I have a '97 Sportsman 500 I bought that has been sitting for about 6 years. I have disassembled the carb and cleaned it out as well as replaced the float needle and bowl gasket. I adjusted the throttle cable to have a small amount of slack and have taken the choke needle out also and cleaned the intake for it. I managed to get it to run but it idles like the choke is on. I can start it and turn on the choke and it will die. I have taken off the air box and can see the slide rise when I open the throttle. I backed out the idle adjustment screw all the way and can feel slack in the throttle. I can't figure out what is causing this. I am thinking maybee the choke needle is not closing completely. I also am having a problem with the float overflow. I imagine this could cause high idle but I can turn the fuel off and the overflow will stop dripping but it still idles high. Any ideas? I plan to take the carb back off tonight and set the float height or find out why it is overflowing and check the choke set up as well. I forgot to pull the fuel screw also and will clean out that orfice but I can't see the making it idle high, it should be dying instead.

 

it doesnt have an air leak somewhere does it? make sure the carb boot isnt cracked and sucking air.

 

Thanks for the advice. I went home and pulled apart the carb to find that i didn't have slack in the throttle cable after all. I can't believe I did that, rookie move. Good excuse to clean out the fuel screw passages, which I didn't at first. Also ended up good because the shop only had a screw in needle seat for the float. Mine uses a push in with a retainer. I went ahead and used the needle but found I had the float level set wrong. I went back in and was able to get the correct needle and seat which i went to put in and found the needle I had in there was wrong. Good thing I screwed up the cable adjustment. All back together and running good.

Thanks!

 

as long as its fixed and running good nothing elsle matters lol.