Should I run the fuel out of the carborator when I'm done riding for the day or is ok to just shut it off after I turn off the fourwheeler. My friend has a Yamaha Kodiak and it only has 44 hours on it.l But he forgot to shut off the valve a couple times. And when he changed the sparkplug it was black. he's not sure if that caused the problem or something else. Also what else could not shutting the valve off or running the fuel out after shutting the valve off cause?

 

i leave my fuel valve on! it helps it start in this Cooooold weather.

 

You should shut the valve off after shut down. If you run the carb dry the float will hang down against it's stop and if you trailer or truck the thing the float arm will bend a little each time and you end up with a low float setting, not good because a lean motor will burn a piston sooner or later. How do I know this, I was a marine mechanic for way to many years and it was a regular problem with outboard that had the carbs run dry. BTW, leaving the fuel valve on to get an extra rich mixture for startup means you have fuel in the cylinder, quess what that fuel does? It washs the oil off your cylinder walls causing dry startup and extreme wear and premature ring and cylinder failure, also not good.

 

Always good to turn it off, the problem is remembering to turn it back on[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

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For 25+ years, I was one of those folks who didn't believe in turning off a gas valve. Never had a problem and didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

One day in my garage, I turned my son's unit on its side. Took a few pictures of its customized skid plate, turn his unit back on his wheels and went into our basement. Approx 2 hours later, I had to go into the garage. To my surprise, there was a giant puddle of gas all over the garage floor. Over 1/2 tank must have leaked on the floor due ti its stuck float. The smell of evaporate gas was so thick, a match could have instantly ignited it. Since then, I NOW turn ALL gas valves off. Especially when our quads are parked in a garage or shed. Even on the trails when we are parked for 10+ minutes (for snack time, etc.), we turn our gas valves off.

Thanks for the info about NOT running the bottom of the carb dry. I never thought about float adjustment damage. Especially when being trailered down a rough road. I'll stop doing this on our quads. Thanks for this tip!!!!

For the black plug on your buddies new unit, he may want to review the following:
http://www.exriders.com/techarticles/sparkcolors.html
http://www.motocross.com/motoprof/mo...lug2/plug2.htm

Hope this helps...


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ha ha, thats why i leave it on!

 

Im not real good at explaining things but here goes. Leavin your fuelshutoff switch on while trailering can cause forced air into the carb and leeching it into the cylinder. this was explained to me by my mech and seems to make sense. I always leave my fuel switch in the off position. 2003 AC 500 auto.

 

What's the worst that can happen if you forget to turn it on? The engine stops running during warm up. That's it and it hurts nothing. You shouldn't start you quad motor and start tearing up the country side without a warm up, also hard on you engine. Leaving the fuel valve on hurts lots of parts of you engine anf those are expensive parts to. The manufacture didn't spend the money to install one if there wasn't a real reason for it.

 

I just wish they'd put the fuel shut-off valve on the left side so you can still hold the throttle side of the handle bar with your right hand and switch to RES with the left. Then it's easier to re-apply the throttle and keep moving (like my motorcycle had). It's not easy to turn the valve with gloved hands anyway, and this just adds to the hassle.

Oh, has anyone else had to replace the **** on the shut-off valve, due to its falling off somewhere on the trail? My wife's fell off and when I called the dealer to get the part, the parts babe just laughed and said "I've got a dozen on order and they should be in by Friday. These fall off all the time". So I put LokTite on hers when I installed it, and put LokTite on mine too. So far, so good.