I've recently purchased an 02 rancher 4x4 ES. I bought it from the original owner. I don't have the owners manual. It now has about 930 miles and 130 hours. The only thing done to it is oil changes and maybe a spark plug - choke cable is original, according to the original owner.

I've noticed that there is an almost imperceptible amount of what appears to be black smoke at idle. Sometimes, if you rev it, you can see some more smoke - this does not appear to be oil smoke - it dissipates very quickly and I’ve noticed no oil usage in about 50 miles of ownership. The inside of the muffler is black and sooty. I changed the oil/filter, air filter, adjusted the clutch, etc. as well as changing the plug to give me a maintenance reference point. The old plug was black and sooty. In spite of the preceding, the bike is very drivable - in fact, it’s very hard to notice - most people would not. The only driveability issue I believe to be related to this is that if that the engine feels a bit flat at high throttle/rpm in say 3d or 4 th gear.

I assumed that I had a rich mixture and needed to adjust the carb. Unfortunately, I cant make much of a difference with the mixture screw.

So, my second thought was that perhaps my choke was stuck partially on - I’ve read about choke cable issues on this forum, though not my specific problem. Also, I’ve a friend with an 02 and he’s had his choke cable replaced 2-3 times - he’s a checkbook mechanic and doesn’t really know why - other than it was stuck.

These are things I’ve noticed about my choke cable: 1) It had almost no travel when I bought it - I could get no noticeable engine changes by pulling or pushing it; 2) after pulling pushing the **** with lots of pressure innumerable times, I can now get the engine rpm to double/triple by pulling it - also the engine will run rougher when pulled and throttle is applied; 3) when pushed in all the way, it seems that the **** pushes back slightly - about 1/16 to 1/8 inch; and 4) when buying filters, etc., I noticed that the cable on the new ranchers had about 1/3 more travel than mine.

Finally, while I don’t believe this to be related and I don’t exactly know the source, I also noticed a small amount of oil in the bottom of the air filter housing when replacing the air filter. I assumed this was oil from the filter and/or crank case breather. I thought I would throw this in just in case.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be as descriptive if possible. Also, hate to just throw a part at it when the honda dealer is an 80 mile round trip.

Of course, my question is can the choke cable cause the problem I described? Is that the likely culprit? If not, what is? Also, roughly what does the cable cost?

Thanks,
Rodney

 

ok so the oil in the airfiklter box is a OK!
its norm.. its just oil dripped from the filter [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img].. mine has some too.
now the smoke issue.. somone else had this problem. i forget what caused it though.
maby replacing the choke cable will help but dont know on that one.
I dont think there should be any black smoke from the choke being ridden on though so it might be somthing else

 

the choke thing is a good theory. The mechanism inside the carb could be bad too, you'll just about have to take it apart to find out.

 

I think you have choke problems. That will cause it to smoke. You will be using a lot of fuel. It couldn't have been ridden very much with the mileage that you stated, so maybe if its sat around a bit the choke cable is seized up.

 

yea sounds like choke sticting i had the same problem when i let my first quad a 1986 Honda TRX 350 Foreman full time four wheel drive set up for long times inbetween rides. I would take the carb off and check it for water or dirt do a good cleaning and try oiling all your cables making sure they are working properly i had to rebuild mine carb mainly because i had water in the tank.and letting it sit for week's at a time whitch my dealer told would ruin it if i didn't at least start it every other day and run it through the gears and using the brakes to keep them from freezing up the cables and cyclinders it cost me almost $300.00 for not doing what he told me to do on the brakes alone. My Foreman has a metal tank that was mounted under the seat rather than on top like they are now, I got water in the tank from riding through some deep creeks and not keeping the tank topped off and putting fuel stablelizer in the gas tank. Now that cost me$287.86 for a new tank, i should've done what he told me to do. and also the valves could need adjusting even after valves adjusted and carb rebuild ( i had to gap my plug at 0.030 instead of what the dealer told me ( 0.024 to 0.028 ) mine would idle at this gap setting's but it would backfire and bog down when i would try to take off; so i set it at 0.030 it would run good at this gap ! Also the manual said to remove the spark arester from muffler and run it a few miles at some high rev's to blow the soot build -up out the exhaust. And try running some seafoam in the tank and pour some in the carb before you attach the air filter letting burn this out then pour some more in carb put the breather and filter back on and let it set about 30 minute's before starting the engine and ride ! You can get the seafoam at most automotive dealers like auto zone, avance, o'reilly's i didn't believe this stuff worked as good as it does untill i tried it myself it costs about $5.00 a can and well worth the money good luck and i hope this does the job. I would remove the spark arrester and use the seafoam first and cleaning carb and oiling all the cables...sorry for such a long post hope this helps.........williebee

 

Thanks for the replies so far - and thanks for those to come.

It does seem to me to be using a lot of fuel. I forgot to mention this. But I don't really have another rancher to compare it to. It's using a lot more than expected - certainly a lot more than the 250 timberwolf uses. I dont have exact measurements, but I the guage read about 3/4 when I got it. I ran it until near empty but before I had to switch to reserve. I then filled it up and its now back to about 1/4. I've had it for about 50 miles. I guess I've burned around 5 or 6 gallons. So maybe around 10mpg - mostly medium use.

How does the choke mechanism in the carb work? I suppose it's not just a simple doorway valve that creates a greater vacumn like in the older quads/atc's and lawn equipment.

Rodney

 

I agree with others, it's a choke problem. My Rancher's choke cable has a little over 1 inch of travel. When you pull the choke out on mine, it makes a big difference in the idle speed. If it is cold and needs the choke, it will cause the engine idle speed to almost double. If it DOES NOT need the choke and you pull it out anyway, it will cause the motor to stall.

The spark plug should NOT be black and sooty. Should be "toasty brown" and the gap should be between .030---.040, according to the manual. BE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT SPARK PLUG.

The oil in the air box is normal.

The choke is actually not a true choke but is a small piston that when you pull the choke lever out you are lifting the piston up and allow more fuel to go into the carb.

I think your fuel mileage sucks. I have driven 65 miles on 1.8 gallons of gas.

I believe that all of these problems support the idea that your choke, (That little piston) is stuck partially open. Making the engine run very rich. Causing the smoke, blackened plug, low fuel mileage, "flat" at higher RPM's like you stated and possibly the blackened exaust. BTW- when cleaning the exaust, you take out that bolt on the lower side of the muffler, but you need to hold a rag over the regular exaust opening and then rev the motor a few times to let the debris blow out the bolt opening.

Good luck, Kev

 

My guess? The choke cable is not attached to the carb anymore. As I posted here recently, I forgot to screw the choke cable in to carb body after some maintenance once. It sit well inside the carb body, and looks attached, but needs to be screwed in. The lack of travel, smoke and mileage are the exact symptoms I had. Easy to check, remove seat, and look at top front left of carb.

 

Thanks very much for the replies.

I checked and the cable is securely attached to the carb. I may go and purchase a new choke cable, if I have time tomarrow. I probably wont have time to tinker with it until Sunday.

A couple of questions: Is the "small piston" that raises to let more fuel a part of the choke cable, or is it seperate? Is there any sort of "o" ring, seal or seat that I should buy at the same time?

Thanks,
Rodney

 

The choke piston is separate from the cable. The cable threads into the piston.

Can't say about the O-ring, sorry, it's been awhile since I've had one apart.

Kev