Argo conquest questions

[Supermag]

I am looking at buying a 1999 Argo conquest with 500 hours on it. The machine comes with the Argo factory windshield, R.O.P.S., and Argo standard plastic tracks. All outside bearings are new and all chains have also been replaced with new. They are asking 5300$ for the machine.
How many hours can you put on a transmission in one of these machines?
Does the 99' have the double 50 chain all the way thru?
When did Argo go to the new ratchet type chain take up in the conquest?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.


Dave

[stevellb]

My 1999 conquest has single chain in the back and double up front. The transmission has abought 850 hours on it and still works great keep in mind this has been a 1 owner machine.

[Dan67]

I have a 2000 Conquest. Mine has about 440 hours on it now. About 350 when I got it. Same setup like stevellb has. Mine came with windshield and canvas top. I also had to replace all the chains and bearings in it. If taken care of, I expect you could get up towards 1000 hours on it, maybe longer. I'm thinking with the options you are looking at the price seems about right.. I'd try to talk them down a bit to $5000.

[plott hound]

my 1996 conquest has double 50 chain all way around.at 500 hours you will be looking at new bearings and maybe even new axles and sprockets.

[Old Tucker]

My 2002 needed all bearings and chains And I made the mistake of going stock. Soon after the stock axle flanges started to break. It,s best to go the Hd axles and bearings. When you are running tracks. It will save you money in the long run. And a lot of headache. The seller of mine said it had new bearings too
(yea right) Live and learn as they say. Give Adair Argo sales a call And he can give you a idea on what new axles and bearings may run you. My 2002 had 300hours and came with top winch 18in tracks windshild. heater, 8 brand new tires for about 8000.

[Supermag]

Thanks to all who replied. I am going to see it this weekend. If it comes home il post a few pics.

Dave

[Supermag]

Picked up my new to me conquest yesterday. Going thru the machine tomorrow then off to the camp with a 16 x 8 foot dock on the roof for the 5 mile trip. I will post pics as soon as I figure out how to do so.

[Supermag]

Has anyone had any issues with the governor on the fd620d? There seems to be very little throttle control. In low gear and from a dead stop the machine takes off hard and accelerates quickly. I removed the firewall and noticed that the clutches shift very fast. I rebuilt the clutches with new springs, bushings, slider blocks and lead weights. not much difference. I removed the air breather and manually activated the throttle from the control panel. I noticed that applying just a little throttle and holding it there the governor arm keeps opening the carb. lever raising the rpm of the engine to nearly wide open until I release the throttle control. the governor does not seem to be making any effort to reduce the rpm of the engine. I set the governor arm onto the governor shaft as per Kawasaki service manual. No change. All springs are in place and in good condition as per Kawasaki manual. My next step is opening the engine and replacing the governor gear and weights. Is there anything I am overlooking?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Dave

[JohnF]

I would make sure the carb is operating properly before breaking into the engine case.

I did experience the runaway governor symptom when I thought I needed to adjust the governor. It is extremely twitchy - seemingly microscopic changes made macroscopic differences. My problem was that the control plate range of adjustment was already maxed so I went to adjusting the governor arm. I did eventually get things ironed out with far too much time involved. If I were to run into this today I would adjust the spring tension instead - it has to be easier.

Of course this doesn't mean you governor isn't broken. Since you've already tweaked the arm adjust it full on just to see if it is working at all. That is, if microscopic tweaks don't have macroscopic effects then I would suspect you need to replace the governor.

And be careful, the governor is quite capable of asking the engine for RPMs in the crazy screaming range right at startup. I tested that.

[Supermag]

JohnF. Thank you very much for the advice and the heads up. I will try to play with it again this weekend. My next step is to remove the fan belt (for safety reasons), the link from governor arm to the carb, and the control panel leaving me only the governor arm and carburetor. I will then rotate the governor arm counter clockwise by hand then manually apply small amounts of throtle to see if I get a response from the governor. I was told I should feel the governor fly weights trying to rotate the governor arm clockwise in an atempt to reduce the RPM. If nothing the engine is coming out.

[JohnF]

This is one of those moments where you come back to something you wrote a bit back and ...

Anyway, where I said "governor is quite capable of asking" I meant "throttle control is quite capable of asking" of which the governor is only a part. Just clarifying for everyone.

That does sound like a good way to test it. Takes all the spring balancing out of the equation. Yeah, I like it.

[Supermag]

Thanks JohnF.
I performed the test and had absolutely no reaction from the governor arm. Motor is coming out and opened up in two weeks. Il post my findings.
I have done my research on this, but if anyone has any advice for me (while I'm in there) it would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

[Supermag]

Took the motor out and opened up today and found the governor gear and flyweights destroyed in the bottom of the engine. One of the small pieces of the gear was stuck in the opening of the oil intake in the bottom of the engine. There was only about 10 to 20 percent of the oil intake available. My oil light is operational, I never got a low oil pressure light but this a great example how important the low oil press. Light is. Luckily there is no other damage in the engine.

Dave