This thing is very hard to start, go wide open with and it sputters, has need reeds, new 39 pwk carb, jetted down to a 150 main and still was stumbling badly on the top end. The plug is reading very rich anyone out there had ignition problems with the lt 500?

 

WOW! 150 on a 39 on a zilla and still rich. are you missing the needle lol.
Is it smokin alot.

 

Doesn't seem to be, but it was running fine, then all of a sudden it just wouldn't rev, acted like it was rich. Started fouling out plugs, guess I should check compression first, look at the ignition switch.

 

Actually I was joking about the needle but you may want to check if the clip came off or somthing.
I've seen alot of suzukis with ignition probs tho. on the 250s the wires coming out of the stator cover get it when the chain pops. I don't know if the 500 is the same. Also I had a problem with my factory kill switch. I took it apart and cleaned it and greased it up with electrical grease and the problem went away but now every time I wash it and get on it while its still wet it'll shock me if I touch it(real bad, like the spark plug wire).

my problem with the kill switch caused total spark loss. yours only does it at high RPM so could be coil/stator. if you call the dealer they'll give you the specs to test everything but CDI with a multimeter.
hope this helps, I just had 7months of downtime and know what it's like.

 

Thanks for the help, I'll give them a call!

 

When my crank seals were going out, it ran as if it was rich. I guess it was only passing a very small amount of oil.