John Deere UTV Forum

I'm up 30 miles East of Fargo ND.  I have a 2000 Arctic Cat 300 and a 500 with a busted output gear.  Neighbor has a bunch of Honda Big Red three wheelers I work on.

Stale fuel can cause those symptoms. Make sure it's got fresh fuel. And, stale fuel can bugger spark-plugs in one single firing without even starting. They burn something onto the porcelain that looks oily and that shorts the spark down the porcelain when there is compression. A plug like that will spark out of the engine, but doesn't spark under compression.. If you have a gas ring you can burn them clean, but they are always susceptible to fouling again after that. Once the engine is running, and has been got hot, you can refit them and they are often ok untill someone floods the engine using the choke and then they start playing up.. They can be really really deceptive.. and it's caused by trying to start engines with stale fuel. I'd drain the carb and tank, put fresh fuel in, turn the fuel tap off, leave the spark-plug out and crank it over till there's no more fuel spitting out the plug hole, then I'd turn the tap on for a bit to fill the carb, then turn the tap off and fit a new plug and start trying to start it. If the fuel tap is off, and working(not leaking), then it will eventually dry out and sooner or later it should fire.

What you have is a stuck or rusted over running clutch.  Refer to   https://www.arcticcatpartshouse.com/oemparts/a/arc/5011c32df87002364833ee3f/starter-clutch-assembly 2000 Arctic Cat 300 4X4 (RED) (A2000ATF4AUSR) Starter Clutch Ebay has repair parts for $30.85 and up.  Blue LOCKTITE THOSE BOLTS! Do yourself a favor and get the repair manual.

Its a 2 stroke. Ive had a compression tester on it and its showing 100 i have changed head gaskets has i noticed a bit of leaking from head but still no joy. I did change plug. It also has a pull start but its not turning it over it only turns over by button. Il try that with fuel because it is wet each time i check it so could be flooding but it is a new carb. Lad who i bought it from lives near me i seen him out on it  last year then he put it away over last winter got it back out a few months ago and wouldn’t start. Its not even firing at all. I took exhaust off when i fid head gasket and they was fuel in exhaust, quite a bit. But if it was flooded wouldn’t it at least try to fire ?

Those are for 2004 and up. It seems they don’t work on the 2002 model. Only some of the functions work, but most of them don’t. Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it very much. I’ll keep looking.