I own a 1974 arctic cat el tigre 295 2 stroke and everytime I get it started with a cold start, it never idles, I have to stand there and keep my hand on the throttle or it will shut off and then its a pain in the butt to start it again. What do I need to do to adjust the carbs right so it will idle. I dont know much about adjusting carbs and I tryed adjusting them but now its all screwed up and don't know what to to them to. Help me start over please. I just wish it would start on one pull and it never does, I always have to use starting fluid. Now when u normally start a sled, I dont know how often ur suppose to choke it. is there a drain plug on these 2 cycles to drain the excese oil and gas out of the crankshaft? its a pain in the butt cause you can't see at the button whats down there other then that white rectangle box which i think is the electrical part of the sled

thanks

Justin

Not sure what you have for a carb but if its a tillitson I usually set mine at 3/4 turn out for low speed jet and 1 1/4 for high speed and fine tune from there. Have you tried turning the screw in a bit where the throttle cable hooks on, be careful with that as it may take off if turned in too far. I always have mine off the ground when setting the carb

thats why im scared to set the carbs, but i can take the drive belt off. Cause I took them aprt once and when I put them back on one of the needles or whatever it is was hanging wide open and I started it up and it took off missing a car and smashed into the neighbors tree then flipped upside and cracked the hood down the middle. hahah anywayz yea I can try that and see what type of carb it is

they are mikuni carbs. how to set the jam nut, throttle adjuster, choke adjuster, air screw, throttle screw, and where I can find a carbuerator synchronizer.

just get a board and put it under the rear handle to get the track off the ground. i would not adjust it with the belt off there is no load so it may be off with the belt on.

probably not the answer you want but I would purchase a mikuni tuning manual. I had one but misplaced it years ago. If it won't idle then the possibilities could be choke is not adjusted properly, idle circuit(pilot jet) is plugged, fuel supply problem, low compression. If it runs and idles well when warm but is hard starting cold then I would look at the choke adjustment. remove the carbs with choke cable still installed, i don't recall exactly but you should be able to see the choke barrel through an oriface(may need to remove bowl) make sure the barrel has full range of motion and should have slight bit of slack in choke cable when properly set. If you think there is fuel in the crankcase then the seat or float are the problem. Remember that starting fluid does not lubricate so use sparingly.

yea Im gonna wait til it warms up here in pennsylvania, Im pulling both motors out the 295 and 440 and doing a complete tare down and rebuid them. Once I can get it started it runs awesome, but gotta keep my hand on the throttle to keep running otherwise it shuts off right away and a pain the butt to start again. it seems like its got fuel in the crankcase cause I see fuel on the return line coming off the crank that spits fuel in the line back to the fuel pump.

that line coming from your crankcase would be your vaccum line, it operates the fuel pump and it should be dry no fuel should be in there. I would take your fuel pump apart and see if the diaphrams have a hole. this would let fuel leak threw it.

actually it is the pulse line, it pulses from crankcase pressure and that is what drives the fuel pump diaphragm, and there should NOT be fuel in that line. Fuel in crankcase could come from leaking needle/seat, stuck float, or the fuel pump diaphragm I would stop running it until you resolve the problem because all that extra fuel is going to wash the cylinders and you will be rebuilding the top end before long.

my mistake i meant to say pulse

ahhhh, that might be the problem then as to why it doesn't want to start and shut off after 5 secs because of the fuel going into the crankcase instead of air