Okay, so some of you might remember the very lean problem that showed up suddenly a few months ago on my Eiger. I took it to a dealer and they replaced the spark plug and said it might be jetted too lean (115, I'm at 5200ft and ride up to 10K ft), but it was just cold blooded and to wait for it to warm up.... which is BS because it usually only takes a minute or two to warm up and then it was ready to roll. But now after about 20 minutes of sputtering, it almost runs decent with the choke 1/4 on.

Well, I got a 120 jet and put it in. It fired right up like it always does but now it was worse, it would idle fine but just barely touching the throttle and it would die. I pulled off the fuel line going into the carb and it was dry. So I put it back on and turned the tank valve to "Prime" and fired it back up, I could rev it up and drive around just fine. So I moved the tank back to "On" but after a minute or two of riding around it would die. Thing is it will start right back up and idle fine, so evidently it's getting enough fuel to idle, but not enough to run unless the tank valve is set to prime.

Does this sound like the valve on the tank is bad or is setting it to prime fixing another problem? Would leaving it on Prime hurt anything?

 

Hi there, had the same problem with my 98 500 quadrunner, when your fuel selector is "on" or reserve the carb only gets fuel while the bike is running, you see on those two settings your fuel selector is actually a vacuum pump, only giving fuel when bike is running, on prime the gas flows freely to the carb. I ran mine like that for 6 years--no problem, they wanted $170 for new fuel selector, no rebuild kit, had to buy the whole thing. I would put your stack jet back in and either run it on prime, or get the $170 fuel selector..I gauruntee this is what your problem is

 

Thanks for the response. I did get the extended warranty for both machines, so maybe that fuel valve will be covered. Mine runs much stronger now with the 120 in than my wife's does with the 115. I'm hoping it'll still run decent at elevation and that it runs cooler than it has been (fan seems to run alot on both even when we're up around 8-10K feet). Also before even at elevation, they hesitated when we'd hit the throttle, much more so when at the house. Now mine just gets up and goes, so I'm hoping it won't be too rich at 10K.

 

There should be some sort of vacumn line going to the fuel lever. Check to make it sure it on correctly and not cracked or split. You may have a vacumn leak.

 

I'll check that tonite. Thanks for the tip!

 

yeah, check the vaccum line, i always found that when my would run like crap it was always trash in the carb, and even though i have an inline filter, trash still makes it into the carb, like grass seeds that get sucked into the main so you can't see them but they're there

 

You might want to do this:
Buy several rubber plugs, approximatelu 1" in diameter. Drill corresponding 1" holes in your airbox, and install the plugs. As you increase in elevation (thinner air) and notice less throttle response, remove the plugs 1 at a time, until your performance returns. (Remember to re-install the plugs as you descend.)

 

I checked the vacuum line that goes from the carb to the fuel tank valve. It was clear. I put one end back on the carb and blew thru the hose thru the carb, so that seems clear. I also checked that other vent hose that winds back by the air intake up into a little notch in the gas tank plastic cover and it was clear too. I figured I'd fire it back up just to make sure yesterday's little test of putting the valve on Prime wasn't a fluke... well it was [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

Now it's back to just idling and won't do anything but die when i touch the throttle. Pulled the plug and the porceilin is black, so too rich, but WTF?! It isn't wet and doesn't look fouled. It ran fine yesterday after I turned the fuel tank valve to Prime. I wish I would have taken the damn thing over with me when I visited my dad because none of the dealerships on this side of the state are worth a crap. I'm just really frustrated with it now.

 

opps, it posted twice.

 

take off your air filter and look for abnormalalities, also check the main jet one more time for a piece of junk, turn the gas on, start the motor, and open the drain screw on the bottom of the carb, see if gas comes out....Hope that will help