Finally got around to taking my lakota offroad today since i bought it. I picked it up for around 500 in a non-running condition. I was mostly tooken apart aside from the motor itself, and other functional things like the axle etc. The gas tank and plastics were off. The guy i bought it from said it sat for a while, so the carb was probably gummed up.

I took the carb apart, cleaned it, put it back together...the carb itself wasnt dirty at all really.

The problem im having is mainly with spark, minus a new carb problem i will address later. Ok, so if the quad sits for a while (it seems to only do this non-sense if its cold) it will have a hard time starting. Upon tinkering with it, i put a screwdriver in the sparkplug boot and had it close to the engine to view the actual spark it was creating. When it doesnt start, there seems to be very little spark at the wire. When you crank it there will be ethier no or little spark arcing to ground, but oddly enough when you stop cranking it, about a second later it will arc to ground with a normal looking spark. Like a sorta delayed spark. You can hear it too with the wire on, becuase you will crank the engine, get nothing, then once you stop crankin the engine will fire only once after the engine stops rotating. It sounds like a backfire. I get it running sometime by cranking it for a long *** time, until the spark seems to come to life on its own. a trick i found out would be to use jumper cables to my truck, the extra power seems to help but doesnt solve the problem entirely. I know the battery is good, its brand new.

Another thing it did today, was it seems like the revlimter moved down to a low rpm. Becuase when riding, the rpms dropped and it started to pop and back fire. I know it wasnt a fuel problem, becuase i shifted to a high gear and the engine had 100% power up until, ill guess like 3 grand and then it would start popping and bouncing, just like a cars rev limter. It sounded like a 2 stroke almost.Im thinking the CDI box is crapping out, becuase i able to make the rev limiter problem go away by hitting the cdi with a screwdriver and messing with the wires going to it. But i would like to be sure, before i drop 120$ bucks on a new cdi. In addition to a clutch that is starting to say goodbye. (it slips a little, but its still very driveable)


THEN, the carb crapped out, becuase it had no power at all. Which im sure i can fix. It seems the main jet was clogged, cuase i removed it and set it down to the piont where it would be dumping fuel into the carb and it still ran lean as hell. So im assuming dirt, or something found its way into the jet port. That im no worried about, just looking for about where to start with the spark problem...thanks.

 

My 2001 Bayou 300 (KLF-300-B14) has been experiencing the same problem and I did all the troubleshooting I could with no resolution. After spending $250 at my local Kawasaki shop, they tell me the CDI is bad. The mechanic indicated the box is generally diagnosed by a process of elemination, but said try heating the CDI box with a hair dryer, then hit the starter. He said they did that on my Bayou and the bike started right up... By the way, the price on the new CDI unit is over $300, plus labor.

I doubt that brightens your day, but you might try the hairdryer trick to see if that helps diagnose your problem.

Regards,
Jim