85 EZGO Quit

[dzig_33]

My buddy brought me his 85 cart that had been sitting in the weeds for a couple of years. His kids laid it over a couple of times and broke some brackets and broke the roof, so he parked it. The muffler was about the only thing holding the starter on, so ez out a couple of snapped bolts, rethread a couple of others, get the starter adjustment bracket welded back together. Took the tank off and drained it, put in a gallon mixed at 80:1 since it had not ran for a while and no oil injection, new plug and it started right up. Ran it off and on for about 2 hours one day and about 5 the next. All good until I headed toward the shed to put it up for the day. It popped a couple of times and quit. It will pop a little bit with choke. I checked compression before and had about 100 and very little compression now. Is there anything beside head gasket or complete ring failure to get to very low compression? No rattling or banging. Haven't been into many two strokes so any help would be much appreciated. I plan on taking the motor out to give it a good look, but not sure how much I want to put into it.

[StoveBolt]

Crank seals.

[dzig_33]

Head gasket blown out. Got one coming along with an air filter. Will give the carb a good cleaning. Also, two more broken bolts for the ez out. Amazingly clean for what it's worth. Standard piston and cylinder looks good. Will try this and see where it leads.

[StoveBolt]

Kool.. good find.

[Dabble Inn]

Good deal but gotta be a reason, age? Or warped head and/or cylinder? The head would be easiest to check since you have it off, but the cylinder removes easy too. I'd probably take em both to a machine shop to get checked and/or planed to be sure, Good Luck

[dzig_33]

Head gasket is in, runs like a top. Couple of questions, though. In the manual under engine installation, it says replace shims (#9 in figure F4) between engine and frame. I found no shim and no #9 in the drawing. Also, at top end speed, getting a vibration from what feels like the driven clutch or rear end. Thinking I should at least change the rear end lube. The book says 300-20 gear lube but I am not coming up with anything like that when I look around. 90 weight gear oil or what should I use? Thanks to all who replied previously.

[Dabble Inn]

My book says 200-30w lube in the rear end but I haven't found anything close to that either, I've read some say to use 30w motor oil but I don't like that idea at all....

I've been using 75-90w gear lube for a couple years now since replacing a bad pinion seal, when the seal was leaking I used the heavier 85-140w in hopes to slow down the leak until I could replace it. Well of course that idea didn't help lol , plus I could tell the difference in performance on those cold Idaho days......

I don't remember any shims on the engine mounts so I'd say just make sure to put all the washers back on where you got them, and yeah check out the driven clutch too

[slonomo]

Is this transaxle a chain driven setup like the old NP203? If so, heavy gear lube is not what you want, you'll want synthetic engine oil. If its a fully gear driven unit like an NP205, gear lube is good.

[cart around]

With a top speed of 18mph, you could probably use water. I used 30 weight oil in my 87. That's what the 89 3pg manual called for.