I just picked up a 1979 Ski-Doo Citation 300 for my two sons (4 & 7 years old) off one of my neighbours for a 100 bucks, with a cover and two helmets. Over-all it's in pretty good shape, seat has no rips or tears, hood has no cracks, and every thing seems to be in order and mostly original. It does run but not real well how ever...... the previous owner has messed around with the carb and I believe this is the cause of the problems. It has a round slide Mikuni carb.

The sled starts but, doesn't idle well and tends to bogg a bit and back fires lots and loud!!! When I was trying to set the carb, and playing with the throttle it sometimes has a tendency to rev up reel fast on it's own??? to the point where it engages the clutch.

I took the gas tank off and drained out the existing fuel, rinsed it out with new gas, mixed up some fresh fuel at 50:1. I installed a rebuild kit in the fuel pump, took the float bowl off and cleaned it out, but it's still running like crap.

Any help would be great my kids are dieing to ride it, and I am excited to get them started.

Thanks in advance.
Dave

did you clean all your jets and needle seat, not just the bowl and floats? If not you may have crap floating around still which is getting clogged in your pilot jet, thus screwing with the idle. If you havent fully cleaned your carbs i would start with that. Are your plugs good? make sure they are and make sure they are gapped right, i think its supposed to be .016mm, at least thats what mine is.

i have the same sled. its my daily driver lol. its fast for a 300 and is light, but i just bought it to drive around the nieghborhood. but check your points. they are always a problem on the old skidoos

Well just a update for those who offered help. I took the sled to a guy in town here and he ended up replacing the points, setting the timing and had to replace the intake gasket on the carb manifold. It now runs like a champ!!! My two sons (4 & 7) are pumped........ now we need snow!!

Thanks again,
Dave

that would explain why it was revving up, the bad gasket was letting air in, (like hitting the throttle)