Mech

The guys around here that like them, like them because of their suspension and ride.

Gidday Aus. Kiwi here.. Far north.. of NZ.

Fingers crossed...

If you want sporty, don't buy anything with a belt drive. They don't have the wide gear ratio range the manual five speeds have, and the centrifugal clutches are set up for flat land. If you get on a decent slope they struggle to get going. With the manual foot shifts, you can hold the shift lever up or down with your toe, rev the engine, then use the shift lever as a clutch lever to pop you over a log or get moving on a big hill.

Did it build up pressure ? Is it leaking ? An exhaust leak was only one possibility for fumes in the cab. Unless it has a leak that makes a hissing sound when you have a rag blocking the exhaust, it's not likely to leak any amount of fumes under normal driving, not at least, unless the muffler or exhaust is partially blocked.

Overall good condition is what you want. On quads the engines mostly go for years, but the suspension, brakes, wheel bearings and drive shafts get worn out and abused in water and mud, and if you start doing all that stuff up it can cost more than doing an engine up. Frames rust too some times and that can pretty much write the bike off. Advice is free.. If you get a bike Gw and I can probably talk you through repairs. There are service manuals in here for free download.

I don't know much about yamaha, they aren't real popular around here, not because there is anything wrong with them, but because farmers like suzuki on the hills, and honda on the dairy farms and beaches. I think yamaha are pretty good though. Their two wheelers are good. The only jap bike I wouldn't buy would be a kawasaki, based on their two wheelers, which are made far too cheap and disposable. I wouldn't know much about prices over there either, but a warrior sounds like a bit of fun for recreational riding. Gw probably has more experience with yamaha I think..

Yeah, I'd rather buy an original bike that was running bad and needed an overhaul, than buy something with a history of people modifying things and doing bad repairs. It's just a can of worms.

Well this bike, it sounds to me, has been owned by two "tutu" fellahs. Tutu is an indigenous word meaning "play around". I don't think either of them knew what they were doing, but did stuff anyway. Bikes like that can turn into a long run of frustration.

For that matter, the engines are designed to the umpteenth degree, and they are perfectly set up for the bikes design, it's intended use, and it's inherent limitations. People that try to improve on the design, mostly just compromise the machine. I think, that unless you are competent as a mechanic, it might be best to stay away from this bike. Just buy yourself a nice reliable quad, and if you think you need one that goes well, buy a sport quad, not a workhorse, they're too heavy to ever perform like a sport model, their transmissions aren't suited to sport use.

I'd be a bit worried about this " redid the wiring harness". I doubt that's the problem since it has spark, but I'd want to know what he'd done, and why he did that and whether it had actually fixed any problem. He might have made more problems that he cured. These wiring looms, like everything on the bike, are designed to the umpteenth degree. Every tiny detail and aspect of the wiring loom is critical to it's operation and the reliability of the bike.

Has it run since the engine work and the hot cam ? If it has run, when did they discover it wouldn't run, like, did it break down on a ride, or was it turned off and then not start after an hour, or did it get parked at home and then wouldn't start again the next day, or was it parked up for two years and now won't go ? If you want to get it going, you should make sure it has compression, fresh gas, a new sparkplug, and then try starting it. If it doesn't start you pull the spark plug and see whether it's wet or dry, and you go from there..

Haha.. It caught my eye.. It actually looks like I could edit it still.. Lots of sites you only get a short time to edit, like minutes sometimes. Good site this.

Yeah, or just take it off and go for a quick fang.. Well that's what I'd do.

Advice.. Not advise.. haha.

#7 Excellent advise Gw. Get it running and check the gears and as much of the running gear as you can, even if it is up on blocks. You can put a small load on it, and test the brakes and driveshafts at the same time... by applying the brakes. If it has no wheels don't try changing gears at speed, let it stop and then change up. Jury rig a fuel tank if need be.

Ha yeah well five minutes later it started raining.. So that was off. I have just bought a new rope, and I tie on not hold on. I've also just bought(concession to[old] age) two modern rope clamps that work like ratchets up the rope. So much better than my old sliding knots.. haha.

Yeah a blocked exhaust will cause power loss alright.

If it's got 150Lb of compression like you say, it should run ok.

Get a cotton rag and have someone hold it hard against the exit of the exhaust, while it's idling, till it starts to build up pressure, and you look and feel with your hand for exhaust leaks which should show up easily with the pressure. Sometime doing something like putting a spray of water or a gas torch near where you suspect a leak will show it up if it's too hot to put your hand near. If the exhaust is sound the engine will probably die, but if it doesn't die it should build up enough pressure to make it hard to seal the exhaust with the rag. If no pressure builds up, you have a really big leak and it may not puff out noisily so you need to check better. Also, some exhausts if they don't poke out enough from the body can allow gases to be drawn up the back of the vehicle and into the cab. Sometimes adding a six inch extension helps.. Probably not the case here but might make a difference if gases were getting caught under the body somehow at slow speeds.

All good Brother. Most jap machines actually come apart fairly easy. Sometimes we have to pull some body or other auxiliary bits away, but then things mostly come out pretty nicely.. Not that I've worked on one of those. But I'd do as you are and spend a bit of time contemplating which way is going to give the full access. Nothing surer than us thinking it might just slide through the gap.. and then finding we're moving it the wrong direction entirely.. haha. And yeah, your idea about it not producing it's own power like it should does make sense, that combined with a capacitor in there could explain it to a degree. I'm still stumped about needing the wire back attached again.. That doesn't make sense. See in the wiring diagram on the coil there is a rectangular box shown in the primary circuit, well in electronic diagrams they use a box like that to represent an integrated circuit. That could have a whole bunch of electronics built into that chip. Since it sparks a bit then the secondary windings are ok, and if it's getting triggered at the right time then I'd assume the primary windings are also ok, and since it's almost certainly the primary windings that produce the power to run the chip there should be the power there, an open circuit shouldn't/wouldn't come right by putting 12v in, and so it really only really leaves an internal open circuit or a faulty component inside the chip(resistor, capacitor,transistor etc). I think.. But... Weak magnets can cause problems.. Rare these days because we have better magnet materials, but flywheels that sat unused, or worse still removed without a keeper across the magnets used to get weak and then the charging got weak. Maybe slip a bit of steel past the magnets and make sure they are nice and strong.. Ok, that's the musing for the day.. haha. Good luck. I'm going to go throw a rope up a tree to climb up and cut branches off. That's nice and straight forwards. You can wish me luck though, I'm going to be fifteen metres up dangling off a rope wielding a chainsaw.. haha. Life in the country.

Changing tyre sizes is not as simple as it seems. If you aren't careful you will get gear/axle binding, and perhaps a badly behaving drive system/clutch if it's a belt drive model. I'd stick with yamahas very well thought out design.

And you're sure the service manual is for the right year and stuff.. The wiring diagram and the diagnostic procedure both point to a faulty coil.. Why it would do the things you are describing is hard to fathom. That kill wire should be open circuit between the wire and earth when it's disconnected from the the ignition coil, and the switch is on and all the requirements for starting and running are satisfied. I'd check it was open circuit and not earthed, and I'd perhaps leave a volt gauge on it while I tried cranking the engine.. Perhaps that combination relay does feed it a bit of voltage to start it.. It's not described in that diagnostic chart, but I'd monitor the kill wire..

Ha.. yeah thanks for that. That makes it even weirder.

#31. Yeah well that's real weird, and it's possibly as you say and you are charging a capacitor, that would sort of explain a few sparks for a while before it dies again. The spark is after you've stopped putting the 12v in right ? It's not a spark being produced while the 12v's being applied.. because.. it might be a later model with a 12v ignition.. Perhaps. If it is a magnet run ignition though, then I'd say it's crook, but I'd always want(as we both do) to confirm that somehow.. I wonder if the dealer can test it for you ?