2017 Arctic Cat Alterra 500 No Start

[Laval]

My son’s 17 Alterra 500 just quit today. It was running fine the started stalling and bogging at half throttle. It finally stalled and will not start. The bike was won in a raffle last year. It had sat for a year before he won it. Has ridden it very little since.  It has 180 km on it. We checked  the plug spark seems strong  disconnected the fuel line at the pump and the fuel pump is working well.  Disconnected the injector and it is spraying fuel.  Air filter is clean and there are no mouse nests in the air intake.  Al fuses checked and good. Ideas?

  

[Frank Angerano]

Only thing I can think of is the timing jumped? Any backfire problems? 
 

Other then that maybe bad gas? 
 

 

[Laval]

5 minutes ago, Frank Angerano said:

Only thing I can think of is the timing jumped? Any backfire problems? 
 

Other then that maybe bad gas? 
 

 

Thanks for the quick reply. My son never mentionned any backfiring just that it started bogging at throttle and the finally just died and refused to restart. As far as the gas is concerned it is mostly fresh gas and he used the machine quite a bit a day ago harrowing his driveway and had no issues. I am kind if wondering if a valve is out of spec. Is there anyway to check the timing without pulling sh** apart. 

[Frank Angerano]

Yes it’s just a matter of exposing the cam sprocket and the plug thats on the flywheel to expose the “T” mark. 
But before you get into all that go over the basic sh** first like the boot that connects the carb to the engine to make sure there aren’t any cracks, put a new spark plug in just to be sure.  Go over the kill switches to make sure there not flooded with water and it’s an intermittent short.  Make sure it’s good gas and no water got into the tank. 
 

[Laval]

Yeah we are putting in a new plug tommorrow. No carb - fuel injection. No way its water in gas as there has been no rain since it was running fine. I will post again after we try a new plug. I am hoping that is the problem as it does not even try to fire and there is enough fuel going through the injector that it should at least try. Spark seemed decent when tested but who knows. 

[Frank Angerano]

Right I did read you said it’s fuel injection. Ok well go with a fresh plug and see what happens. Hopefully that’s all it is.  

[mikeexplorer]

If you want to check valve clearances you can download the service manual for free here

https://support.countrycat.com/?home_feed=feed&order_by=recent&taxonomy_59981_taxa=78b1c963-9296-4d06-a420-3a0114241c4f

I would also suspect there was some bad gas in the tank, gas goes bad with the ethanol.

Mike

 

[Laval]

Thanks guys. Got the manual downloaded. 

[Laval]

Update. Changed fuel and plug and she fired up. Nothing but premium from  now on. Thanks for all the help. Much appreciated. 

[Frank Angerano]

There you go, that’s great news. Simple things first.  Ride safe! 

[mikeexplorer]

Good it was simple. If the machine is going to sit for awhile, I use sta-bil to keep the ethanol from fouling up the machine.

Mike