I own a 97 Bayou 220 and was always finding that when I switched the engine off while in gear, it was difficult to get back into netural with the engine not running. After some Diagnoisis of the wiring I fixed my problem. It was so simple! 98% of the "fix" was figureing it out. ok, now for the best part...here is what I did:

I went to radio shack and got a very small spring loaded push button switch.
I drilled a small hole in the "console" just below the indicator lights and installed the switch. Then,I ran a wire from the "green" lead (wire)of the Netural indicator bulb to the switch. From the other terminal of the new switch ,I ran another lead (wire)to ground. see how simple.
(Estimated time... 15 mins. )

To start it in gear, Hold the button down while pressing the start button.

Of course use common sence when starting the engine this way, like setting the park brake first?

I would guess that the Bayou 300 and many other Kawaski's have the same wiring patterns.

good luck

 

Nice work, Brian! You developed a "work-around" the starter neutral switch without entirely defeating the safety device.

Some quads now have a similar OEM arrangement; applying the brake closes a switch, much like yours, permitting starting in any gear.

Hmmmmm. Wonder if the brake light switch on quads (with brake lights, of course) could be used to bypass the neutral switch? Lemmee see that wiring diagram!

Tree Farmer

P.S. I know of a Bayou 300 with the neutral switch defeated by hard-wire; not nearly as elegant (or safe) an arrangement as yours. (The reverse interlock is also disabled on this machine, but that's a different story!)

T.F.

 

Pretty tricky how you did that, great idea. BTW Brian, I live in Greensboro out by the airport so I am not too far from ya, if you ever want to go out and ride some good trails around our area let me know, there are a couple of us that that go riding almost every weekend along as the women let us. We will probably just ride local day rides until it warms up, Clay another rider from W-S and myself about froze last weekend up in VA while camping so we will wait on all other camping trips until the spring. But hey let us know if you want to ride one day.

Steve Thompson

 

Thanks Tree Farmer! AS for the Reverse lockout ****, I did away with that thing on the second day. I found it to be a real pain in the butt to have to hold it, push that, turn your head and look... Ha!.. I am not a gymnist..

If memory serves me correctly, I removed the rotating release ****, and put a clamp or washers on the cable to hold it in the "pulled" released position all the time. then reinstalled the release ****.

Steve, Clay said something about riding at Beechnut this weekend with the kids. I have to check my schedule, but I like his plan. Hope I can get it worked out.

 

Hey guys!

Don't believe that cold-weather camping stuff. That's the best time of the year to camp in the Southeast, not to mention riding. No bugs, no sweltering heat! Just fresh, crisp air. The trick is to camp light and to camp well. We'll have to give it a shot. Check out my thread on cold weather camping!

Start getting ready now!