Hi all, new here in hopes of some pointers. I have a history building seadoo’s but this is my first atv, was my father and laws old unit he’s let us use now that we purchased a cottage.
I believe it to be a 1994 sportsman 400
It will start no troubles at all, idles good, takes off like a bat out of hell generally and is just fine on flat land 99.9% of the time. Going up a incline over 1/2 throttle about 60% of the time she’ll fall right on her face. If I peddle the throttle a bit back and forth I generally make it up the hill, not to often will it die right out. It’s not slipping, it is a engine bog.

I’ve just started tinkering on it, I was told before it was fowling plugs, so they cleaned the carb and installed a new needle and seat, aswell could not find a new float so put another used one it. The fuel shut off wasn’t functioning so a new one and filter was installed. I’m told after this is when the bog started.

I have tried running it with no gas cap – same trouble, I hooked up a jerry can right to carb by-passing filter & shut off, and although it did seem to be better on the short test run, I did get it to bog again although not as bad

Side note, I don’t believe the kill switch on the handle bars function, we’ve always just turned the key. The odd time on occasion the key won’t shut off when you turn the key

I’m going to start ripping into it next time I head to the cottage, was hoping for some advice and tips from people who know the machines

Thanks all!