TRX250

Ok, I'm officially a doofus. I'll admit it in writing for any future lost souls who are tempted to make a mountain out of a molehill. The reason it is called kickstart and not pushstart is because you kick, you don't just push. I kick started it with authority and it started right up, first time. Thanks for the help. If I hadn't spoken to you I would be waiting on a $100 part right now and preparing to spend the weekend opening up the crankcase to find out there was nothing wrong. I'm sure untold new problems and swearing would have resulted. The only thing left now is to seafoam the engine, figure out if I can repair the front brakes, and recover the seat. I'll do a second oil change after running a full tank of gas through it. We're on our way and the girl is super excited about her first ATV. Pink helmet has shipped.

Thanks, guys. I'll try it again and kick harder. I'll also test the compression, but probably won't be able to do that tomorrow. Too cold and too rainy. I'll report back! I'll also seafoam the heck out of it.

Thanks, Shadetree. I tested the spark plug just now and got a nice blue spark with the kickstarter. Engine still wouldn't start with the kickstarter, though. Touched the electric button and it fired off immediately. It is cold here, 35 degrees. I don't think that cold should make a difference between the kick starter or the electric, but I have zero prior experience with using a kickstarter. Two things I noticed. One, with the spark plug out I could hear some compression release from the spark plug hole when I used the kickstarter. I don't think that would happen if the one way bearing was out, would it? Second, the spark plug is brand new - probably less than an hour on it and it was very black and dirty. Cleaned up easily, but I'm guessing that there is a lot of carbon in there. I pulled the gas tank last weekend and soaked it in vinegar and shook the heck out of it with pebbles (took forever to get all the pebbles back out). It was pretty ugly before that, though. The gas looked like farm diesel and rust stains all the way down into the petcock. I put on a new petcock and added an inline fuel filter between the petcock and carburetor and I'm running very clear now, but I guess that crap had built up in the engine from prior use. Doesn't seem to effect starting or performance, but I'm thinking about running seafoam through it to see if I can burn some of the carbon build up off. Is it ok to go heavy with the seafoam? I've seen guys pour it into the air intake. Thoughts?

Looking for a little advice in this same area. 1986 TRX 250 that I bought to fix up with my teenage daughter for her first ATV. It's been a hoot so far, we've been through the basics, redid brakes, and cleaned it up pretty good. I'm just happy that she is interested in doing some mechanic work with me. When I bought the TRX, I was able to get it to fire with the kickstarter. I kickstarted it all of one time. Now, a week later, it no longer fires with the kickstarter, but the eclectic start fires it right up. Even if I warm it up, the kickstarter does not fire the engine. There is resistance when I push down and it makes a weak pop, but nothing happens. I thought maybe I might need to replace this bearing, but a friend told me if the one-way was out then the you wouldn't have any engine brake going downhill. That is not the case. Even on steep hills, it does not runaway from the gear. Same person told me if the bearing is out, then there would be no resistance on the kickstarter. OEM part is expensive and we are on a budget so I wanted to get some advice before I take the $100 plus leap for the part. Any thoughts? I know that we could probably just get by with the electric start, but I really want to get it as close to fully operational as we can. That's the goal.