ATV Carb Cleaning and Repair Q&A
Fuel and air problems with an ATVs engine can often be traced back to problems with the carburetor. Cleaning and/or rebuilding a carburetor is no easy task, but it's something that needs to be done if those fuel and air problems a dirty or damaged carburetor are causing persist.
Powersports pro John Talley does live Q&A sessions every Friday at 3pm Eastern, and in this session, ATV carburetor cleaning and repair was among several topics discussed. Here are John's answers to some of the questions our viewers asked about Honda ATV carburetor problems, as well as a stalling problem in a quad potentially caused by a dirty carb.
ATV Carburetor Cleaning & Repair
Have you experienced a non-replaceable float needle seat on any Honda TRX utility carbs?
John Talley: Yes. There are so many units out there where that particular seat for the carburetor is actually pressed in, and unfortunately you cannot replace it. I’ve had a fair amount of luck taking just a Q-tip with a valve grinding compound, taking that in there and lightly trying to massage the seat a little bit. You definitely want to put in a new needle where it has a chance to seal them back up. If it’s really pitted, unfortunately you’re going to have to replace the carb, there’s just no getting around that.
Watch the video above to see how to clean the carburetor of a Honda Rancher 350 ATV.
My quad idles fine, but the second I give it gas it stalls. How can I fix that?
John Talley: It sounds like your carb is going to need to be cleaned. If it’s been sitting up too long, typically when a carb sits up, it gums up the idle jet. And it doesn’t want to idle, but it’ll take wide-open throttle. Yours is actually doing that in reverse, so that tells me there’s probably something that has been pulled up inside of the main jet. You may have some debris that got into your fuel tank … and it’s lodged on that main jet. So, pull it off the machine, break it down and make sure you clean out that main jet.
Watch the video above to see how to clean the carburetor of a Honda TRX400 ATV.
Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.
