JustRandy

Yep 4wd suburban is exactly what I wanted. Been talking about it for years. Not sure how important it is now though. Have to see where the next chapter of life goes. That hole in the frame in the picture is where I put the funnel to add oil to the engine. Just take the intake valve cap off and put the funnel there.

I have 6 lights on the front and one on the back. It lights up the entire woods lol. Oh and a dashlight. Definitely a UFO lol The front brakes ain't the best but they help slow it down some. I think I remember rebuilding a steering box before. Maybe the hardest part was getting the gunk off it lol. I'd go the $60 route. I'm sure you can handle it. Autozone has online service manuals. I've always wanted a suburban. One of these days maybe.

Just thought I'd mention that I used those little buffing wheels to clean my fishing reel. It wouldn't cast. I tried oiling it and replacing the line but still wouldn't cast. Then I noticed little worn spots that was snagging the line so I hit them with the buffing wheel and it casts like new.

I'm not sure what constitutes a mechanic if facts are merely opinions. Anyone can identify as a mechanic and take people's money. Mechanics and professionals in general typically have the reputation of politicians for being unable to fix issues while charging way too much. I myself have fixed things the wrong way and have been paid and celebrated for fixing it, but it was still wrong. Just because I get paid and have happy customers doesn't mean I'm a good mechanic. Being a good mechanic is an on-going learning process in my opinion. Anyone who thinks they know it all is to be avoided. Times change and accepted practices change and you have to keep up with changes. I couldn't tell you how many times I lapped a new valve into an old seat and everyone thought I was a great mechanic. Then a year or so later the failure was blamed on a bad air filter or something. No one ever questioned my workmanship even though they should have. How were they supposed to know? It takes a good mechanic to know a bad one. That quad that we flipped we just broke even on cost just to get rid of it. But there would have been no way anyone would have paid the necessary money to have us fix it right by replacing that rod bearing. That job would not have been worth it. So it's better to scrap the quad and start with something else. But generally speaking I'd prefer to fix old things than buy new because usually the new things are crappy quality. It just depends on what we're talking about. We're just talking I think. Pretty civil so far. That's good news. They are fairly durable machines. The weak links are the intake valve and regulator. And speedo cable. There are mods you can do to get the front diff locked in any range. I forgot how but I know it's possible. Also a mod to start in any gear.

I bought a basket of internal parts for a 230 back in 2007 ish with the intention to replace the 4th gear, but ended up replacing the 230 with a 250 engine instead, and the 250 already has the 4th gear fixed. That was the same time I was going to send the crank to Vince. After 15 years there's no hope that engine will ever go back together lol. But I'm sure I still have the crank. I could see how tight the fit is. It's just hard to imagine that it could balance itself. I understand that people upsell themselves to make money but I talked to Vince 2 hours and didn't get that impression. He seemed about like Mech: a dude that just wanted to help people. You could probably call him now and see what he has to say about all this. But regardless I'm not going to go to all the trouble to pull an engine, split the case, split the crank and buy all the parts to replace a rod bearing. And if the rod bearing is shot then other things are probably worn too. If the rod bearing is shot then the whole quad is a money pit. That was the main point of all this. Alternatively if I'm building a racer then I would send the crank off anyway just to be sure it's done right. It doesn't cost that much. I think it's only $50 plus the parts and shipping.

I don't have enough experience with cranks to judge what you're saying but Vince is MrCrankshaft and rebuilding cranks is his bread n butter. And what he says makes sense and explains the vibration that kept my motor mounts coming loose. And if cranks will naturally realign themselves then why do they weld cranks? It seems plausible to me that if one side of the crank suddenly stops from a shock through the driveline then the other side could twist around the pin. And it doesn't seem plausible that the two sides would naturally realign themselves back into balance unless the fit were too loose in the first place. Because if it took a big shock to move it out of balance then merely revving wouldn't be expected to fix it. I just guessing but maybe your method of splitting the crank causes the holes to wallow out leaving the pin loose enough for the crank to balance itself. But if that is true then any shock would knock it out of balance. The back n forth in and out of balance would wear the crank pin and holes. Maybe that setup is good enough to ride around on for years with minimal driveline shocks, but maybe not for hard riding on rocky mountain trails.

That's interesting. Thanks. I don't know much about it. Just going off what Vince at Vince Cycles told me. http://www.mrcrankshaft.com/ I was going to send my crank to him for a longer rod and welding. He said if the engine is revving and the wheels hit something solid the crank twists on the pressed-in bearing which causes the weird vibrations I had, so to prevent that he welds them in place. Right after that I upgraded to the 250S engine and never pursued it. But splitting the case is more than most people want to do, then having to split the crank and press it back together is often more work than what a quad is worth. I'd do it for a something I was racing or something special like that, but not something to flip for money.

A lot of people use lights and heaters so I thought it had something to do with temperature but it seems to me more to do with with day length like the trees and flowers that are blooming already. And the geese always lay in January when it's the coldest. I've hatched a couple geese before. Temperature controls what sex they are.

That cam doesn't lose anything on the bottom end. I tried 3 cams in one day right after each other so I could really tell. I did donuts continuously (got really dizzy lol) in order to evaluate how low the rpms could go and still throw dirt. The 250S cam could pull a higher gear than the 230S and one of the 4x4 cams. The 250 cam could go higher and lower than the other cams. So I thought "well wtf is the 4x4 cam for then?" I have the specs for the cams written down somewhere. I'll try to find them and post them when I get some time. I don't know much about chickens but I've had ducks and geese for 10 years and had to switch from Dumour to Purina because a duck laid an egg with no shell. Haven't had problems since switching to Purina. I recently got 1 chicken hen and it laid 7 eggs before stopping for the winter. Then I was surprised to see it started laying again a week ago even though it's not really that warm yet. I have no clue as to why. I don't use lights or heaters. But I feed all my birds a mix of dog food, cracked corn, and layer feed pellets. They like the dog food best. The backyard chickens forum people fight with me about feeding them dogfood but I've been doing it since 2014 and all my birds look young still. My philosophy is animals know best what is good for them. The forum people don't like hearing that. I always pull a side cover off so I can rock the crankshaft back n forth by hand looking for any slop in the big end rod bearing. If there is any slop there the motor is junk. You'd have to split the case and send the crank off to be split and new rod installed and welded. It's not worth it. Me and a buddy learned our lesson about buying a cheap quad to fix up and ended up having a bad rod bearing. We fixed it up and sold it cheap just to get our money back but we didn't feel good about it. Now if any quad is questionable I always check the rod bearings first thing.

Yeah that does look in good shape. It's a 250S cam. Suzuki took the 230S and modded it beyond what anyone else could have done. They made the intake valve bigger, made the exhaust header a straight shot from the head, increase the rod end 17mm from 16mm, added a 7th clutch plate, fixed the 4th gear issue, nice shocks all around, wider axle, and bored it from 229cc to 246cc. So you can imagine the thought they put into that cam. In the 80s Suzuki was getting their butt kicked by Honda's 250X and the 250S was the answer they came up with. Not sure why they only made it 2 years (89 and 90). That cam is a rare find. The only place I know of that still has some on the shelf is in Japan. Looks like you're not sweating the egg prices lol

My operations research professor told the class to never help people unless they're paying. That's the best advice I never followed. The info is out there if you have ambition to find it and sense to know opinion from demonstrable fact. No more freebies from me.

Nice bike! Ever since I nearly killed myself on a mountain road I quit those things lol. I don't trust myself. If a machine has the power I'm probably gonna use it. I use those buffers all the time. Just a couple weeks ago I used one to polish the armature on my starter before installing new brushes. Makes short work of it. Shines it up like new. They work good for shining up the exhaust ports on heads. Stick one in a wheel cylinder for 5 seconds and will look like new. You might be able to shop around to find them cheaper. And it's hard to tell the difference in grit so you don't need all the colors. Might be able to find a box for 5 bucks.

Yeah they cost money but one set lasts a lifetime and they come in handy for a lot of things. But yeah you could use polishing compound. I've found brasso works best because it has an acid in it that helps. I've shined pistons to a mirror finish before but it didn't help with carbon deposits. Oh well live n learn lol.

These are nice https://www.amazon.com/AUSTOR-Pieces-Abrasive-Buffing-Polishing/dp/B07NKRD2S4 Might be able to squeeze one in the wheel cylinder.

Sometimes you can hone and rebuild wheel cylinders. Sometimes they just need cleaned up. https://www.ebay.com/itm/155209517497 I don't have much experience with stuck chokes but what comes to mind when things are stuck is to use compressed air or a grease gun to force it out if you can get it fitted somehow. Aluminum expands quite a bit when heated so you could try that too. I used to toss cylinder jugs in a fire and after a while the sleeves would fall out.

And watch out for those desperately trying to be what they are not, lest ye become angry.

If I had come on here asking about oil and someone leveraged their post count/reputation to convince me to use the wrong oil I'd be pissed after discovering the truth and then having to tear it back down and clean/replace clutch plates at my own expense. If I had come on here with engine problems and was advised to lap a new valve into an old seat and then the new valve failed, requiring me to tear it back down and do it right at my own expense, I'd be pissed. Same with expensive lithium batteries. And the guy with the bad regulator Mech had him chasing his tail wasting money on new CDIs and who know what all would have happened if I didn't come along telling him about the known issue with regulators. Then, rather than thanking me for expanding his knowledge base, he spent the rest of the thread arguing with me about further "tests" without specifying what tests. He just wanted to argue because he can't stand being wrong about anything. Now you suggest his consistent bad advice should be condoned because getting along is more important? "Feels" over "Facts"? If bad advice is sanctioned on the basis of differing opinions then I don't know what the purpose of the forum is. We may as well talk about sports where opinions are opinions rather than demonstrable facts and let people solve their own mechanical problems because no advice is better than bad advice.

I'd rather argue with someone who knows nothing because at least they can learn, but someone who knows everything is impossible to teach. Your brand of "help" is a menace to the community. You advise using the wrong oil, you advise mistreating lithium batteries, you advise valve lapping procedures that were antiquated long ago, and you routinely clutter threads arguing with manufacturer recommendations, service manuals, published research from respected engineering journals, and basic common sense with no substantiation other than "believe me because I'm old." You need a babysitter to follow you around being sure you don't wreck everyone's machines with your inability to admit that you don't know something.

That is not necessarily true. The wrong oil can run better in a clutch pack with tighter springs or different fiber composite or different riding style leading to a false sense of security with the choice of oil. That's like saying if ATF type F runs fine in a ford then it will run fine in a GM or BMW or anything with a wet clutch. Why do you think there are so many types of ATF? I don't know how you conclude that. Clutches will slip in higher gears because the power exceeds the friction in the plates. Shift to lower gear and the problem goes away because the gearing isn't sufficient to present a load greater than the friction of the plates. I can make a perfectly good clutch slip simply by gunning it right after I shift into a higher gear but before I let off the shifter. And measuring how long it takes to lock up gives me an idea of how good the clutch is. Without a certification I don't know how anyone is expected to know anything about the oil. One would have to send it off to be tested.

JASO MA is basically oil without the friction modifiers invented recently. So it's basically the old oil you're referencing. JASO MA is a way of avoiding the new stuff. Same goes for the SF that I use. Says on the bottle "1988 and earlier". That means it's your clutch pack and not the centrifugal clutch. That means either your engine is low on oil, or your clutch isn't adjusted right, or your oil is too slippery, or your clutch disks are too worn. Check the oil level. I know it's not easy with that sight glass. Sometimes it helps to jack up one side of the atv until you can see a line of oil. Be sure the oil level is right before going to the trouble of tearing the engine apart. If the oil level is ok and you're sure the clutch is adjusted right then you may as well order some clutch disks and springs. Soak the fiber disks in the correct oil at least overnight. I'd go to thumpertalk and ask which oil they use. There are more people there. The oil I use isn't available anymore and Mech doesn't know what he's talking about. I'd want at least 2 guys to agree on the same recommendation and there's not enough people here for that. Or you could just buy the expensive stuff that says ATV on the bottle. For example https://www.walmart.com/ip/Valvoline-4-Stroke-ATV-UTV-SAE-10W-40-Motor-Oil-1-QT/19514362 Don't forget to get a new oil filter. I refill the oil through the intake valve inspection cap. It's way easier. There's a hole in the frame that will fit a long skinny funnel.

Yeah conveyor belt is even better. With the mud flaps I had to patch it together a bit because they weren't long enough.

What oil do you use for wet clutches?

Looks like that might be ok. I'm not sure what all those specifications mean though. But it does say JASO MA/MA2

Good video. Thanks for posting. The guy said he tried brake cleaner but every brand of brake cleaner has different solvents or different ratios of fillers, propellants, and solvents. Toluene is what you want and Walmart's super tech brand has the most of that according to the MSDS and from what I can tell by using it. Hate to let the secret out of the bag especially since that brake cleaner had been fairly hard to find during the pandemic, but if any chemical is going to work it would be that. But if I went to the trouble to tear it down I'd probably just buy new disks. Actually, I have a set that's been soaking in oil for the last 4 years. It turned out that the slippage was from being low on oil so I didn't need to change them yet.

That looks like where quads go after they die lol Get some semi truck mud flaps cut into strips and bolt those to the plastics. Indestructible! And they look kinda cool too. You could weld some angle iron to the front racks to cover that mangling. I did that anyway just to beef it up. I'm in no hurry on the head. It's just to throw on the shelf and hopefully I'll never need it. I guess I just want one before they can't be found anymore. I also have a terrible time keeping a speedo cable working. I've bought 2 or 3 of them and they keep breaking. Commodore 64 was my first. I ran up a $1000 phone bill calling atlanta to get on the "internet" lol. My parents were pissed!