Hello everyone. This is my first post so im sorry if i mess anything up. I recently purchased a 1987 trx350d FOREMAN and its sister a regular trx350 FOURTRAX. The Foreman ran great and i soon got the fourtrax running great too. Anyways my honeymoon soon came to an end. The foreman started to intemittinly not start. What i mean is totally randomly it would run perfectly fine then other times it would turn over and pop(like it wanted to start) but wouldnt take off. I took the airbox off opened the carb slide and sprayed starting fluid and same pop. I changed the plug, drug it behind the fourtrax (to bump start it), tapped on the cdi, tried every logical thing i could come up with. It will pop a few times after i let off the starter but never take off. The throttle has no bearing on it(visibly funtional though) it seems almost electrical to me but obviously i am stumped. Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

Did it jump time? May want to check the cam and crank timing.

 

Thanks papa hogg. I will check that out tomorrow. I will report back.

 

Timing was right on. I fiddled with it all day and finally got mad enough I just swapped the carbs on the two machines and boom! It took right off. Should I order a rebuild kit or just give it a good cleaning?

 

Thats great..It the carb hasnt been up graded any then I would clean good an install an new repair kit.....

 

Well I lied. haha. I went to start the foreman and nothing same popping but no starting. I then swapped the carbs back and the fourtrax ran like a top. I just cannot figure this out!

 

Hi there Tone-Loc:

I see it's been a while since your last post, but I see no fix posted for this yet. It sounds like you can rule out the possibility that it is carb related, because you've put a "known good" carb on there while it would not start, so that tells you it's probably not the carb at issue. You already checked the timing and it's good. It sounds like an intermittent electrical failure, which is usually the hardest type of problem to pinpoint. The key to fixing this will be to test the likely culprits while the problem is happening: be ready to test the coil, CDI, etc, when you have a "no start" condition. Check out a manual or here on the forums for test procedures, then be ready to test them as the problem is happening. If you test these components while the bike is working, they will likely test good. So you need to check these components when the bike won't start. Good Luck.

 

Thanks alot 80s honda. It's been too cold here in montana to work on the things but I'll try to tear into them a little soon. I'll let you know.