move down one gear with a forward rotate of the shafts, then need a bit of a reverse, or more forwards rotation, to get into the next down.  They nearly always need both forwards and reverse rotations to get them all the way down from a high gear.

Also, are you sure that what's happening, isn't by design(meant to be)? Have you read the owners manual ? It might be something to do with some interlock system..

[PineAppleCawks]

I have tried rocking it a bunch and it seems to make zero difference.

 

I have not read the manual but looked through it at this point. I definitely haven't read anything about an interlock system. I'll check the manual in the morning. 

[PineAppleCawks]

Just an update. Turns out that you were correct Mech. The reverse lockout lever was gunked up and would pull up to unlock reverse but when it returned it was stopping about halfway before it hit its detent. Seems like this was putting a stop to changing gears at all. I cleaned it up and was immediately able to get the shifter to start doing its thing.

Turns out my purchase was actually a very good one. After be able to finally get it into neutral I got to start digging into the wiring. I don't know what the heck the previous owner was trying to do with the wiring harness in their half assed attempt to "hot wire" the 4 wheeler. Wires were disconnected, several wires were connected, but to the wrong thing. Anyway long story short I was able to use the wiring diagram to get things hooked back up the way the were supposed to be. I then installed my new ignition and turned the key. Got neutral and reverse lights. 

Now that I was ready to try and start it I had to spend a good bit of time cleaning the fuel system, in specific the tank as it was varnished worse than I have ever seen. Once I cleaned that up I replaced the petcock and was ready to move on to the carb. While I did buy a carb kit, with my fingers crossed I carb cleaned it without replacing anything yet. 

put about gallon of gas in it, turned the key and hit the start button. This thing didn't skip a beat, I didn't even hear it crank it jumped to life so quick. It was idling perfect and then it was time for a test drive. Took it around my farm 3 times (very carefully as there was no brakes) and felt it out. 

All and all it runs pretty good aside from needing some carb adjustments (running a bit too rich)

Ive got a few more parts on the way to get it buttoned up by all said and done I'm pretty happy. I've got a good running 4 wheeler and only put around $350 into it including purchase price. My running theory is that when the previous owner flipped it they tried to ghetto rig it into working, but never did. I think this fact kept the motor safe from potential degradation because it was just sitting.

Thanks again for all the suggestion you guys gave me! I hope I can return the favor down the road!

[Mech]

Ha, good one, and well done.

Have fun... but don't get caught.

[Jomo]

I was going to say wiring, but im too late. good luck

[Mech]

Those lockout mechanisms are a bit notorious I think..  They get gunked up and the springs also break..