I have an 88 that is now my backup bike since I went back to Trump and got my Triumph Scrambler,  My buddy borrowed it to learn to ride and stopped riding it immediately and towed it back to me when he heard a nasty noise that turned out to be the cam tensioner letting go.  I picked up a 95 that had been wrecked and had bent forks and a dented tank for only $300 bucks delivered.  The 88 engine has been torn down and needs a complete rebuild so I am in the process of swapping the engine and transmission from the 95 into the 88.  

I know this has been pretty much the same bike for it's whole model run and am looking forward to adding the 5th gear.  When I put the 95 engine and transmission into the 88 is there anything else like the CDI or other parts that I should swap out from the 95 as well or will the engine and transmission work with everything else that is still on the 88?  I've read posts about issues putting an older engine into a newer bike but any advice from those who have made such a swap would be greatly appreciated.  

On a side note I'll be posting the frame for sale when the project is done so if anybody is looking for a frame PM me with an offer.

Thanks in advance for any info from you diehard Thumpers.

There are several people that have done this, after all the help we gave them you would think they would chime in.  But I can't recall that they ever said gotrdone, no issues, thanks.  No I can only conclude that we've overlooked something and when they went to start it up left a big hole in the ground.

As far as I know, CDI box should go with the engine, some rectifiers are 3 and some 5 wire.

Oh, when you start up, have a friend film from a mile away so we know what happens.  

actually i'd like to know too.  I'm getting sick of this 4spd tranny.

My nephew is the wrench and he got the 95 engine into the 88 and fired her up without any pipes and boy was she loud.  The parts bike came with af antermrket pipe but he's having a problem getting the stock muffer clamp off so i'm going to do a search on that and see what i can find.

He cleaned out the carb with good old carb cleaner and tooday is a run through with fresh dino oil mixed with seafom and then a swtich to synthetic.  If we can't figure out the muffler clamp then plan b is a bafflectomy.  So far that $300 parts bke was money very well spent.

As far as I know the 4 speed has a very slightly higher (faster) ratio than the 5  but not enough to make a difference

bill67 wrote on 06/30/08 at 16:45:44:



Oh hell than nevermind.  I'm more than happy with the acceleration of the 4spd.  There' plenty of torque to move it.  I like the one less shift, i;m just looking for more top end.  I guess it would be much easier to do a chain conversion or even bigger tires.