Good afternoon everyone!!

I have a 1997 SP 500 that has been running poorly ever since we crossed a water hole yesterday. The water was just above the tires and made it through easily, but when we came out it started running poorly. It will start but won't rev up or even idle well. I can only guess somthing got wet and needs to dry out or be cleaned/dried. This just happened yesterday while riding on the soo line in MN and we had to tow it back to the truck. Luckily we weren't far. I haven't had a chance to get into it yet. I'll clean the carb and look for any obvious issues, but is there a common part that gets wet and causes an issue? It seems spark related as the exhaust was very fuel rich smelling while we tried to get it going. It ran great all day before that. Any help would be very appreciated.

1997 Sportsman 500
4200 miles

Thanks Eric

 

First thing check air filter and box for water saturated filter!

 

Any chance it backfired? My 05 SP 700EFI backfired yesterday and it blew the throttle body out of the boot that attaches it to the engine. Strangest thing I have ever had happen. If the filter is OK, check the carb mount.

 

Thank you for your responses. I'll take it apart tonight and see what's going on. I'll give an update when I figure it out.

Thanks again.