Just place your thumb over the air inlet tube blocking air flow while starting,will allow engine to draw in fuel better when starting whether its an electronic or manual choke model.They just don't have a lot of vacuum getting fuel into cylinder. Had a lot of problems on starting with these little ones,until we received an"in house bulletin" about starting procedure from Polaris! Try this out,better than having your mouth on a tank full of gas I believe! old,old posts,way back to 2004! OPT

 

I found this thread doing a Google search while I was trying to get my 2001 Polaris Scrambler running after a long off season. The little beast would start but then slowly sputter out and would never stay running long enough to warm up and be able to drive. Cleaned the air filter, checked and cleaned the spark plug and still couldn't get it to stay running. Then I read your solution of plugging the air intake and that did it! It runs. Thanks so much for the advice and for providing a forum to help with the various problems that pop up with these machines!

Vintage Honda

2001 Polaris Scrambler 90
1989 Yamaha Breeze
1984 Honda Big Red ATC 200ES
1999 Polaris Scrambler HO 500 4x4
2006 Honda TRX 450 ER
1982 Honda XL 185 S

 

there have been dozens of people(including myself)who have posted about this same issue.after over a year of replacing parts and rebuilding engine,i have finally found the solution.replace the electric choke in the carb.with a manual kit from lakesmotorsports.com in waterford,mi.the best $60 i ever spent!if you are handy with a vom meter,you will be able to use the new switches that you get with the kit or you could just leave your current ones.i would not post this if it did not work because i was hoping for a year to see a post that worked,now i hope that i can help just like someone helped me.

 

Yes I also replaced a bunch of electric chokes with the manual choke kits as parents became frustrated as they became available and they helped,but if they sat for any length of time some would still have starting problems with not enough vacuum to pull in the fuel. We received the Polaris bulletin on blocking off air flow for early machines with the electric choke and the manual choke later models or ones that had the early choke kits. Some would have no problem at all cranking, others would just struggle! Plus almost every brand new one out of the crate even with the manual chokes we serviced still had to have the air tube partially blocked to get them to first fire up! All this for the most part ended when they went to the four stroke kids machines,hardly ever had a problem on servicing these up. Would just start right up and just had to adjust the idle sometimes when warmed up. OPT

 

good point.even during this whole ordeal,when i wanted to start up quickly,i would hold my hand over the intake tube.it just sucked after that!i know for sure that it is a problem with the electrical to the choke and not the choke itself.tried multiple new and known working carbs with electric chokes.nice to have it right for the first time in a long time

 

This was basically the same electrical enrichment system used on the old Honda Spree 50cc scooter also! They never in my opinion work right either.The principle was for the plunger to close as the machine warmed up,but as you have stated I don't think most of em worked properly. OPT

 

Just to make sure I understand correctly, do you just have to block offn air intake while warming up the machine? Or does it need some permanent blockage?

I've only used your guidance to get it started and keep it idling, not longer than I few minute (just to see if the method would work).

Thanks again for all the great tips!

Vintage Honda

Heading to Coral Pink Sand Dunes in So. UT soon, got to get that little Scrambler cranking for the kids.

 

Just to get em started only,after that they usually will run on there own ,they will usually crank back up if you kill em usually with no problems. OPT

 

This solution worked great! Took a little while to get it warmed up, but after that the kids enjoyed riding at Coral Pink.

Thanks again,

Vintage Honda

 

Just keep marine stabilizer in the fuel tank(better on ethanol gas than other stabilizers) and keep the battery charged and shouldn't have a problem starting in the future. Good luck OPT