Hi All: Just bought a 2002 Sportsman 700 from a friend. He only had 44 miles on it. It is in mint, showroom condition. I would like to know what I should do to it, since it was sitting all these years in his garage. I am thinking about a plug change and maybe rebuilding the carb is needed. I would like to try some Gumout on the carb and gas treatment to clean out carb for now. Quad seems to run good, but have not had a chance to take it out for good test ride yet. Had it give a good back fire yesterday which concerned me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Change ALL the fluids. Flush the radiator. Grease everything. Check voltage on battery, charge it or replace if you need too.

 

Thanks FranK: What are your feelings on the carb? I am hoping it's not gummed up etc, but time will tell. I have a grizzly as well, and I always run it with a gas additive called fuel activator, which is supposed to combat the ehanol in the gas.

 

If it sat up for a couple of years I'd take the carb off and clean the inside out with some break cleaner. You don't need a rebuild kit. Just take the bowl off and pull the jets out. Spray some break cleaner through the jets and inspect the bowl.

 

Do you know if your buddy put and Stabil in the gas before he stored it? If not, I would take the carb apart and clean it. I would also do as other say and change all fluids and I would also drain the old gas out.

 

I think it MUST have varnish in the carb after all that time. I use Sta-Bil in my gas for off-season storage of all my power equipment, but that's really only made for 6 months, not 6 years, of storage. Brake cleaner can dissolve plastic, so I would only use that on the metal parts.

 

The Stabil bottle says 1 year and 2 years if you double the dose. But that still aint 6 years.

 

I thought it was 6-12 months but I haven't read the bottle in years. I just squeeze the right amount, dump it in, and shake it. I would run all the gas out if I was storing something over a year anyway.

BTW I've done about 3 times the miles in a day that this quad had on it in 6 years. I wonder if he rode it more than once?

 

Our new 08 has 38 miles already[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Thanks Range Rover: Both you and Frank have given me some good advice. It will be a labor of love. I love to tinker with my quads. Sure beats working on house or at work. Have a trip up to Maine in August Planned, and want to have the Sportsman in tip top condition. Miles and Miles of logging trails where we go. Can't wait. Happy Quadding. Mountain Joe.