Have an interesting problem starting with my Raptor and looking for suggestions before taking to dealer.

My local dealers usually don't have a clue on ATV repairs and charge an Arm & a leg for poor quality service. (From my past experience anyways)

Something appears to be sticking in the carbs.


First a little background...

I purchased the Raptor about 7 months ago and it currently has less than 30 hours on it and I don't ride it very hard, still getting used to the power. I traded my 250X in on the Raptor so it has quite a bit more power!

Prior to today the only problem was the left front shock falling off and finding many other loose nuts & bolts. The dealer didn't prep correctly and I ended up taking it to another dealer to have them re-prep and check everything.

After 5 minutes of riding this weekend the throttle started sticking, causing a very high idle condition.

We first thought improperly adjusted throttle cable. Maybe it stretched since the ATV is like new? After reviewing the cable and verifying free play we continued the search.

We removed the throttle plate and removed the throttle cable to eliminate the possibility of bad cable. Moving the throttle by hand (on the carbs) w/ no cable attached you can see that when it tries to return to idle position it is binding and doesn't make it all the way down to idle. If you give it FULL throttle it will snap back correctly. Giving it 1/4 to 1/2 will cause it to bind at the end.

Started the fun process of removing all plastic/tank to get the carbs off and take a closer look. First of all the left carb fell right out of the boot before even trying to remove the clamp (know many people out there are also having issues w/ carbs blowing/backfiring, Etc.) With carbs in hand the throttle action still appears to bind and we didn't feel like going any further or separating the carbs (new territory w/ twin carbs for my skills)

Re-assembled everything and the issue was still there and on a hunch sprayed everything in the throttle plate w/ WD-40 & the moving parts that link the 2 carbs. This made a huge improvement and the issue disapeared for the rest of the day. On day #2 it started to come back slightly.

I don't know where to go from here, I certainly don't feel removing Throttle Plate & Sparying WD-40 inside & between the carbs on the linkage daily is a good solution. Is there another simple solution? Anyone seen this problem before?

Thanks,

Jason

 

The hi idle sounds more like an intake air leak. I'd check the condition of the carb boots very thoroughly. As for binding linkages, you're just gonna have to hunt and peck there. Maybe remove the cable completely and check to see if it's kinked internally or something like that, it may not be the carb after all. Oops after posting this and rereading I see you already pulled the cable...duh... I havent personally ripped the carbs or anything else off my Raptor but I highly doubt it's all that complicated... Just hold your breath, say a prayer, maybe sacrifice a goat and dig in!

 

Take the hit and trade it for a Honda.

 

After having a conversation today with the service mgr. at one of my local dealers he told me it sounds like a throttle cable problem. After reminding him it doesn't have a throttle cable attached for my testing he changed his tune and said it was caused from bad fuel. The carbs are dirty. Did you store it w/ fuel?

Yes! I actually did store it over the Winter w/ fuel and put Stabil in. Never was an issue on previous quads/lawn mowers/snowmobiles.

if I bring it in they will clean them for almost $150.00-200.00 and then I bet the issue comes back with time anyway because something is broken!

Is storing with Fuel for longer than a month really a bad thing if it is treated w/ Stabil?

It was stored from 12/01 until 04/01 w/ treated fuel.

 

Just pull the carbs off yourself. You just need to remove the fuel line and overflow hoses to flip them over and see whats going on. It's very easy.

Chris

 

I got mine last November and on my first trip the throttle started sticking. I found over the next two days that the problem only happened when the engine was hot. When I got back home I took it to the dealer and the proble turned out to be the butterflies in the carbs were not aligned right. They would be ok when the engine was cold but when it started to heat up the expansion of the metal would stick them. The fix was to loosen the butterfly shaft screws and let the butterfly self center in the carb, then tighten the up. Never had another problem since.

 

Thank you everyone for your responses. Even the dude who said buy a Honda, I had a 87 250X and still have a 91 300 Fourtrax and understand where you are coming from.

If they had something that competes w/ the Raptor I would have went w/ it.

 

just a little note to make everyone's job in removing the carbs alot faster and easier is remove the entire air box,cables,& front carb clamps and pull them out thru air box area quick & simple no plastic removal.

 

cool tip on the carb removal.. I have to rejet this weekend to match my new pipe... If I can't get to the jets from the bottom I will be sure to try this..

thanks

 

If your carbs are on correct, then I would add a little more slack in the throttle cable....this worked for me.