was running good up the trail did one sidehill and got stuck now it wont run past about 6000 rpm, two of the plugs are black (pto and middle) and the mag side plug is brown, took the carbs off and drained the floatbowl/watertraps, still wont run worth sh**, any ideas?

just tryed it on a stand, same thing, low rpms, black plugs on pto and middle, checked compression, 110 pto and middle, 103 mag side, is this acceptable for a xlt motor? what should i try now?

new plugs, no difference

just remembered the thing below the key and choke with the yellow and brown wire going into it was glowing when i was coming down the trail with the sledd running like crap
what is it and is it supossed to glow? could this have anything to do with my problem?

That's your voltage regulator, and they often have an LED ( I think) inside that lights up.

Hard to say on the lack of power though. Was there, by chance, a power loss before you got stuck? (I'm thinking perhaps you might have lost a ring.) I'd check to make sure your oil pump cable is intact and working properly. I'd also check the starter enriching cables to make sure they haven't gotten pulled or twisted in such a way that they're allowing too much fuel to get by. You might check the crankcase drain bolts to see if you have fuel puddling in the case, and, if so, in what section. I'm assuming the clutch was moving easily and well if you had the track off the ground for a run up?

-I checked the drain bolts, didnt get anything out of them, pulled the motor over a few times with them out to make sure there wasnt fuel stuck somewhere
-i didnt notice a power loss till after i pointed it back down the hill and started it back up, it dug a pretty good trench b4 i got stuck and sounded like it running good, then i started it back up and it sounded different, and was boggy
-like i said i checked the compression and have 110psi on the cylinders with the black plugs (pto and middle) and have 105 or so on the mag side, i dont know if this is goodenough or not, do you still think rings maybe, i could pull the exhaust manifold and carbs and inspect them, but it looked alright from what i could see when i had the carbs off to drain the bbowls, no scratches on anything on the piston, and what i could see of the cylinder wall looked good,
-i disconnected the choke lever to make sure the cables wernt getting pulled a bit with the choke off (enrichener i know whateever) didnt make a difference, should i try dissconnecting them from the carbs themselves?
- the clutch looked good with the track up, but still only about 6000 rpm ,and black plugs on the pto and mid
- i was looking at the oiler the other day and it seemed to move as soon as i touched the throttle, is there any thing specific other than that i should look for?

thank you very much for your response i appreciate it, i really wanna get out riding its probably the nicest weekend we've had all winter and im stuck at home

depending on gage types and differences, that is a little low for compression, but as long as they're within 10% of eachother, it will be fine. change the plugs and see what happens, if they're fouled, it will run like crap.
Few basic things to check. is it hitting on all cylinders? feel the exhaust or better yet if you have an infrared thermometer check the manifold to make sure they are all getting hot.
did you loose spark? isolate the problem down to spark, fuel, or mechanical. Can see if its fuel related by spraying a little carb cleaner at the front of the carbs with the box off. If it makes it run worse, its likely not carb related. There's a bunch of stuff it could be that i've seen over the years.
check the basics first, get a look at the pistons best you can, and let us know what you find or have eliminated. Good luck. dont be afraid to ask questions.

Try taking the belt off and seeing if you can bring the RPMs up past 6000. Could be your clutches are starting to wear and bind. 103psi is getting a little low, but should still be able to run.

is there a specific way to test the compression? engine hot or cold, throttle closed or open, i read a couple other posts that said to check it with throttle wide open so i'll try it both ways and with engine hot and cold.

how is spraying carb cleaner in the carbs gonna tell me if its a fuel problem? i dont really get that, i mean i know it'll change the way it sounds when im spraying it in cuz it'll change the fuel mix, but how does that tell me if its a fuel problem...

im kinda thinking its a fuel problem cuz the two plugs pto and mid are black now, and were a nice brown all across before, now only the mag side is a nice brown (the one with lower compression :S)

BUT could having a weak spark also cause a dirty plug if all the fuel isnt getting burnt?

i put brand new plugs in the otherday and there was no difference

going to try running it with no belt this morning and see if that makes a difference

for as long as it takes i'll pull the exhaust manifold off and the carbs again and get the trouble light out and try to take a real good look at the pistons and cylinders to make sure theres not a cracked skirt or something stupid like that

thanks again for the input, i'll let ya know what happens today, hopefully my mechanic buddy will come over today and give me a hand.

tested compression again with motor cold and throttle wide open, 105 on all cylinders
did a visual inspection as good as i could with manifold and carbs off no broken piston skirts or chunks outta the pistons

tryed revving it without the belt on and it will make it to 8000 but has a hard time getting there and the motor has a lower deeper sounding noise, dosent sound snappy like it should, i can really hear a big difference from what it used to sound like, VERY NOTICABLE? worrys me a bit

seemed like it had weak spark from what i could see so i threw on some coils from a different motor, and it didnt change anything....

what do i do now?

tryed starting it without the airbox after i did the coils and it seemed to spit a bit of fuel vapor back out before it picked up revs, mostly out of the pto and mid (the cylinders with black plugs)

A couple of real simple things:

Have you tried new plugs?

(Plugs which aren't top notch can run behind the curve. So can plug caps which aren't secure or up to snuff. It's never a bad place to look, and the rubber NGK caps beat the bakelite ones hands-down.)

Do you have a good fuel filter on the machine?

Did you find any water in the bowls or traps?

(You may have dislodged some crud in the lines which could have caused the float bowls to overflow via inlets which aren't seating completely. A metallic needle against the seat can also get leaky, but I'm thinking the XLTs should have a Viton tipped needle or similar.)

tried brand new ngk br8es plugs

havnt tried new caps, but i will get some for the hell of it, and maybe cut a 1/4inch off the wire to make sure it bites into good wire

have not checked the fuel filter, but there is one in there, i will go take a look

i did drain the water traps after the sled sat in a heated garage for a couple days, had the float bowls off and couldnt see any crud in there, i guess i should get some carb cleaner and blast them out with compressed air

viton, is that some kind of rubber coating, cuz it looks like i just have metal needle and seat in there

Going back a bit, spraying carb cleaner will act as fuel to tell you if it is rich by adding more, or if the sled is not getting fuel by making it pick up on those cylinders again if they are not getting fuel but everything else is ok. I like to use carb cleaner because it is a whole lot less volatile than ether.
Viton tipped needles replaced the old original metal tipped needles which would leak very easily. If you have a pressure tester that will go from 0-10 psi, the needles should hold 3-5# with the carbs upside down and no bowl on them. When doing this, I'll spray some carb cleaner on top of the needle/seat to watch and see if there is any bubbling, indicating a slow leak if they hold pressure.
The two black plugs could be from an electrical problem such as a weak coil or stator.
Without a belt on, the engine should hit very high rpm within a couple seconds of hitting the throttle, and having to let off before it gets too high. If it is struggling to hit 8k without a belt, then you either have some mechanical problem such as bearings going out, or still not firing on those cylinders for some reason.
You could have indication of spark with the plugs out, but lose it when it is running. It takes more energy to ionize the gap of air/fuel and cause a spark at high compression and rpm than it does out of the engine. This could be from a bad plug, wires, coils, stator, or cdi. If you have access to another machine like it, try swapping out cdi boxes. I had one sled ohm out the stator fine, but had a wire mostly rubbed thru from the flywheel. This caused it to run fine at low rpm, but had no top end due to the wires not being able to carry the amperage due to the wires being rubbed mostly thru.
To see if you have an overfueling problem, get it running and shut off the fuel. If it starts to run better before it runs out, then you have an overfuel issue from bad n/s or a possible venting issue with the carbs or even a fuel height problem from bad floats or improper adjustment.
Doing this stuff yourself is great and how most guys learn. Keep with it, I'm sure you'll find what it is with enough help on here. A lot of guys know what they're talkign about so don't be shy to ask questions even if they seem simple.

yeah it kinda sounds like its not hitting on all cylinders when its trying to revv up

the 1994 sks it the one im working on
my parts sled is a torn apart xlt rmk 1996,
(i have just about every part (engine and chassie) and it was running fine before i parted it out except i snapped the end of the drive shaft off, took the chaincase cover off and the bottom gear fell out with two halfs of the end of the driveshaft in the gear, so i switched over to the 94 last year cuz it had less miles on it and was easier to get back on the snow) and i have a old bottom end with the flywheel and coils still on it, it was sitting out in the yard for a while though in the weather so i dont know if anything is still good on it,

--is the cdi box from a 96 xlt rmk going to be the same as from a 94 xlt SKS?
--whats the stator where is it and how do i check if its working?

because the spark looked weak, my friend said it should be able to jump about half an inch if i put a screwdriver in the cap and hold it near the block, but i cant get it to jump that far, with a friend pulling it over for me

Parts page shows the CDI as same part #s. The stator is the electrical power source located under the flywheel behind your recoil. You can do a resistance check between the wires, but I dont have that info on me right now, someone else on here might have it. You cannot test the cdi unless you have the proper hookups and computer programs.
Jumping a half inch gap is a bit much, perhaps on an old point/condenser system. Your plugs should be gapped to .028", which the ngk's are from factory. You can try to set them to .020", which a weak electrical system would be able to spark easier.

i was running it yesterday and still sounds like crap, i was pulling plug caps off and when its idling it makes a bigger difference to pull the pto and mid (problem cylinders) when its idling, then it makes when im revving it, its like those two cylinders arn;t hitting when it trys to revv, after messing around for a few minutes it shot a flame out of the middle carb and stalled?

does the pto coil get power first in the series or last?

im wondering bout how the electrical system works, i see the coils are wired in series so do they all spark at the same time, 3 times per engine revolution? one for each power stroke. and would there be less power the second and 3rd coil in the series if this is the case? i dont realy know much about electricial so hopefully this doesnt seem like too stupid of a question

just thinking maybe the back fire is a result of the spark not making the gap with cylinder under compression and then getting ignited part way down the stroke when piston port is just about to closing and exhaust is opening? i dont know if this is possible or not though

another dumb question, how hard would it be for the crank shaft to slip where its pressed together? cuz wouldnt that **** up the timing and cause the two cylinders to run like shit?(the engines stock with the exception of a DG can but i bag the hell out of it in the powder, the sleds not really built for what i put it thru so it spends alot of time with the throttle wide open)
i still need to put my fuel filter on, ordered one online, and trying to track down sparkplug caps in town today,
but just a couple stupid things to throw out there iincase theres some importance to them

im so out of ideas of what to do short of tossing my other engine in the sled and saying f*** it on trying to figure this out, but the other engine is like 12000 miles and this ones maybe 3 or 4000, but maybe the other one has been rebuilt and this one im running hasnt i dont know i need ideas or what to check next, theres so much snow outside!!!

I 'd start by draining the fuel, filter, lines to the fuel pump, cleaning the carbs,check for,cracked carb boots, for loose lines, checking the carb sync.between carbs
,crank seal leak and the warm compression.
also check for a dented//blocked exhaust outlet.
I don't think it has reeds or exhaust valves so after that a CDI or wiring.

CRANKSHAFT IS TWISTED.... IM AMAZED I MADE IT DOWN THE TRAIL!! STRONG MOTOR IF IT CAN STILL GET ME OFF THE MOUNTAIN WITH A TWISTED SHAFT. im swapping in my other motor should be back on the snow in a couple days