My wife asked recently if anybody had heard of this problem and the responses were lost.

This sympton was noticed after a stop from an extreme uphill 4 x 4 climb with 200lb = rider. I know the exhaust header is

real close to the plastic tank but never dreamed it would get that hot. Thanks

 

I am not sure if that is a standard problem or not. You could buy some heat tape as sport quads use to protect their plastic. It is worth a try, and your safty.

 

do a Grizz or Grizzly search, the problem and it's fix, has been covered in pretty good detail. From what I gather, it doesn't happen to all, but fairly common. Gene

 

Yeah dude, I never believed that crap for a good while, and then witnessed it and felt stupid. I took off the gas tank and just went over the bottom of it with reflective heat tape (real cheap crap too, like $3 from a hardware store- foam with the reflective stuff on one side). Then I wrapped the header pipe all the way past the carb with highlifter heat wrap. That did the trick I guess, cause I've never had another episode or any sputtering or cutting out. That was over a year ago too.

 

I have a '02 and did the same thing, my brother in law has a Brand new one and also did it! Yamaha offers a kit for this problem...it consists of a heat shield that goes under the tank and a sleeve for the fuel line, and a seperate side panel kit that has been slotted on the sides...its cheaper to modify your stock ones and are better grade plastic, a person from a dealer showed me hoe to slot them and it SOLVED this problem! The heat shield piece for the tank is only $7.00!