My Big Bear 400 (I think its a 2001, no idea where to check) is having some trouble with running and power. For some reason when I'm riding along it'll start choking and sometimes will shut off or sometimes just sputter. If you give it gas it doesn't help however if it doesn't shut off and gains power again it will backfire as if you loaded up the carburator. It gets air sufficiently, atleast fair combustion, which leaves spark. I just put a brand new plug (correctly gapped, yes) in and the wire doesn't SEEM damaged. My first speculation is that the kill switch is causing the problem because usually when its running the starter switch will turn on the oil temp light when you hit it. If it starts sputtering the lights keep power but if I hit the starter switch it only flutters the oil temperature light dimly, not like usual. (Loss of power I'm assuming, leading me to believe that the kill switch might be touching something).. Oh and at random it will start in gear when you hit the switch. It normally wont start in gear but sometimes now you can hit the switch and it'll fire up in 3rd or whichever gear you're in. Also, sometimes it wont start at all. In neutral you can hit the starter switch and nothing happens. no power drain, no lights, nothing happens. it just acts like it should work without working. like if the kill switch was on, but its not. if you keep trying it will eventually start.

My general question after stating all this is what can make it do all this? Is it as simple as a kill switch or is there an underlying computer causing my problems?

Please help, thanks.

 

Is it possible to put a test light or a meter on the kill switch and move some wires and flip the switch to see if the switch and wires are ok?