Talonman- can you give me a subjective overall rating of the upgrades you have done? Based on their contribution to performance, how would you rate the relative value of these mods? I have a 2005 Talon and plan to follow your example, but wonder about the best order in which to proceed, an which upgrades offer the best value.

It is hard to say for me due to the way I install handfulls of stuff at once, and take such a long time to get them all working.

I just began working on engines in 2004. I am still in the slow group, but I just keep moding, and moding, and ....You know.
I know I will never sell my 150cc Talon.

I can say that me getting a performance pipe, UNI air, and carb rejet was a noticible gain in my 2004 small exhaust piped buggy.

I think the CDI made my buggy run a tad better, but nothing to get too excited about.

Love the tires for both looks and a better ride over the bumps. It keeps your buggies nose out of the dirt too in allot of situactions.

I can't speak to the carb or the 4-valved head yet. They probably will all go in with the new Buggy Clutch when it hit the streets in a few weeks.

I am going part hunting again this weekend.

Blister has rated his mods to his 150cc Twister:
http://www.buggynews.com/viewtopic.php?t=3177
That is our sister buggy, so it's good info for us Talon guys too.

My low geared buggy never had a problem climbing hills stock, but has a top speed of 30mph so actually Blister's info might actually be better for you on roller's and gearing advice. I'm sure your a 40mph man.

What size Chain do most of the Talon's use? I think it's the same size as my Yerf Dog. I thought it said #10 on mine, but cant find that size anywhere.

530 chain.

I made a small support bracket for my extended instrumentation panel. I think it should help to keep any extra vibration to a minimum.

After getting some good advice from some Buggy Brothers, I decided on using door trim that was at the AutoZone. This stuff is magic. I baught the chrome and you just press it on and it sticks. It bends like rubber right around the corners and all! It dressed up my home-maid instrumentation panel just right!! Big score..

I also might mention that I picked up a new in line fuse holder from Radio Shack. I started poping a few fuses when I initially had my horn hooked up incorrectly. I quickly discovered that our fuse holders will not take American standard size fuses. I wanted to be able to pop a normal size fuse in my buggy if I needed to. The Radio Shack line fuse is rated for 20 amps, so it should be golden for our 10 amp fuse in the electrical box. It dosen't have the sneeky spot for a second fuse, but the quality is much better, and takes the standard American size 10 amp auto fuse. I also found that Lowes had a drawer full of 5 packs of 10 amp fuses. I baught 2 packs just to have on hand.

I also installed a small compass.

None of these mods are a big deal, but they do make my buggy feel more like home to me.

Talonman you went from MountainGoat to the Cadillac of buggies.

Thanks man ...

Do you think it's too much hardware up front, or does it still look OK? We have such a skinny dash it's hard to get everything you want in there.

I think it looks great. Now that you have that new steering wheel with quite a bit of room in the middle it may be time for a remote As long as you can keep the rattle down...(because rattling is my pet peeve) I think you could keep going. Everytime I've put something new on I have to do the rattle check...I think there is medication for that the I might need to check into...

I have a few clutch install tips, mostly for after your first clutch goes out, and your installing a second.

My stock pulley had a thick black coating of filth on the outer side's away from the belt track. I wiped the big stuff off, and shot some WD-40 into a paper towl and polished both outter sides back to jet clean. They have a super thin coat of WD-40 on them, but none made it to the inside where the belt makes contact. I wiped out the grease that was on the stainless axil that the pully rides on. It was black and had some dirt mixed in with it. I replaced it with the white lithium grease and worked it in by opening and closeing it several times. I still have lot's of acetone solvent from my Herculiner project, so I then did the inside of the pully with that. Next I put a thin coat of white lithium grease in the small grooves where the spring rests, on both top and bottom. I was thinking just in case the spring ever did get twisted, the grease might help it to unwind? I don't think I left so much grease in there, that I should have to worry about it flying out and getting on the belt or clutch shoes. We're talking super thin here.

This spring is stronger for sure, than my 2004 stock spring. I would say about 50% stronger if I had to guess. I would be willing to bet that due to this spring being rated at 1,500rpm, our stock GY6 spring's is probably rated at 1,000rpm. This spring puts up a good fight. You're going to have to want it bad, if you going to compress this bad boy!
I think the 2,000rpm spring will have the potential to lift you off of the ground?
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The question was asked, does it help to sand a used bell?

Some of Stu's wisdom.. 'TheBlade_Guy':

The bell does have grooves on it when it comes new, they run horizontily around the inside of it so the pads grab better, as the pads wear, or the clutch slips, it starts to glass over which makes it hard for the clutch to grab and can cause the new clutch pads to wear early. Dont really rough it up, but if no grooves are inside the bell at all, some sort of light roughing should help it grab a bit better on a new clutch...

This only applies if the clutch is new and the bell is used. the material for a brake drumb is different and therefore does not require roughing.

If the bell and clutch pads are new, install as is...

IMHO
STU
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After confirming that a used bell with a new clutch likes to have small horizontal lines on the inside of the bell, I began to sand. I considered using the Dremel, but it's wheel would only make more vertical lines on the inside of the bell, so out came the sandpaper. I turned the bell on it's side, placed a small piece of sandpaper inside the lip, and sanded at 90 degrees away from the bell. I just kept rolling the bell around on my desk, watching TV, and sanding at 90 degrees making millions of small horizontal lines. When the clutch pads engage on this bell, it will find lots of tiny scratches, running the exact way the pad does not want to go.

When I first started sanding, it seemed like a black fine pouder was falling off of the bell. I almost think it was tiny bits of worn clutch pad falling out of pits in the metal? After the first 30 minutes, not much more was falling off any more. It is hard to see, but when I hold my bell up to the light, you can see the tiny scratches from the sanding. You still can see some vertical lines the origional pads made when they engaged, but smaller horizontal lines on top of them. I did use more acetone solvent to wipe all of the sanding dust out of the bell.

I'm not sure how much performance this adds to a buggy, but every bit helps right?

Great post Talonman. I was thinking about cleaning and sanding the clutch bell, when I put in the 1500rpm spring in a coulpe weeks. So is the new spring really hard to compress??