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Need help diagnosing problems with 97 Indy 500

3K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  LilDavy 
#1 ·
Yesterday we had our first snow in Chicagoland so I spent the entire morning getting all the sleds ready. In particular, my wife's 97 Indy 500 was giving me some trouble yesterday. I couldn't get it to idle properly and when I turned the choke off, it would bog out and die. I took the carbs off and gave them a good cleaning. (I hate pulling the carbs off this machine as it is so hard getting the airbox back on and getting the carbs back in the airbox boots). The one pilot jet had crap plugging it so once I cleaned everything and put it back together, it started and idled just fine. Throttle response was good. So I was ready to ride.

I took it for a ride following the kids on their sleds. My son got his Miniz 120 stuck so I pulled next to him and got him going. Here is where problem 1 started. From a stop (sled still running), i hit the throttle and the RPMs would not go above 4K so the sled wouldn't move. Even at WOT, it wouldn't move and the RPMs wouldn't get past 4K. Couple times, it seemed to move a few inches, but that was it. Definitely didn't sound quite right either. I'm definitely not an expert, but it almost seemed like it was getting too much fuel. When giving throttle, alot (or more than usual) of white smoke coming from exhaust from underneath. Sled never died although I did shut it off. I opened the hood, took a look and saw nothing that looked bad to me. With the hood open, I started the sled and it started right up. I then gave it throttle and it started moving (with the hood up). I rode it back home while holding the hood part way open with my left hand. Brought it back home and inspected it - didn't see anything. SO I started riding again and it seemed to be fine - no more issues where it was just stuck like this and RPMS wouldn't go above 4K. So I have no idea what happened here.

On to problem 2. While riding this sled for about 45 minutes, I noticed that sometimes at WOT (or close to WOT) it doesn't seem to pull hard - i.e. not getting the HP. This seemed intermittent though as sometimes at WOT it pulls really good. When it didn't seem to pull, it didn't seem to want to get about 45-50mph. Didn't seem to be backfiring or anything, just didn't seem to be pulling like it should. So i brought it back and jumped on my 93 XLT SP and have fun the rest of the day. Figured I'd ask some questions on the forums.

Anyone have any ideas of what these two problems could be? Maybe they are related? Not sure...

Thanks in advance!
 
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#2 ·
On the first one, it sounds like some debris from the carb cleaning could have been blocking something in the carb and then resolved itself. It could also have been a fouled plug or a plug with a poor connection, or a plug boot that wasn't making good contact.

I would check the same things for the second problem, just to rule out electrical problems.

How fresh is the gas?
 
#3 ·
There was some old gas in the tank (maybe 1-2 gallons) as I didn't have a pump to get the old stuff out. I did dump 5 gallons of new gas in yesterday. I'll check the plugs and the plug wires when I get home. Thanks for the tips.
 
#6 ·
Sounds like water in the fuel. Idle will melt it and it will run fine for a little while and then the ice will form again (fast moving fuel and air cools off the water) and happen again.

Want to be sure of that. Run it, then went it starts acting up, take the plug off the bottom of the carb and look. Chances are ice is forming up around the main jet.

Cure: Pour some ISO-heet in the tank and run it. When it runs low on gas, put more gas and some more ISO-heet. After 2-3 tanks it should flush out all the moisture.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the response, but I don't think its cold enough here in Chicago now to cause an ice buildup. I'm thinking maybe I just have to run through the old/bad gas. But I can throw in some ISO-heet just for the heck of it.
 
#8 ·
Even at 34* F, you can have icing because air flows fast enough to cool even more (wind chill, you know that is in Chi town) and can ice up a carb quickly.
Do your best to flush out all the old fuel and replace with clean along with a treatment [most of us use Seafoam to keep moisture out of the fuel] that does not contain alcohol.
 
#10 ·
I would Not add more alcohol to the fuel, try just Sea Foam!
But getting back to Your ride, when it would not rev, was the blet smoking?
Could you have had slushy snow build up on your track in the tunnel?
Or could something be up with your track or tension? Drive bearing?
Does your speedo work?
 
#11 ·
Not sure what you reference by "blet smoking"?

I don't think there was any slush buildup in the tunnel? Why do you ask? Do you think this could have prevented the track from spinning (i.e. like a clog)?

My speedo works fine and the track tension is ok as I checked that last season.
 
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