After spending about and hour or two just trying to kick start it, my old Honda Fourtrax 250 fired up. It runs, but I know the carb needs to be cleaned. There are some other things that worry me though.

When I reverse it out of my shed (at an incline of about 30 degrees) it sometimes dies and makes a weird sound, kind of like a clanking sound. I usually just roll it out in neutral and then go.

Also when I go up a small incline it'll lose some power but that's probably a side effect of the dirty carb.

The last thing I noticed is that when I get into 3rd gear and up it just doesn't feel right. I don't know how to explain it, but it seems unsettled.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Check all bearings and bushings.

 

Will do, thanks.

 

I would get it running good and healthy first....the unsettled feeling, the noise etc could all be from a poor running engine.

For instance if the engine is misfiring it could make the whole ATV feel "unsettled" - surging, shaking etc.

 

The definitely could be the case. Whenever I take the choke off I have to play with the throttle to keep it running. Too much and it dies and too little it dies, So I gotta play with it and it doesn't keep running when I let go unless I put the choke back on.

 

Also, I definitely get surging too. It'll just start to die and then kick back in, or it'll just be jumpy.