Quadzilla Basketcase........

[icecleric]

Ok I had gotten a divorce and was just getting back on my feet. I had about $1,000 extra in the bank and was just sitting on it. Things were finally looking up.

My girl friend at the time had a friend who had a Raptor and we were gonna start riding together as I had really gotten out of riding and missed it. They came over and we let the kids ride their LT 80 and LT 50 around int he yard and while we were talking I told Paul I would love to buy a few of the classics. Specifically a Zilla, a 250R, Tecate4 and a Tri-Z sometimes int he future but they are super hard to find.

Well he tells me he HAS a basketcase Zilla. He offeres it to me for $1,000. He has the engine with a reciept showing ATV Salvage in Anchorage put $750 into a new piston, a bore job and basic rebuild. So I think the engine is good and $250 for all the other parts are not a bad deal. I THOUGHT it came with everything but plastic. He told me it was ready to go back together easy. It had 2 sets of rear tires. A set of 18in Fast Trekkers and a set of 22 in Spider Trac's. I had stars in my eyes and big big dreams.

Well I paid him and it took about two weeks for him to "get it all together" for me to take as the engine was still at the shop because "he had not paid it completely off yet" WARNING BELLS.

He dropped it off while I was at work (I work away from home for two weeks and am then home for two weeks) So i did not get to see it up close. Until I got home.

Now the real trouble starts. Ok there are just bags of parts. I have no clue what I am getting into. there are two carbs, extra stuff, a coil off a banshee, EVERYTHING is rusted bad. I start buying parts on e-bay because I have a plan in my head. Stock width/length aftermarket or rebuilt stock shocks, work on engine and make it a Banshee eater.

Ok well lets get into what I found wrong with it.

Frame had to be burned to get off all the rust and then powdercoated, every bolt hole had to be tapped and cleaned up, It formally had safety bolt used and instead of removing the safety wire the guy had just torqued on them until the bolts broke off in the frame at the drilled part of the bolts, frame was slightly bent in the rear like it had been rolled end over end.

Stock A-arms all the bearing were shot. this thing had not seen grease in years. it was cheaper to buy another set off e-bay with good bearings (I even got chromed ones)

Swingarm had been so neglected. The adjuster plate was broken and a bolt was snapped off in the axle carrier, the chain slid was so worn it ate into the swingarm, the pivot arm for the rear shock had never been greased it was bone dry and rusted and had flat edges on the rollers, the rear shock was completly blown, its oil was black and had no charge left in it, the knob for compression was broke off

Brakes were so rusted I had to let them soak for days to break them apart to rebuild them, even then it was horrible. the fronts just needed some TLC the back well the outer rubber seal on the piston was gone because it had broken on the caliper, it had in turn eaten the brake pad down to metal which ate the brake rotor, the brake lines were shit and the rear brake cylinder needed rebuilt. The front brake reservior had never been opened and it snapped both bolts off in itself.

Radiator had a massive dent it it. and its grill was way rusted. too much to fix.

Electrical No headlight and the wired had a sloppy splice job on it, no key switch, no coil

Carbs it had two with it, neither as far as I could tell were original equipment one even lookd like it was off a triple set up like a snow machine but with two cables just cut off the original cable

Gas tank would not hold gas and had so much sludge in it I had to replace the petcock.

Steering stem was bent and had a play dough looking weld on it. Once it was cut and extended we found it had already been reinforced once with an internal rod.

Had a twist throttle but it was broken.

Bolts. I didn't even have HALF of them. I also was missing things like the engine spacers.

Onto the ENGINE. I had to rebore it because it was crooked. it was out of spec by a factor of 4 if I remember right it should have been like.003 and it was .012 ro some shit. You could wiggle it in the bore and watch it slap sideways. I replaced the piston, I had to weld two cracks int eh bottom end and I also had the chain guard fixed as it had a broken bolt in it and I like chain guards. When they rebuilt it (ATV SALVAGE) they over torqued the clutch assembly and lunched a few bearings. It had also sat so long the clutches dried out and burnt. I also had to replace the primary drive because it was so messed up. The seals in the water pump had also fucked up and had to be replaced because of leaks.

The seat was in rough shape but I wanted a new seat cover anyway.

All Said and done I have about $6,000 in it. I expected to spend $3k to $4k but it is done.

Here is a link to an online photo album so you can see some of the stuff.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2731035093

Now it had been completed and has a Verde flame graphics kit and a blue maier hood. We are having problems kicking it over but it may just be because it is a beast now with like 235-240 compression on a 500+cc engine. I now think I can pretty confidently say I have the nicest Zilla in Alaska.

I now know I will always buy a running quad. At least then I will know how certain things work and I know more about Zilla's now than most because of all the research that went into this project.

[terboed]

that sucks. ive got 3 prject quads. except i know i dont have all the parts to em. bolt kits for the entire bike are all over ebay for a decent price and most of the kits come in labled baggies.

[icecleric]

Originally Posted by terboed

that sucks. ive got 3 prject quads. except i know i dont have all the parts to em. bolt kits for the entire bike are all over ebay for a decent price and most of the kits come in labled baggies.

That is exactly what I did. it is 98% done now. Working on kickstarting issues and then that is it.

[terboed]

one of my buddys is in alaska right now. he goes up there for a cupple months at a time and builds living quaters for miners or sunthin like that.