I recently bought a 98 500 that was non running. I cleaned the carb. and now it starts and runs but would not run past 20 mph. Put new clutch buttons in and now will pull to 50 but hesitates. Now you have to let off a little to accelerate or it bogs. Acts like plugged converter in a car or retarded timing? Any ideas?

 

does it bog in neutral as well or just in gear under a load? how was the clutches/belt when you had it apart? dirty, warn parts? does using the choke make it run any better from take off or worse? just a couple of thoughts to check.

 

Clutch sheaves were fine. No bad wear. Helix was scored but polished ok. Choke does not help. Clutch buttons made such a difference that I plan to change all of mine. Just holding back enough to tell. I am a car mechanic so I am relating problems to cars. Just thinking this may be the dreaded cam wear.

 

now that you mentioned that and i reread what year you have it is possiable since in those years(i think it was 98 or 99) they had soft cams and wearing the lobes down was an issue which lead to no power and bad running.

 

what was the spring in the secondary set at and what elevation do you ride, at 5000 ft inwyo I set the at 1 on the helix and 2 on the clutch, makes a big difference in how the clutch shifts

 

I am at 700 ft and it is a red spring set at 2 2

 

Thats the setting the book recomends, try lowering the E-clip on the main jet nedle one notch, this will raise the nedle and give it a little more fuel, also check the fuel screw on the bottom of carb, may be covered by brass plug , if so the plug needs drilled out and removed, use a 1/8 inch bit then thread a sheet metal screw into it and pull it out with vice grips, fuel screw should be set at 2.5 turnsout