I don't know if it's just mine, but when it's having a hard time idling cold like that, if I use the middle position on the choke, it goes to a fast idle that works great. It'll just purr along, until I come over and shut the choke off. I guess it depends on how cold it is too. Here in the northwest, even in December it's not all THAT cold.
If it's fairly cold, I start it on full choke, and as soon as she starts to load up and start running a bit rough, I put the choke in the middle, the idle comes up, and it'll pretty much stay that way until I shut the choke completely off. Then I'm ready to ride.
Sounds like you might need to adjust your idle up a bit. It takes about 20 seconds to do. Did they show you where your idle screw is? If not, I can email you a pic.

 

That's kind of strange, I've tried running it at half choke (it's really an enrichener), and it will stall. I wonder if there's an adjustment on that?

Like I said, I have to sit and hold the throttle and idle it up until it gets warm enough to idle on it's own. And then it's idling lower than I'd like. But when it warms up, it's fine.

When it warms up some I'll have to take the side cover off and have a gander at it.

 

To my knowledge, our two are exactly like noface's, and we had 40 plus degree Fahrenheit temps. However I will try again to go with half choke, or almost half choke to see if it works. It's too cold to do anything about it now, and I don't anticipate needing to run it for a while.

Thanks

 

yamaha is a bit cold blooded, but not as bad as the hondas. Polaris is the champ in cold weather. (most of the time no choke at cold start at all - here in texas)
have your idle adjusted when the bike is at operating temp. and leave it there, you should not mess with it when cold.
your manual outlines where to set the choke at cold start up at a given temperature, it is a fairly good refernece to start.
once the bike tarts set/adjust your choke to the point where the idle is raised (engine revs higher than normal )without touching the trottle, let it run for 20-30 second then slowly close the choke.
a bogging , choking sound or engine cut off is usually means it is running rich.
low idle, missing spark sound, also could cut engine, usually means lean condition.
you can kind of hear it in the exhaust sound .....it has too much or too little gas

I rode my stock kodiak in colorado at 9000' elevation 17degrees cold , no problem,
one thing was kind of strange, we pulled 2 small kids on the sled in the snow , and the radiator cooling fan was still coming on time to time, even tho it was 17 degrees air temp.,
you would think that the air moving throught the radiator would be enough to keep it cool. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

if you are at high elevation you may have to change your jetting

 

mine so far idles fine i have almost 400 miles on it now and i have rode it in 12 degree weather and choke seems to do great

 

Well, my machine has no problems starting when cold.... it hit -39 degrees celcuis the other day... which is -40'F... -40'C and -40'F are the same... anyways, yes it IS COLD.... and i fired right up... put the choke on... and it seemed to idle untill it started to load up, then i just turned down the choke, and it was perfect...

 

Zsebi: I was surprised at your comment that you were riding at 9000ft. with no problems. Did not know what elevation you came from? I have an 05 Kodiak 450 and live at 3500 ft. Was wanting to go to Colorado at an elevation of 9000 ft. but thought I would have to rejet. Your comment makes me believe I won't have to do through the re-jeting process!!

 

here is the skinny:
I am at 1000Ft elevation, going to 9000' would require a rejet if it would have been in the summer time.
why? at 9000 ' there is a lower air density which equals to less air same amount of fuel = too rich. but since this was in the winter 17-35 F degrees in a 3 day period, the cold weather does require a bit richer jetting than normal, so I figured , I leave it a bit rich.
I had to turn up the idle a bit to keep it from stalling, other than that it ran just fine, there was a noticable power loss, but that is part of running it at the elevation.

 

Grease zerk issiue solved. I took outerlimit's advice and went to the auto parts store and bought a pack of metric zerks and used the 90 degree on the top and the 45 degree on the bottom. Now when I go to grease them there looking straight at me! It's nice to see the grease come out the far end of the bushing!
My squeakie brake problem has come back and gone away again. I'm sure it get dirty and a good hosing down seems to do the trick. Now it time to get some new wheels and tires. I'm going with ITP wheels and 26'' Dirt Devils and adding the overfenders. I added a new air filter from twinair, they have one listed for the 05 kodiak on there web-site. This should just about do it as far as add-ons for me.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

THIS POST IS HUGE!!!!!! i think its so big because theyres so many people shocked to see a problem with a kodiak