PettyRage

So I was able to source a rebuild kit and at least a #42 pilot a few towns over. Got it rebuilt at work today and installed it a few hours ago. It was about 55 degrees outside and it started right up at full choke. I appreciate all the help!

I'll step that up then. The mixture screw was 3 turns out, and I was able to get everything out, cleaned, and put back in. The carb is all clean and ready to go back together once I get parts. I will call a few local shops and see what's available for jets and new gaskets. I appreciate the help. I'll update once it's all back together.

So it looks like a 175 main. The fuel mixture doesn’t look terrible. We ride the dunes which is sea level, but also up in the mountains around 1,500 feet.

I'll go and pull that screw out in just a few and see what it looks like. Unfortunately, the gap was too big, there was sand down in the carb from the dunes a couple weekends ago. I hammered it all flat now and will get a new gasket set for the carb. I'll try to hit up a local shop for the jet too. I haven't pulled the main jet yet, I'll do that now.

Oh boy, things got a little hot in here lol. I appreciate all the input and feedback! So we've got a small update. We ordered a new carb and got that installed (no pics unfortunately). I made a generic LED light bar headlight for the bike. Just modified the brackets it came with to make it bolt in the same area as the factory light. Also put my Moose Racing bars on the bike, looks better with black and taller bars imo. So we finally took it out for a ride. Went to a local college parking lot. Aaand immediately knew something was off when I took off. Look down at the right rear wheel and that sucker was a' wobblin'. The axle was bent pretty bad. The bearing carrier was shot as well, tons of play. So I ordered a new axle and bearing carrier, and installed it at work. You can also see the new muffler (Caltric, doesn't fit well, and the gasket from them was worthless). Hopefully going to spring for a decent full system in the near future, but this does the job minus a leak at the pipe/muffler clamp. Going to try to upload a video of it out for it's first ride. We went to Browns Camp here in Oregon. All levels of trail difficulty, and more riding than you could do in two weekends.

It's cranking the engine over, I can feel the exhaust and you can hear it thumping. I just started stripping the carb, it has a 38 pilot jet it seems. Of course I did fail to mention, if it makes a difference, it has a stage 1 Hotcam and a 416 kit. I also noticed the top lid to the carb was all wavy/warped, letting all sorts of junk into the top of the carb....I assume the mixture screw you're referring to is the same one wheeler had mentioned? The one next to the idle screw? There's one more screw like that on the bottom of the bowl cover, idk what that does.

Yes, it will start via roll/bump start, but will just crank when trying to electric start. When it was warm, I'd just turn the key and it would fire right up. The first time it did this, I was able to give it throttle and get it to start, but it took a while. If the fuel screw you are referring to is the one next to the idle screw, it is 2 1/2 turns out from seated. The choke never seemed to do anything.

So the past two times I've gone out riding, my 400, for the life of it, won't start cold. It'll crank until the battery drains completely without ever starting. Choke on or off, it doesn't make a difference. If I give a little throttle, it'll crank faster and maybe backfire. I've also noticed my choke doesn't seem to do anything regardless, idle doesn't change etc. This past time we went riding, I had to have another rider pull me so I could roll start it in 2nd gear. It fired up and idled fine after that. It also starts without issue once it has run for a minute or two. It only started doing this recently, now that the weather is cooling down. Is there something I should be adjusting, or maybe just a carb cleaning?

I mean, I'd love to trek deep into the woods and camp, while also carrying all the things, so I'm not opposed to a utility. I tried to talk the Mrs. into a utility before the 250, but, like myself, she prefers form over function if given the choice.

If the lady ends up liking the bike and driving manual, I may just do a big bore and re-jet/300ex carb while doing the chains too. Engine work doesn't scare me, that's why I obtain the manuals and take my time. That's also how we got our super clean 2001 CR-V for $600 (cracked exhaust valve). I'm no way attached to any brand of filter, but we did get a UNI for her 250. My 400 is due for a cleaning, as we just took it to the beach/dunes. It has a filter cover, but I might just go to the UNI filter as well. I appreciate the feedback. I was thinking of painting the frame myself, as long as I got it professionally sandblasted first. I used to paint professionally in the automotive world about 8 years ago. I love painting, but hate prep work lol even though that's 99% of the paint job.

Thanks a ton! I still can't believe we were able to turn this thing around. If this thing had knocked, smoked, or just straight not started, I probably would have scrapped the whole project. I'm a Honda fanboy through and through, from cars to toys. Suzuki has always done right by me, buy I always crawl back to Honda. Once we get this 100% safe for riding, we're gonna ride the ever living crap out of them lol

Thanks! I appreciate the positive feedback. And the lady might as well be the wife at this point lol. I lean towards the sport quads, but honestly, put me on and engine with wheels and I'll enjoy it!

I don't think it'll need a top end anytime soon. No smoking other than fuel from running rich with the choke on. Once it's warm, no smoke or issues. The only noise from the engine is the rockers, both intake and exhaust are loose from me adjusting to get compression back. Need to go in and actually set the clearances to spec. The previous owner stated it was bored and rebuilt before it was rolled. I'll know more for sure once I can ride it. As far as a manual, I purchased the eManual from emanualonline.com when we got the bike, I should have joined here first lol. Needed to make sure I had proper ohm readings on the wiring etc. when I was diagnosing. As far as the 400ex goes, bought it from an older gentlemen here in town. Has a 416 top end with a stage 1 hot cam, K&N filter, jets, and a DRD slip on. Got some paddles with it too. I put some taller Moose racing bars on it with some ODI clamp-on grips, and put the Tag bars on the ladies bike. The race brake was broken, so I got a delete plate and threw a CR250 perch/lever on it. That's all that's really done to it. I may strip it and powder coat the frame next winter. Not sure how ambitious I'll be. I'll try to take some pics and do a proper thread on it. I just don't have a lot of plans for it other than ride/enjoy it.

We'll have to hop in and chat some time for sure. We're just poking around the site right now. We have a 2001 TRX400EX and a 1992 TRX250X.

So a few months back, I picked up a 400ex. It's been the only bike I've ever really wanted. My lady, who is new to atv's and riding altogether, wanted a bike too. Like most things I buy, it's broken, cheap, but in the end is worth all the money put in to it. We found her a 1992 TRX250X, as thrashed as could be, sat for years, but was relatively cheap. We drove a long ways for it, but so far, it's been worth it. Here's how it sat on day one, once reassembled a bit: Gross to say the least, according to her. Long story short, it had been rolled over, parked, probably rolled over again, and then sat for many years. The right front tie rod was bent, right side of the handlebars were very bent, it didn't want to start, the stator cover was destroyed by the chain, and the list goes on. Just take a gander at the snapshots, and you'll know just what I'm talkin' bout. First thing I did was get all the plastics off (as seen below) so I could start the diagnostical procedures. I put some fresh go juice in it, gave it a few kicks, but got nothing. Bypassed all the kill features, gave it a few kicks...and still nothing. Then out came the multimeter. Everything, minus the spark plug, checked out well within spec. Replaced the not so terribly bad spark plug, kicked the snot out of it, again nothing. Got the ol' compression tester out, she kicked out a whopping 90 psi, no bueno. Popped off the valve covers, and wouldn't you know it, the intake valves were stuck RIGHT open. Backed 'em off to get some play for the time being, got 'er up to 125 PSI. Ready for this thing to start, I gave her a kick......nothing, still....nothing, just a sore leg. At this point, I'm about done with the bike. Wiring, electrical components, fuel, compression, all the things check good. My lady, seeing my frustration, takes all of two seconds on the interwebs, sends me a link for more troubleshooting, and I'll be dipped if the dang reverse-o-matic wiring wasn't another kill switch. Grabbed the circuit completer 5000 (paperclip and electrical tape), completed the reverse circuit, and gave it a kick. Sure enough, fired right up. Other than my finger gauged valve adjustment, the engine sounded healthy as can be. Now that we knew we had a heathy engine and a good foundation to work on, it was time to get this thing nekkid, and give 'er a bath! I wish I had taken more photo's along this journey, but I like to just put the hammer down and get stuff done. After 30 gallons of degreaser, a water tower full of water, several toothbrushes, and maybe 300 (wo)man hours of spraying, scrubbing, and rinsing, we had ourselves a clean frame and parts to work with! This bike needed all the things, so we got to work on the ol' computation device ordering stuff and more stuff. After repairing a crack in the mid case, and putting the new stator cover on, we started to put the bike back together. So Amazon, eBay, and Partzilla showed up with a metric sh** ton of parts. We ended up replacing (deep breath in) chain, sprockets, front tie rods/ball joints, front brake calipers/pads, rear brake caliper/pads, front master cylinder, rear master cylinder, muffler, clutch perch/lever, fuel line from tank to carb, kill switch assembly, and I'm sure more that I can't think of right now. I put the Tag bars from my 400ex on her bike, since they sat too low for my comfort. Got some ODI clamp-on grips. Added new brake fluid all around, and bled the lines. We stripped and painted the heat shield as well as the complete exhaust. Painted the front and rear grab bar, and replaced various hardware around the bike with new. Since we're not running reverse, I used a TRX250R kill switch assembly and wired the factree 250X connector to it. I also rid the bike of wiring and linkage for reverse. She won't need reverse, and if she needs reverse, I am the reverse. She did almost all the degreasing/scrubbing of all the components throughout the journey. It's amazing the shiny that hides behind 28 years of neglect, dirt, grease, and poor paint jobs..... We're almost done with the bike at this point. Need a few odd's and ends like: seat bushings, a fairing bracket, air filter, carb, and some tires. The bike idles very good and will rev. If you hammer the throttle it bogs and dies, if you creep on the throttle, it'll rev to the moon. I'm honestly surprised the carb flows at all. We opted for some brand new Maier plastics, as the old ones were no where near salvageable. Also rebuilt the seat with new foam and seat cover, using the existing plastic base. I bought her a DG slip on used from eBay, which ended up being a complete waste. It sat too far forward and would cause the fairing bracket to hit and not let the rear end snap in place. We ordered a new OEM replacement, which should arrive soon. (Fingers crossed). We also need to find a new headlight bracket, as this one was broken in the roll over. We will post the final product pics once we get it trail/dune worthy. It's so close we can taste it. We thank those of you that popped in to check out the progress thus far. I wish it was more pics than words, but pictures tell a thousand words.

I've been a long time lurker of forums for Cars/Trucks/ATV's etc., but have never come around to joining or posting. My lady thought it would be fun to post the progress of one of our project atv's, which I'll have up soon. Hoping to meet some friendly people and maybe even some local riders here in Oregon/PNW. I'm from New Hampshire, my lady is from Oregon, where we both live now. I've been riding atv's/motorcycles since a teenager. I just got her into riding these past few months, and we've taken on a good sized project so she can learn and ride with me.