I pulled the recoil cover and cleaned everything up. It now has spark, but not surenif this is a coincidence. Nothing appeared to be overly dirty. The bike would run before, so im not sure if its just in one of the spurts where it has decided to run..

But, i have since removed the carb to make sure everything is clean. I cleaned all the jets and reassembled. Now the quad is getting no fuel. The bowl on the carb is filling with fuel but no fuel is getting to the cylinder. I took the carb back off and pulled the bowl and everything seems fine, so i dont know whats going on now. It starts right away with starting fluid.

Any ideas?

 

Pull the K&N filter off,place your hand at the back of carb and see if you have suction when you try to crank the engine. If not you could be back to the cam/valve clearance. Plus these machines run lean if you just have a pod filter and not the airbox and filter that originally came with them.

 

The airbox was still on and the filter has a sock over it. I didnt check it for suction though but i will later.

The valve clearance was good. I just checked them a couple days ago. I had to loosen the intake valve up a little.

 

Did you check the diaphram in the top of carb for splits, proper fit? sounds like you dont have something quite right in carb, was plastic spacer on top of needle?what notch was e-clip in?

 

I agree that my problem is carb related. It pulls plenty of suction with my hand on the back of the carb and gets fuel on my palm...

The diaphram seems ok and installed correctly. I have no idea what you mean about the spacer on the needle or e clip notch.. I dont think i disassembled it far enough to get to that. I pulled the floats off, and the 2 threaded jets from the bottom of the carb amd blew them out and put everything back.

Any other ideas?

 

Retrace your steps on the valve adjustment you did. .006 intake and exhaust. Did you ever check that the cam detent spring was installed correctly when your mechanic replaced a the head gasket? Plus here's a breakdown on the carb (different application,slight outward differences on the carb, but same on the insides includes cleaning and float adjustment) The BST-40 Bible - ADVrider

 

Im sure the valve adjustment is good. I also checked the lever and it seems to be working fine. I disassembled the carb again to verify it was reassembled correctly with a diagram. It was, but the float was out of adjustment so i set it at .5". I also found that the pilot screw was threaded all the way in so i backed it out 2 1/2 turns. I put it all back together but it still wouldnt start, so i popped the drain screw on the bowl to find there was no fuel in there. So now im getting no fuel to the carb. I ran the fuel tank directly to the carb to bypass the fuel pump and it fired up but ran poorly.

Do you think my problem has been a fuel pump the whole time?

 

Pull the fuel line from the carb and crank the engine over. Fuel should pulse out of the line if not then it's possible you have a faulty fuel valve,stopped up fuel filter or a bad pump.Dirt or trash in either one can stop flow. The fuel valve has small screen filters that can get stopped up. Not likely that both on and reserve valves are stopped up,but anythings possible. Plus check the "P"inlet from the pump to the carb. This is the vacuum line.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse. Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse

 

I already pulled the fuel pump last night and took it apart. The diaphrams seemed okay, but it was pretty dirty inside. The gaskets crumbled when I pulled it apart so I ordered a new fuel pump this morning. I'll report back when I put the new pump on.

Thanks for all the help so far everyone!