eprovenzano
03-02-2009, 10:30 AM
My son's quad a 99 400EX needs some winter maintenance. Since he's at college, I'm stuck doing the maintenance. We purchased the quad used, and I knew it needed some TLC when we got it.
So this past weekend I thought I'd change the oil, and remove the very flimsy and cheap nerf bars. 1st drain the oil from the tank. Put my socket on the drain plug, her give it quick tug, and O crap.... the bolt was so tight, the 1 inch tube with the drain bolt screws into broke away from the tank... yea I was not a happy camper. Ok drain the rest of the oil from the engine. Pull the old filter... wait it was in backwards... Ok then.... pull the oil tank; clean it up so it can be repaired. My buddy stops by and tells me about this material he has to repair the tank. I cannot remember the name of it. It comes in a roll, you cut the material and then work it together as there is two components one inside the other, mix it well, as it will set in 5 min, hardens in 1 hour. So I repair the tank and set it aside.
The nerf bars "should" be easy... On the rear, they are bolted on with the foot pegs. Simply remove the foot pegs. 1st side, somebody has replaced on of the bolts, with a smaller one that goes through the frame. The other comes out without too much of a fight. The 2nd side, again someone replaced the OEM bolt with a smaller one that wet through the frame. The other is not a metric bolt, its not even screwed in all the way. Well it tight, and of course I snapped the head of the bolt off. Good news, I got the nerf bars off, bad news I need to remove a broken bolt… First soak the bolt with PB Blaster. It still wouldn’t move. Then I used a propane torch to heat the frame around the bolt. With a large pair of locking pliers (and a little luck) I was able to extract the bolt. With only one original bolt, I was off to the hardware store to get replacements. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t the nerf bars that were bad; it had to be the bolts holding on the foot pegs that were the issue. My problem is if you don’t have the proper bolts, please, please go the hardware store, or automotive parts store, and get the correct ones. I wasted at least three hours getting the damn nerf bars off because they didn’t use the proper hardware.
I get new bolts, and the foot pegs are mounted properly. I reinstalled the tank, filled up the fluids, and all is well in my world again. The tank repair seems to be holding up well, only time will tell.
Ok, I feel better now, I just needed to vent.
So this past weekend I thought I'd change the oil, and remove the very flimsy and cheap nerf bars. 1st drain the oil from the tank. Put my socket on the drain plug, her give it quick tug, and O crap.... the bolt was so tight, the 1 inch tube with the drain bolt screws into broke away from the tank... yea I was not a happy camper. Ok drain the rest of the oil from the engine. Pull the old filter... wait it was in backwards... Ok then.... pull the oil tank; clean it up so it can be repaired. My buddy stops by and tells me about this material he has to repair the tank. I cannot remember the name of it. It comes in a roll, you cut the material and then work it together as there is two components one inside the other, mix it well, as it will set in 5 min, hardens in 1 hour. So I repair the tank and set it aside.
The nerf bars "should" be easy... On the rear, they are bolted on with the foot pegs. Simply remove the foot pegs. 1st side, somebody has replaced on of the bolts, with a smaller one that goes through the frame. The other comes out without too much of a fight. The 2nd side, again someone replaced the OEM bolt with a smaller one that wet through the frame. The other is not a metric bolt, its not even screwed in all the way. Well it tight, and of course I snapped the head of the bolt off. Good news, I got the nerf bars off, bad news I need to remove a broken bolt… First soak the bolt with PB Blaster. It still wouldn’t move. Then I used a propane torch to heat the frame around the bolt. With a large pair of locking pliers (and a little luck) I was able to extract the bolt. With only one original bolt, I was off to the hardware store to get replacements. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t the nerf bars that were bad; it had to be the bolts holding on the foot pegs that were the issue. My problem is if you don’t have the proper bolts, please, please go the hardware store, or automotive parts store, and get the correct ones. I wasted at least three hours getting the damn nerf bars off because they didn’t use the proper hardware.
I get new bolts, and the foot pegs are mounted properly. I reinstalled the tank, filled up the fluids, and all is well in my world again. The tank repair seems to be holding up well, only time will tell.
Ok, I feel better now, I just needed to vent.