ATV Help & Brand Specific Topics

That would be good to do that every so often, i have been putting ani seize on everything including those bolts, dont know if it actually works because of the heat but couldnt hurt.

Yep, it sat outside for years. It's been "down" for at least 5 years.

And has it fixed the back-firing ? Those nuts at the head join, some owners manuals say that as a matter of routine maintenance they should be loosened and re-tightened. It's only about once a year they say to do it. It's probably in recognition of the fact those nuts seize.

Sounds like me Gw.. Old age and lack of use.. Now where's that shovel...

Yup. A squirt of CRC or WD40 once every now and again will keep the new switch working.. if it's a genuine Kawa switch anyway. Non-genuine, perhaps not. Silicon though can give off fumes that corrode, and it's likely to keep the water that does inevitably seep in trapped in. Silicon is awful stuff !!

Good point, but i think you will be OK just keep it covered out of the weather, its taken 22 years to get this bad, and probably sat directly out in the weaather for many of those years.

Thats good, it may have just been sticking a little not moving freely.

Ok. Things like to be used.. They get rusty and unreliable sitting around.

I doubt silicon will keep the water out for long. I'd use vaseline or some soft seal, but you need to be careful where it goes if the starter is a press contact, rather than a sliding contact. Press contacts get dirty easy and even vaseline can stop them working. Sliding contacts cut through vaseline or soft seal so those contacts can be covered in the stuff.

I tried starting it a few more times and finely got it started and it now starts first time.

👍

I'll be using gasket seal or silicone when I put it on the handlebar.

That sounds like a good choice, hope it gets you going.

Solenoid is fine. Start, kill, and headlight switch is badly rough inside. Copper contacts are black, metal retainer plates are rusted. A new switch has already been ordered.

I ended up welding it

Nut splitter is a good idea i have one and never think to try it, generally we dont think to try these things until we have already broken the nut off, but as a rule i always try something on muffler bolts that have never been removed 99 percent of the time they break.

Yeah it could be the solenoid, and a good test to verify that, is to give it a hard tap with a screwdriver handle, while holding the start button down. There is a danger though that if the solenoid earth is bad, or the start button does have a bad contact, or the isolation relay has a bad contact, or, in some bikes, the kill switch has a bad contact, causing low current to the solenoid windings, then the hard tap might just be enough to get the solenoid to move and operate with the low volts to the windings.. The best check for bad contacts or connections is to look for voltage drop through that windings circuit. If the voltage drop checks all pan out ok, then try tapping the solenoid.

If you can split the nut it will come loose. There are tools called nut splitters. You'd have to get one that could fit onto that nut if the space is a bit confined.

Check the bendix to make sure it is working properly, you might pull the starter out and check it out to make sure all the parts are in place and and no slop in the engaging gear.

Starter button is definately a strong possibility but i have also had soloenids stick, may work a couple of times as you describe and then stick, and you have to giggle the start button or lightly tap on the soloenoid to get it to unstick.

Those bolts are sometimes hard to get off without breaking, i usually heat them cherry red and then srray with the water hose to cool them quickly and then douse with PB Blaster, it works most of the time.

Thanks guys. So I scored another parts bike , possibly! And now that small hole in my exhaust blew apart into a huge 2inch hole right where the 2pipes join into one !!! So loud and backfires like crazy again . I hate riding it now because of the attention it draws... But anyways, my current parts bike, has good pipes up to and past the join , I want to take it off and weld it on to replace the damaged portion.. But get this ! I tried to take the pipe off my good bike to replace it with the parts bike pipe, but The darn nuts on the header bolts are seized on there and basically morphed into the bolt. I already snapped one off trying to get it out ! I didn't want to proceed beyond that. Do you think I'm better off just cutting out a portion and welding it in 2 places instead of trying to replace the whole front part of the pipe ? Another thing I just thought of , was to weld a new bolt onto the old one , but it's a tight spot and I might not be able to actually do it (haven't really evaluated it yet )

Definitely check the start button. Most start and kill buttons are poorly weatherproofed.. if at all !

I finally got to the wiring today. The Bayou will start easily. I now have to find a dirty or bad connection or check the start button. The solenoid works fine. It fires 3 or 4 times and then will not start unless I jump it straight to the starter post. The critical thing is that it starts and runs well when it does. Again Mech, thank you for your help.

If the bendix has a sprag/one-way clutch, it may be that playing up.