Installing The Engine Back Into The Frame.

Mitch and I had a very busy weekend! After the football practice, Mitch and I stopped at Weinersnitzel and bought a couple corn dogs to hold us over, then went straight to the garage to work on the 225!

The first thing we did was load up the quad and engine into the back of the truck and headed down to the car wash. Five bucks later all the grease was off and ready for the wire brushes. After unloading everything and getting the motor brushed and the frame scrubbed and wiped clean we were ready to put the engine in the frame.

The engine is mounted in the frame on the left hand side.

Verify the driveline boot is secured on the rear end side. Lift the engine and place it into the frame drive shaft first. Line up the drive shaft and the cross joint, working the engine in and back until the drive shaft and cross joint mesh. Lift the engine into the rear motor mount and slide the long bolt in. Next, secure the mounts that attach to the head. Third attach the mounts to the front of the engine and last the rear top mount. After you have the bolts inserted in all the mounts you can tighten all the mounts and attach the drive line boot.

Insert the starter motor and secure it. Attach the reverse indicator wire, neutral wire, and any other breather hoses and wires. This is a good time to install the carburetor and airbox. Verify all your cables are in the correct location and install your gas tank. Install the front fenders, and top cover. Install the handlebars and plug everything in. Install your battery, and verify everything lights up appropriately. Install the rear fenders and put the seat on.

Put 1.5 liters of oil in the engine. I like to pull the spark plug on a dry engine and then crank it for thirty seconds to allow the oil pump to fill the journals full of oil before I start it the first time. Install the spark plug and fill the gas tank. Turn on the fuel cock and allow the bowl of the carburetor to fill. Crank it over and wallah! Mine started right up. I had to adjust the clutch a little and off I went for a test drive. The gears feel good! No noise or strange sounds coming from the transmission! The only problem is that when accelerating the quad cuts out quite bad. My guess is the o-ring on the carburetor that I decided not to change out. I imagine it is sucking air under load. I guess I will get that ordered tonight.

Sub-Transmission Fixed!

The gears finally arrived from Canada yesterday and everything looks good! (Thanks eBay). It took me a while to remove the damaged circlip from the end of the Counter axle but finally was able to remove the circlip and the damaged gear. I cleaned and lubricated the new High wheel gear and placed it on the axle and secured it with a new circlip. With a few taps I was able to synch the new gear in with the High pinion gear and drive gear. I started assembling the other gears into the sub-transmission and noticed the reverse gear had also sustained damage. Luckily that gear had come with my Canada package.
I applied a thin layer of gasket maker and tapped the cover into place. I turned the drive shaft and everything felt smooth as silk. Problem fixed!

Waiting.....

Still waiting for those Canadian gears.... While waiting I decided to put the case back together from checking everything out. It took me a while to put the segment back on the shift cam. I had messed up the pins and had to figure that out by running through the gears a couple times. With the segment installed I was able to install the shift shaft and oil pump. I installed the oil pump gear on the crank and with the new gasket, installed the crankcase spacer. I was able to install the clutches quite easily and buttoned everything up with new lock washers. Just as I was about to put the engine cover on I noticed the compression spring for the clutch was missing. After looking for thirty minutes the spring could not be found and so the cover could not go on, grrrrr! the spring has been ordered and I am back to waiting......

More Trouble

I went down to the Yamaha shop a couple of days ago and picked up a new set of bearings. I was excited to get the transmission buckled back up so I put the new seals in and tapped the bearings into the holes and put the pinion and gears back in the sub-transmission. As I turned the drive shaft it feels tight but it does not sound too good. I looked everything over and tapped the cover back onto the gears. I turned the drive shaft and.... yuck. It won't turn and when I force it it sounds like I am grinding coffee. So what is the problem? Taking a closer look at the main high speed gear. There is just enough damage so that the gears don't mesh, and of course I did not mark the gears when I pulled them out so the damaged teeth are not matched to the damaged teeth on the other two gears. Well $@#$..... I guess it is time to buy new gears.

I searched the internet high and low and finally found gears for sale from a dealer back East. I clicked the "checkout" and got the gears on the way, I thought. The dealership called me on Monday and told me "the gear is not made anymore and we will refund your money".

On to Ebay. I found a scrap yard up in Canada that was selling the guts to the sub-transmission for $100. After some negotiation I was able to get them for $50. They should be here in a couple days, I hope.