davefrombc

Can't help you there . I've never had to service the timing chain on mine. If it is the timing chain itself that is the problem it has to be jumping on the sprockets .. Simple stretch won't change the timing that far . Are the sprocket teeth badly worn ?

My petcock started leaking on my old '91 Honda 300FW.. Took it apart and found the bowl/ water trap was corroded through. Cleaned the bowl,coated the inside with JB weld epoxy and leak cured. I'll pick up a new assembly when I'm able, but in the meantime that repaired one will likely last years more now the epoxy coating protects it from any corrosion by moisture settling in it. Iwon't be in a big hurry to get the new petcock.

Check the sprockets They should be keyed to the shafts and if there's a key missing the sprocket will slip on the shaft. Unless the chain is very slack it should not jump on the sprocket teeth. Those are the only two ways I can see it physically coming out of time .

Best to use the same size battery as OEM, brand doesn't really make much difference. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you checked closely some of the American branded batteries are actually made offshore for them. Doesn't really matter whether your battery is made in America , Canada , China or anywhere else. Look for capacity and dimensions that fit.and you can also consider warranty terms. The batteries will all perform nearly identical. I am price loyal. Best price gets my nod when all else is equal.

Check the spark plug for fouling and go through the carb again . It may be more crud fouled the jets .. Also check for any loose connections in the wiring for the ignition circuit that might have occurred when you worked on it last time.

It sounds like fuel starvation. Possibly something in the fuel valve, line or carb restricting flow to the float bowl. .

That's a new one on me if it has both a mechanical and electronic shift. Sorry I couldn't be more help on that one.

Clicking sound is usually from adead battery or a bad connection battery to start solenoid . The clicking is the solenoid dropping in and out from insufficient voltage/current .

I don't know about your Kawasaki but my Honda has a separate on/off switch from the high/low switch, and they are all also separate from my ignition sqwitch.

The starter will not run if it is in gear. It it is not running when you are certain it is in neutral it becomes a chore of tracing out the circuit to see where the fault is.. It could be a dead battery, broken wire, bad ground, a faulty switch or relay, or the starter itself. To be sure the starter itself is ok, you could run 12v directly to it with a jumper cable to see if it spins over.

Neutral light could be burned out .. Mine is . The yellow buttons up and down may be for headlights. They have nothing to do with shifting gears. Neutral light is a convenience since it does let you know when you are in neutral, but if it doesn't light and your quad won't start in gear then the safety switch is working and either the light is burned out or the it doesn't get the signal to light from the switch. I don't worry about the light out on my quad.

You can download the owners manual for the 1994 Bayou 220 and the 1988 -2002 service manual from the forum's Downloads section. There are very likely some Youtube videos that may help you also.

You can check the ignition switch with a meter to see what it is doing , but I would suspect it is faulty. Possibly has corrosion in it. There is a possibility of a loose wire or connection , but I think you are right suspecting a new ignition switch is in order.

Reeds not seating properly could be a big reason for some of the loss of compression and very poor running . I wouldn't change the jets.. Just put in new reeds and rings.

You took out the oil filter plug. The screen goes in first, screen facing out . then the spring and finally the plug.. The other bolt you show is the right one .. Here is an excellent video of the drain and removal / replacement of the oil filter screen.

About all I can suggest is to read through the service manual to see what rebuilding the engine entails and whether you're comfortable tackling it. Have you tried starting it to see what the knock sounds like and where it appears to be coming from? The only way I know of to find out for certain what is causing the engine knock is to tear it down. From there, I would source out parts, price out a new or used engine and compare costs to decide which route you want to go.

Sorry , I couldn't say one way or another.. All I know is what I got from searches since I have no first hand knowledge of them myself. I would suspect from what I read there are no real differences, but as I say , I have no first hand experience with them. Since I am retired and have time to search , I don't mind trying to help others find information on their toys.

None that I found in searches .. Some sites did say the Linmax had the Suzuki motor. According to one , Suzuki sold them rights to build the Linmax copy of the earlier LT50 with the old suspension when Suzuki went to the new model with better suspension. Also supplied Linmax with engines , so if yours has the oil injection it is likely genuine Suzy engine in Linmax cloned frame. Onr thing not advertised by many auto and sport machines is many of their parts are actually jobber manufactured for them in Taiwan. You might buy a Polaris , Kawasaki, Yamaha quad , or some autos and find parts and accessories were actually made in Taiwan.. Kymco is one example of a company that builds their own quads, and parts for several other makes . It wouldn't surprise me if the Linmax maker also makes some parts for others .

I searched on your vin and got the same origin information. Following links to another forum and others found the same , so they suspect that particular model may be farmed out by Suzuki to a Chinese manufacturer in Taiwan ( Linmax ) According to information I found in the search all parts are identical and many, including the motor are genuine Suzuki. Someone may have put the Suzuki logos , or plastics on a Linmax made quad.

A 350 cc 4 wheeler is no small quad.. My old Honda 300FW carries my 260 pounds and still does 40 + MPH.. If you want to limit her top speed you'll have to rig up some sort of throttle stop to limit how much throttle she can give it . Even little 50 cc quads can get a kid (or some adults) into trouble. They don't lack power, just the kid size quads lack the suspension to carry the weight of an adult well.

I don't know about the starter on your Polaris, but I imagine it is very much like those on the Honda and Suzuki. I just rebuilt the one on my Honda. There are reasonably priced rebuild kits for them that have the new brush assembly and the bushings the rotor runs in as well as all the seals in the kit. There really should be no drag on the motor unless possibly one of the bushings / bearings holding the rotor is worn and allowing it to drag on the field. My Honda had permanent magnet fields that are very powerful and insert the rotor into the case unsupported and it grabs quite tightly to them .. The starter operates through a gear train to a one way bearing (sprag) to start the motor . There should be no drag on that gear train. If the starter was frozen before, I'd definitely recommend pulling it apart and installing a rebuild kit .

There is a download for the service manual for your quad in the forums download section

Put a meter on the battery when you try to start it hot. I suspect the battery may not have its full capacity and the extra load of trying to run the starter hot drops the voltage too low to fire the ignition properly.

I'd check for loose or corroded connectors in the ignition circuits first since it started after bouncing around . Check the voltage from rectifier to battery under idle and revved up. If you can borrow a compatible CDI box, you could try swapping it out. There is the service manual for the 1998 YMF250 in the downloads section of the forum . It will have all the resistance readings for the ignition components should you need to check the stator, pickup coil and ignition coils. Most likely the readings would all be the same for the 2001. Very little changes from year to year for the same series motors. Check components cold and warmed up. Sometimes they break down when hot but are fine cold. One tool that isn't expensive but is often overlooked when suspecting spark loss under load is an inline spark checker to see if the plug is firing properly under load. Here is an example of the spark checker https://www.harborfreight.com/90-in-line-spark-checker-69023.html

Glad you got it sorted out. I'll have to remember to get people to check the voltage regulator next time I try to help someone with what sounds for all the world to be a carburetion problem that they cabn't sort out .... And to not assume they have all the air filtration elements installed since the trouble with at least one other system seems to have stemmed from them leaving out one filtration element that was factory installed.. We all learn new things all the time .. Problem for us older ones is remembering what we learned.