Yamaha Blaster Basket Case Build
August 17, 2017
in
Tips & Advice
This Yamaha Blaster basket case came from the son of a friend of mine. He had parts sitting around in his father's garage, and he asked if I could put it together for him. A majority of the parts were Yamaha, but some were Suzuki and Honda. I enjoy rebuilds as a hobby, and will occasionally do work for a friend, so I quoted the cost of the rebuild, and instead, I ended up inheriting the Blaster.
It sat in my garage for a while until my daughter asked me to put it together. Over the course of two months, the rebuild developed my appreciation for four-wheelers. I grew up with dirt bikes, but am finding that four-wheelers are easier on the bones and jjoints.
FrankenQuad Comes to Life
Here's the photo-by-photo breakdown of this epic rebuild.
It turned out to be a true basket case
with a lot of stuff missing. The Suzuki and Honda parts didn't seem to fit for some reason, either.
About 2 hours in.
It did have a pretty cool AC front bumper, though. As you can see, I had already rebuilt the front brake system with new bearings and shoes.
Rear end ready to go with new bearings and seals.
New A-arm bushings, too.
Okay, let's skip to the good stuff
$2,000 Later
New Douglas Red Label wheels screwed into ITP Holeshot tires.
New OEM plastic (Yamaha blue, of course), 250cc big bore kit, a Wiseco Hot Rod Crank kit, and an FMF Fatty Exhaust.
Added some Moose shock covers and stick-on graphics to match the new seat cover.
New AC rear grab bar and heel kickers behind the pegs. 34mm Mikuni carb with a twist throttle (since I grew up on dirt bikes, I never could get used to a thumb throttle) and modified custom air box.
Almost too pretty to ride. This was my first Quad, and I liked it so much that I have never gone back to off-road two-wheelers. (I can't get rid of my street bikes.)
First test ride, and no holding back! This little 250cc will eat up those 350 Warriors. Could use some new shocks, but I've reached my limit on this toy.
Hey, my friend Wes' lack of photography practice cut my head out of the picture, but at least he got a nice shot of the AC Skid Armor skid plates that I forgot to mention.
Shortly after the picture above, I discovered that I just may want to start trying to get used to a thumb throttle. Bark busters didn't help much here, but at least they didn't break when I crashed. I bent my steering stem slightly, which I fixed a couple weeks later. Luckily, my friend had a blue set of bars hanging in his garage and I had extra levers in my tool box. Although we had had to tow it back to the barn, we had it back on the track in about 30 minutes.
Best set of custom bars. Also, check out those lights I bought at AutoZone that fit perfectly in a spot where they can't get knocked off easily.
The following day was the real break-in ride without the bark busters. This little quad flew, and it was hard to keep the front end down. It really needed an extended swing arm.
After testing, I decided it was too fast for my daughter to ride, so she ended up with a toned down Honda 300EX. I eventually traded the Blaster for a 660 Raptor. It makes this quad look puny!
TJ (Tire Jockey)