Gwbarm

Very sorry to hear that, good your up walking thats the besst medicine, keep moving. Look forward to working with you on your project, keep us informed on your progress.

Good Idea! Especially for young inexpierienced riders.

Good for you! Maintenance is the key to keeping them running for decades.

Thats great you got it going so easily, welcome,i think you will enjoy the site, any problems we are here to help. Bear tracker is a nice tough little quad easy to ride. I am also a motorcycle guy , as i have gotten older been doing more collecting and restoring than riding.

Try some fuel injector or throttle body cleaner .

I think 8 year old is probably a good age, 4 a little young.

Good eye Mech, i had to look for it. It does say OEM but from reading the reviews i dont think they are, not bad reviews, just the way some were worded, like they were surprized they fit perfectly.

Good you got it fixed, my guess would be the fuel injector, just removing it and reseating it , no reason that should work, but it has worked for me on several occasions.

I think i would, while you are in there, it would be good to go ahead and replace it, it is approaching 20 yrs old. I think aftermarket bearings are fine i havent had any problems with them, just make sure you pack them really good with grease upon installation.

Welcome! From the sound of your post you are in the right place good friendly people here always willing to help.

It sounds like your son is multi talented, mechanical and literary , writing is a talent . You did a good job teaching him.

When im doing testing like that i usually use a lawn and garden battery strapped to the bike so it doesnt run down so quick. If you have a battery jumper pack you can use that, just anything that has more than 4 AH.

Good advise, doing that many, you know all the tricks! Thanks !

Yeah you have covered the bases , so it still won’t fire at the plug or just won’t start.

I have had to squeeze the c ring together oposite the open it to get it started, once you get it started it will slide on in and pop into place.

Agree! Not the most fun thing i have ever done, but just take your time and it will eventually come together.

Thanks for that beast, the bike is a few hrs away and i havent found time to diagnose but i will get to it.

Thats great news. Glad you got it sorted out without having to replace the harness.

Definately not right for the 2002.

Ageed, do what Mech said

Thats a great story Mech, thanks for sharing. Roots are important thats for sure, coincidence, destiny, or just a sense of being in the right place, who knows, but you made it home and as a young man, your children will always remember this as their home. The beach sounds nice and it would be for a while, but you can only fish so much, anything gets repetitive after a while, then you will be ready to go home and work on some quads. I have lived where i am now for 30 years, longer than i have ever lived anywhere, but my fathers place will always be home, we have been there since the 60s, very fond memories of working on all our old cars and the rice burners we rode in those days with him, you never knew what he would bring home next for us to work on. I will keep it as long as i live, too many memories, some things are worth more than money. I am from an old family also there is me, i have a brother, and one cousin, my brother and cousin have no children, mine are all girls, kind of sad, but the family name dies with us.

Thanks Mech! I knew you would know, i have not worked on this one much. This was actually my fathers, he bought it in 1988 to ride my kids around through the woods when they were litlle. He died a few years back, we still maintain his place and acerage and the quad is still there. My brother just called and said he couldnt get it going, he actually lives in California, we double team taking care of the place. i havent really been around it enough lately to keep it maintained, and my brother, he expects to turn the key and it crank, if it doent hes done with it, no mechanical skills whatsoever. So im going down to help him with it. I suspect as you said the battery is weak and thats why it wont start, but it has always made that clunking noise on starting it sounds like something is breaking in there and then it starts and runs flawlessly, in all these years the carb has never been replaced or even cleaned to my knowledge.

I have a 1987 TRX 250, it has been very reliable except for this starting issue. I have replaced the starter and gears numerous times and still having problems. I think the last time was maybe 2 years ago and this Quad is used very little. Starter works fine, when you go to start it it goes clunk, clunk, clunk, blah and usually starts. If it doesnt start after blah, it not going too. Like i said earlier, last time i replaced the starter and gears and virtually no change except it would start everytime, but it always sounds like something broke right before it starts. Just wondering if anyone else has this problem with the 250. One other note, the kickstarter does not work, and never has as long as i have owned it, could that have anything to do with it.

Fuseable links, dont you just love them! I would suspect that the one with 4 wires is the bad one, there are generic fuseable links available. I would definately try to repair your existing wiring harness even if you have to run a wire to the fuse box and use a conventional fuse, there should be an empty slot available. I understand, i like my stuff factry also, but when it comes to replacing the entire harness i may opt out and repair it.

I do remember on one of the newer models there is an access panel under the drivers seat for access to the engine, they were some fuses there.