my Rancher seems to be a cold-blooded animal. here in Dakota it gets chilly this time of year. tried starting it up this morning (high 20s) but it just turned and turned. got desperate and hit the throttle a bit, but didn't fire. of course, i flooded it in the next few minutes. had to replace spark plug for it to fire and run. i moved lots of snow last year and will again this winter, but i had to work at starting it after the temps drop to below 30...

 

That is normal for Honda's. We have a Rubicon and it is the same way. Heck, even if the temps are in the 50's, it can be a pain to start. Of course, part of our problem could be that the carb needs to be cleaned or we are using low quality gas.

There should be primer button on the right hand side, hit that a few times and it should start easier.

 

I have a Foreman that even at -30 it fires right up no cranking or anything. Sometimes if the valves are out of adjustment they are very hard to start in the cold.

 

One thing that might aid in cold weather starts is the primer located on the right side of the card many people are unawhere of this. Prime the machine two or three times and it makes a world of difference.

 

We notice that also,the Two 500 Foremans in our group are the hardest to start and need the choke on the longest during warm up. We think its just part of being a OHV motor vs a OHC. Never knew about the primer on the carb,we will give that a try.

 

My Foreman also fires right up in the cold.

A lot of people don't have the tension on the choke **** set high enough, so the **** vibrates its way back in. Also, they have an electric carb heater, so leaving the key on briefly before starting helps.

Lastly, gas that is marginally stale has a big effect on starting. Non-ethanol fuel doesn't go stale as fast. Fuel also goes bad fastest when it is in small quantities exposed to air, like in the float bowl, so if you aren't going to be riding it for a while shut the gas off and run the carb dry.

Alternatively, or if you forgot to run the carb out, open the drain screw and dump the gas from the float bowl before you attempt to start.

 

A lot of cold blooded engine problems, or being hard to start in cold temps, has more to do with the fuel system than engine design....as far as being OHC or OHV engines.

A fuel injected engine will start up and run without any nursing of the throttle as opposed to a carb engine.

 

The OHC vs OHV was just a guess, Its just the two Honda have to be nursed much more than the othe carbed ATVs we ride with it seems.

On the coldest winter's day I just pull the choke out, start up the motor and push the choke back in after 30 seconds,and the ATV will idle all day long on its own.

 

i was unaware of the choke ****/button, will look for it as soon as i can.

 

my honda 300 starts no choke, it actually starts better in cold weather. i recently found the primer on the side of the carb also though, great idea.
we have started it with no choke in as cold as 9 degrees. but it runs really rich, and usually floods out if idling without assistance after a few minutes. i have never seen an atv, as warm blooded as it is. my yamaha takes forever to start, with full choke, and the suzuki is just pitiful. in 90 degree weather, full choke and it starts and dies a few times before it will run with full choke, if you dare move it to half choke it wont hit at all.