Thought i would put together a brief yet hopfully helpful guide on what to do if you are struck with the misfortune of drowning your blaster in a pond/lake/ocean/whatever. I had the privilege of taking on this task after letting my buddy ride my quad (first time rider) which ended up with him riding it into a lake; video's and pictures can be seen in another thread in the pictures/video's subforum.
Ok so lets get started, you just hit the body of water, what do you do?
Well first you get the thing out sooner then later because the longer you leave it there the more water will seep in everywhere.
From here I wouldn't recommend even trying to start it, unless it was a minimal amount of water, if the water covered at least half the quad height or more, dont do anything but get it back home, by means of a tow/pushing/whatever.
Once that is done set aside a good day, maybe day and ahalf to get the thing going again.
First drain the tranny oil as it will most likely look like mine did; milky:
You will need to let it drain then tilt the quad in various angles to try and get the most out as you can, if you have access to an air compressor i highly recommend spraying that through the input hole up top. Once this is done you will fill it up again with 650 cc's fresh oil, once the quad runs later on after everything is done you will ride it for maybe 2-3min to stir the oil up and will see that your oil will very likely still look milky and thus you will need to drain it again (same way as stated above) and fill it one more time. This should get most if not all of the water out but you can obviously repeat as necessary.
Proceed to your stator cover, take it off and will most likely see a shot glass or 2 worth of water poor out, if you have compressed air (100psi is good) spray around to try to get most of the water out, then leave it to try, if you dont have compressed air you'll just have to wait longer, however the stator compartment needs to be completely dry before you put the cover back on.
Then proceed to take the carb out, and disassemble it, although some people like carb cleaner, in this situation the best thing is to try to get any and all moistness, and liquids out. Again the compressed air is great for this as you will need to blow out everything from every hole and angle on the carb, if theres a hole, spray compressed air into it. The float system doesnt have to be removed but i recommend removing the jets and spraying around where they go and the jets themselves.
Now that you have the carb off go ahead and give it a good drying with paper towels in the intake, both the reed end and the filter end, remember dry is good, try to keep cleaning till its dry metal/rubber.
You may think your gas tank is was/is sealed good but i guaranty that some water got in, and you dont want that. Drain what ever is in there, then once it stops dripping, tilt the atv from the right side, this is because the way the gas tank is shaped gas/fluid will stay stuck in the corners and gravity will not feed it to the left side where it needs to drain. Once you lift it you will see a stream of gas start again, continue until completely empty. Fill with about a gallon of fresh gas swirl it around good in there and proceed as stated before. Then fill to full fill fresh gas, full is best because if there is any water left in there the amount of gas will dilute it to a point where it doesn't matter anymore.
Pull the plug out and you will probably see a nice ring of bubbled water, this plug is fouled, it got killed when it toke in the water, so get new plugs. With the spark plug out, kick the kickstart for a good 5 min to get any water thats in the cylinder out though the spark plug hole and exhaust, if you put your hand over the spark plug hole you will see water/milky looking substance hitting your hand, thats the stuff you want out of there. After this dont put a spark plug back in leave it open overnight to dry out.
If the filter got wet/submerged take it off, clean it then dry it.
Now put everything back together in its place, i will warn you now, you will foul about 3-4 plugs when you go try to start it just by the minimal amount of water that is still in the cylinder.
I do NOT recommend starter fluid (wd40 for us 2-stroke focks) or even trying to bump start/pull start the atv, this is because you will foul plugs and without spark your going nowhere, try to kick start it about 10 kicks at a time then check to see if you still have spark, by placing the spark plug up against metal while its still connected to the coil. As i said the first 3-4 plugs will get fouled, so expect that. Now remember while your trying to kick it over, keep feeding it gas, this will dilute any water that may still be left. It may even start for a good 5 seconds then die, i know its a happy moment but most likly the plug fouled again so check and change if necessary, this also means your getting closer to getting the fuel in and the water out, once you have a good spark again keep kicking, once it starts and stays running, do NOT let it die (if you can help it), let it clean itself out, including the water that may be in the exhaust will be taken care of at this point, ride it around the block a couple times, nothing serious just a nice stroll.
Then guess what? Your done. Your running again.
Ok so lets get started, you just hit the body of water, what do you do?
Well first you get the thing out sooner then later because the longer you leave it there the more water will seep in everywhere.
From here I wouldn't recommend even trying to start it, unless it was a minimal amount of water, if the water covered at least half the quad height or more, dont do anything but get it back home, by means of a tow/pushing/whatever.
Once that is done set aside a good day, maybe day and ahalf to get the thing going again.
First drain the tranny oil as it will most likely look like mine did; milky:
You will need to let it drain then tilt the quad in various angles to try and get the most out as you can, if you have access to an air compressor i highly recommend spraying that through the input hole up top. Once this is done you will fill it up again with 650 cc's fresh oil, once the quad runs later on after everything is done you will ride it for maybe 2-3min to stir the oil up and will see that your oil will very likely still look milky and thus you will need to drain it again (same way as stated above) and fill it one more time. This should get most if not all of the water out but you can obviously repeat as necessary.
Proceed to your stator cover, take it off and will most likely see a shot glass or 2 worth of water poor out, if you have compressed air (100psi is good) spray around to try to get most of the water out, then leave it to try, if you dont have compressed air you'll just have to wait longer, however the stator compartment needs to be completely dry before you put the cover back on.
Then proceed to take the carb out, and disassemble it, although some people like carb cleaner, in this situation the best thing is to try to get any and all moistness, and liquids out. Again the compressed air is great for this as you will need to blow out everything from every hole and angle on the carb, if theres a hole, spray compressed air into it. The float system doesnt have to be removed but i recommend removing the jets and spraying around where they go and the jets themselves.
Now that you have the carb off go ahead and give it a good drying with paper towels in the intake, both the reed end and the filter end, remember dry is good, try to keep cleaning till its dry metal/rubber.
You may think your gas tank is was/is sealed good but i guaranty that some water got in, and you dont want that. Drain what ever is in there, then once it stops dripping, tilt the atv from the right side, this is because the way the gas tank is shaped gas/fluid will stay stuck in the corners and gravity will not feed it to the left side where it needs to drain. Once you lift it you will see a stream of gas start again, continue until completely empty. Fill with about a gallon of fresh gas swirl it around good in there and proceed as stated before. Then fill to full fill fresh gas, full is best because if there is any water left in there the amount of gas will dilute it to a point where it doesn't matter anymore.
Pull the plug out and you will probably see a nice ring of bubbled water, this plug is fouled, it got killed when it toke in the water, so get new plugs. With the spark plug out, kick the kickstart for a good 5 min to get any water thats in the cylinder out though the spark plug hole and exhaust, if you put your hand over the spark plug hole you will see water/milky looking substance hitting your hand, thats the stuff you want out of there. After this dont put a spark plug back in leave it open overnight to dry out.
If the filter got wet/submerged take it off, clean it then dry it.
Now put everything back together in its place, i will warn you now, you will foul about 3-4 plugs when you go try to start it just by the minimal amount of water that is still in the cylinder.
I do NOT recommend starter fluid (wd40 for us 2-stroke focks) or even trying to bump start/pull start the atv, this is because you will foul plugs and without spark your going nowhere, try to kick start it about 10 kicks at a time then check to see if you still have spark, by placing the spark plug up against metal while its still connected to the coil. As i said the first 3-4 plugs will get fouled, so expect that. Now remember while your trying to kick it over, keep feeding it gas, this will dilute any water that may still be left. It may even start for a good 5 seconds then die, i know its a happy moment but most likly the plug fouled again so check and change if necessary, this also means your getting closer to getting the fuel in and the water out, once you have a good spark again keep kicking, once it starts and stays running, do NOT let it die (if you can help it), let it clean itself out, including the water that may be in the exhaust will be taken care of at this point, ride it around the block a couple times, nothing serious just a nice stroll.
Then guess what? Your done. Your running again.
