kodiak won't start?

[firec]

I have a yamahaa kodiak that wouldn't start the other day. The tank is full and I changed the spark plug even though it was dry. Does anybody know of fuel filters that could be plugged. I don't see any and they manual dosen't give you a whole lot of info.

 

[Ryan03]

Their are 2 screens in the tank, one for reserve, and one for primary. They are accessable by removing the petcock from the fuel tank. Try removing the fuel line from carb and turning the gas on briefly to see if you have flow.

 

[RonMar]

You may also have drain screws at the bottom of the carb bowls depending on what type carbs you have. They are used to drain the float bowls for maintenance or storage. If yours has them, you can open these and see if any fuel is in the bowls.

As mentioned there are probably screens at the petcock inlets in the tank. Depending on the design, there may also be a screen filter in the petcock. One of the Yamaha's I owned was like this, and had a square headed screw in plug on the back side of the petcock that contained the screen filter. At any rate, you will have to pull the lines to drain the tank to access them, but if you can drain fuel from them, they probably are not clogged

Has this thing set for a while/ If there was fuel in the bowls to evap, it may have encrusted/clogged the fuel jets as it evaporated, which is what the bowl drains are to help prevent.

Good luck

 

[Ryan03]

When you changed the plug, did you check for spark by grounding the threads of the plug against the cylinder head with it hooked up to the plug wire, and then cranking the engine over. Also if it has been sitting for a while, make sure that you dont have a mouse nest in the air box or muffler. If the air box is clean, and you have spark, pull the boot off the back of the carb that goes to the airbox, then lift up the flat vacume slide that is just inside the back of the carb and shoot a small amount of starting fluid into the carb under the slide. Immediatly after this try to start the engine. if it fires briefly, you most likely have a fuel or carb issue. If it does not, assuming that it has a reasonable amount of compression, You likely have no vacume to draw the fuel into the cylinder. To check this, unhook the sparkplug wire from the plug {VERY IMPORTANT} next place your hand over the back of the carb and crank the engine over a few times, you should feel several strong vacume pulses pulling on your hand. A small amount of air blowing out between pulses is acceptable. All air blowing out, look for a plugged exhaust, jumped cam timing etc. no air, check compression. Good Luck, Ryan.

 

[firec]

Thanks for the ideas, I will try this weekend and let you know what I find out. I have never had a problem with this unit until now? We used it the previous weekend with no problem.

Thanks Again.

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

when you said the plug was dry when you removed or changed it that would mean no gas . being you said you just rode it a week before i would check the carb jets to see if you clogged one up with a chunk of trash.

 

[firec]

I think it is the carb. I checked the fuel line going to the carb and the gas flows fine. But when I opened the drain for the bowl nothing. I found a service manual on the net and will take the carb off one night this week and see where the problem is.

Thanks again.

 

[TOMMYHPX4X4]

that sounds like you have a stuck float. or a hole in the float and it filled up with gas and is no longer floating. it could be a stuck needle valve but i think it's a float problem.

 

[firec]

I ended up cleaning the carbs and now they run fine. Again, thanks for the help.

Side question, has anybody experianced problems with the gas that is 10% ethanol? In NY that is the only kind we can get now and I've heard people complaining that it goes bad quick and make sure you use stabil if you are not going run something for a while.