I just bought a 94 kodiak from a friend that has been used very little. he sored it in his garage in town and used it ONLY to get to his deer stand on opening weekend. the odomoter shows 500 miles. well the day I rode it for the first time i changed the plug and filled the tank up with premium it was almost empty and had not been run for over a year. it ran good for about 7 miles then when i opened it up at the top of the revs it started to sputter and miss. now it wont run hardly at all unless the choke is all the way out. does anyone know where to start? I changed the plug before I ran it, air filter....anything else?
-John Thompson

 

My guess is that the carburetor or fuel line has some build up of gunk in it. It sounds like it's running pretty lean and this tells me that it's got something plugging one or more of the jets. The carb probably just needs a good cleaning and will be just fine afterward.

Hope this helps.

 

Iam with blackwidow

 

Ditto. Found a spider in the flaot bowl of my old Big bear after it had sat awhile. Clean it out and it should be fine.

 

OK, thanks for the help guys, I suspected that, but didnt wanna tear into it cuz I'm not sure what I am doing. I am somewhat mechanically incline with cars and stuff like that but never attempted small engines and not sure what to expect. is cleaning the carb a job i can overtake? or a dealer? if u think I could handle it give me a few tips on how to get started. I just dont wanna bust it open and have a load of small parts fall out on me

 

there pretty easy to work on. Lossen the clamps on the intake and you may be able to spin the carb around without taking it all the way off. There are 4 screws that hold the float bowl on. When you get that off you should be able to spray carb cleaner upthru the jets.

 

Not sure if the carbs were the same back then, but my buddys got a 01 kodiak and it gave him starting problems, until finally the starter would just turn but it wouldnt turn over. Talkin to the dealer I guess its common among the yamaha carbs that the needle jet is aluminum, he says after awhile they get cruded up and corrode and seal up, guess its big among yamaha carbs. Ive got a new 04 and he said its got the same carb setup, he said some reason cheap #$% yamaha would put a better jet in. He suggested to me to add a couple capfuls of 2 cycle to each tank of gas, said its so diluted it wont harm anything but it will keep the jets cleaner