What do you guys think of this? My machine (00 Trail Boss) will only run with the fuel valve in the "reserve" position. If I put it in the "on" position; it will run for a minute or so then quit. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Sounds like there's some trash in the pickup tube or the valve it's self. Drain the fuel tank, and clean out all of the fuel lines to the carb. It wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the fuel filter while everything is apart.
Be careful where you get your fuel from, new gas cans are cheap insurance.

 

Screw,

Makes sense. I had a Sea-Doo that did that once. The fuel valve has 2 inlets from the tank and one outlet to the engine. The two pickup tubes in the tank are in the bottom of the tank. They go up into the tank. They are different lengths. The main tube is longer so it will not pickup fuel as deep as the shorter reserve tube. A simple reserve system, but it works.

Basically something is wrong with the main pickup tube, main fuel line to the valve, or the valve. Trace it from the fuel valve back to the tank. Check for pinched fuel lines or broken fuel lines. If the line is broken, surely you would have noticed. The pickup tube itself in the tank may be blocked with debris. Lastly the fuel selector valve itself might be plugged on the main side, or defective.

Some debugging thoughts:

With lots of fuel in the tank, pull the the main and reserve lines from the fuel selector valve (one at a time). See if there is good gravity feed flow from each of the lines. This will tell you if the main tube is totally, or partially blocked. If they both check out OK, pull the outlet tube from the selector valve. Select reserve on the valve and confirm fuel flows freely from the valve. Repeat this with the selector valve on main. If fuel flows well with the valve in both positions, then everything checks out to this point. Here is where I would be running out of ideas!!!

Look for some kind of debris floating around in the tank that could permanently or temporarily block the pickup tube.

If the tube, line, or selector valve appear to be blocked you could blow air back into the tank to try to dislodge the debris. Then you would be faced with getting the debris out of the tank.

When you switch from reserve to main, it will run for a bit until the carb, fuel pump, lines, filter, etc are empty.

Good luck!

DJ

 

Thanks guys. I'll try your ideas in the morning and let you know how it turned out.