ok i jus recently purchased a 97 lakota utility runs great but i assume it runs rich the end of the plug gets very black quick a dry black and idles rough and smokes when idiling it sometimes doesnt wanna crank when stopped for a while or cold change the plug andbingo cranks i think its dryfouling.i took it to the dealer and he cleaned the carb and still does it i backed out of the pilot screw on the bottom of the carb i beleive thats the air screw i turned it out a full 3 turns and still doesnt run goo. it wont idle long before it loads up and shuts off my ridin buddy has a 95 lakota and it idles smoothly and plug runs gray on the end anybody got any ideaswhen you ride through the gears it does great jus idiling and starting problems

 

Does the machine have any mods. on it? If so, what are they? What color is the smoke while it's idling? Also, may want to check the fuel level in the float bowl to make sure your floats are set properly.

 

Something else you should make sure of, is that the valves are properly adjusted.

 

Hay stebob, hows the house deal going????


Steve first find what you have. If it is stock put the air/fuel mixture at 2 1/8 turns. If it has a dynojet kit in it 2 1/2 turns C-clip on 3rd notch. The quickest way to find out what jet kit you have pull the top off the carb, if you have a gold non-adjustable needle it's stock. If it is a silver adjustable needle it's a dynojet kit.

 

i remember when i took the carb apart it had a gold needle in it. i havent done any mods myself looks all stock to me and i havent checked the valve adjustment is that something i can do i am mechanically inclined i didnt check the float levels didnt know i needed to black smoke not oil smelly also is the carb able to be taken off without taking the tank front and rear pieces and seat offthats the way i took it off first

 

Gaff,
As soon as the lawyer has the contract wrote up and I sign it, we are there dude! The owner's of the house were comfortable with my stipulations for the contract, so all should be good. Just waiting on the lawyer. Prob. have it done sometime this week, but I'm heading to IL tonight and won't be back 'till this weekend. So... When I have some more time I'll pm you with all that stuff.

Steve,
Yes, you can adjust your valves. Easy to do. I'm gonne HIGHLY recommend you spend $30, or thereabouts, and get yourself a Clymer's manual. It's a service manual that'll help you tear down the entire machine and gives all the specs. It's pretty much a must have.

Funny thing, though, my stock needle is silver, non adjustable though. Thought that was interesting.

At this point, Steve, it's gonna be process of elimination. Adjust the valves, get the air fuel screw where it should be, and check float level. If your float level is too high, this could lead to your rich condition, too. There are several things that can cause it, just need to pin point it. Float level is easy to do, too. Get a piece of clear fuel tubing or rc cars or planes, or use the pink tube on the drain hose, and put it directly on the drain nipple. Bend the tube around to the side of the carb.. Open up the drain screw and the tube will fill up with fuel. It should be just a knats ***(1-2mm, if my memory servs me correctly) below where the mating surface of the float bowl and carb. meet.

BTW - You can take the carb. off w/o taking all the plastics and stuff off, however, life is much easier if you just remove everything 1st. After you do it a few times, only takes 15 more min. and that could easily be taken up by that damn choke cable. It can be a huge pain in the a$$. Be very carefull not to strip that. It can easily be done since it is a plastic nut.

 

Oh, yeah! Gaff, did you go out to 14mins place on the 29th? Sure sounds like it was a lot of fun. Did you dyno the Lakota?

 

stebob, I only made it to houston and then ran into one wild rain and wind storm. I talked the family into pushing on but then when we made a turn the wind was whipping the trailer so bad we couldn't go over 35mph. so unfortunately we stopped friday night north west of houston, woke up and drove home. Was a huge bummer 14 and I were pretty siked to get to gether. Seems the storm stayed away from 14 for most of that day and then cought up to them too. It was a tough decision, but it was one of those times the storm was following us the hole time.

I did dyno the lakota a month or so ago, it dynoed in at 26.8 HP. But if you seen 14's dyno numbers you can see that dyno's can be wierd. The big thing that was wild to see was the tourque I forgot what it was but it was realy large number. When I get home I'll fax you a copy.

Sorry about that steve.

Get a small screw driver bend it and cut it off, adjust your air/fuel mixture without removing anything. Also remove the fuel line and throttle cable, carb comes out the pipe side with the choke still on. Not far but enough.

Valve adjustment. Remove the plastic, spark plug and two little valve covers. Look down by your left ankle, thier is a black slotted plug, pull that out. Turn the engine over slowly (I usually take the recoil cover off and do it by hand) untill you see the intake valve open and close. Once that happens look in that hole. You will see three scribed lines, one has a T by it. Lign the line with the T by it with the lines scribed in the plug hole threads. Now adjust them there.

Intake: .10mm-.15mm
exhaust: .15mm-.20mm

takes a 8mm wrench and a screw driver, oh and feeler gauges.