Hey guys I'm hoping you can help me out here. My girlfriend's little brother has a Honda sportrax 90 and it doesn't run. Now I'm pretty good at workin on cars, I know a bit about dirtbikes but I don't know jack about ATV's. I tried and tried but just couldn't get it to start. As far as I know it's barely been used, it looks in great shape it's just been sitting in the shed for a long while. I haven't really had a chance to look at it long, I just tried yankin the cord a few times. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

The 90 can start hard. It requires full choke and a lot of warm up time. You may need to nurse the throtle for the first minute or so. Is the air filter clean?

Quad engines are no different than dirt bike engines! That little 90 is about the simplest 4-stroke engine there is. Those things will run forever.

 

What is "a long while"? The gas stored in the carb (what your machine is trying to start on) goes downhill in just a few weeks. Start by turning the gas off, find the drain screw at the way bottem of your carb, turn out the flatblade screw a bit and let your carb drain down. Pop the gas cap and take a whiff of what's in there, if it smells like gas, turn your gas back on and and try to start it. If it still won't go, replace the spark plug (trying to start on old crappy gas, can easily foul it permanently). If that doesn't do it, try removing and cleaning the carb. It's a well known phenomenon among techs that the very small amount of gas in your carb goes bad much quicker than what's in your tank. In the future, drain the carb and leave your fuel shut off in anticipation of storage. Oh...and if the fuel that's in the tank smells stanky, you'll probably want to drain and fill with fresh.

 

Forgive me if this sounds redundantly stupid but make sure that it's in neutral - there's an indicator on the casing just above the shifter that shows when it's in "N".

Also, the pull starter can be a real pain. For that first start, you can bump it off by rolling down an incline or by towing it with another quad. Once you get it tuned for normal running then it should start witha few pulls.

The TRX90 is very cold blooded - be prepaired to nurse the choke and throttle for several minutes after starting.

Jaybee

 

Be sure you check the oil level before you try starting!

 

Alright thanks guys, I think I'll be going over there today so I give your suggestions a shot.

 

Well I looked things over today and still had no luck. The oil level is fine and the gas still smells like regular 'ol unleaded. I double checked everything but didn't have any luck. The plug was looking a little worn and it's very possible that it is done for but I didn't have another one on hand to check it. I know about the whole cold starting SOB thing, my honda dirtbike is a beast sometimes, but not like this, i can yank and yank the cord and NOTHING happens, not even a little life. I'm gonna see about changing the plug and then go from there.....

 

Sounds like the pilot jet is plugged, If the spark plug was not wet after pulling it over that much, the carb needs to be cleaned.
Like dzzy stated, the fuel in the bowl lost its volatility, and gummed up the jets in the carb from being stail.

----- Gimpster -----