[tnsurveyor]

Hello,

My name is Jimmy, and I just purchased a late 80's Honda Fourtrax 300cc 4x2. It was a price I couldn't pass up.

The kickstarter is stuck, and upon getting it home, there is very little oil in the crankcase. I plan on filling it up, and seeing of it will at least turn over.

Is there any special precautions I should take? I'm not new to ATV's but this is my first Honda. I have never had one in this condition before.

Even if I had to rebuild the motor, I would be ahead of the game, as the ATV is in pretty decent shape, and it will be a backup for my business. (I'm a land surveyor).

Thanks for any advice,

Jimmy

 

[Helmut]

Does the electric start work? The engine may be locked up, since it didn't have much oil. If you think the engine may be locked up, take the spark plug out and pour about a teaspoon of clean oil into the spark plug hole. Take the round plug out of the left side, side cover and find a socket that fits the bolt on the end of the crank shaft. You can use the kicker to do this, but I prefer a socket on the end of the crank, so I can wiggle it back and forth a little. With the spark plug out, the crank should turn easy. Don't put much force on it if it don't turn easy, as you could do more damage. It may have just sit and locked up. If it's not too bad, sometimes you can free it. If it don't break loose real easy, you might want to pull the head off to see what condition the piston, rings, and cylinder is in. If nothing looks damaged, you may be able to free it up, but be easy with it so you don't break the rings. On the other hand, if someone ran it dry on oil, it may already be damaged. I hope not. Good luck.

 

[tomgodd]

Agree^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Welcome to the Family!!!!!!!

 

[TRX2fiveO]

Agree^^^^^^ also anothe trick is Marvel Mystery oil coupl of table spoons of that will loosen up the rust and rings if it has been sitting.
or dump some good fresh Coca Cola in the cylinder... yes I said CocaCola you will be surprised what coke is capable of..lol
this is providing it's stuck from sitting. this will not work if it due to abuse lack of oil ect. ect.

 

[Billy250X]

Yeah if it's got a damaged cylinder you'll have to hone or bore it.

 

[tnsurveyor]

Well I got the motor freed up

The motor was not locked up. It was slighty seized, but I was able to turn it over with my foot by gently pushing down on the kickstarter.

We checked, and are getting fire at the plug. We pulled the carberator off, and cleaned it, and replaced a broken fuel line.

We cannot get it to start

Any suggestions?

Thanks for the responses.

Jimmy

 

[Helmut]

After you freed the engine up, does it have good compression? I know you said you pulled the carb off and cleaned it, but are you getting gas to the cylinder. I would pull the spark plug out and pour about a teaspoon of gasoline into the spark plug hole and put the spark plug back in and put the plug wire back on and see if it will start. It's best to try to do this fairly quick, so the gasoline won't evaporate before you get the spark plug back in. If it's got compression, fire at spark plug, and the engine is in time, then it should at least try to start. If it does start, it will just run for a couple seconds, until it burns all the gas out of the cylinder. If this works, then the problem should be the carb. Hope this helps.

 

[TRX2fiveO]

Agree^^^^ you also may want to add about a teaspoon of Tranny fluid in the cylinder first and just crank it over without the plug in for a few min just to smoot out the walls again the do as helnut suggested. if it runs I would definitely run a compression test to see where you are sitting at.

 

[Billy250X]

Agree^^^^^.The cylinder walls could use some lube after not being ran for so long.

 

[Helmut]

Yeah, definitely lube up the cylinder walls. I forgot to mention that. Thanks, Moose and Billy for adding that.

 

[TRX2fiveO]

Keep in mind once you add tranny fluid in the cylinder and you get it running it will smoke like a freight train for a few minutes until it burns off the residue, these aren't 2-strokes ya know...lol

 

[tnsurveyor]

Thanks everyone for the help. Hopefully the weather will break soon, and the snow and ice will melt off quickly. I don't have a garage to work in, so I have to work outside (don't have room in the shed).

I'll let everyone know what I find out.

 

[Fixwhatican]

Gentleman on the same discussion with an added issue kick start seems stuck but I can turn the engine only so far forward and so far back and on occasion it will spin free acouple rounds then stop and do the same thing again always stopping with the piston about a half inch from TDC