Today was 16F but it happens in much warmer weather,I have tryed different brand fuel's plus isopropyl. Has anyone tried a carb warmer? Like I said I also had an 02 250 ac that did the same.[/quote]


Actually a simple carb warmer can be made from a couple pieces of heat riser hose and some duct tape or silver insulation tape. You wrap one piece of hose around the exhaust pipe and tee the other into it and tape it up. The other end of the tee hose fits around the carb bowl and convection will move the heat up to the carb. A better way would be to duct the warm air into the air box. I'm sure you aren't out mud holing this time of year and just remove the hoses in the spring.[/quote]

Never thought of that it's Worth a try! Thanx for the idea BEAR4570(that man is always thinken)

 

OK this makes me mad....I live in NE PA and my buddies pull up on thier quads in 12 inches of snow ready to go and play. 1 Yamaha 660 1 Kawi 360 and an Arctic Cat 300 all these are 4x4. I open the shed and pull out my 2005 Arctic Cat 400 4x4 to show the boys my new toy! OK I do a safety check and all is good! Then it takes...hold on 30 minutes and many tries to crank over. This sucks! I tried many of the listed cold start hints and nothing worked...I felt silly. The boys go off and I miss out becuase the Cat is to cold? Seems like that engine warmers is worth the money in EGO saving alone![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

I keep my 650 in a shed out in the elements and have yet to have a problem starting my rig. Even after a month of not starting it at all it fired right up. Guess I am one of the lucky ones...lol.

 

Must be something about Alaska. I have never had a problem with cold starting here either, except for when I broke my choke lever, and it still started after cranking for a while. My 400 and 500 usually sit for long periods of time and even during that -0 a couple weeks ago they both started.

 

Just go out and fire up a small electric heater with a fan about a 1/2 hour to an hour before you plan to ride. Aim the thing at the engine with it setting on the floor. Heat rises and will warm the whole engine. My 2005 AC 400 4X4 starts fine in the cold, well at least down to 18 degrees. Not as easy as at 40 but no problem as long as the fat thumb stays off the throttle. Only used the heater trick on my 250, before I swapped out the shifter cable for linkage, the cable would get water in it and freeze.

 

I had my 250 out yesterday plowing my sidewalk and I had left it in the driveway to go out in my truck to plow some more and my dad tried to start the atv several hours later and he said it wouldn't start. I don't know what was going on with that, but he didn't want to drain the battery so he pushed it back in the garage for me. When I got home it fired right up. It was in the single digits when it wouldn't start, but it's supposed to be colder tonight so I'm going to have to perform a test. I'm gonna leave it outside and see what it'll do.

I was just on it a few minutes ago and it started fine, but as usual took forever and a day to get warmed up.

 

My 400 is really cold blooded as well. It'll turn over and fire just fine, but it does NOT want to idle until completely warmed up. I had it out in a blizzard yesterday, and it ran fine while moving, but if I stopped, I had to feather the throttle to keep it running. Even turning up the idle adjust only had marginal results. Once out of the wind, and working it a bit, it warmed up and ran fine. I found that once the motor was broke in, it started a lot easier, and I run synthetic oil, which also helps a lot. I've seen a fix for this problem, AC has a richer "starter jet" which should solve some of these problems. It's fine to heat the motor with an electric heater, in your shed, but it doesn't do you a lot of good when you're out on the trail.

 

I checked out your photos Bluethumb. Cool light setup you've got there - and HEAVY DUTY too! If you ever crash and burn, that mount will be the only thing left - ha.

We're going out today to try to fire up our 400's for the first time in a couple months. We would have been out riding sooner but we got a ton of snow around here and the stuff froze at about a foot deep in front of the gate that leads to the back yard. It's gonna take a lot of work to chip and shovel the stuff away enough to open the gate. Had I known how much snow was coming and how deep it was going to be (and how long it was going to last) I would have at least gotten the pickup out before it was too late.

I put StaBil in the gas but did not (Bear talked about this too late for me to benefit) let the engine run and suck it through the carbs. So we may be in for a 'trial' when we go out today. I did just buy two of those solar panel battery maintainers off eBay and they came in the mail on Saturday (while I was gone) so plugging them in is also on today's list of things-to-do.

Now that we've got over 1000 miles on both of them they start, run, and 'haul butt' much better than when they were new, but they always seem to be tough to get started at first. Once running and warmed up, they run like tops the rest of the day.

 

What's up Tommy, them photo's are old, I guess it's time to update them eh?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] That mount got snapped off by a tree, it looked H.D but it was only made of plexiglass. I was going to make another mount from steel, but had a better idea. My speedo is on rubber mounts, there's apin that goes down through the center, a washer, and a clip. I just took the clip out, ditched the washers, and put the light base in its' place, then put the pins back in, a lot better set up. I'll update some day.
We're screwed here now, we got 2 feet of snow here overnight and it's blowing all over the place. I can get though about 18", after that, I need a plow to get the snow from underneath the skidplate, or I high center. But, I'll still try, better than shovelling! I don't see a problem with your bikes starting, unless the batteries are low. Mine has moisture in the starter, and it doesn't want to engage when it's froze. Pull started it yesterday, until the starter got warmed up. Guess I'll have to take it off and clean it up. Do you like the auto's? Mine next bike will be auto, no more shifting gears for this cat.

 

Ooops. I posted a message before noticing that there was a second page to this. Then I couldn't figure out how to delete it so I've just "edited" it by putting this stuff up instead of the message I just placed, which dealt with an old, out-of-date post.

DUH!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]