...so my dad asked me to take a look at his Yamaha Beartracker for him....he hasn't ridden it much lately, and last time he did, he had to leave the choke on the entire time so that it stayed running....he doesn't use it for offroading but for hauling hay and such around at his place for the horses....anyways here's a list of problems:

Problem (1)....batt clicked but didn't start...dad had also recently "replenished" the fluid....

working on (1).....hooked it up to a batt charger in the garage...seemed fine after about 1/2 on the charger....should I be worried about what he used to fill it up (arrowhead water), since it wasn't distilled....

Problem (2)....got ATV to start....sort of....full choke ran oddly.....sometimes ran fine.....other times ran skitterish....sometimes it died if I hit the throttle....wouldn't stay running if I lessened the choke.....

working on (2)....tried adjusting the idle screw....didn't do much....checked fuel....at a good level, but I'm wondering how old it is....checked fuel switch, looks like the gs one....moved freely, didn't seem to be sticking....

more working on (2)....I thought maybe there's just some bad stuff in the carbs that needs to get burned out....so I gave it a little shot of crack (carb cleaner).....engine came to life immediatley, but died down quickly....

....should I schedule some time tomorrow to drain the fuel and take a look at the carbs??....I want to, but only because I've never had a reason to work on carbs before and I'm kind of itching to get in there.....I don't want to mess with my stuff, but hey it's my dad's quad, not mine....any words of wisdom or advice prior to getting right in there??....

...or is there something else I should be looking at??....

thanx, and glad you made it this far....

drain the fuel and replace with new and a little bit of add-in carb cleaner.  Check and probably change the spark plugs, check the plug wires, check all vaccum hoses to look for cracks.  Other than that good luck.

sounds like my xr70 when i got it...

ran ok with the choke on, died when turned down... and cut-out when giving it throttle

turned out i had a clogged jet... old gas will clog the jets pretty quick...

later,
Chris

Dump old fuel - pull carb - clean carb [properly ] - batt may come back to life but odds are against you - new plug buy a roserie and say 7 hail marys .