03 Bayou 250 - want info, need advice - Have mods & BLING

[jakobe]

Hello, New to the forum
I have been customizing cars and jeeps for years and decided to move onto ATV's.

so I started small.
I recently acquired a red/grey 03 bayou 250 in decent shape.

However it has some issues and needed a basic tuneup.

It was having a problem idling, so I bought a carb rebuild kit
disassembled the carb completely, rebuilt it cleaned it, and added some good gas with carb treatment additive.

for the most part, it runs and idles very well, however it requires the choke most of the time to start until its warm.

It still occasionally pops or "sneezes/backfires" though the carb into the airbox.

I live in north Ga. not sure of my elevation

So any advice on the fine tuning of the carb would be helpful.
mainly just he needle and various screw settings.

---

I added a jet kit but could never get it tuned properly so I removed it.
my stock jet is a 105 and I added a 125 or a 130 with some needle adjustments.

I just never ran properly, too lean or too rich...too much aggravation to adjust.


now I have done all the basic maint. oil, diff fluid, plugs, bulbs, chassis lube
starter motor brush rebuild. I have added many mods (mod list at bottom of post)


My biggest concern now is:
I have taken to installing new brake shoes front and rear.

I am having a problem geting the rear drum BACK ON...I have the correct pads, I have cleaned everthing sanded the drum clean, and regreased the seal, but I had to use a mallet to get the drum back on and now there is just too much drag. I ran it in forward then reverse about 20 times on a jack stand and it did not "free up" enough.

so I had to hammer the drum back off and clean up the old pads and reinstalled them for now.

I have verified that these are the correct shoes
and that they are adjusted to the flattest level, they are at the most compress point that they will get to.

any suggestions on how to correct this?

and any general info on how to adjust the brakes front and rear, cable tightening, setting the drag etc etc.

I know I need to go buy a service manual.

Here is my mod list

Kawasaki Bayou 250 2003

Wheels

Wheels: 10" plain steel rims repainted flat black

Tires: Kendra Klaws got them new for 60$ on CL
(adding super lites or swamp lites soon..probably the supers as they are
12lbs. less per set than the swamps)
-front 22/7/10
-rear 22/11/10

1.5" lug type wheel spacers on all fours
(I have been hitting the trails hard and havent broken one yet!)


Suspension mods
- OXLite CV guards vampired from a suzuki quad,
(some cutting was required to get them to fit around the brake drum lever)


Performance Mods
- vented airbox using 6 UNI vents
- UNI air filter sock over top the original stock filter cage
- NKG spark plug
- high temp fiberglass mesh spark plug boot protector
- high flow fuel filter
- 20/50 motorcycle atv oil


Bling
- ODI Rougue lock on grips
- Trail Tech's Vapor digital dash w/ speedo, tach & engine temp readout
- Trail Tech Dash holder
..adds LEDS for, neutral, reverse, head lights & high beams
- 1157 rear LED brake bulbs


currently working on a few more mods:

- adding custom front and rear trail bags
- vampire'd a front bumper from another quad and fabbing to fit bayou
- seat reupholstering with more pad and better material and adding a raised rear lip
- Rhino Line'ing edges of fenders and the storage racks
- adding fender extensions similar to the Bolted on type for a jeep
- winch
- some sort of headlight HID mod to increase output & clean up the light
- radius activated cornering lights


I know I know , some ask why I am spending soo much time/money on a bayou...but this is my first ATV project...after this is done I will move onto a bigger machine.

[smk8er]

Honestly a service manual is the best investment. Get a Clymer and it answers all your questions and tells you how to do it all.

[jakobe]

great. I was on the fence clymers, hanyes, or the factory manual

Thanks

[smk8er]

My KLF300 was set to be cut up into little pieces before i got my hands on it i rebuilt the engine, tranny, electrical all from Clymers and it was the best 23bucks i invested in a manual....

[jakobe]

hey y'all if you need manuals

I ordered mine from this place

Repair Manuals: Car, Motorcycle, Truck, Tractor, Boat, Outboard Motor, Bicycle, ATV, more

use coupon code SML10 for 10% off

my Clymers guide was only
24.43 with shipping

Guide itself was only 20.18

cheaper than Clymers website!

[jakobe]

The Clymers manual was a perfect addition to my garage!
helluva a good suggestion!

- tuned carb, (runs great now, still takes a while to warm up, choke dependant until warm)
- adjusted clutch (smother shifting, but neutral is sometimes hard to shift into when bike is off.)
- adjusted and lubed all cables, greased all fittings
- adjusted the brakes, no longer is the rear "dead"
- added new carb vacume line


Recent mods:
- added a 6 fuse ganged 65 amp, covered power distribution block in the recess next to the battery.
this give the ability to add other components with ease
- added a common ground distribution block near battery area
- added 1.5" wheel spacers on rear
- added custom front(2) and rear(1) bags, with heavy duty snaps mounted onto the body, so they can be removed...idea loosely based on the MOLLE military mount system.
- added front and rear cargo nets


This coming weeks mod:
- installing the Warn winch plate and fairlead mount
- installing a winch


I know a lot of people say there arent any upgrades for this bike , they are dead wrong, ..they exist you just have to be creative and know what will fit.

one example:
I am working on a complete heated seat,grip,thumb upgrade..all in one using dual zones and hi and low settings, fully integrated to the bike with very nice switches.

- new upgrade seat vinyl (either black cf finish or full grain finish, got both laying around)
- heated seat
- heated grips
- heated thumb
- all wiring relays and 3 pole led switches

for just under 100.00


I think most just want performance upgrades, however you really cant pump much more out of this 250, and keep it's reliability.

yeah you may gain a small bit of power, but burning up the engine just isnt worth it

just keep it tuned properly, proper oils,fluids,filters and the correct plug gap
it will run like a champ!

[jakobe]

still go alot to do

[smk8er]

Cool! Looking good, whats the digital gauge setup? hows it hooked up and where did you get it? looks like a good toy to add to my 300

[jakobe]

bought gauge setup off ebay

bu the company who makes them is called Trail Tech
ebay was just cheaper, the entire setup cost about $150.00
not including custom mounting hardware that I had to fab.

Trail Tech - Innovative Offroad Solutions at Trail Tech Home

Ebay Seller is Seismic Cycles (they had the best price)
Trail Tech Vapor Stealth Computer Yamaha YZF 400 426:eBay Motors (item 380166955435 end time Nov-09-09 21:31:44 PST)

I got the Vapor gauge as it is the only one with a tach
I also bought the instrument cluster to get the dash lights

hookup is very simple
- wire to the battery and ground
- temp wire is a ring that replace sparkplug crush washer
- tach wire just wraps around sparkplug plug wire
- speed sensor is little tricky, mine is mounted on the front right a-arm..about 2-3 cm from the barke drum, then on the drum I have the pickup magnet mounted using JB weld.
as the magnet rotates the wire picks it up and sends to the unit.

its pretty cool

took a long time to install, as I like eveything to be hidden and perfect
plus I also swapped out the incandesent bulbs with LEDs, (they give you LEDS in the pack but they are cheap) so I just made my own.

Its waterproof and meant to be used on anything with wheels.

they have kits that wire to different bikes, so depending on your model they may have a kit that bolts right up.
mine was a general kit for air cooled models with a drum brake

It took a few days to tune it in right but now its almost perfect.
Bayou Top speed 43.8 MPH!...lol

It records your top rpm and top speed, riding time, ambient temp, engine temp.

It has shift lights on it that you program
also has hot and danger lights for the temp setting
Big tires, small tires..no problem, there are settings for that

its all programmable

mainly a toy but its pretty cool, Kinda brought the old school Bayou up to date with newer bikes.

now I can see my rpms, engine temp and my speed, plus it looks trick!

[smk8er]

thats cool, im gonna have to look into one, wish there was a fuel gauge kit for the klf300, my gauge is broken. And as for the dash cluster are you going to get those lights working or not?