I have a 2001 Big Bear that leaks gas from the carburetor when I trailer it. It is coming from the overflow/drain tube that runs from the bottom of the carburetor. Now this may sound funny, but if I jump up and down and rock the ATV I cannot duplicate it. It seems to happen only when I trailer it. Could it be the bouncing straight up and down causes the float to allow gas to pass on the trailer? I am frustrated b/c I just had it serviced and it is still happening.

 

turn off the petcock

 

This is pretty normal, if the petcock isnt turned off. Sometimes its the jiggling that makes the gas flow, and sometimes the wind blowing by the drain tube, causes a low pressure, and makes a siphon effect. The solution is to turn off the gas, when trailering.

 

I just bought an '01 Big Bear 400. The first thing I noticed was that there is a small fuel leak coming from the carburetor bowl drain hose underneath the carb. The screw that you tighten up may be wallered-out preventing me from tightening it all the way down to stop the leak.

I placed a machine screw in the open end of the hose to at least stop the leak. Bad idea...it caused the bowl to fill up and flood the engine to where it wouldn't start. I think the bowl float may have been sticking too. At this point, I noticed a 2nd leak from a 2nd hose that was just laying loose over the back of the motor. I followed the hose and it led back to the carb and then ultimately to the air-intake. I feel pretty confident that this 2nd leak was a direct result of trying to 'seal' the 1st leak.

I ended up taking the machine screw out of the carb-bowl drain hose, and opened the petcock and drained out some of the gas from the bowl. I let it sit a while and then she fired right up.

My questions are: What all do I need to fix/replace? Can I just replace the carb-bowl drain hose? Since she's 8 years old (don't know how many hours), should I just go ahead and throw in a carb re-build? Any ID or tips on the 2nd rubber hose I'm referring to? Is closing the fuel shut-off valve the only solution?

Thanks,
KLS

 

start by changing the oil to get all of the gas out of the crankcase. Then pull the bowl and replace the float needle and seat. forget the oil if its a 2 stroke