A few days ago I decided to resurrect my 99 wolverine, after it has been sitting on my back porch for the past year. It has been bored .50 over, has a hotcams cam, Cobra exhaust, K&N air filter, and warrior 36mm carb with what I'm assuming are stock jets. At first it was backfiring in the carb pretty bad, so I took the carb off and cleaned it and that cured pretty much all of the backfiring. The problem now is that it seems to be running rich to me...It idles good, but if you snap the throttle all the way open it stumbles and if you hold it there it dies, runs decent (still not quite like I think it should, but decent) up to around 3/4 throttle or so, maybe a little higher, then it starts to feel really sluggish and starts bogging and sputtering, especially in the higher gears or going up a long hill. It will not run with the choke on at all, even when first starting it. I did a plug chop (ran it wide open in 5th for about 20 seconds, then pulled up on the shift lever and killed it) and checked the plug and it looked black, so there was my confirmation that it is indeed running rich. My dad says he believes the carb is just still dirty from sitting that long and that I should put some carb cleaner in the fuel and run that for a few tanks and that should clean it up, but I think I may need to jet down. I have read several posts on here and it seems that my symptoms are pointing to the main jet being too big. Anyone have any ideas on if the carb cleaner may help it? Right now I am running some gumout carb cleaner through it mixed about 2 ounces to 1 gallon or so.

Another problem is that it seems to be funning lean on the idle circuit, at least im guessing thats what it is. It seems to have alot of popping when I let off of the gas, it doesn't backfire, just seems to be popping alot. I have adjusted the mixture screw and it is now about 3.5 turns out, but that hasnt really done much, I think that is just coming from the pilot jet being gummed up a bit, any ideas?

Sorry for such a long post, but I hate it when people arent specific about their questions, like "My wolverine runs like crap, whats wrong?" Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

Wood I use a product called Sea Foam. It's a gas or oil additive to clean your engine/carbs. I have had great results with it. I would try to run some of that through it before you rejet. Sounds like you still have a dirty carb.

 

I may have to pick up some today to give that a try. Do they have sea foam at Wal-Mart? I know I have seen it at NAPA, not sure about wally world though...

 

Well, I took it for a short ride with no airbox lid, and it ran alot better on top end, I still think it may be a tad rich, but I'm not sure. I think that made it lean out even worse on the idle circuit, it started backfiring in the carb a little bit when I was off the throttle. I am about to go get some seafoam to run through it and if that doesnt clean it up, tomorrow I am probably gonna pull the carb apart to see what jets are in it, then get a smaller main jet and a larger pilot jet. Anyone see anything wrong witht hat or have a suggestion on how many sizes to go down on the main and up on the pilot?

 

I'm not sure on that one bud, I'm running the stock carb on my Wolvey. I'd just go one size at a time untill it feels right.

I think they sell sea foam at most auto parts places, not sure about walmart.

 

A common problem with the Warrior (and 95 Wolverine) carb is the accelerator pump,it is a metal rod held up by a very weak spring, and it tends to stick down, so when you hit the gas, you suck a lot of air with no shot of gas to mix in, so you get a big bog off the bottom, but it runs fine the rest of the time. Take the side cover off the carb and see if the rod under the pump arm is stuck down. clean out the hole the rod goes into ( you'll have to pull the bowl off to get it out) and make sure it snaps back up when you push it down. A great fix is the spring from a click type ink pen, it is the exact same size, but about 5 times stronger. Take a look at that and let us know what you find.

 

I have been thinking about replacing that spring from reading other posts, I may have to give it a shot tomorrow. I rode the bike with some seafoam in the gas for a few hours tonight (went on a night ride) and it hasn't improved any. I'm planning on letting it sit overnight with seafoam in it then ride it a little tomorrow to see if its better, and if its not, im going hunting for some smaller jets. It is pretty bad when a 350 rancher is WAY faster than a hopped up wolverine, I know thats not how its supposed to go... Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will have everything squared away and will be done with this headache.

 

Right now I am in the process of tearing the carb down to clean it and change out the jets. I checked the accellerator pump, and it comes back up just fine, the only thing I found wrong was that the little black rubber boot had slid up on the rod past where it was supposed to go like in the bottom right pic on this page: http://www.dynojet.com/pdf/Q406.pdf . Other than that it seemed to be working ok, now on to the jets...

 

I changed the main jet from whatever was in it (145 mikuni stock warrior main, I assume) to a 140, and it seems to be running slightly better, but im still not sure. If it's in neutral and you wick the throttle wide open quickly, it still dies unless you let off, and is still running very slow on top end (32.9 mph top speed). The pilot jet is still lean (stock 42.5) and has too much popping on deceleration, but the local ATV dealership didn't have any other pilots in stock, so I ordered a 45 pilot to hopefully cure that problem. Now I am wondering if maybe the main jet is actually too small? The plug chop I did wasn't with a brand new plug, so maybe the reading was false, im not sure. Ill run down all the symptoms again...

In neutral if you floor it very quickly it sputters and dies, but if you do it even a little bit slower it revs ok...

It seems to be running decent through the gears, but it won't pull any wheelies in any gears (something I think it should do in at least 1st and maybe 2nd with all the mods)...

Top end seems really slow, it was sputtering, but it seems to have quit sputtering since I put in the 140 main...

If I am running WOT and then back off to less throttle (around 2/3rds or so) it sputters just a tiny bit, then smooths out...

I think one of the biggest clues to something being seriously wrong is that over about half a mile or so it topped out at 32.9 mph, a while back someone posted a pic of a wolverine going 53 stock.

I tried taking the airbox lid off after putting in the smaller main, and I couldn't really tell a difference in performance...

Here is a full list of mods... Bored .50 over, Hotcams stage 1 cam, K&N airfilter, Cobra exhaust, Warrior 36mm Mikuni carb (currently 140 main)

Anyone have any clue as to what I should do next?

 

Have you looked at the needle position? could be set way too lean or way too rich for the jet you have. Have you done a plug chop with the 140 jet?Usually if your top end is weak, you are lean, rich jetting shows up as skipping or sputtering on the top end. The popping on decel sounds like a problem in the pilot jet/idle mixture circuit, I'm surprised you can't get that to stop, mine is bored .040 over, with a Web cam, and I have no problems with the stock 42.5 pilot, and mine revs real snappy in neutral with no pops or hesitation. The fact that yours does may point to a blockage in your carbs smaller passages, you may need to take it apart again, and put the straw from the carb cleaner can in every passage and make sure you are getting a good flow out to rule out any blocked passages.Also, to make trouble shooting a little easier, if you have the stock filter and exhaust, I would put that back on, and get it tuned in with that first,with a pipe and hi flowing filter, you may be trying to tune too many things at once, the filter might be messing up the bottom end, while the pipe may be affecting mid to top end, etc. Once it is running good, add one thing at a time, tune it in, then add the rest. Don't give up, that Wolverine deserves all the attention you can give it, after all, you left it sit for a year, and now it's probably mad at you !!!!