Complete newbie here. I have never worked on an ATV before, but I do have basic mechanical skills and tools.

I have a 2011 Kawasaki Prairie 360 that runs flawlessly, but has never been serviced and has finally reached an estimated 100 hours. (I got it in new condition with about 10 hours on it.)

So I have a few things I want/need to do:

1. Find out why it's always been so slow.
2. Clean/re-jet my carb.
3. Replace the drive belt
4. Adjust the valve clearance (Starting to take longer to warm up in colder weather)

My biggest concern is the carb work, and it being so slow. (@35mph) My 2005 would dust this one. When purchased, the PO said it sat for 4 years with old gas in it, and I should clean the carbs, but it ran flawlessly, so I never did.


Here are some questions...

1. Is there a particular carb rebuild kit you guys would recommend? Any specific jets or orifices that improve performance, especially in the cold? Links would be appreciated!
2. What else could restrict fuel flow or make it so slow? Fuel lines, maybe?
3. A friend recommended that I go on Amazon, buy a $59 carb and keep riding. Does this seem like good advice? Do they perform the same?

All thoughts or comments are appreciated. I have no pride- tell me anything you think would help.

Thanks!

 

My personal opinion is, don't alter the carb. Clean the jets out if you think it is running weak due to dirt in them, otherwise leave alone. When cars had carbs, they regularly did over 100,000 miles without the carbs needing to be rebuilt due to wear, has your Kawasaki got anywhere near that? Take a look at the plug, is the nose carboned up, which means it runs rich, or death white which means it is running lean. I don't know the Prairie model, Kawasakis seem to have gone out of favour in the UK since they dropped the KLF models, but expect valve setting will be straightforwards, just remember TDC on the compression stroke when setting. May be worth fitting a new belt and checking/cleaning the variator mechanism. It could be though, that they are just slow. I know Yam 350s with belt drive seem awful low geared, Suzuki 400 too, you seem to have to rev the nuts off to get acceleration. However Suzuki 450s always seemed to be in the right gear, so not all belt drives are like this.

 

Merryman, thank you for the well thought-out reply.

I replaced the plug early this year, but I don't remember it looking dark or light. I'll check again, as it's been run more this year than the rest of it's life combined. (I loaned it to my nephews for a few weeks, and they ran it hard every day)

I know these aren't the fastest machines, but I had the identical one and it was about 10 MPH faster than this one. I figured the newer machine just needed to break in, but it never got any better. I'll definitely be going into the carb to see if there is anything obvious. I was told to check the fuel cutoff valve also, as that might be the source of restriction.

As far as the carbs, it's not the carbs themselves, but the ethanol fuel that we have here in the US. It works fine in a car, with a sealed tank, and used in a week or two, but in machines that sit a lot, like lawn mowers, boats, ATVs and so on, it literally eats the carbs. The alcohol draws water out of the air, and then it separates, so you have your precise carb parts soaking in a bath of acidic water. Not good.

My faithful garden tiller wouldn't start a couple of years ago. I opened up the carb bowl, and it was full of white powder. The powder was what was left of interior carb parts- yikes! Ethanol problems are real. If there is a good side to this, it's the booming replacement carb business. Replacement carbs are now cheap and easy to get.. My tiller's carb was $8, and it's run flawlessly ever since. But I now ALWAYS run all the fuel out of the carb after use. Lesson learned.

 

I still haven't done anything with my Prairie, but I just got a check belt light. I have a new belt, so it's probably time to dig into this machine. Not looking forward to it.

 

First thing I'd get would be a service manual. Ebay usually has them at a decent price. When you do get ready to do some work, watch a few videos on youtube. Think I've seen just as many wrong ways to do something as right doing that. And of course, check in here on the connection.