I recently bought a 2012 rancher that has sat for most of the last 3 years. It wasn’t even due for its first service yet. I made a couple big mistakes out the gate that I’m already paying for. I didn’t go through the atv, it ran so I rode it. The guy said he treated the fuel so I didn’t drain what little was left of the old, I just put more new on top of it. Yes, I’ve already been spanked in the wallet for this one.

So far, I’ve found that the gas sitting in it for the last 3 years has wreaked havoc. The atv, of course, eventually quit running. Searching forums clued me in that it was starving for fuel. In short, the screen on top of the petcock was disintegrated. The fuel gauge was rusted stuck. The fuel sock in the fuel pump assembly was totally black and presumably stopped up. There was a rusty orange nasty coating on everything and a varnish-like crud in the bottom of the fuel pump assembly that I had to gently chip out. I’m waiting on parts to see if it’s fixed.

A little while before it quit running, I started to notice that when I first started it up, the throttle was very stiff and difficult to push. It might have been this way since day one, but I hadn’t noticed. Once the atv starts and runs for a couple minutes, the throttle lightens up to what I feel like it should be. While it’s stiff, if you mash it hard enough, the throttle will spool up, but it takes a while to come back down. I’m told it’s fuel injected. Cable problem? Other ideas? Thanks for any good advice.