Hi, all! I have a 2006 Kodiak that was running fine, and it's been parked for several months now. It's under the edge of an overhang, so it should have stayed mostly dry, but I supposed some rain could have gotten to it.

In any case, I went to crank it today, and although it was turning over fine, it wouldn't fire up a single time. I removed the seat, intake filter cover and filter, and the engine would fire up when I sprayed carb cleaner into it. I removed the fuel line going into the carb, and when the selector was turned "on" (arrow pointed down) nothing was flowing. I turned it to "reserve" (arrow pointed up) and it flowed fine. Thinking I had solved my issue, I tried firing it again to no avail. I did a little research and found the drain screw on the bowl, and I opened it up to drain any water that may be in there but it didn't flow. I kept back the screw out until it was completely removed and the bowl drained, but that was it. Even with the fuel line open to the carb no fuel is flowing into the bowl. I assume it should be? I pulled the inlet line again and fuel was flowing fine to the carb inlet. So--no fuel is getting from the inlet line to the bowl. One note--the fuel from the tank was nice and clean (I let about a cup drain into a clear bottle so I could inspect it). I was going to do the same with the gas from the bowl through the drain line, but since I had to remove the screw entirely it ran down the drain line (on the outside). It was pretty nasty looking and had sediment in it, but that could have come from the drain line....??? Maybe I need to look and see if it's *that* dirty.

I hope all of this makes sense--I have very little experience in working on engines. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and I'll be happy to send additional information and/or photos if needed.

 

Yes your carb needs cleaning out. If there is plenty of fuel in the tank but it only comes out on reserve, your fuel tap will need cleaning out too. If you don't feel confident to do it yourself, it shouldn't cost too much to get it done.

 

Merryman--thanks for your reply!!

Just how complicated would it be to do this myself? Is there a lot of disassembly involved, or would it be a simple matter of pulling a couple of lines and using compressed air to clean them? I don't mind giving it a try, but I don't want to ruin anything, either.

Question... does this ATV not have a fuel filter, or am I just overlooking it?

 

Most quads have a filter on the pickup pipes for the fuel tap, which is probably what is blocked. You take the tap off the tank, get as much dirt out of the tank as possible and blow the tap out with compressed air. It's a long time since I did a Kodiak carb. If I remember rightly they are a pig to get at. Once removed, you split the float bowl from the upper part, remove each jet in turn and blow both the jet and the hole it came from out with compressed air. Be careful not to damage the float. I don't take the dashpot to pieces unless cleaning the float bowl/jets doesn't work. I'm sure someone will have put a video of how to do it up on U-tube.

 

Thanks so much!! I'll try to take another look at it this weekend and see if your suggestions do the trick. And yes--from what I can see--the carb is going to be tough to access.

 

If it is anything like my wolverine, the 'easiest' way will be to take the seat off, take the front fenders off, and remove the gas tank. This will give you nice clean access to it from the top. You might have to remove the bolts holding your air box in so you can slide it back and easily remove you carb.

Nothing difficult about it, just a lot of nuts and bolts to take off! (and in my case 50% of them were seized on and I needed to cut them off...)

 

I had this happen on a lawnmower once that I left sitting outside. Water had gotten the in the fuel tank and thats why it wouldnt run. Had to take the tank off and drain it and clean it out. Not exactly the same thing but its very possible the fuel is bad.