250ES Making Funky Noises

[BigRedRunner]

1985 ATC250es

I bought it with a broken crank years ago and swapped in another engine from an '85 Fourtrax (same engine). It smoked like crazy and the fourtrax it was in had a worn out rear end. The jug showed signs of being hot so the smoke may be from that or just alot of use. I used my original jug and went over it. It runs awesome now but it makes some funny noises when I'm riding. It sort of sounds like of like pushing something metal down on a belt sander and a some clanking now and then. This noises very intermittent and can't do anything specific to make it occur. I can't really pin down where its comming from. It doesn't sound like its in the front or anything. The kickstarter slips to. I replaced the centrifigual clutch from the original motor figuring it would have less hours. It still slips just the same. There's also a noise of something rolling in the right side of the case after I turn it off. It takes a few seconds for it to stop. Could the clutch sprag be messed up?

[jeswinehart]

my kick starter some times makes a "something rolling around noise" on my 85es. once and awhile during the kick it will fire once and by that time i have the kicker all the way down and then comes the rolling noise.
really hard to explain noises on a computer ain't it !
are you getting any metal dust in your oil filter ?
i am sure you must have a clymers manual but if you don't i can e-mail you any of the pages out of mine if you need.

john
( i don't wanna scan the whole book though-lol)

[iamnat666]

It could be the timing wandering about if the coils or somthing are loose, I don't know if these have points or electronic ignition but it sounds as though it could be pinging or pinking, in other words firing too early while the piston is still coming up, check that everything is tight on the coils etc and you could try a higher octane fuel or an octane attitive, this cuts down on pinging.

Hope this helps. wink

Nat

[BigRedRunner]

Alright, I think we are on the same page. I'm not too concerned about the noises when riding because there's no way I can explain them and I'll only confuse everyone. Everything you've said is exactly right! You never can seem to get a good kick out of it. You may get a pop or two, but then it will slip and you can hear something rolling. As long as you hear that rolling and you try to move the kickstarter, the kickstarter just acts like its unhooked. I pretended to be mister clever and discovered what the rolling is after turning it off. It is the outer drum on the centrifigual clutch. I just killed it and touched the end of the dipstick down there and you could hear contact. I do have metal shreads in the filter too. I believe those are comming from over by the electric starter gears. What do you think we should do? Howdy said try a sprag, so I put the one out of my blown up motor. If this is some kind of ES/SX quirk then I guess I should shell out the $56 and buy a new one. I'm glad I get the big honking discount at partsfish.com other wise its $98. :rolleyes: Now you're supposed to tell me to buy that part and my problems will be solved. Maybe we could buy them together, you pay the shipping and I'd sell it for $56.

I do have the clymer manual. I almost gave it away to the library years ago when I gave up on the ES. :oops:

I don't think she's pinging, sound isn't right. The cam is timed correctly, pops off right now. The timing is controlled through a little electronic box. It has 91 octane fuel in it now. Thanks though, can't rule anything out.

[samster143]

Does your BigRed have electric start? Does it work? Ours elec. start didn't work and the related gears were dragging between the starter and the flywheel. We took the gears out (about four) and the shaft. No more noise and it seems to run smoother. Hope this helps...