MarkinAR

@quadnut20 is a 400EX man...Perhaps he can provide some insight into this? I would assume that a shift fork has moved or some other hard part is disengaged. If it was pulling and now it's not pulling at all, that tells me it's probably not really going in gear. Or the clutch is stuck in the "engaged" position and not releasing. I had a 400EX but never dug into the clutch.

Point taken @Frank Angerano. The reason I was thinking recycle the piston is that the skirt never touches anything, it's just there to let oil pass to the rings. Hell, if the skirt touched anything it would be tragic! But with pistons, even Wiseco, not really being that big of an investment...it's probably better safe than sorry.

There seems to be an inverse relationship between year of manufacture and lifespan. I had an 85 Honda 185s a few months ago that was raggedy but still purred like a kitten and would rip your wrists off. I have a friend with a late model 420 that has had electrical gremlins and odd other issues. Even the new XMR1000R's at $15k have a few issues right off the bat with poor wire routing by the frame rail and clutch hiccups. Much like a new car....they are way more efficient and powerful but woe be it to the one that has issues. Older machines are less complicated and less powerful but seem to have a longer lifespan....due to their simplicity.

Here's the thing about snorkels that I don't get. Folks usually put an upright snorkel 3 feet in the air; that's great, but that would mean water was over your head. snorkels are best left just under chin height sitting on the seat. Any taller than that and it's just a "mine is bigger than yours" situation. This bike seems to be completely untouched. The carb is absolutely disgustingly dirty and I see that as a good sign. It's not been taken off to clean!

That scaring on the skirt doesn't look that bad as the rings look pretty smooth. If the cylinder wall isn't toast a quick refresh with a hone and some new good rings and i bet it runs like a champ. I'd probably even buff out the piston skirt and reuse since OEM is always better than repop. The scratches may just be years of sitting and then the carbon deposits flaking off when trying to fire it. I've seen worse run.

Was that a 2 stroke? Can't remember. I would assume fresh rings and good seating would be more like 150 psi, I would think 100 PSI would be about the low end. I had a 4 stroke Bayou 220 that ran like a champ with 80 psi but that's a 4 stroke.... If compression is at 90 I'd think that's about low enough to keep it from sucking fuel in and running right...if running at all.

Even swap for the 400ex. Pretty close in value, NADA has the 400ex a bit above but in the south sport quads are hard to move and 4x4 ESPECIALLY a 300 are way WAY overpriced. Real money in it is about $800 since that was what was in the 400ex. The 300 would bring closer to $1500 here if it were for sale.

Unfortunately this weekend we waived goodbye to the 99 400ex. Ported and polished head, DMC Alien exhaust with dual header, an absolute unit that would run 70 on the top end. Fortunately though the 400ex left in exchange for a fairly cherry 98 Honda 300..the holy grail of reliability in a mud and water toy. Previous owner added the snorkels and it was a decent job. Put some 25" swamp witches on it, now it just needs 1" spacers, 2" bracket lift, couple of pinion seals and a pound or two of dielectric grease. Hate to let the 400ex go as it was a gem, but it's hard to pass on a cherry 300. These things are just so dang reliable and easy to work on.

If you replaced the carb, did you use the same slide and cable on the old and the replacement carb? you can always check the slide for burrs, polish the needle with a q-tip stuck in a drill. I'm thinking more likely throttle cable though. I guess you could test the theory by unhooking the throttle cable from the thumb control and see if you can feel a sticky spot working the cable with your fingers.

Front and rear are still available from Partzilla. They're a bit pricey, but they'll be new. https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/suzuki/atv/1994/lt-f250t/front-fender-model-m-n-p-r-s-t Good luck with survivor plastic, those things just didn't fare well in the sun. It would be worth a try plastic welding cracks and sanding and buffing. Might not help, but it's a cheap trial. You can also use the heat and shock method to revive the color. Like this guy does with a heat gun, just douse it with cold water when it's still shiny. That'll harden the surface instantly and bring life back to it. Won't look new, but will look better.

Probably bad head gasket. It was leaking oil between the cylinder and case so i stripped it down and put a new gasket set all the way through to fix the oil leak..which it did. It wasn't a cheapie but anything can have an issue once in a while i guess. Ordering up a new top end gasket set again and a pinion seal for the middle gear as it's pouring oil. This bike is in that in between stage....between I've replaced everything and it should be good for many years and I'm tired of replacing stuff and it needs a new home! Can't decide which. Given the high/low range though it's tempting to keep because it'll turn big tires.

Can you believe this thing blew a new head gasket after a few weekend rides? Granted, it was beat on in a mud hole every weekend, but this is a new head gasket on a 400 Kodiak. Bummer.

I did but haven't seen a reply yet. Probably a result of outsourced parts from overseas.

Stupid question, but have you checked the spark plug boot? I had one not long ago that wouldn't fire a spark plug for anything. Finally checked the boot for connectivity out of curiosity and it had none...changed that and it was good to go.

There are only a couple of years that fit the 86. They used the same CDI for the last 3 wheelers and first gen 4 wheelers. They are very rare indeed.

So just as a general FYI, it might be good to check replacement parts before installing. If possible, check clearances with a micrometer before going through the trouble of assembly. I say this as I bought a new driveshaft yoke for a Kodiak because the ujoint dropped a cap and got the yoke in a bind...blowing the yoke and middle drive gear to shreds. So I replaced the middle drive gear and bought a new yoke and ujoint kit from Caltric. Caltric is usually pretty solid replacement parts. The new yoke however was a good 4mm too narrow for inside lock ujoint caps. Disappointing since it came as a kit from Caltric. Ended up taking an angle grinder to the new yoke and thinning material off to get it to the needed 41.25mm opening size. Sucks having to disassemble everything again and start over but my fault for trusting replacement parts. Nearly 40 years of turning wrenches and I made a rookie mistake.

Nah, you're good using a screwdriver to turn it over. That's all a solenoid does anyway, it just creates contact internally between positive and negative terminals internally. You're just doing it externally.

Man, you're braver than me if you use those adjustable spacers like that. I've seen those pop out on a car. I was looking at a milled aluminum spacer like you use on a late model Chevy truck. There are several companies that make them and they're pretty cheap. Just compress the spring, pop the top off the shock, insert spacer.

They look safer than a bracket lift. Those just look hokey to me.

Have any of you fine folks used coil spring spacers to lift an ATV? Ole 93 Kodiak could use a smidge more lift and they are cheap enough. Might ride rough but that's ok cuz the shocks are toast anyway. Thoughts?

I had a 4 wheeler a bit ago that was hard to idle, hard to start, popped at WOT after running a while...always ran great cold. Issue on that one turned out to be trash in the bottom of the gas tank. As you ran and disturbed the gas it would shake up the bits and clog the screen on the petcock. After it sat a bit, the trash would fall off the petcock and it would run fine again until it stopped up again..vicious cycle. cleaned the tank and never had an issue with it again. Might be unrelated to your issue, but something to consider.

Vehicle insurance (or boat, ATV, etc) is a real oddity. It's one of few things that we purchase primarily to protect others. Here in AR, you need liability insurance at a minimum...and that is just to protect someone else's property should you damage it. Completely different than health insurance, crop insurance, etc. Why do we buy trashbags with the sole intention to throw them away? I know no other product that you can buy just to throw away.

True...however $60 is paper thin ching chong knock off. Was hoping to find a good OEM 2nd hand but no luck... it's about a Hundo for a decent aluminum piece.

I have looked at making my own from flat steel but it's not possible to hug the brake rotor and sprocket close enough without being stamped steel. It would just hang down too low. I guess it could broken down into 100 small pieces and welded to duplicate stamping....

Do any of you fine folks happen to have a rear swing arm skid plate for a 400EX you would part with at a reasonable price? New ones are between $60 and a Hundo and that seems a bit steep. I've kicked around the idea of fabbing one but 2nd hand OEM would be preferable. Thoughts? I have a belly skid plate but missing the swing arm skid plate and really don't wanna taco the brake rotor.