Hello all, I am new to the forum (have lurked a lil here and there in the past). My daughter RedCat 90 decided to not start..... here is all the details I have and what I have tried.

It will crank and crank but never fire. So made sure fuel wasnt shut off, then made sure it was getting spark and it was.I checked to make sure the fuel filter wasnt clogged, so i popped it off and could easily blow through it so doesnt seem to be glogged at all.

So then I decided to take off the air filter and open the choke up, then when hitting the starter I sprayed in a lil mist of fuel from a spray bottle. It would fire up immediately like a champ and then die again after that fuel was burnt.

I could literally keep it running forever just by misting fuel into the intake and have full throttle response and all that like normal.

So what would be the problem do you guys think? I hate my first post ever is a "help me" post ....but my daughter would like to get her 4 wheeler going again and I just dopnt have the cash now to just take it to local shop and pay prolly nutty amount.

I appreciate all help and/or suggestions in advance.

 

welcome to the forums, i'd say if you got spark, and your spray bottle will keep it running, then your carb is dirty & not feeding any fuel to it. clean your carb & go ahead and change the fuel filter(cheap to do). how long has it been sitting?

 

Thanks Jaster

It sat over the winter and once it didnt start this spring I honestly didnt have time to touch it till now.

Im not a real big mechanic or anything, I can usually do most things without problem if I have a manual or tutorial (haynes or chilton) .... Im a paint and body man, but can machanic with guidance.

Is there anywhere on the net or anything that might have a tutorial or something on cleaning the carb? I really hate to have it sitting there not running since its like brand new almost and hardly ridden much

 

OK, first remove the fuel line with the fuel filter attached from the carb and see if gas flows freely from the line. If not, there is a clog in the hose, the tank shut off or the fuel filter. To check just disconnect at each spot.

Second, if gas flows freely from the hoses all the way to the carb it can be one of 2 things. First, there is a screw at the bottom of the float bowl.(this is the bottom of the carb) It will be next to the vent tube. Open this screw and see if gas comes out of the vent tube. If it does then that means that the float is working and letting gas into the fuel bowl. If it doesn't then the small needle valve connected to the float could be clogged.

Then, if the gloat is working fine, your jets are clogged inside the carburetor. The large jet is probably fine, but the smaller jet clogs easily. Remove the carb from the bike. Take a pic if you can't remember where it all goes when you put it back on.

Then drain the carb, turn it over and remove the fuel bowl to get to the jets. Then spray carb cleaner through them. If you find that it is really gummed up and won't come that clean, then order a new carb.....

Manual choke....
Carburetor Chinese ATV Dirt 50 70cc 90cc 110cc 125cc : eBay Motors (item 260634600490 end time Aug-11-10 20:00:52 PDT)

Cable choke.....
Carburetor Chinese ATV Dirt 50 70cc 90cc 110cc 125cc C: eBay Motors (item 190391721921 end time Aug-22-10 20:22:44 PDT)

 

we can walk you through it, but if you're a visual kind of guy, youtube has a few videos on how to clean a carb. just pick an atv carb. i perused through there the other day and got on some carb setups that blew me away! so yeah, in essence i presume they're all the same, it's just i like to make sure they're doing virtually the same one i'm doing. holler if you have any other questions.

 

Well guys I was able to get it running today. We were lucky and last thing on the list to try before pulling the carb off and cleaning it was to drain the tank, clean the tank (inside), and try some fresh fuel from a different source. My daighter and I did just that and got it good and cleaned out, tried it and she fired up and ran today all day perfect, I even just tried it (2am) in the garage just to try and see if it would fire quick ....and she fired instantly.

Thanks to everyone for all the help and suggestions, I will bookmark this thread for future help on cleaning a carb if needed. I really appreciate it all guys!!

Another bonus to working on it a lil over a couple days was having my daughter help out, she is a girlie girl but always likes to work on cars, wether its helping sanding(help prepping for a paint job), bleeding brakes, learning to weld a lil or something like this on hers ....its kinda fun to get out there with her while she is still young and work together on something.

 

bruticus, taking the time now with your daughter will give her tons of knowledge later. i do this with my kids. i've told them "daddy won't live forever, you've gotta learn how to do this!". well, my babygirl is in college, a lot of the stuff i taught her/made her do when in high school, she's had to do while at college. she's learned that Daddy was right. she had to do the chore, not me. gives her a little independence and makes me feel better knowing she ain't helpless! besides, it's a good stroll down memory lane whenever she tells me about the "stuff" she learned from me that she had to do while away from home.

 

hey i was having the same problem but i wanted to check if i had spark i checked but no spark could thier be any other problems besides the coil please help thanks

 

There are many parts involved in making spark. The coil is driven by the CDI. The CDI has three inputs: Power, trigger and Kill. Power can be moderately high voltage AC from the stator or 12 volts DC from the battery (we'll need to find out which is used on your quad). The trigger signal comes from the stator. The kill switch input wires to all your kill switches. A problem with any one of these can prevent spark, as well as problem with the interconnect wiring between all these parts.

Fortunately a lot of these inputs and outputs can be measured with a meter. By making some meter measurements you can narrow the possibilities down, and many times find and fix the problem without having to guess and buy a bunch of parts you don't need. Often it is just a wire connection and you don't need to buy anything.

What kind of quad do you have (model/engine size)? How many pins do you have on your CDI? Do you have a meter? You'll need one, but you can get them really cheap these days:

7 Function Digital Multimeter