[AT] Bad Gas in my ATV wheelchair

[Cecil Bearden]

I spent most of the day with that Arctic Cat VLX today.  It would not 
start, so I took the fuel pump back out of the tank and found that I had 
connected the wires backwards.  This has happened before.  Europe and 
Asian electrical wiring use black for the positive and other colors for 
the negative.  The US uses Black for negative and Red for positive.   
The new fuel pump was make in China and it came with a plug that fit the 
new pump instead of the spade terminals on the old.  When I spliced the 
new plug wiring in I connected red to red and black to black.   I had to 
switch the terminals in the plug.  Now it runs and seems ok.  However, 
it has one idiot warning light that stays on.  When I researched the 
service manual I found that it has to be connected to a Arctic Cat 
Computer to check what is causing the warning light.   The computer is 
only $1800 on Ebay or at Amazon...   When I said something about that, 
The Arctic Chat forum Admin threatened to remove me from their list and 
all previous posts.  I was told I had an adolescent attitude because I 
didn't want to pay $1800 for a computer to diagnose it or pay the 
dealership $12 5/hr with a 2 hr drive to get there...   If that is all 
it takes to get their admin stirred up then I think they are too thin 
skinned for me....

Cecil

On 12/1/2021 8:22 AM, Cecil Bearden wrote:
> I tore down the Arctic Cat 2019 700 VLX yesterday.  I bought a lift 
> table at a sellout of a cycle upfitter.  The fuel pump suction 
> strainer had disintegrated in the tank.  The tank had some sticky red 
> crap in the bottom that would not mix with the gas.  I dumped the gas 
> and mopped up the red stuff with towels.  Then found that methanol 
> would make the red stuff mix with the leftover gas and pour out the 
> tank.  I think what fuel was in it caused the fuel pump to liquify. 
>  Then the carburetor throttle plate was frozen.  I worked with carb 
> and choke cleaner and finally got the throttle shaft pulled and the 
> throttle shaft had the same sticky stuff.  This only had maybe 10-12 
> hours on it if that much.  It has been sitting 2 years.  I never put 
> anything in the tank but gasoline.  I try to buy only premium unleaded 
> no ethanol.  I buy from the same place.   I have it nearly all back 
> together and I tried the starter and it fired with the little fuel in 
> the fuel line.   Now I have my 2012 Arctic Cat 700 with power steering 
> to find the problems.  The power steering, 4wd, lights, fan all quit 
> working. I have checked all relays and fuses.  The fan was the first 
> to go then the power steering, then 4wd and last the lights.   Arctic 
> Cat has become very hard to get correct parts for.  Textron bought 
> them and now they are producing their own brand of ATV and letting the 
> Arctic Cat division go hungry.  It doesn't make sense, but I have 3 of 
> them.  My first Arctic Cat was a 2008 366 model.  i bought it when I 
> first started consulting and it was what I could afford.  I paid for 
> it in 4 months, financed it with my credit card.  I bought that 2019 
> model when the 366 would not run above idle.   I bought the 2019 700 
> to use while the 366 was being worked on.  It took 2 weeks at least 
> before the dealer would get it into the shop to work on it.  When I 
> picked up the 366, it ran good for about 30 minutes.  I put an Ebay 
> carburetor on it and it would not start.  When I was working on it I 
> found all the rubber connections on it were cracked and leaking.  Why 
> the dealer did not change these I don't know.  They charged nearly 
> $500 to rebuild the carburetor.   It turns out that the dealer I 
> bought all these Arctic Cats from is no longer an Arctic Cat dealer. 
> The closest one is over 120 miles away.   I had done a lot of business 
> with them for service over the years. I messaged them about the 
> problems I was having, and got the response that they were sorry for 
> all the problems I was having.    So, I bought a lift table and will 
> do all my own work like I used to do.  The last time I put a fuel pump 
> in my old 700, my back was killing me for days.  I have to be able to 
> work while sitting in a chair. now that i have tried the lift table, 
> it needs a little modifications on the safety stops to get it at just 
> the right height.  It works great though, as it will run off a small 
> compressor.
>
> Cecil
>
>
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