[KansasProwler]

First of all I'm new to the forum and looking forward to some advice from some knowledgeable folks. Thanks in advance for anyone who replies.

I am new to Arctic Cats but am familiar with ATV's and personally own a Yamaha Rhino. My father-in-law purchased a new 2010 or 2011 (can't remember exact year) Prowler 1000 Baja edition several years back. This unit doesnt get ran that much and probably only has approx. 200 miles on it and never had any problems. Ran strong all the time until this past year. The bike is not in my possession yet. It was sent to a mechanic and he has been to busy to troubleshoot the problem. I will be getting the machine today i hope and start to track down the problem.

It developed a problem when starting it. It will let you start the machine and starts to idle as it should. After about 30 seconds it will die and will not restart. You can leave it overnight and come back the next day and it will start up and run for about 30 seconds and die again. It almost seems as if it is flooding but not sure. The mechanic changed to the spark plugs and battery and made no difference. After that he assumed it wasnt getting fuel and installed a brand new fuel pump and still has the problem. So I am assuming it is not a fuel pump problem and never was to begin with.

I know how to turn a wrench and am pretty familiar with carb'd ATV motors but not so much with EFI's. My father-in-law ask me if I could help try and fix it and I agreed to try. I came to this forum to ask for any advice trying to fix this problem.

Is there any parts that I can verify are working correctly???

O2 sensor?
MAP sensor?
Injectors?
Fuel pump?
TPS? (could this cause the problem? How would you check it?)
Fuel regulator? (where is it located?)
Battery? (what voltage is required to run everything once started?)
Stator? (Do these units have stators?)
Spark plugs? (which is best)

Thanks for any help. Really trying to get familiar with some things before it gets dropped off in the garage so I have a place to start.

 

[Rickm]

HI !! first you need to know if fuel or spark ???? after it dies , make sure to check for spark ! if has spark , check for fuel pressure , always start simple and work your way down the list

 

[mlh1962]

Welcome to the site, you can download a free service manual here: "K&T Parts House Lawn Mower Parts and Chain Saw & Trimmer Parts"
It might help answer some of your questions.

 

[KansasProwler]

ITS ALIVE!!!!

Well I went with my gut instinct and it I was right. I knew when I saw rust present on the plugs there had to be water involved somehow. I decided to siphon all the fuel from the tank to see if I got any water out. This is where things got interesting.......I siphoned approximately 5 gallons of fuel from the tank and 1-1 1/2 gallons of it was WATER!!! The fuel pump pickup was sitting in water. No wonder it wouldn't run. My father in law has no idea how any water got in the fuel??? He let his brother borrow it and wondered if he might have dumped some bad fuel in it without knowing.

Heres the sad part.....My father-in-law paid a reputable mechanic to replace the fuel pump because thats what the mechanic diagnosed as the problem. Not to mention when the fuel pump wasnt the problem it sat in the mechanics shop for almost a year!!! I honestly think he wanted to fix it but didn't have the time to keep looking at it. So alot of money was thrown at it for the fuel pump (i think $400-500) when the problem was just water in the tank all along.

After the tank was dry I dumped a decent amount of Sea Foam in it and then added a few gallons of new fuel into the tank. I disconnected the fuel line and purged the pump until I got fresh fuel through it. I replaced both spark plugs making sure they were gapped correctly and also verified I had fire on both plugs. I gave a little shot of starting fluid in air intake to assist with start. Gave it a few cranks......a couple a starts then died.....then finally started on it own and started idling perfectly. We let it idle for about 15-20 minutes and then checked it for a warm start and it started great.

I'm glad to see it wasnt a bigger problem keeping it from running but sucks to think all the time & money wasted just because of water in the fuel. Thanks for everyones help

 

[mlh1962]

That's good too bad it had to sit for so long. Was the it stored inside or out? I've read where some have had the gas tank filler neck crack, if it was stored outside or driven through a creek it could have taken on water. Might be something to check for peace of mind.