I have a 2005 Honda carburated ATV that wont run properly, it is a friends of mine and he let it sit for a year without running it. I replaced the battery recently and its fine but now the vehicle wont start properly, its got a brand new spark plug in it and it fires fine, the only way i can ge it to start is by spraying a carb jump start in it and then it runs for a few seconds and wont continue to run. It doesn't seem to get fuel when i give it throttle, i have checked the petcock and it operates fine, there is fuel in the tank and there are no kinks or restrictions in the fuel line to the carb. I have heard that if I put a very small amount of methanol in the fuel and get it to run through the carb that it will eat away the varnish that is blocking up the carb but i want to know if this is true and what the best way to get it to be run through the carb is? anyone with tips would be a huge help soi can get this atv running for the long weekend coming up.

 

Dude, you have been here long enough to know the How-to section is for posting threads on how to do something ... not ask how to do something Moving to General Tech

 

Yeah. . .but that's not really the best way to do it. Drain all the fuel out of the lines and the tank. Open the float drain valves on the carb unit and drain the fuel from those. Close them up, and throw a gallon of gas in the tank, and add half a bottle of seafoam. Start cranking the bike and spraying starter fluid into the intake to get it to fake start, which will get the fuel pump going. Check the float valves occasionally to make sure the mixture got to them. If it did, you may want to let it sit for an hour or so, then try cranking again. The seafoam will eat away some of the varnish, but if there's a lot, then nothing is going to do it and you'll have to clean the carbs and jets by hand, which is really the right way to do it.

You need to remove the carburetor unit from the engine, dismantle it and soak your jets and bowls and stuff overnight, then spray out all the little holes and stuff with carb cleaner, clean all your hoses with compressed air, and reassemble. You'll also have to balance the vaccuum in each cylinder, but that's not necessary to at least get the ATV running.

 

ah sorry everyone, i didn't mean to start this in the "how to" section i just wasn't paying attention i guess.

Thank you for the advice about the carb clean, i am going to give what Johnny said a shot this weekend. If that doesn't work then i could always do a carb boil with new gaskets ive just never done that so hoping to stay away from it.

 

I don't know WTF a "carb boil" is, but if it wrecks your gaskets it sounds like bad news. Just get one of those paint cans of carb cleaners and soak everything in it (except the gaskets )

 

Easy way to do it. Buy a can of carb cleaner and a can of seafoam. Take the float bowl off and clean it out. spray carb cleaner up in the jets. drain your gas button it up and put some fresh gas in it with a whole can of seafoam. Fire it up and let it run for a while. add more gas to the tank and your good to go. You can run it on straight seafoam but just idle it don't wind it up to the red line or anything.

I have had some pretty nasty old CB's and this usually gets it running decent enough to run all the new gas with seafoam through it.

 

ok so i did what you said "Todd" and cleaned out the jets very well. my issue is that the fuel is not getting to to where it needs to go, ive taken the carb all the way apart being sure to not damage any gaskets and clean it with carb clean, ive checked the pet **** on the bottom of the fuel tank and fuel gets to the carb when the switch is turned to the on position and it stops when its at the OFF position. when the pet **** is switched on I un screw the bottom screw of the float bowl yet nothing comes out of it. i have sprayed carb clean and used an air hose to clean everything out but what else could cause this issue? the only thing i can think of is the float is stuck in a full position? if you have any advice please let me know

 

Is the ATV gravity fed, or is there a fuel pump and relay?

 

it is Gravity fed, the fuel gets to the carb but thats as far as i can tell

 

If you open the bowl drains, does gas come out?