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!

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.

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!

Man that looks like so much fun. I have never gotten to ride a 3 wheeler, but have always wanted to. This video made me want to even more. Good stuff

Looks like an awesome day. I hope to have the money and friends & family to have days like that in the future! Sorry to hear about your brother, I guess there is no better day than today to go out and make those memories. Montana is beautiful, its always been on my list of places to go. I recently moved back from CO to TN and am having a bit of trouble adjusting back to the geographical downscaling. Things are so big out that way.

Looks like a good area to do some wheelin!

I personally understand the plight of people dealing with this situation on this forum. I have scoured the internet for a free manual for my 4 wheeler and this is the only place. I'm sure this is the situation for many people, many of these people are not used to being forum members. While the may be a perfect candidate for someone who will be helpful down the road they may not be familiar with the etiquette of sites like this and they have a problem to which they are looking for an answer. While I appreciate this site for the community, information, and the offered download section. I am just now discovering it, but at the same time I need the manual for the 4 wheeler I just bought. I absolutely get what the mods are trying to do with this requirement, but it seems that it will inevitably lead to people doing things such as the OP (who by the way was much better in his execution then some of the people I have come across in my short time on this forum). It comes down to a situation such as not reading a warning label on a product before using or signing a terms of use without actually reading it. People are just in a hurry to get what they need and probably aren't taking a very long time to read the wall of text that accompanies signing up. Some gentle explanation and pointers from more established members is all that's required for most people to get them to realize the actual purpose of this rule and abide by it. Just to point out I normally wouldn't have even responded to a post such as this, but I too am hoping to finish my 10 posts. While I have been doing a lot of perusing around the site to find information the last 3 days I have little to no input to give people because I haven't had the chance to learn about particular 4 wheelers myself yet which is why I say there's people that may be very useful parts of this community in the future, but they need a bone thrown to them right now, because the need the opportunity to learn. I love forums and now that I just bought a new to me 4 wheeler and will be working on it, I will be keeping an eye on this forum and helping people where my knowledge base will allow.

I have read that these quads have an electrical issue that happens overtime where the voltage regulator starts to go bad but instead of going out it slowly starts to increase the voltage it allows to pass through the system. in essence the system starts to get more and more voltage which causes all kinds of issues, but specifically causes the timing to go completely out of whack. This in turn starts to cause a pre-detonation situation that causes the motor to make a slapping or knocking sound that people frequently mistake for rod knock. No idea if this is what's happening to you, but just a thought I figured I might give you something to look at. Seems like it could potentially be a sounds coming from the motor itself and not just the transmission. Quote from post I read this on "It appears that on the KLF300s and other systems similar to them, that when the voltage regulator goes out and your voltage is unregulated and high (above 14.5 VDC) , it causes the Solid State Ignition to advance the timing and the knocking noise you are hearing is actually pre-detonation. I tested that theory out by simply removing the regulator/rectifier from the charging circuit while the engine is running. The voltage drops back down to 12.5 VDC on the battery and the rest of the electrical system. The KLF300 engine went from clanking, missing and popping like a old jalopy to purring like a big ol happy kitten once the overvoltage was removed." Here's a link to the article I found this one. he starts describing the issue on #6

do you guys just ride a lot? Makes me wonder if your getting a slightly lean condition our of the fuel system/carb that causing ring and cylinder failures? I have a TRX that has been in my family for 20 years. it recently passed hands from my uncle to my brother and I. It has never needed any motor work done to its just neededcarb rebuilds and electrical components replaced in all those 1000's of hours. Just curious, cuz I have been riding this thing and the same with my 11 cousins for the last 20 years and we have not been nice to it.

Here in the southern states of the US all it takes is a farm use tag ;). Not really though it always depends on local regulations and the kind of area your in means a lot. If your nearest neighbor is 7 miles away and you only see a few cars in a day you might as well just drive it on the road

Sounds like fun. I'm in the same boat, just bought a klf300 to fix this summer with my stepson and and trying to unlock the manual! It sounds like you may have been running rich and flooded the motor. Does it crank freely with the recoil starter?

Thanis for the response! I'm definitely planning on keeping it. I know I can get it running eventually. I'm a car mechanic, have several Sea-Doo's, and have a Honda TRX400 I've done a lot of work on so I'm not shy about work. Yes it is the petcock leaking, unfortunately the level ethanol sludge that's coming out of it really tells me I'm in for more than just that. I'll probably do a full overhaul on the fuel system. The tank smells like varnish, I've never come across a fuel system that stinks quite like this one. Pull starter is on the list, but I'm not entirely sure if it's broken or the gears going into the motor are stripped. Still have to pull it off. It's going to be a slow roll, I largely bought this thing so my wife's 11 year old an I have a project to work on together and ultimately it will be his if we get it going. He's only with us in the summer so I don't think I'm gonna touch this thing till he gets here in 2 weeks. Anyway thanks again for the response! I look forward to using this forum a lot. I've already done quite a bit of reading on here and my confidence level is going up. These Kawasakis seem pretty straightforward which I appreciate coming from the finicky world of Sea-Doo's.

Hey guys. Just wanted to say hi. Im usually a forum lurker and I'm sure I will be doing that here quite a bit in the future, but I need to get to those downloads! Today I picked up a 1995 KLF300C. The plastics are in pretty good condition but the rest of it needs some work. Didn't have a ton of free time to look it over today but I noticed a few things -pull cord is either busted or was put on wrong -What I think is the reverse lockout is just hanging in a hole in the plastic and is not hooked up in any meaningful way -fuel valve is leaking which reveals a startling amount of ethanol sludge -exhaust is 99% rust I wasn't able to confirm I was in neutral so not sure if it will turn over but I imagine something electric is in need of replacing Altogether I think it's gonna be a bit of work and learning, I've never had a Kawasaki before. But I only paid 100 bucks for it so I'm not too worried. Where do you guys think I should start with this thing? Anyway good to be here! I look forward to pursuing the forum frequently!