I've been having problems lately with my vent hose on my carb. At least I think that's the problem. It seems that when I try to open the throttle up all the way it hesitates and there is no power. It's usually worse when I hit some deep water or mud holes and alot of steam comes off the engine.

Here is the history in a nut shell. When I got my Eiger it had this problem so I checked the air filter and air box area and all seemed well. I took it back to the place I bought it from for oil change and valve adjustment and told them to look into it. They said I had dirt in my gas tank, so they drained the tank and put fresh gas in. The next time out same problem. I took the air box apart again and this time under the snorkel is this vent hose. The last time I took it apart it wasn’t there, so before I took it to the shop it must have been hanging under the gas tank someplace. I rerouted it properly and it seems to run better but still has the same problem.

My question is this. If the hose was in the wrong position and water or dirt got in would I still have the same problem even though the hose is in the proper position now? If so would the only way to fix it be ripping the carb apart?

If anyone thinks it can be something other than the air vent hose let me know.

 

You could try draining the float bowl into a clean white paper towel, and look for crud. Either that or drop the float bowl and look in it.
Is the eiger totally stock? air box mods?
Im thinking its on the lean side( down on power and hesitates). Where is the hesitation... right off idle? Has the float level been checked, if its low, youll end up with these symptoms.
You may want to add, an inline fuel filter, to keep the crud out of the carb.

 

My Eiger is stock. I put an inline filter in as soon as I found out there was dirt in my tank. As for the hesitation, it usually happens from a dead stop or if I’m going slow and give it, like when you go into a big mud hole. I was hoping it wouldn’t be carb settings. The reason I think it has something to do with the vent hose is that if you restrict it, you get the same hesitation. Does anyone know the purpose of the vent hose? It must have something to do with allowing the fuel to flow into the float bowl.

Anyway, it seems that the best way to find out may be to take the carb apart. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Definitely clean the carb. After I put my filter in, I ended up taking the bowl off 2 more times to get all the crap out. Probably could have saved time if I took the carb off and cleaned it better the first time.

 

For your hesitation, it could be the mixture screw too lean. Try opening the screw, about a 1/4 turn, at a time. Im thinking the carbs got to come apart and be cleaned good. All the small pasageways will need to be blown out.
carb clean
carb
Heres a couple of sites, on carb cleaning. Its not that difficult to do, try to keep distractions to a minimum, and keep an eye on what goes where.
Both the tank and the carb are vented thru different hoses. And your right , if its restricted, itll stop the flow of gas. But right off idle isnt where it would show up....more gas flows at bigger throttle openings, so it should be worse at 1/2 throttle, than at 1/8, so thats why i dont think its the vent thats causing the hesitation. When its down on power, does the motor sputter and miss? Next time it does that, try turning on the choke, that will add the starter jet , in addition to whatever other jet is also running. If the quad runs better, with the choke on, then the carb is lean. If pulling the choke on makes it worse....try a test run with the air box lid off, and see if thats better. If it runs better with the lid off, then the carb is running rich.

 

Thanks for all the great information hondabuster. I will take the carb off and give it a good cleaning sometime this week and then I’ll try your suggestions. If something works I’ll post it here. If nothing works I’ll be back with more questions.

I posted some of the mudding pictures in my gallery if anyone is interested in looking.

 

I had a similar problem at windrock. I pulled out the air filter and ran the RPMs as high as I could and put my hand over the intake a couple times. This cleared up the problem.

 

Hey guys. Sorry it’s taken so long to post results of my carb problem. Shortly after my last post I took the carb off the Eiger to see what was wrong. It appears that when my atv was put together by the dealer they did not rout the air vent hose properly and just let it hang there so it got partially melted by the muffler. After I had brought it in for it’s first oil change they put it in the proper spot but it was too late. So basicly all I did was clean the carb out, blow out all the jets and buy a new hose and route it PROPERLY!!!

I have been really busy but finally got out into some good mud and the Grand River today. No hesitation and tons of power, even in the big mud holes which I got stuck in 3 times today [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] So I guess in conclusion, I won’t be going back to the dealer for anything and I think I need better tires for those mud holes [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]