Try to figure this one out. About 3 years ago my 400L started sputtering like crazy all the time so I came on here and found out to remove the black wire on the reverse speed limiter. fixed it, its still disconnected.
But now sometimes when I start the atv it idles fine, but has absolutely no power and backfires untill about 25 mph the it will run fine. When this problem is happening the atv will not shut off with the key or the kill switch, i can actually take the key out and ride. After about 30 mins of riding like that it will come out of it and work right.

Then sometimes when i start it, it will run perfectly and shut off correctly. Its a very annoying problem for me b\c if im down in the hills and stop for a break, sometimes it won't work right when i start it again and i'm pretty much stuck there.

Its been doing this for about a year now. I have just got done replacing the flywheel and stator (again), new belt, full service. It obviously electrical but i don't know what. the spark plug cap is fine, new plug, primary coil ohms fine, reverse speed limiter removed. Is there a way to ohm the cdi box? Or do one of you guys (you seen to know a lot) know what else is wrong? I have also never been in water deeper than the floor boards. (seriously, some people don't belive me)

Sorry for the long post. Any help would be EXTREMELY APPRECIATED, and thank you in advance.

Wayne

 

have you gone thru your wireing harness checking all the connections and grounds ?

 

Is there a way to ohm the cdi box?......

I guess I can answere one for you: NO there is not away to check CDI short of just trying another one. At least that is what my repair manual tells me.

 

I've had this thing striped down to the frame and checked everything.

 

have you taken apart the ignition switch? My old trail boss did a smiliar thing and it was because there was dirt and crud insdie by the contacts causing shorts. I cleaned it then put di-electric grease back in and it fixed it.

 

i had a honda odyssey do the same thing, it was actually an air leak, the way u can tell is by either spraying some kind of flammable liquid around the boot on the engine side of the carburetor and the rpm's will increase or the safe way, spray water around the boot and the motor will die. in that case, it was running so lean that the spark plug acted more like a glow plug in a diesel motor and the motored just dieseled. jst another way of lookin at it

 

it might actually be dirt build up in the switch, thanx. shorting out in there would also explain being able to take the key out while the bike is acting up. as for the leaking boots, i know it not that. I just replaced all of them.

 

Ya, I'd say it's the ignition switch or the kill switch. Check and clean them both.

 

well i just got done cleaning and putting terminal grease in the ignition switch and the kill switch. the ignition switch wasn't very dirty, but the kill switch was pretty bad. worked right when i started it up, i'll update in a couple weeks to see if it acts up again so people searching can know if this worked or not.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]I went out this morining to move it out of my new garage so the construction workers could work, and it still has the problem. Only now when its acting up, it still has all its power and it doesn't backfire. It just doesn't shut off with the key, I don't really care about that b\c i can just choke it. So cleaning the switches kinda helped but didn't cure the problem.