hello all, I have a 2000 sportsman.. it hadn't been started in about a year so I decided to drain the gas pull the carb to see if it was dirty and change the plug and oil.. put it back together but before I put the breather box on decided to start it up. It started right up seemed to run fine except I noticed when I would rev the engine I would see a fine mist of gas coming from the carb where the breather box connects.. any ideas...I checked the valve clearance thinking the intake valve wasnt closing completely but seems fine, this just didnt seem normal to me

 

A little mist back is normal on cv carbs as at times the diaphragm slide assy stays open longer than conventional cable operated carb slides.This is because of the vacuum lift on the diaphragm.It's just slower on slide return to an idle.It can't at times handle the rush of fuel/air mixture dumped into the combustion chamber all at once and the excess is forced out as a mist during the compression stroke. Not a bad idea though to take a careful look at the exhaust cam lobe as this model falls into the years affected on soft cam lobes. If an exhaust lobe is really worn down,the mist back from the carb is more pronounced along with loss of power.