Here is a problem that would confuse many, myself included and since I'm not a mechanic, am fumbling through it. I have a 1999 Articat 400 4x4. It has run fine, with a problem that arrises in the winter, especially this year.

The bike starts fine initially, but if I try to rev the engine by giving gas, it boggs down and chugs. Now my initial thought is the carb, but the problem get's very interesting.

So if I try to give it gas it chuggs, but at the same time, If I use my winch to draw current from the battery, it drive and rev up fine no problems. Now I get it going for a little while and once I stop running the winch (Up & down) it goes back to bogging, and sometimes a backfire, since the gas has been flowing.

This I can do for a little while and once the bike is wormed up after 10-15 minutes, the problem goes away. If I let it sit and get colg again, the problem returns.

Now I know that I have to clean my carb, and will be looking at it this weekend, but this problem is very confusing. Since the problem goes away with using the winch, I'm now looking at a weak spark??but if that was the case, wouldn't the bike not just flood and drown the plug?

I have checked the battery with a meter and have approx. 12vts normal and 13.5 +/- when running, so this looks ok.

Racdemup