Had to clean out the old ATV carburetor again

I have a little Bayou 220 that I always keep stored at the house during the off season, and swap it around with a Honda Fourtrax once all the preseason work is done in the country.

Despite running it about once a month or so during the summer, I still find myself often having to clean the carb, despite keeping a little Sea Foam in the gas. The Sea Foam works great at keeping everything else running, but granted, everything else (lawn mowers, edger, etc.) gets a good, periodic workout.

This time I found a large accumulation of what looked like small balls of jelly piled up in the bottom of the carb near the end of the power jet. Flushed it out, as well as the Jets and float valve with a good spraying of carb cleaner and she runs like new.

Perhaps I should go back to my old practice of running the carb dry at the end of those brief, summer warm ups.

How long since you cleaned out the tank? hoses? and does it have an inline filter?

I think even seafoam falls to the good ole texas heat and humidity..

you could also rebuild the carb and help seal it...

good wheelers though... had the same one in a 320 or something... ran the tires off of it

Thanks for the replies.

It has a fuel filter, and the lines look fine. However, I think I'll go ahead and replace both for good measure. Not sure, but the lines may be original back to when I bought it new back in '97. LOL

What I cleaned out of the bottom of the float bowl and power jet looked much like caviar or very small fish eggs. Most likely what happens over time to the ethanol and additives in today's gasoline.

yup... its probably breaking down the lines and the seal inside the carb slowly

This would be my advice. With my current lawn mower I shut off the gas valve and let it run out before I store it each week after I mow. I did the same with a 2001 Honda XR400 I had for a few years and it never had a problem.

Run all of the gas out each time you use it. I have a Husqvarna chain saw that is 28 yrs. old never had to clean the carb.
when finished using it I pour all the gas out of the tank" because it doesn't have a shut off valve" I it start it let it run until it dies, put the choke on start it and run it till it dies again. you will good to go next time you use it.

FIL had the same model. Left it sit for a few years with gas in it. I cleaned it out good and it fired right off and ran good for a day or so then started not wanting to idle etc. I pulled it apart again and cleaned some silty looking goo out of the carb bowl and jet reasebled and repeated. The float was deteriorating inside the carb and gumming up the jet. Could be your problem if you haven't replaced the float.

Keep marine stabil in it but also run it out of gas before storing. Only way to keep that ethanol from eating at the parts.

What exactly does the marine stabil do? To my knowledge it is a fuel stabilizer and that is about it, it doesn't remove the ethanol from the gas. I don't believe it prevents the ethanol from harming non ethanol resistant components.

marine Stabil removes ethanol

That's exactly what it does.

http://www.goldeagle.com/product/marine-sta-bil-ethanol-fuel-treatment-stabilizer

Get a repair kit and a bottle of carb cleaner. You might want to soak it for some time and use a compressor to blow away the dirt and clog ports.

Also check and replace the air filter as needed.