How To

-- RANGER REMEDY, by Boss McKannick -- Hey Boss, My mom has an 2004 Polaris Ranger 700 twin. It won't start unless you hold the gas pedal about half way down. Then it will start and idles at about 450 to 500 rpms, but after about 30 seconds, it dies. If you start it and just put it in gear and go, it does fine until you try to idle. I changed spark plugs, but made no difference. I wonder if the injectors aren't working right. It has plenty of fuel because it has pressure in the pressure valve. It will actually…

-- Duncan Racing is at it again --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels, Photos by Pat Carrigan -- Duncan Racing International (DRI) is a company known for building great products and building up ATVs to handle the harshness of racing in all different disciplines. One well-known racing series on the West Coast is WORCS. The Grand Prix-style courses offer rough desert terrain, sand dunes, asphalt, motocross tracks and more to battle through, which means your quad must be tough to take the abuse and win. Mike…

-- Doug Gust's advice from 12 years ago is still good today -- . .

-- Secrets that will make your life easier -- Everyone here at Dirt Wheels has a secret collection. We’re not talking about comic books, Pokemon cards or Barbie dolls—at least not here. We’re talking knowledge. When we work on quads or get ready to ride, each of us uses his private collection of secret techniques, tips and shortcuts. We’ve been doing it so long that we automatically revert to the easiest way of doing almost everything. We decided to gather up some of those tips and share them with you. We selected 41 topics…

-- There is nothing to fear -- By Allen Knowles  and staff of Dirt Wheels When performance quads were two-strokes without power valves, rebuilding an engine was relatively cheap, even with labor included. Modern two-strokes with power valves are definitely more expensive to work on, but those are not available for quads unless you are willing to build your own. With modern quads, it doesn’t matter whether you are working on a sport quad or a 4x4, you will be working on a four-stroke. Costs soar with the increased…

-- How they work and how to recognize problems --  By Cameron Dickie CVT clutching may seem like magic: they work, but not many people understand how. They do not operate on spells and wizardry but on simple ratios. This is an article on learning the basics of how a clutch operates and to answer some of your questions (based off of Polaris-style clutches). It may seem like a crazy thing to learn, but trust me, if I can understand how they operate, you can as well. The definition of a CVT clutch is an automatic clutch…

Picking the right protection for your machine can be a difficult task. We install aftermarket skid plates on most machines that we receive to ensure the frame and suspension components don't get heavily damaged by rocks, roots and other trail debris.

-- Easy way to make your quad or UTV look like new -- When you see a shiny ATV in the showroom, it’s like love at first sight. The light gleaming off the carefully sculpted curves of the plastic bodywork is like art. Then you ride it, and two weeks in, it looks like a tired old mule. We may be exaggerating that last part a small amount, but every machine we test ends up with scuffed, scratched and beat-up plastics, no matter how careful we are with it. So instead of dropping hundreds of dollars on brand-new plastics, why…

-- Keep your machine’s suspension working like new --  By the staff of Dirt Wheels : Keeping the suspension working well on a quad or UTV requires a variety of parts to function as they should. Adjusting the spring preload and fine-tuning the adjusters are the fun part. There are less glamorous duties, like making sure that the suspension arms are operating as they should. Most quad and UTV suspension arms pivot on simple plastic bushings with a sleeve for the bolt to go through. For the most part, these…

-- Dirt Wheels readers show you how they do it -- 1. Ron Murphy hauls his quads with a trailer that can load from either side. The gates fold down and become ramps. He pulls it with a mid-size SUV. 2. A stylish way to haul your quad is in a classic Chevy El Camino with a V-8, custom paint and chrome mag wheels. This is how Andre Kok does it. 3. You don't need a big truck to pull an ATV trailer. An econo car like Brandon Hardin has here will work just fine as long as it has a strong trailer hitch mounted to the…

-- Step by step photos on a UTV -- By the staff of Dirt Wheels In the December 2018 issue, we showed how to install new brake rotors on a Polaris RZR. In this issue we install new brake lines and brake pads. You change brake pads routinely for wear, or less frequently because you are looking for different brake performance. Brake lines are a different story. They do get damaged and need to be replaced, but most often you change brake lines to change to a different brake feel. Or, like us, you have changed to wider…

-- Boss McKannick solves the problem -- Dear Boss, I just bought a 2000 Yamaha Grizzly 600. It has a fuel line or something hanging down at the rear and sometimes gas pours out of it. Is this a problem? What should I do? Stewart McTaggart Austin, TX That hose sounds like it is the carburetor float-bowl overflow hose. It should not dump gasoline out unless there is either something holding the float valve open (dirt/rust) and the float bowl continues to fill until the internal gasoline level reaches the…