No spark now.
 

HI EVERYONE HOW IS EVERYONE. LONG TIME NO CHAT. WHERE HAVE ALL YOU GUYS BEEN HUH? LOL.

HEY I WAS RIDING DOWN THE TRAIL ON MY 2008 SPORTSMAN 400 WHEN SUDDENLY IT LOST POWER. IT IDLES GREAT AND UP TO ABOUT HALF THROTTLE IT RUNS AND EXCELERATES GREAT.

JUST PAST HALF THROTTLE IT BEGINS TO MISS AND WILL NOT EXCELERATE PAST THAT POINT. AT APPROXIMATELT 22 MPH PER DREAM "OLE" METER.

I FIGURED CLASSIC SYMTOM OF CARB PROBLEMS AT THE HIGH SPEED CIRCUIT. SO I PULLED OUT THE CARB AND DISASSEMBLED IT.

THE CARB BOWL WAS SPOTLESS. HIGH SPEED JET SPOTLESS TOO. EVEN THE LOW SPEED JET. CHECK THE VACUUM SLIDER AND EVERYTHING IS CLEAN AND RIGHT ON.

I NOW WENT TO CHECK THE SPARK PLUG FOR FOWLING. PLUG HAD NO SPARK NOW. SO I PUT IN ANOTHER PLUG AND NO SPARK WITH THAT PLUG TOO. I HAD SPARK ON THE TRAILS AS I WAS RIDING HER TO DIAGNOSE THE HIGH SPEED MISS HESITATION. NOW I HAVE NO SPARK AT ALL. CHECKED THE COIL SPECS AND THEY ARE INCORRECT PER SERVIC MANUAL.

WHAT DO YOU ALL SUGGEST?

KILLER RIDING OUT AT THE BRADSHAW TRAIL. HUNDREDS OF MILES OF ENDLESS TRAILS BETWEEN THE COLORADO RIVER AND THE SALTON SEA.

Bradshaw Trail, Palm Springs - South Coast Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, California

Bradshaw Trail, The Gold Road to La Paz - DesertUSA

check to see if you have alot of play in the thumb throttle,alot of play or tightness will shut off spark,there should only be 1/8" play...............

black wire
 

its the kill switch i just found out.

i isolated the black wire from the red slider kill switch on the left side of the handle bar grip and it now it has spark.

when connected it has no spark. disconnected it has spark.


narrowed the problem down.

ty to everyone that saw the post and haved learned something.

have a great riding season.

opps..........! not a fix. Red switch is absolutely fine. well? whats next. any advise huh?

Stendori...............................

When having the carb out the ETC closes and completes the loop. circuit. grounds out. that was my whole problem. Gee.

yeah thats why i mentioned the etc,everytime i mess with something on the bike i have to reset that..........................

you know the miss i had on the trail while riding the 400 was probably the etc also. though it would not miss at low throttle speeds it would miss at half throttle and more.

the service manual for the sportsman 400 reads and says

"the throttle cable must have the proper amount of free-play adjustment. a cable that is too tight will cause etc interruption, resulting in false engine rpm limiting.

do you think that is what the issue was on the trails huh? the cable adjustment was off a slight and starting limiting my rpm at half throttle huh?

as of now i have not ridden the atv to test of everything is fine now.

i have readjusted the etc to about 1/8" and waiting for test drive.

if you have about 1/8" free play in the throttle it should be fine and not give any issue at any throttle position

hey so Stendori, you maybe think that the issue i was encountering at half throttle was probably caused by the etc huh?

Like i said, i have not test ridden the atv yet.

if not, what else could have caused my hesitation at half throttle. remember the carb was spotless clean when i took it apart all all the insides looked great.

you know what it's like when you back up fast w/out pushing in the override button in how the bike would sputter? it would do the same idea w/ the etc if it was kicking in. to me a hesitation would be more of a lack of fuel issue where the electrical usually will just kick out. it's really hard to give good advice when we can't hear it for sure. like i said in the last post to make sure you have the proper slack in the cable and the etc should be fine and no issues. imo