bellarmine

Hi, did you ever get your fuel gauge sorted? Don't know if it's helpful, but I helped my neighbor with his Hisun EFI ATV last year. Electronic fuel gauge on the LCD cluster was acting up, so I took the sending unit right out of the tank and moved the float bank and forth and watched the gauge with the ignition on. It worked but had a delay, you'd have to wait a few seconds for it to respond, guess like a snubber. Anyway that seemed to fix the problem, bad connection or sticky float, or didn't know about the delay. Hope this helps, cheers!~ Bellarmine

Hi Jakes, Thought I'd comment on my experience with a Shindy kit. I have a 1986 Kawasaki Bayou 300 owned since new. Good machine, weak points in my opinion are the carburetor and starter. Keihin CVK-32 vaccuum slide carb very picky about dirt. Ever so often it won't start, I drain the float bowl helps it fire up (water?), then if it persists it's carb clean time. Probably done it a dozen times now, do it in my sleep. Anyway, I decided at one point about 2014 to put in a new carb kit, since it still had all the original seals and jets from near 30 years before. Like you I bought a Shindy kit, feeling they were good quality and Japanese for a Japanese ATV. Well, from the get go I had a high unstable idle - either racing or died. I'm not sure, the tiny washer on the pilot screw might have been bent. Anyway, I put back in the original pilot screw and problem gone. Further update, for a number of reasons I won't go into here, the machine sat from 2017 until 2020, wasn't started at all. Needless to say I cleaned the carb, upon disassembly I found the Shindy float bowl o-ring had turned to gooey TAR. So, in absence of anything else I put back and am currently using the original OEM float bowl o-ring, jets and parts from 1986, and it is running great. Just needs a bit of ether if it goes much below freezing, getting old. Starts instantly and idles smooth otherwise, see a video on how it starts and my starter motor replace tip below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1rUehPXoaY So draw your own conclusion. Hope you find that interesting if nothing else. I'm currently helping another fellow with a 1993 Suzuki QuadRunner 300, he bought a Chinese carb for it as the original carb was 'lost' (??), so I have no baseline to compare with. With my experience with my Kawasaki, and like you cleaning all 3 of yours, I'm sure I could have gotten it running perfect by simply cleaning the old carb, but what is to be will be...:o) Am getting close to it running decent. Try putting back in your original OEM parts in one of your OEM carbs and try that - what have you got to lose?....:o) Cheers Jakes!~ Bellarmine

You're welcome Steve. I have the official 1986 Kawasaki manual if that makes any difference, has lots of photographs of checks for the shift mechanism, haven't seen the one on here yet so can't comment on what is in it. I looked in my own manual perhaps you could rotate the shift star gear, so the 1st gear peg is maybe at the 5th gear position? Or the shift drum is worn, which as you say is in the bottom end. I imagine the shift foot lever is not hitting the footpeg lol.......:o) Sorry I couldn't be more help, glad it's working for you after a fashion at least. I've had my 300 Bayou since my Dad bought it new in '86, first machine I learned to drive, fun pretty and easy to work on. Cheers Steve!~ Bellarmine

Hi, do you still need help with your Bayou 300? I have the identical machine, 2x4 tough shaft driven ATV love it. I have the paper service manual, which you can also download here if you have 10 posts. Have you checked the clutch adjustment bolt near the oil sight gauge? Can help with the shifting. Also how about the reverse lockout knob? Might have something to do with the reverse-neutral-1st gear shifting. About your machine, what's the history, was working fine before, is it running currently? At risk of being obvious, it is hard to shift at a stand still, best if it is running and moving. I can check my shop manual for shift adjustment procedures. Just some ideas, let me know if I can further assist. Bellarmine

Hello everyone! Just joined up. I've had a Kawaski Bayou KLF300 2x4 since my Dad bought it new in '86 (nearly as old as I am), done a lot to keep it running through the years, especially with starter motor and carburetor work. I'm a veteran at cleaning the finicky CVK-32 carb, everytime I get idle hard start problems its drain the float bowl, and if no go then clean the carb, done that a dozen times over the years now. Still in pretty good condition, kept out of the rain much its life, still runs like a Swiss watch starts right up, though now needs a bit of ether to get going if it's much below freezing. I have a video I made on how to replace the starter motor quickly without removing the engine side cover or even draining the oil, so for my first post thought I'd post it here to help everyone else. If someone needs a hand with this machine drop me a line! I'm also working on a 1993 Suzuki QuadRunner 300 for a friend, could use a bit of help with that so I've made a separate topic here: Thanks everyone, cheers!~ Bellarmine

Hello everyone! Just joined up. As an introduction, I've had a Kawaski Bayou KLF300 2x4 since my Dad bought it new in '86 (nearly as old as I am), done a lot to keep it running through the years, especially with starter motor and carburetor work. I'm also working on a 1993 Suzuki QuadRunner 300 for a friend. Seems original carb was MIA so he bought one online, put a 120 main jet in and then asked if I could help - still running bad. So I'm here asking if anyone has the specs for idle screw turns, float height and valve adjustment specs. Looking to download the service manual soon from here when I'm able to. I've cleaned out the carb and reassembled it, it had some assembly errors, and so far got it to start and idle fairly well, bit unstable, and it drives good but tends to stumble when starting out with light throttle, and then when releasing the throttle sometimes it dies. Think I'm getting close to having it dialed in. Also have to look at the rear brakes, pedal goes through the floor and no braking at all. Everything else appears pretty good, even the speedometer works. Thanks in advance to everyone, cheers!~ Bellarmine