2006 Arctic Cat 500 running poorly

[ee1978ta]

I just bought a 2006 Artic Cat 500 (575 miles). It ran great when I tested it. Brought it home rode it fine. Added some gas, pretty sure the gas was good. Ran good, then all at once starting stalling when trying to open throttle and take off. Have to play with throttle to get going, still never makes any power. Idles okay. When throttle is increased is bogs down and backfires while in neutral. It is carbuerated. Is there an automatic electric choke? It does start good. Is there a safety devise that kills the spark if a sensor thinks the atv is in reverse or some other gear? I had a 2 wheel drive Polaris once that the reverse shift lever had a sensor on it that limited the engine power when in reverse. Had to wire around switch to get bike to accelerate.

[DirtDemon]

I started a new thread for you, hope you find it. I sent you a PM to notify you. The first thing I woud try is draining the gas and start with fresh stuff. You want to rule out the easiest problems first. There is an electric choke on the right hand side of the carb as you are sitting on the quad. Checking that plug and connection is a good place to start, maybe try and see how it runs if you unplug it. If that doesn't seem to get you any where, get rid of the gas and start over with fresh stuff, I know you said you were pretty sure it was good, but you want to be positive that you have good gas in there. If putting fresh gas in there doesn't help, I would next check a few simple things like check/clean the air cleaner, change the spark plug, have the battery tested and check any fuel filter that may be on the machine. If none of those things do any good, I would try cleaning the carb and checking the float adjustment and check the fuel pump. Although it sounds more like a fuel problem, it is possible that your problem is in the ignition system. Pull the spark plug out, ground it against the engine and check the spark while turning the machine over. The spark should be a strong blue arc.

There is a member here who is pretty familiar with Artic Cats, hopefully he finds this and has some more advise for you.

[mikeexplorer]

There should be a button on the left handlebar that is usually yellow and is the reverse override. When in reverse, the RPM's are limited unless you press this. There could be an issue with this. It does sound like something got in the gas since it happened after he filled it.

That happened to me with my car right after a fill up, ran terrible and had to add gas stabilizer to clear it up. A good dose of Seafoam would help.

Mike