My 05' 400i has a primer lever on the carb. Id imagine your 05 500 would have the same thing. When it's COLD I pump the primer lever 3 times and BANG, instant gratification. Here in Montana we've have some COLD lately. This week it's been amazing though. 61 degrees sunday when I went for a long ride.

The primer should be a brass colored lever and be right up on the carb. Look at it from the (let me think) right side as you sit on it.

 

I can't recall if I'd ever checked the battery fluid level after we bought the Cats late in '03. I foolishly assumed the dealer had checked all the necessary fluid levels and tire air. Boy was I wrong! I remember him saying the tires were all around 5 psi. NOT. They ranged from 3 to 11 psi. That should have been my first hint.

Anyway, I'm still charging my battery (at 2 amps) but I'll take it off charge in a bit, let it sit, then check the voltage.

One other bad sign was a slight 'bulge' in the side of it when I pulled it out of the ATV. Frozen water for sure. I'd forgotten to mention that when I posted this. And I only remembered it this morning when I went out to look at it and noticed that it no longer bulged. Hmmmm. I can see a new battery looming in the future. But not until we actually plan to ride them. I'm going to want to ride the crap out of it after I install it. And I'm going to let the battery sit for an hour or so before checking the voltage a second time to see if it maintains the charge.

Bear, it's a good plan to start them every couple weeks. We've always planned to do that, but... It's a pain in the butt to take the tarp off the trailer, climb up there and fire them up, hang out while they run, then re-tarp. But that beats dead batteries, of course. And with the two big snow storms we recently had, it makes the process all the more of a pain because we would have had to shovel our way out to them. Ha. Then the freezing fog we've had for over a week solid makes our plastic tarp into a solid piece of square plastic. Tough to fold and unfold. What we need is spring [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Ok, I'll give a battery report later in the morning.

 

Bluethumb- is your friends 650 still running good after the carb clean/rebuild ?. My 650 has some of the same symtoms that you described. Stiff choke lever, rich smelling exhaust, bobbling off the start with a slight miss, hard starting- especially hot restarts. I think it must be a sticking choke issue. Tried other stuff as far as checking plugs, pilot adjustment and such. Any carb removal tips Bluethumb ? Do you have to totally remove the dual carb setup ? Thanks for any guidance.

 

It's really easy to remove the carbs on them, laughable actually. Take the glove compartment off, lift the air filter ,then there's 8 screws that hold the carb throats in there, and a couple of seals. The bolts are loctited in there, so I'd have some before starting. After the bolts are out, it's 4 clips and off comes the air box. There may be a rubber hose attached to it, can't remember. Take the side panels off. Just look at them, there's 2 coolant lines coming in between the carbs, they have plastic fittings, so be carefull. Take them off. Take the fuel lines off, plug them with golf tees. Lift the carbs up, turn them over. You'll see brass pieces, take the screws out and pull toward the back of the bike. The choke plungers have "O" rings on them, they should slide out. They should slide freely in the bores.
Notice the linkage between the carbs, that's what we used to get them synchronized. Try your cable, they should slide easily. I don't think it's necassary to remove the float bowls, unless you suspect a problem with levels, or dirt. I would open the drains and see if anything comes out.
My buddies bike is running like new, actually better than that. It starts most of the time with no choke, even when it's -15C. I think the sticking choke was the reason for a lot of the problems. It looks complicated, but once you do it, it's easy. We didn't separate the carbs, they came off as 1 unit, and we kept them that way. Hope I helped you out, cheers

 

Thanks for the help Bluethumb. I'm probably going to have to take them right out because I have to replace the pilot jets/screws. I have mangled the screws so bad from all the adjusting that the brass slot is gone and barely turns. I figured if I'm going to take them apart that far, I may as well replace them. Hopefully I don't have to drill them out. Thanks again !

 

I JUst wanted to add that I just started my wife's TRV after is has been sitting outside for almost 2 months with the same gas, with no additives in weather from -5 to 30 degrees and I hit the primmer lever 4 times, turned on the choke on, and it fired right up. I let it warm up and my daughter and I took it for a little spin to run the gas out of the tank. You guys had me worried about starting problems but guess its hit and miss with being cold blooded.

Also for a battery tender I purchased one of those solar cell battery tricke chargers to keep the battery for the the brakes charged on my 18ft car trailer and 34ft gooseneck box trailer and have had good luck with them. I wonder if they could be used to keep an ATV battery charged? Or just remove then ATV battery, charge it and store it in the garage when the ATV is stored for entended time periods.

Spring might be just around the corner. I guess the ole ground hog will be out in a few weeks to let us know for sure huh?

SJ

 

Cold weather slows the breakdown of fuels because the molecules don't move as fast and they don't evaporate the additives out as easily. A maintainer type charger will work, but they need to be very low amperage and turn themselves on and off as the battery becomes fully charged.

 

As I mentioned above, I just got two of those dinky little solar charges from eBay and hung them on our fence next to the ATV trailer. I took a couple pictures and put them in my 'gallery'. Looks silly but I think they'll work.

Oh, and my dead battery charged up ok with an overnight charge at 2 amps. It's been almost 24 hours now and the battery still measures 12.82 on the meter. Ya think maybe I dodged a bullet????????[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

 

I don't know if you dodged a bullet there or not, that bulge doesn't sound too promising. I'd run it anyway. The voltage could be good sitting there, but as soon as you apply a heavy load, such as starting cold, or winching, it might die a lot sooner than it should. Still, I would use it until it totally quits.

 

Sorry Mr Tommy, I didn't see that. My eyes don't work as well as they used to. I have had good luck with the ones I bought from Harbor Freight. Not sure if the ones I got have a built in voltage regulator or not to keep from over charging. I know they make them with them, guess I will have to check mine out.

Maybe even get some for the ATV's.

Also, if anyone has to replace their battery, its my opinion that its a waste of money to purchase a sealed battery. They last just as long as a regular battery but cost way more $.

SJ