So this quad has me questing my mechanic abilities!!!


its a 2005 with less that 20 hours on it. She has sat in my neighbors garage mostly and is super clean. I have cleaned the carb 4 separate times now, even boiled it in water. I purchased a carb rebuild kit and it took me a while to figure out the rubber gasket that should go between the main jet and the needle jet was blocking off the passage and not allowing fuel to reach the carb. so at least she runs now...


So, she will reluctantly start when cold, but is an absolute bear to start is warm.


She ran like this with a 20 pilot jet as well as a 15 pilot jet. Main jet is a 92.5 and the needle is in the middle position. I wanted to go with a 17.5 pilot jet, but the shop only had 15, but it really didn't make much of a difference. Tank has been cleaned (2x), fuel filter installed so I see gas flowing, original fuel petcock replaced by a Chinese version from ebay. I even installed a lawn mower fuel shutoff valve between the filter and carb inlet. the thing acts as if its flooded before I even try to start her. She will only start if I close off the air/fuel screw and two finger choke it while messing with the petcock and manual shutoff valve and keeping the throttle wide open.

the compression is 125+ (cold) so I'm guessing the reeds are good unless I need to run a compression while she is warm?. once she is running, she runs fine (idle isn't set right though so my kid just keeps the throttle maintained, but getting her to start is ridiculously hard. When I do have to start it, I end up removing the rubber intake and two finger choke it and there is usually fuel that will drip out of the intake prior to starting. it will literally take 5-10 min of on/off cranking to get her to start and when she does finally fire is sounds pretty rough at first, then I readjust the air/fuel screw out to about 3.5-4 turns as that seems to be the best sounding while running.


there doesn't appear to be an air leak anywhere near the intake and there was a large amount of oil that I had to drain from the exhaust initially, however the exhaust is dry now with oil in the tank....several times but I think that was just from sitting for so long.


I tried adjusting the float tab, but not to confident I got any movement as the bike was field striped with minimal tools, one bummed girl and a dad that dropped a few "f-bombs". The only think I hate more than this bike is the fact that I cant figure it out.


what's the possibility of the crankcase seals being the culprit? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

#1, there is no air screw. That's the idle adjustment.
If there is fuel comming out of the intake, there is the problem. Stop the carb from leaking by the float and it'll stop flooding.
Shut the fuel off and let the carb run dry. See if that helps.
Ethanol has been a real PITA.
Go back to stock jetting. It's fine.
I highly doubt it's the seals. It's possible but doubtful.

 

I'll drop the stock pilot back in later this week and also reexamine the float tab and plunger.

for some reason i was thinking it was an air/fuel screw, but it makes more sense for it to be an idle screw. I'm hoping the float tab is the issue, but what about spark? its a nice blue spark, but is there any other way to test it other than grounding out the plug and judging the color?

also, its got the stock air filter...are they worth keeping or should I swap it out? i know it really wouldn't cause my starting issues because I have to completely block of the intake to get it to start, but I've never been a fan of any stock air filters.