This weekend while riding in Harlan County KY, my Sportsman 400 would run poorly on steep inclines. It almost felt like it had a rev limiter, or like it runs in reverse without depressing the override button. It ran fine on shallow inclines and flat surfaces. It would only run poorly/lose power on very steep long inclines. It has fresh gas but it has the orginal spark plug. Its never had any work done on the carb. Can anyone lend a hand diagnosing the problem?

 

Maybe adjust the throttle cable slack, the ETC, 4 iches from the thumb throttle there is a boot on the cable, slide it down and adjust so there is 1/8 inch of slack in thumb throttle, there is a small set of points inside the housing and maybe they were closing on the steep hills.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Interesting that was recently adjusted because it was dying at idle. Wouldn't it completely die if the contacts were not working properly>

 

No, sometimes the points shut, then open quickly and it act like the reverse overide, its supposed to do that in case the throttle sticks. As far as adjusting it to make it idle, its not supposed to be used for that, there is an idle adjustement on the carb, you may have the etc too tight, does the engine speed up when you turn the handlebars?