davefrombc

I have done next to zero work on ATVs myself other than maintaining my own and helping friends with minor repairs and welding. I have messed with old school cars which are very comparable to non-electronic controlled ATVs. A carb is a carb whether it is on as car , ATV or any other machine .. They may be built and look different but they all mix fuel and air to run. The trick is finding all the quirks in how each is jetted and adjusted .. That's where manuals and advice from owners of similar machines come in. As far as the electrical end of it comes , I'm comfortable with points and coils, but have to rely on advice from others and, again, manuals when dealing with CDI boxes and electronics on newer ATVs. I know my way around multimeters and basic electricity. Got my HAM ticket back in the '70s so learned a lot of electrical theory to do that . I'm a retired Millwright and have tinkered with cars since my first one over 60 years ago, so I do know the frustration of working in tight spaces at times fixing things that engineers designed to be easy to build but hell to maintain. Most of the time when someone has a problem I might be able to help with, Frank beats me to it and gives very good advice . I can only add a little to some of it some of the time . I spend entirely too much time on my computer so I do know my way around searching for answers to all sorts of things. The flexible screwdrivers offered today are a lot more refined than back in the day I bought one.. Old ones were simply a flat head with a cable like shaft and handle. I never saw any with a Philips or any Robertson head. Now they generally all have heads where you can use any of the various inserts. Good luck on getting that carb tuned .. Takes a bit of time and patience ..... and far too often a lot of ummmmm " Verbal lubrication" to get the job done.

You can get flexible screwdrivers . Walmart carries several different takes on them according to the hit on this search. https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/flexible-screwdrivers

Look in the forum downloads section. There is the service manual for the '88 - '94 Honda 300's there

I haven't found a free download of the manual for the newer ones ,but there's several pay ones available .

I can't tell you how they're locked , but if it might be with thread locker , like Loctite , you could try heating them up good and hot with a soldering iron. Empty the tank , leave the cap off and no open flames to heat the nuts with.. Heat on them will kill any locking compound if present and will likely help to loosen the nuts if they are mechanically locked with a star washer or other means.

Most likely it is the same switch located in the same place as in earlier models. There are Big Bear 400 manuals in the download section .. Check them out for the placement of your switch .. It may be something as simple as a bad ground .

Yes that valve is easily replaced. Your local quad dealer may have one in stock or a quick search online should give you several sources and prices .

Black Friday is also much quieter here now than it used to be. Online shopping has definitely taken a big bite out of the crowds and mayhem that used to be Black Friday. I'm sure the brick and mortar stores are hurting from the change .

Sounds like you got hit by one of the exploits that compromise your browsing .. I highly recommend Malwarebytes to remove the ad installer and any other malware. The download is a free trial of the full version of MB.. When the trial expires you have the choice of paying for the full version or drop down to the free version. The free version does everything the full one does except it does not offer full time real time protection.. You must manually run it if you suspect some nasty has snuck in. I have used the free version for years. It automatically checks for updates when you manually run it. you can download it here: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

Have a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving to all my neighbours south of the line .

A lot of "what ifs" to go with electric trucks and quads, especially if you're 200 miles in the bush. " Quad charges off the truck".... Great .. But how do you charge the truck if you're out on an extended stay ? Can both be reasonably charged using a small to medium 110 - 220v light plant of about 2 -3,000w ? To me , that quad is an ugly no go. 2wd and chain driven at that doesn't cut it in my book. Nope on the design on that "truck" too. I can see an electric 4x4 truck, but I would also like to see one with a built in gas powered genset to be able to recharge the batteries when way out in the boonies. It wouldn't need to be a fast charge , just one that could recharge it over a day with ability to restore at least 100 miles of its capacity in that time .

Most likely nearly all, if not all of those starter "brands" are actually built by one manufacturer and just sold under the company names. You'd be amazed if you found out how many Ford , GM and Chrysler are shared with one another and Japanese or Korean makes; especially in accessory parts like starters , alternators and other electronics . Many driveline parts are also shared. I'd go with the least expensive starter offered.

Since you found corrosion on the one terminal, check all the others to the starter. Try jumping directly from the battery to the starter terminal. If it spins over you know it is a bad connection or broken wire . If it does not the problem is most likely in the brushes in the starter. Press the start button and rap on the starter . That will often make the brushes contact and spin the starter over .. It may continue to work for a while after that , but if not it isn't very difficult to replace the brushes.

Start by jumpering directly from the battery to the starter momentarily to see if it spins over. Give the starter a rap if it does not most likely the brushes in the starter are bad . If you have a meter check to see if when you press the start button voltage goes to the starter. Try rapping on the starter while holding the start button. If you have no power to the positive on the starter the problem could be in several places . Start at the battery . Does it show 12v or a bit more ?.. Next make sure battery terminals are clean and tight .. Check battery ground cable to make sure is has good contact to the frame check starter solenoid .. Do you have battery voltage to it ? Check output from the solenoid. If no voltage there the relay may be bad. Power on the output then check wire to the starter for a break somewhere .In all this I am assuming the click you hear is the starter solenoid pulling in . If there is no power to the solenoid the problem could be simply the quad is in gear and the safety switch stops power to the starter ..

Happy Birthday to your wife .. She sounds like a keeper !

I have friends in the 100 mile / Canim Lake area , but my daughter is in Kelowna. My sister , niece , nephew and their families are in the Shuswap around Sorrento. Stepson is in Kamloops and oldest granddaughter is in Pritchard. I'm looking at someplace close to Kelowna , out towards Vernon.. For all our American riders , this is all great open country with mainly rolling hills , much of it hot and desert dry in summer. Not a whole lot of snow in winter with moderate temperatures equivalent to USDA zones 5 and 6. Here on the coast the Fraser Valley is flat farm land with the surrounding mountains pretty densely forested and logging roads closer to goat trails. A lot of them are not much more than one narrow lane wide and in many places you don't want to go off the road .. Some slopes have nearly a 1,000 ft. vertical drop from the road to the valley below. Still lots of places to explore though. Riding is mostly unrestricted. ATVs need to be registered and carry liability insurance but most riding is unrestricted on where we can go. Not a lot of having to stick to designated trails in BC.

Start to worry if she starts looking a singles vacation in exotic places My old 1991 Honda Fourtax 300FW goes fast enough for me. There's very few places we can really open them up here anyway , but lots of places we can get into lots of trouble . the winch on front has helped many times. I usually run tail end Charlie with friends that only have 2wd . They go ahead and when mired down I pull them back out LOL. I'm glad that at 76 I still bounce fairly well if I take a tumble. Would like to get a side by side so my dog can ride shotgun with me , but they're a bit too expensive . Maybe next year if I sell here for a good price, buy in the interior and have enough left over after the move .

You'll have to trace out the wiring on it . There is a safety switch or relay not working in the ignition circuit. I would guess most likely a relay or possible broken wire since it turns over on the starter. Usually when safety switches fail the starter also will not spin. It is not getting power to run when the start relay is energized so start there after checking for an obvious broken wire.

Mikuni is actually a Japanese company. China can produce some junk parts , but unfortunately so can Canada and the US. China is also capable of producing some very high quality products , and if you look closely you'll find an uncomfortably large number of "American" or "Canadian" products containing some Chinese made parts in their makeup. Dismissing any countries products as junk out of hand is foolishness in the extreme. As far as carburettors are concerned, unless it is corroded badly, very few actually need to be replaced.. They all can be cleaned but attention to detail is needed to get every passage and port / jet cleaned and unplugged . .Too often tiny holes in jet tubes and carb throats are missed. The only carbs I've ever seen that needed replaced were some on such things as weed eaters where the carb is plastic with some jets and parts non serviceable and plugged from being unused too long with old gas in them .

Screw in to lean , out to enrich. Most carbs are set to 1 1/2 to 2 turns out from lightly seated. adjust in and out about a 1/4 turn at a time to find the sweet spot where it idles good ( usually just below max idle when warm) and doesn't stumble when you go to accelerate .

I don't think rings are the problem. I've seen some pretty worn out motors start right up without a problem.. My guess is it is either running a little too lean or the choke isn't working. Cold motors need a richer fuel mixture to start. That's why most carbs have a choke, either manual or automatic, or a lever to enrichen the mixture and fuel injection motors have a start enrichening cycle for cold motors

Glad you finally got it . I would never have blamed the CDI being wired wrong.. LOL. usually wire electronics wrong and they don't work period and often all the magic smoke leaks out

If it is the winch relay just remove the two activation wires at the relay and see if there is still the loud click on connecting the battery.. Disconnecting the power to the relay doesn't stop the relay solenoid from firing since it is connected to ignition switch power.

Yes, the only adjustment on most carbs is the idle air screw. It mainly allows proper idling and when set right stops the motor from stumbling when you go to accelerate . If you will be regularly running at those altitudes you would need help to re-jet your carb. If it is just for a short time , I wouldn't bother with the re-jetting. You'll lose some power (18-20%) but unless you're into full bore running you'll hardly notice it . The worst you might notice is idle and stumbling off idle and that can be remedied by the air screw adjustment and that setting is likely only to need about a 1/4 turn from where it is now. The idle air screw is likely to be the only thing on your carb to have a thumb screw for adjustment. It is normally only about 1 1/2 to 2 turns out from seated.

You should be able to clean all the jets and passages in your carb. You should not need a new one unless that one is seriously corroded.. Stalling on giving it the gas is usually a lean burn problem caused by air bleed screw misadjustment or a plugged and overlooked jet or missed hole in one of the fuel tubes. There are some really tiny ones easy to miss. If there is an acceleration pump to give it a momentary shot of gas that could also be faulty. Those are all the fuel side. The other thing is ignition breakdown when combustion chamber pressures jump with the throttle moved off idle. Do you have a spark checker to see if the spark is still good when you hit the throttle ? If spark disappears when you do you know the problem is in the ignition circuit. If you don't see any hesitation in the spark give that carb another tear down and very close inspection. You need an exploded view of that carb to see where everything goes and look for overlooked screws , like some carbs have .. Some carbs have both an air bleed screw and an unnoticed fuel screw as was noted in another thread on another machine .If it runs at idle and stalls on acceleration it is fuel or spark. Fuel is the most common problem . I'm taking it for granted you have a new properly gapped plug and a new plug wire.