could it be a pilot jet problem?

http://forums.atvconnection.co...464906&highlight_key=y

 

hunt_bird it could be any of those thing's , but if you put to much of the fuel treatment into your fuel tank before it started running bad ; you shold drain the fuel tank and put in some untreaded or the correct mix of sea foam to gas ratio in a plastic gas jug to make the mix to be the correct ratio ! Then pour the gas from the jug into the gas tank , then drain the carb bowl of the bad mixed gas ; and then try to start the engine again to see how it run's now ! And if it doesn't run right with the new mixed fuel , you should check the carb again to see if the plastic keeper has come off inside the float bowl ; this can cause a flooding condition to the engine ! If all this fail's and the keeper is still on then i would check the valve clearance to see if they are within the correct spect's , if the valve clearance or off spec's then this could be the trouble with the back firing ; and having to keep the choke on to keep the engine from stalling also ! I hope this is of some help , and it would be alot easier to get the carb adjusted and give you the instruction's on adjusting the valves ; the price you will pay for a good O.E.M. or Haynes Service And Repair Shop Manual will pay for itself on these jobs alone for what a dealer will charge for a complete servicing of your quad ! Good luck to you and i hope you get it going again , the way it should run and i hope you get it going soon and have many safe rides in the future ; and in the future i would watch out for whoever i would let ride your quad ! You may think they will ride it the way you would , but i trusted my cousin a few time's with my car and motorcycles ; only to find out later that he had been hot rodding it and blew some seal's and a few other things along the way ! ................

 

check for a kinked vent line- was my problem- simple to fix once I figured it out- and wasn't the first thing I tried.

 

Check to make sure you don't have an intake leak. That will cause all the problems you stated including red hot exhaust. It will cause stalling at low speeds, fast idling and hard starting. Once you get it started, squirt some starting fluid around all the mating/sealing sufaces. If it is sucking air somewhere, it will rev up.

 

Guys, Thanks for your excellent suggestions. I would up "wussing out" and taking it to a dealer here in Dallas who said he'd do a carb rebuild for $88. Since this thing has sat most of its 7 year life, figured that wasn't a bad investment. Regarding the air leak around carb comment though, that would be "after" the carb going into intake, right? I.e. a len out situation on a two stroke. I haven't had the carb off the intake ever, but might have lossened it messing with the "carb back" part.