Will My ATV Start if the Timing Jumped?

Can an ATV start if the timing is a little off? More than likely yes, but the machine will probably run terribly if the timing jumped a tooth, so it's not worth the risk to try to run it that way.

Partzilla’s ATV expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this edition, John gives his thoughts on what could happen if an ATV starts even when the timing is off.

Will an ATV Start if the Timing is Off?

Do you know if my ATV will start if the timing jumped? 

John Talley: If it only jumped a tooth, would it possibly still start? Yes, but it’s going to run absolutely horrible. And that’s really easy to check no matter what make and model it is. You pull your timing access points on your crankshaft. You’ll probably end up having to pull your valve cover and then just line up your marks for whatever year, make and model that you’ve got. And then you’ll know, but could it still start? Yes. Unless it’s a really high performance model and if it jumped time, it would have probably been the valves.  

Watch the video below to see how to set the cam chain timing on a Polaris ATV.

Watch the video below to see how to set the cam timing on a Honda ATV.

Watch the video below to see how to set the cam timing and do a valve adjustment on a Yamaha ATV.

Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.