Hey folks... three days ago I decided to buy a 2004 Yamaha Bruin 350 4x4 for some land I own. The bike was fantastic and I had no complaints, until two days ago. There are what I believe to be two separate problems occurring. I apologize for this being long, but I wanted to describe the problems as accurately as possible.

Problem I:

This past Saturday I was using it with a utility cart to haul some dirt around from a hole I was digging. After the cart was loaded I went to start the Bruin up to haul the dirt off, and nothing happened... the bike didn't turn over or anything. Thinking I hadn't done something wrong I checked the key, which was in the 'on' position, it was in Neutral, parking brake set, checked the on/off stitch, which was good, checked the choke, fine, and had enough gas. The weird thing was, I kept hearing this soft click when I tried to start it with the ignition button. I checked the headlights, and when I turned the switch on, the lights didn't come on. I wasn't sure what was causing this problem, so I gave the pull starter a shot and it started right up. I purposefully killed it and gave the ignition button another shot and it started fine. As puzzled as I was I continued using the bike for the rest of the day without problem.

The next day, yesterday, my sister rode for the better half of the day without trouble. As I was leaving the house to run some errands I asked if she had any trouble with starting the bike and she said no. Then I got into my car and started driving off when I see her waving at me, so I get out to hear that it wasn't starting. I went over to find that that same exact thing that had happened the day before was happening again. I then pull-started it and it was fine.

Anyone have any ideas? If I were talking about a car I would look towards the starter, but I don't have a clue when it comes to these systems. Why would it work after the bike is started with the pull starter? Why do none of the electrical systems work (lights) when this problem is happening?

Problem II:

After returning home from running a few errands I find that when she was riding, the bike had died on her and it took her 4 tries to get it going and back to the house again. She kept saying it died on her after a short while of running.

At this point I hopped on the bike to do some diagnostics. I went to start it, and the engine turned over, but never started up. If I put the choke on full the bike would start, but if I hit the throttle it would die, or if I tried to take the choke off it would die. The bike has plenty of gas, so I didn't really know what was going on. I tried moving the fuel **** to reserve, and when I tried starting the bike again it started right up! I tried turning the fuel **** back to 'ON' and after a while it sputtered and died, only to start again when I put it back to 'reserve.'

I don't know much about this fuel system, so does anyone have any insight to this problem keeping the bike running? At first my thinking was that there was bad gas in the tank, but I had filled the gas can with gas that all my cars and John Deere mower run off of (from the same station). I had wondered if water got into the gas tank, but the bike isn't run through water, nor was it or the gas can left out in the rain. Then I was wondering if my sister had put 2 cycle mixed gas in the tank, but she said she didn't.

The dealer where I purchased the Bruin has been closed the past two days, otherwise I would be on the phone with them. The problem is that I was only given a 50/50 warranty and I don’t want to get stuck paying anything out of pocket for something I haven’t even owned long enough to run through a tank of gas.

Thanks for any and all help!

Kyle Collier
Text

 

my battery connections keep coming loose and it makes a clicking sound until re-tightened.....the threads felt loose from the factory

 

I agree w/ squeege, check the terminal connections, or maybe your battery isnt holding a charge that good. Does the dealer you bought it from have any service records? Maybe you need to clean the air filter, adjust the valves or clean the carb. Good luck and congrats on the purchase.

 

On the electrical problem, I'd agree with the others: check your battery and/ or connections. For your fuel problem, was the tank fairly full when you were diagnosing? If it was the fuel suction screen might be plugged ( far fetched but worth a shot). Your fuel **** has 3 positions: on, off, and reserve. The difference between on and reserve is the suction/ inlet tube heights, on is a bit higher than reserve ( reserve is just the bottom inch or so of the fuel tank). Anyhow, your fuel filter is basically just these suction screens.Only reason I thought of this was 'cause what you said about it, otherwise I'd think jets or spark. Good luck man, and by the way, welcome to the forums!! Oh, FYI, you can research old archived threads, just search in related categories using key words . [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I appreciate everyone's suggestions! I will give them all a shot when I get home this afternoon!