Had breakfast with my weekender neighbors S&L this morning. And in the course of the conversation, S asked me “Are you interested in a project?”
I should always back away slowly. Sometimes I even do.
It seems somebody dumped on him gave him these two ATVs, neither of which were running at the time. Both have clearly been rode hard and put up wet – repeatedly. And having very limited access to parts, I really don’t see how much use I’m going to be. But the carrot is that if I can get both running I can keep the big one. And right now alternate transport seems attractive. No idea how long it’ll take to get the Jeep running or how much it’ll cost, and in the meantime I need to be able to move things like propane bottles and garbage. That big one could tow the Jeep trailer, if I didn’t load it too heavily.
And it turns out there’s nothing much wrong with the little one, though it’s just a crappy Chinese toy. I charged the battery and got it running without much fuss. The carb needed a little tweaking, but mostly what I think the engine needs is fresh gas and clean oil and to be run for an hour. I made the mistake of running it up the access road from the Gulch, stalled it at the intersection, and then learned the battery hadn’t taken enough charge to start the engine. Fortunately there’s enough of a grade right there that I was able to restart it by rolling it downhill, saving me from a half-mile push. So the battery may be toast.
On the big one, I’m pretty sure the battery IS toast. So far I can’t even turn it over to check for spark. I’ve left it on the charger and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
I’m not in too deep. S is coming back next weekend and we’ve already got a date to use his trailer on a load of composted manure, so if I’ve decided it ain’t happening we can bring them back to his place then. Right now they’re kind of, er, taking up Ian’s yard because he’s got a bigger electrical system than I do and he’s not at the bottom of a hollow that requires a functioning ATV just to leave. 🙂
Ok, sounds good. Just one question… where do the “boys” ride in that rig? [grin]
They don’t. In fact, yesterday when Ghost came with me to Ian’s and I got the engine running on the little one, he became very unhappy.
I would imagine he did. 🙂 I take my wee mutt with me almost everywhere (the little I go out) and when he sees me putting on my “outdoor” shoes, he goes to where his leash is kept and waits impatiently. Once I’ve put on the gun and coat, he’s jumping up and down to get going. If I then tell him to “stay” and leave without him, I can count on coming home to a rather cool welcome. The other day I had occasion to carry someone as a passenger in my car, and Laddie was relegated to the back. He had to be restrained there because he was not at all pleased to have someone in “his” seat, and kept goosing them in the back of the neck with his cold nose! LOL