Bought new by me and never messed with. Ran great for years, then tonight, I started it after sitting maybe 5 months and it fired off right away, but died suddently. It was very low on gas so I put more in. Still no start. Is turning over fine, replaced battery last year. So then I removed plug and dripped some gas in there and it started and ran just a second. I thought maybe the fuel valve wasn't working or had crud it in, but I puked the gas supply tube going into carb and it was flowing gas. So, its getting spark, but not gas. Plug looks OK and is actually orginal. This ATV has 16o hours on it only. I tokk off the air cleaner and squitred some fuel down in there and it runs for a seconf like that too.

Do you think the fuel filter (does it have one) could be plugged?

Do you think there could be water in the fuel or fuel bowl? How can I drain the gas from the fuel bowl? I think 5 months ago, I shut off gas and ran it until it died (usually do).

Do you think it could have a stuck float bowl or a piece of crud in the needle valve?

Thanks much guys. I need to get this going ASAp cuz dove season starts Labor Day

 

I'm putting my money on the carb being messed up. If you need this machine to run soon, your going to need to take it to a local shop and have them take a look at why no gas is getting there. If you had more time to play around with it then I would say rip it apart and lets figure it out....however Labor day is very soon!!

 

well, I just took out the screw at bottom of bowl. It was a needle type screw, screwed all the way in, tight. I'm guessing this is the bowl drain screw. Nothing came out. So, I'm thinking its not getting fuel to the bowl. Dare I blow some compressed ait into the inlt tube where the fuel supply hooked to? I'm guessing its got a stuck float in the closed position, which is strange being that there is no fuel in the bowl?

 

That's what i think it is also , there's really three thing's that come to mind gunk in the carb ; and there is a filter on the fuel valve ( petcock )on/off/reserve valve that has a small screen type filter on the end of petcock/on,off,reserve valve ! But even though it's getting gas flow to the the carburator it may have some water in the tank from humidity when the temps go from hot to cold it will cause the inside of the tank to sweat , and it dooesn't take much water to foul up a single cyclinder engine ; if it sit up that long with unteated fuel in the your tank metal or plastic ! It can also cause the fuel to go bad and breakdown an turn to a gummy or hardened varniish ; that can clog up the the jets and seats and inlet valve to stick and stop fuel from getting into the bowl ! And from feeding fuel to the intake to get to the combustion chamber , but the only way to get the jets clean is to remove the carb and take it apart ; and give it a good cleaning with a good parts cleaner ! And it's not that hard to clean a carb , it's just hard to remove it to clean it if you've never took a carb off before ; that's where a shop service and repair manuel come's in handy ! And it's the best investment you can make for any atv /motorcycle or automobile , after the carburator is clean and it still doesn't run you could have a stuck valve ; but like scottphillps88 i believe it's the carburator has gunked up and need's a good cleaning ! I wish i could be of more help and good luck getting it going , Oh and one orther thing there is a site where you can go to get a look at the part's diagram and how they're put together ; i think it's www.hondawold.com ! There are other site's where you can acess the micro fishe/parts diagram , i just can't remember off hand any of the other's ; but someone will maybe jump in with a better site and more info ! .........................

 

If you ran it till it died as you stated there should have been no fuel in the carb, however some of the fuel ***** dont shut completely off... for whatever reason.
Try this for a quick fix, with the screw out of the bottom of the bowl that you mentioned, take the handle of the screwdriver and tap on the side of the carb while your fuel valve is turned on, I have saw them come loose this way, if not, it will require removel. Which if you have a service manual, is not all that hard, takes about 15 minutes.

 

hunt_bird i found a site called , www.bickebandit.com they have the micro fish with that cover's the carburator diagram showing the part's layout but like i said in my previous reply you have to remove the seat , gas tank , airbox cover, airfilter and airbox to remove the carb ; it's been a long time since i removed the carb from my old 1986 Honda TRX 350 4wd ! And one major difference on the 1986 model the gas tank was under the seat instead of up front like the newer model's have ! They stopped putting the tank under the seat in 1989 or 1990 , your 2000 TRX 350 would more like the Honda TRX 350 Rancher model's ; you didn't say if your 350 has 4WD or 2WD the 2WD would have a little more space to work with than the 4WD's my brother has a 2002 or 2004 Honda TRX 350 Rancher with fulltime 4x4 he hasn't had any trouble with his but replace his battery because he let it set up for 5 0r 6 month's without even starting or charging his battery ! He got hooked on his computer , he told me the last he tried to start it all he got was one half turn over of the engine and then the clicking sound from the starter ; and as far as i know he still hasn't got a battery ! He jump started it and it ran fine only because he had put some Seafoam in the fuel to keep the gas from going bad and gumming up the carb , when you do get it running i would premix the gas with the seafoam ; it's a great product and you can find it at most auto parts stores the last time i bought a can for $5.99 plus tax at o'reillys auto parts store ! The last time i removed the carb on the old 86' honda was about three or 4 month's before i sold it to my youngest brother in November 2005 i took it apart and installed a new carb kit with everything in the kit Gasket's and all new jet's every thing for a complete overhaul the carb for $25.00 i got the kit from at a freind's Arctic Cat dealer ship for less than honda wanted for just the gasket's , and i also had cleaned and installede a new carb kit that had all new jet's o'ring gasket's on my old 1993 Suzuki LTF4wd for the same price ; about a week after i bought a 2006 Arctic Cat 400 FIS Auto 4x4 i sold the Suzuki to same brother for his wife ! I didn't have a repair manual for the honda , Suzuki and i haven't found one for my AC 400 yet ; i just took it apart watched closely to how i took it a apart and put it back together ; but i was a in the Small Engine Service for a little over 20 yrs. worked on lawn and garden equipment ! I had people bring lawn and garden equipment that other's had tried to fix themself's some in boxe's where they couldn't put back together , it took alille longer when they were torn apart by someone other than me ; i didn't work on motorcycles/ATV's untill i bought the 86' Honda after taking it to a dealer who ripped me off ! I rode my Cat this evening for just a short 3 mile ride on a track that's less than a quarter mile track just to put a charge in the battery and keeping the brake's and everything from rusting up , it had been over 2 to 4 week's since i had ridden it i had to use the electric choke 3 or 4 time's before it started ; that's why i use the seafoam in the fuel tank it's a fuel cleaner/stabilizer that will keep the fuel system and clean's the combustion chamber of carbon built up ! I think you could take it apart and clean the carb if you watch closely when taking it apart , i take picture's of thing's i've never done a new repair with my digital camera ; but if you don't think you're up to the job take to a shop unless you've gotten a manual yet ! .................................

 

Got it fixed, I hope. Thanks for the suggestions guys. Got up at 4 AM this morning while the weather was cool and took carb off, took bowl off, and it appeared float was stuck but it freed up easily. Fuel valve is leaking in the off position, so maybe that's why float was stuck. Put everything back together and cleaned air filter and walla, it runs. There was a small white circular plastice piece that fell out of bowl when I took it off that I hope I got back on right. We'll see how it runs when I take for a ride. Want to wait til neighbors wake up. Anybody know how much a fuel valve costs and how much of a pain it it to replace?

 

Here's the carb schematic, found after I did repair, thanks to williebee. The circular part I'm talking about is a "jet holder", part 24. Never seen anything like this. It just looosely slipped on and seems to be able to move around inside bowl, unless when I tightened bowl down, somehow that locked it in place. Not sure why a jet needs a "holder". Its screwed in tight.

carb schematic here

 

Good to hear hunt_bird and the circular part wasn't in my old 86' Honda TRX350 fulltime 4x4 they changed the carb when they put the fuel tank up front instead of under the seat , but your 350 has the same carb as my brother's 350 Rancher TRXF fulltime 4x4 ; you may not need a new petcock it might just be the rubber O'Ring is gone bad and may need replacing the petcock is easy compaired to the carb ! Don't forget to install a clear inline fuel filter between the fuel line to petcock and carburator it will catch any trash and if you ever get water in your fuel you'll be able to see it before it get's bad , you can get these clear filter's at most any small engine repair shop alot cheaper than from a Honda Dealership i install a new filter about once a year on lawn mower's and all other small engine's that don't come equipment i got two from home depot for my mom's mower and my Chipper Shreader and i would put a cut off valve on my Cat but it doesn't need one because the fuel tank is under the back plastic's with a built in fuel pump ! I heard someone on a different thread say they had to replace the the fuel tank just to get a fuel pump , if that ever happen's to me i will rigg one up off one of the old 85' to 89' 350 foreman's ! And back to your quad , most of all don't forget the Seafoam at $5.99 + tax it can't be beat for cleaning your intire fuel system and it will also clean all the carbon buildup in the combustion chamber as well ; i used to use a product called Stabil it was a good gas treatment and i still use it when storeing my lawn and garden equiptment in between mowing and garden season ! But for my 87' chevy S10 Pickup , my 88' GMC S1500 Jimmy MPV and last but not least my 2006 Arctic Cat 400 FIS Auto 4x4 they get the best and in my opion it's The Seafoam ; i just use the direction's on the can for mixing and it's good to go ! One guy asked me one time how much stock i had in Seafoam , and sadly i told him 0 shares ; well i hope you get everything ironed out for labor day and have safe one ! And when you get back try to find a good Service and Repair Shop Manual ; they will pay for theirself with just one complete service job at your local Honda Dealer Ship ! ...............................

 

Now what have I done. I got this thing running perfectly and everything was good. Took it out, used it one time, no problems. Then, I brought it home and saw I had some StaBil in the garage and some other can of small engine fuel preserver/restorer, so I put some in (and I'm pretty sure I put more in than I should have.... didn't measure, figured a little more is better, etc.). Then, this weekend I loaned the atv to a friend and he took it out and said it was really running bad and wouldn't run at all unless the choke was full on.

When he brought it back, I started it (had to choke but it immediately fired) and sure enough, it runs at very high idle and only with choke on and won't start with choke off. It died when I pushed choke in, so I choked it again, started it, adjusted the idle speed screw to try and increase RPM (cuz I had messed with that back when I took the carb off to clean stuck jet as mentioned in earlier post) and that wouldn't keep it running either. I note that it has very crisp and short back fires coming from exhaust (its popping). Then, even after running just a couple of minutes, on choke, with me reviing, I looked down at the head pipe and it was glowing RED HOT. So, I'm now wonering if this fuel preserver has the mixture to lean? Would this correlate in any way to it not starting unless choked and then running at very fast idle? I guess I need to drain fuel and put clean gas in and see what that does.

Anybody have any ideas on this? If it still does it after clean fuel, what would be the next thing to check?