Back in Business

Finally managed to get a new battery into my quad this weekend. I went over to the yard for a bit and yanked the old battery. Craig showed up and helped me get the new battery in. Unfortunately, the quad still wouldn't start. So we dumped the old gas from the gas tank and tore apart the machine so we could get to the spark plug. Turns out the plug was bad - completely fouled and not giving off a spark at all. If there's one thing I dislike about the Cannondale machines, it's the frequency with which they foul plugs. I've had to tear apart my machine at least three times to replace plugs, and it's no fun. It involves taking almost all the plastic off, the seat and the gas tank. Then you have to disconnect the linkage to the rear shock just to be able to get at the plug. From there, it's not too bad. Since we had done this many times already, it wasn't too big a deal, but it still does take a couple hours to tear it apart and put it back together. I can see fouling plugs on a two-stroke, but this is a four-stroke motor and there's no reason why I should be getting these nasty carbon deposits on my plugs with a fuel-injected four-stroke. And there's no reason the plug should be buried so deep in the machine that it takes as long as it does to get to it.

With the new battery and new plug installed, though, the machine fired right up. No time to drop the oil or the tranny fluid before dark, so we just took a quick 20-minute ride around Split Rock.

Next weekend, I'll change all the fluids and take care of the chain (lube, plus take up the slack).

But the machine runs now, which is good news if we get another snow storm.