I have been rebuilding a neglected sportsman over the last few weeks and thought I’d share my experience with y’all. I picked this bike up in May and have slowly been rebuilding the bike. It needs alot of work, but so far has been a fun project. This bike had alot of rust on the frame and had been sitting outside for the last year. It was ugly. The previous owner told me that it wouldn’t disengage from 4×4, so I knew i had a front diff issue. The rear prop also had ALOT of play, telling me the rear diff would need a complete rebuild. Bike also wouldn’t start.

Here is a picture of what i started with. It doesn’t look bad here, but it was terrible under the plastics. The relocated rad was a red flag of a used and abused wheeler, but i couldn’t pass it up for what I payed.

This is photo of the rear end that shows how rust has started to take over.

I wanted to strip the rust and repaint the rear end while i was working on the differential. Came out good i think.

Okay so the rear differential kicked my A$$. Should have been straight forward and taken maybe an hour to pull the diff out…NOPE. So I attempt to pull the axles and the splines were rusted in the slots. I fought them for 2 hours to no avail. So i finally decide to pull the differential with the axles attached…NOPE. The rear prop was rusted solid to the spline in the diff. I try for two days to break the diff free, and finally end up freeing the prop from the transmission and pulling out everything as one unit. Over course of the next day, i was able to finally free all the parts and crack the diff open for a look.

The inside was a mess, and all bearings where shot or close to it. I ended up completely rebuilding the unit.

All clean ready for new bearings and seals

All done and ready for re installation

The engine wouldn’t start so i replaced plugs, rebuilt the carb, and replaced all the fuels line. The carb was a mess from gas that had sat for the last year. Surprisingly it started right up after taking care of these issues. Has never been this easy.

I painted the upper and lower arms and replaced all the rubber bushings. They had all dry rotted and couldn’t be reused.

Started putting the rear end back together.

this is where the bike sits as of tonight. Looks like it got in a wreck.

Also stripped, repainted, and wrapped the exhaust today

Next major step is relocating the rad back to its original spot, while I wait on parts to arrive for the other stuff.

so far this is as far as i have gotten. Have alot more work to do, but so far it has gone fairly smooth. Let me know what yall think.