Mech

Yeah.. be safe.. and don't do those silly things.. I normally tell my sons, "have fun. but don't get caught". I'll have to change it to "have fun. but don't get hurt"..

Regarding the noises.. You can deduce a lot by taking note of the circumstances when it makes noises, like under load only, or not under load but only when floating, or both, and whether it's better or worse when cold, or hot, or always there, and how long the noise lasts from cold if that is the case. It's good to try all the load tests while it's cold and then when it's hot. It's harder to do on quads with centrifugal clutches but on manual clutches you can tell if it's gearbox by pulling the clutch, and you can load them up o the spot using the clutch, which is way better than trying to lean over the side as you drive along on a quad.. haha. The video didn't sound too noisy to me for the distance the phone was away.. There were a couple of what seemed like intermittent clack sounds, but nothing too serious. I'd do another oil change and then ride it getting used to it and testing things out... As I'm sure you are going to do.

Eek ! That's nasty Gw.. Better out than in. They must hold a bit hidden in the oil cooler and places huh.. Glad to hear it's running great, and it looks good too mate.. well done.

There should be a bung to take out so you can turn the crank with a socket.. That makes it easier to find.

Well done.. Glad you got it figured..

I think they say to remove the back plastics, but I've always managed with everything in place, but I don't use feeler gauges.. Because the end of the valve gets worn into a dish it's not accurate to use a feeler gauge to set the clearance. It's better to use a dial gauge on the rocker, or calculate with feelers how far one turn of the adjustment screw adjusts the clearance, and then calculate how much of a turn of the screw it's going to need to give the correct clearance when backing off from zero clearance, or, you can set them by ear with a bit of trial and error as you get the hang of what the different clearances sound and feel like. With a bike of that age, with a bit of wear everywhere, I'd ignore the book setting and just adjust then smaller and smaller till they stayed quiet after a run. I have found that those things, if the clearance is a bit too much, keep getting out of adjustment quick and get noisier. Once they are down to a close clearance somewhere near the book setting they don't get out of adjustment again in a hurry. A valve with two thou clearance, if you lift the rocker and then slam it down as hard as you can in that confined space, and through that small distance, will make a tiny muffled click that is just audible, and will be barely feelable as a tiny travel if you have one side of a finger on the rocker, and the other side of your finger resting on the cover. A valve set to four thou will make an easily heard, and clear, click, and that travel is fairly easy to feel even without a finger spanning the gap between rocker and cover. These are all matters of perception though, and experience is important, so try adjusting them with feelers, then check it audibly and for play as suggested, then run it and see if it gets noisy again after a half hour or more, in which case re-adjust them a bit tighter, and always do all three checks, feelers, audial and feeling for play.

Ha.. He asked for a remove and overhaul quote, and they started straight off suggesting they would fit a new starter.. if one was available. They didn't want to job.. And yeah Gooey, we're not so pedantic about motor/engine here in NZ.. Sorry about that.

It sounds like a big drain to me, and if it doesn't make a big spark when you connect the battery lead, then the drain/short must be something controlled by the key. I'd pull all the fuses, and disconnect the voltage regulator, then turn the key on and watch the battery voltage if you have a volt gauge. If the voltage stays stable after a few seconds then I'd start refitting fuses and the regulator one at a time checking for a sudden voltage drop. If you have an amp gauge, you could disconnect a battery cable and fit the amp gauge in line and then start trying connecting things looking for a big drain.

View File 2001 Polaris Trail Boss 325 Service Manual 2001 Polaris Trail Boss 325 Submitter Mech Submitted 05/15/2023 Category Polaris ATV  

There are several service manuals on this site.. They will have all the info you need. Save us a lot of typing..

The manual I was looking in was for 2009-2011.. What does your book say the codes indicate ? Yeah intermittent is annoying alright. Intermittent probably means it is a wiring problem though.. more so than an electronic problem.. hopefully. Have you tried leaving it running and then going all over it wiggling the wiring hoping to cause the problem ? You need to be watching the dash while you are doing it to detect which bit of wire it is.. You could also start running a hose over electrical connectors.. Wires get bad connections where the wires crimp into the metal terminals, and they get dirty connections where the terminal contacts the unit, then get breaks, mostly near their ends, and they chafe the insulation and short to the frame. All those faults can cause intermittent problems.. The dirty/corroded crimp/connections can be effected by moisture..

Morning. I'd missed that earlier post with the diagram. That washer and the one next to it work together to stop that gear 21 and 23 from moving length-ways. They are all cross cut gears though and there really isn't much end thrust; the washers are not doing much. I'm a bit dubious about them alone being the cause.. Once the gear is engaged, the roller should only be being touched if the gear had slid along the shaft a little, but it won't be pressing hard against it, or causing any chattering that could fatigue it.. I don't think anyway.. I'm presuming that the fork goes on part 20 ? I'd check that (20) fit on it's hub, part 21. I'd be checking it can't rock and allow that wear in the arch of the fork. I'd also check the fit of gear 22 on it's hub 23 looking for the same wear that would allow it to rock on it's bush 23. I think that either of those, if they could and were leaning slightly, as they would be to touch the fork, could and would chatter because of the three engaging dogs on part 20. If 20 was leaning over slightly, or gear 22 was leaning over slightly, then as the shaft and gears rotated the three dogs would force it, with some force, to keep trying to lean the other way once every 180 degrees of rotation. That force could chatter and break a roller..

When you are pulling that barrel off, lift it a little, then, before the piston comes out, wrap clean rags around the con rod blocking the hole into the crank.. If there's bits of broken ring in there you don't want then dropping into the sump.. complicating things..

haha.. Ya gotta have fun.

We do compression tests all the time without worrying about the fuel, not on old machines anyway.. You're right about the blackness and the wet look, but all those little bumps of burnt oil didn't get on there in a hurry I don't think.. If it was mine I'd keep riding it because oil's cheap and I'd hope to leave it till it was time to do some other work. But, it's been for a few rides and seems to me it's probably not going to get much better, so if Rambler is wanting it good I think a set of rings and valve guides is what's needed. The rest of it seems ok eh Rambler ? Gears and clutches seem ok, drive line and chassis is worth it ?

The only reason I could think of for it breaking was that the pin might have been worn so the roller was being distorted, but a new fork should have cured that after the first roller break. So that idea's out. And I've seen loose rollers.. I wouldn't expect the fork would get twisted in service. I doubt the few small bits of broken roller would cause that wear and roughness on the end of the fork though either. Have you found any other damage, or much metal in the oil ? Have you done a google search to see if it's a known issue with them ? The other thing is the fork's end looks rough and worn, and should not be touching up in the center of the arch like that.. That seems suspicious given the problem's on that fork.. Even if there is chattering and perhaps some hard shifting issue that loads the roller up a bit more than intended, it still seems strange that it would break twice. I've been overhauling hondas since 1972 (and all the jap makes), and I've only ever found one or two of those broken. What gears does this shift, or is it a dog it's moving, that is probably important ? Is the shift barrel showing any signs of wear or damage ? Does the gear(if it is a gear) fit on it's shaft nicely ? If the gear was a loose fit on the shaft it could wobble that could cause the wear and the breakage. Then, if there's nothing over loading the roller, or distorting it, then it comes back to your original question about chatter, and fatigue.. Perhaps assemble the gears and all into one case and turn the shafts gently watching for chatter or wobble. Check the bearings for clicks or bumps. Put the second case on and check the endfloats, including in the shift barrel.

The wires may have breaks in them. Wires mostly break right near the end where they go into the metal terminal. You can sometimes detect it by gently flexing the wires one at a time and seeing they feel right.. In this case though it would be better to use an ohm gauge first to test each wire from end to end.. I had a look at the codes and got the power relay for the 14 codes, and the 18 codes seemed to relate to the motor current, or it's current detector circuitry inside the ecu.. Both problems had test/check procedures I saw.. but didn't read. I suppose you have checked the power relay ? It would stop any current for the motor, and the ecu would think that was a problem.. problem 18 possibly.

Yeah there's something wrong in there.. The forks have a bit built up on their ends so they only contact the gears at opposite sides of the diameter, so the gear will slide nicely. If we tried to slide a gear along by pushing only on one side of it, it would try and jamb on the shaft and not slide. That fork that's touching the gear up in it's arch, shouldn't be. That fork may be twisted.. the wear looks worse on one arm of the fork.. Where's that eagle eyed Parms..

I wouldn't worry about the fuel that gets drawn during the compression test, that always happens and causes no problems. I would definitely run the motor till it was warm to get the marvel stuff out. It's best to do a compression test with the engine warm anyway. The plug sure looks like it's burning oil, I think I even got a whiff of burnt oil from here.. It's entirely possible that the compression rings, and compression, can be fine, but an engine still burns oil because the oil rings are gummed up and stuck in their grooves. Likewise, an engine can have broken compression rings yet the oil rings be fine and so despite low compression they have no smoke or oil burning. In the normal run of things both set of rings wear out pretty much together, but there are things that go wrong that bugger up only one set of rings or the other. I think in this case I'd just pull the head and barrel and check the crank and rod for wear or damage, then fit rings and valve seals, and a piston if needed, and lap the valves and then it should last until the next set of rings when it would probably be time for an entire overhaul.. Engines will usually use a couple of sets of rings before they need a crank..

That's weird.. In fifty years of working on hundreds of bikes I've only ever seen a couple of those broken. Two is not right. Well.. I'd guess the roller should be virtually unbreakable in that situation, if it fitted nicely on the pin. The pin would support it fom being distorted no matter how chattery or loose in the shift barrel. The pin is the only thing I can see being the cause. That said.. are those shift forks blue on their ends !! ? And they are normally built up width ways so only the end of the fork touches the gear. That top gear looks like it's been touching the gear in the arched part of it. None of that should really cause the roller to break, but it does look like there is some end float or thrust issue going on there..

Yes I agree with Gw.. Don't pull it out or anything apart till you are sure as you can be what it it causing it, and what you are going to do to fix it.. I think that right side cover can be taken off in place.. The manual will say. Have you tried resting your fingers on the case as the noise happens to see if you can confirm it is something tapping the case ? If you get the service manual it will have diagrams of what is in there, or online parts places have very good diagrams.

OEM bolts are good quality, but yeah overpriced for sure from the dealer. On jap quads the bolts are chosen for a variety of properties though, some are really tough and/or have washered heads, and some are rust resist, and some are soft so they can be drilled out easily. Some have small heads for their size. Then there are the bolts with fattened shanks made to go through rubber grommets or plastics without crushing the plastic. All those sorts of bolts are used on jap cars as well, which is why the big box of bolts from the wreckers is so good.. There's always the special bolt you need in there. My local wreckers throw bigger bolts and smaller bolts(and nuts), into separate boxes. They're happy if they get scrap steel price for the box.. I give them more. Big boxes of nuts and bolts are good to have.. People come here for bolts because they are so dear to buy from the engineers or OEM. The best thing for me as a mechanic though is being able to grab the right spec bolt for the job when I need it without having to ordering that special "part" form the dealer.

Ok that second explanation about the noise is much more helpful. Does it make the noise if the engine isn't running ? Forums are great if you get someone that has had the exact symptom before, or if there is some common problem with a model, but other than that we have to try and figure the problem by doing tests and noting the results and then following through a flow chart to isolate the thing, and hopefully the only thing, that could be causing it. There is a shift lever operated clutch linkage over in the right side case. If you take the bung out to check the clutch adjustment you might see something looking too close to the cover, and while you are there you could check the clutch adjustment. You should check the circlip Gw is suggesting too. You could try videoing down by the right case and talking us through exactly what stage of moving the lever you at as the noise happens.. If I was there and could hear and see it I could probably make an educated guess about what was happening, but from this distance we really are dependent on you taking careful note of the small details and reporting everything you notice to us.. Does the shift lever move smoothly and freely, does it have end float, does the noise happen every single downshift, is there any similar noises upshifting, at what stage of the lever travel does the noise occur, can you feel anything tapping on the right case if you rest your fingers on it ?

There should be two fuses protecting the lighing circuit.. I'd be exploring why they didn't do their job. I doubt the new fitting caused the burn up. You don't say where the smoke was coming from, handlebar switches, main switch area, down by the headlight.. Can you tell what colour the melted wires were ? If you peel off the insulation you should be able to see that.