This must be the year of ATV’s for XMAS! I had a ton of folks asking about what to buy, what is good, what about Chinese, etc…
So Kevin wanted to get something for the kids, I recommended a Japenese model if possible, told him what to look for, and he found this little diamond in the rough:
This is a 1986 Yamaha Moto4 80cc 4 stroke. As you can tell, very rough. It gets more rough as I start to clean it up…
Body removed, you can see this has never had a good bath, and the rust disease was spreading bad. I can see now I have hours ahead of me with the wire wheel and a beer in hand:
Now, the one very important reason for doing a frame off restoration on any quad you buy, you NEVER know what you will find. As I got the bodywork off, I quickly saw that the front wheels were WAY out of adjustment. The front tires were rubbing on the front brush guard. The previous owner had put larger tires on the quad than stockers, and never adjusted the tie rods. That is an easy fix.
Find #2 – the primary bolt holding the gas tank is missing. Add that to the list.
Find #3 – the airfilter has NEVER been changed in this thing. Add 1 air filter and a carb cleaning to the list.
Find #4 – missing one wheel dust cap on front left. Time to hit ebay, too expensive for used. Found 2 new OEM’s at Iron Pony locally for $10.
Find #5 – throttle has death issues. Previous owner snapped the housing, and tried to JB weld it. NEVER a thing to do if kids will be riding, so I sourced a newer one (well — new enough) from ebay out of PA an I completely reconditioned it.
Find #6 – it looks like someone stored this thing in the creek. The poor exhaust, the poor frame, the poor….thing. I have probably 20 hours of clean up on this thing.
You poor dirty quad:
So after an hour of power-washing, I am back to this:
So at this point, it is off with the bits:
- Remove the tires and rims
- Remove old crusty grips – Add set of new grips to list
- Pull bent gear shift – will need to straigten and recondition
- Remove gas tank – petcock needs work, its frozen
Now down to the frame:
Hours, if not days, spent cleaning up the rear drive assembly. This poor thing had so much rust on it:
Next up, remove the side covers — take to bare metal, then paint:
With the side cover off, all looks good with the internals:
Yum, new paint:
Next up, an hour per wheel with the wire wheel brush:
Exhaust before:
Exhaust after (before paint):
Test fitting the newly trimmed plastics, with coat 1 of new paint:
Also, note the rear end. Better than new, all rust removed with wire wheel and clear coated.
Testing fitting the newly trimmed front plastics, also the painted tank, the tank cap and you can see the rest of the quad coming together:
Fast forward to now:
Other side, showing exhaust wrapped in heat tape to protect little legs:
The new and improved, not rushed, not mud infested, clean new battery box:
Here she sits before the wheel dust caps:
This project has been a blast. I always love taking something that is so rough, and somewhat neglected and returning it to new. The only major thorn I had with this build was today when reassembling, the carb wanted to spew gas and more gas and more gas … Having taken the carb off, calling dad, it was only one possible issue that would cause this, the float. Taking the carb apart, with magnifing glasses, I could see the float needle was covered in lint, and that was keeping it from closing, causing the carb to fill, the pee out the overflow.
Right now, the quad sits in the garage, all clean. Only things left, stickers, and to adjust the carb and idle. Mission accomplished.
