Mech

Hi. I'm in New Zealand and we have plenty of beach sand and some truly huge sand dunes here. In beach sand two wheel drive quads do just fine, even up the dunes that have drop-offs, and, as you suggest, the slightly lighter weight does allow them to skim over the top. In the dunes two wheel drive is nicer, lighter, more nimble and fun. I've also driven two wheeled bikes (XR hondas) though in mangroves, with mud up to your nuts, and I think you really would be better off with four wheel drive there. In the soft beach sand having four wheel drive is no disadvantage, they still go everywhere, but they feel heavy and do sink in slightly, but the four wheel drive hauls them through regardless. If you are going to be going into deep mud I'd recommend the four wheel drive, and yeah, hondas are excellent and the bike that's favored by our beach dwelling crowds.

Sounds like it might be something to do with a speed sensor on the wheel, or a hub engaging component.. You could jack it up and turn one wheel at a time to try and isolate it to one wheel, and to make sure it's because of the wheels turning and not the bike moving.

Tiny flake of rust or metal bridging between the trigger coils iron core, and the flywheel magnets.. That is enough.. One single tiny slither or steel.. Or there's still something not right with the combination of cdi, stator, switches, loom... something the previous owner had changed before deciding it must be the wiring loom. You could check for a flicker of AC from the trigger.. No guarantee it will mean anything if there isn't one, because not all triggers put out power, some change their resistance instead, but if it does pulse it means it is not magnetically shorted.

The board will be sprayed with a varnish which is basically nail polish.... If you do happen to use something that damages/removes that layer you can get clear nail polish from the chemist.. That's what I've always used to seal repaired boards.. After the repair you need to seal the board, it prevents parasitic leaks, and it stops the copper corroding..

They seem to say WD40 is good.. that won't hurt things.

Well.. Google says there are lots of things to soften and/or remove hardened silicon.. Which that stuff may or may not be..

Oh I think you'll be lucky fixing that one.. I thought it must have been an exposed board.. Those are real hard to get clean enough to identify the components, and it's real easy to do damage. The professionals might have some solvent for cleaning them ?

Yeah mate, despite the glib old saying about mistakes being the best teacher, there are better ways. Instruction and hands on experience is the best way to learn in my opinion/experience.

Ha.. Good onya.. Perseverance always wins. Yeah you'd have spotted a bend or ripples in the frame if it was bent I'm sure. And don't feel bad.. mechanics stuff things up all the time.. and a lot of them are too perverse to even backtrack half way through assembly when they realise something doesn't seem right.. They'd just have told you the knuckle was bent when they took it apart for the second time after you complained about it pulling left. Thieving mongrels.. Admit doing something wrong and you have to pay, sell the customer some more work and it's more parts profit and hours booked out successfully.. It's why I was self employed since I was 21. And those cast bits, called Knuckles in the book I see, they do bend.. surprisingly. If anyone else is having the trouble, don't discount the knuckle just because it looks so solid..

It's probably the kingpin/hub.. the cast bit between the top and bottom arms.. If the frame was bent you'd probably have spotted that.

All those cdi need to know when the electric start is being used, and they do it in two different ways. Some they feed in a 12v signal by banching off the wire from the start button, and in others they run the power for the start button through the cdi and it gets earthed by the start button.. You Quadman, need the second type.. That also narrows down the number of wiring diagrams that are going to be on your bike... There are other differences in cdi and wiring too.. even withing that second type.. If you can see the circuit board Quad, you might fix it by soldering in a few new capacitors.. You'd want to check for anything overheated looking, dry solder joints, cracks in the board.. But those capacitors that leak are enough to be the whole and only fault. They used to be common years ago and were always being replaced. Capacitors are a few cents each.

Yeah, with that weld I'd just put oil in as needed and wait till it needed work..

You're probably right.. Ok.. First thing is, do those gears have marks for aligning them to the shafts ? They might. Anyway.. that gear 3 is going to turn anti-clockwise when the lever is kicked, and the big spring is going to return it clockwise till the stopper on part 10 hits it's stopper. With that shaft up against the stopper you need the gear 3 to be on shaft 1 so it's teeth are always going to be just engaged by a tooth or two, with gear 5. Gear 5 has to be on shaft 2 so when it's been returned by the big spring it's just engaged with gear 3's teeth by a tooth or two. The only other bit of trickyness is how much you should wind the big spring up by .. You need to put the spring into the shaft and then wind it up before putting part 10 on the shaft.. That might take a bit of trial and error.. It needs to be strong enough to lift the kick lever and hold it firmly up. but not run out of winds with another 3/4 turn..

Yeah it can be done(if the keepers aren't welded in), with air, or a long cord poked down the sparkplug hole and then the piston at TDC..

Haha.. You'll have to buy up some more wrecks Gw.. You just need a blown motor with good wiring and running gear.. Go on... Dare ya..

Don't know mate, but I know Yamaha cdi, wiring, wiring colours, and switchgear come in about a zillion different flavors.. They are not as easy as most jap makes to figure or adapt parts to. It would be a good idea I think to research what exact model and year and market you have before spending $300 or trying to buy a vauge as aftermarket.. The aftermarket guys will sell you anything.. Download all the 400 manuals you find in this site and compare their wiring diagram colours to your bike, then compare the plug shape and pin positions they show compared to what you have..

I think your yamaha cdi will have a lot more wires than most cheap aftermarket cdi.. Yamaha are pretty particular about having their special cdi, and we've been puzzling over them in here for quite a while.. It's really hard to identify models and which wiring they have.. If you start looking in manuals and comparing your wiring to what's shown you might have trouble finding a match..

Does it look like this ? And which part have you confused ? https://www.suzukipartshouse.com/oemparts/a/suz/50d08537f870022710159e33/kick-starter

Show us a photo and we will tell you.. Some the gear winds along a spiral and into mesh as you kick, others are as Gw says, and some the quadrant parks up out of mesh, and some have a ratchet pawl that gets held out of mesh when they park.. If you tell me the year I'll look at a parts picture and probably suss it. If you've got a model designation with it's suffixes it would be good..

Yup almost certainly the valve guide seals.. oil's cheap..

The cheaply made bikes seem a bit prone to snapping things, like gearbox shafts, and kick shafts, and it seems, crankshafts too.. In that particular case I'd suspect the radius in the corner between shaft and throw is a bit to small, and perhaps a badly balanced flywheel and it could happen. And that's ignoring the fact it's probably poor grade steel..

Have you looked in a manual ? There might be a manual in the manuals section on this site.

It might pay to measure the distance on each side between the center of the back and front wheels as well (weird sh** happens). If one front wheel is back a little it will try to veer off. And if you can block the plank up so it's near the center height of the wheels it will be more accurate.

I'd do as Gw suggested and adjust the idle speed down. That's almost certainly the problem..

This is an old post and the OP has probably already long since fixed his.. But for the record.. That low battery message is not to be worried about, it can come on any time the battery voltage gets too low, which it can apparently if you idle around or run too many accessories. The manual says to rev the engine in neutral for a few minutes. If that original posters's bike had sat for a bit the battery may have been a little low and starting it up might have momentarily dropped the voltage too low..