Who is the can am guru?! Odd starting (or lack of) on 08 outlander 400 efi...

[Thorpe]

I have tried to ether it when it would act up, straight into the air box, no dice... Gonna pull the valve cover today and get the feeler gauges out. Then I am gonna go warm it up without the side plastics off, and try to get it to act up. If it will, try grounding a new spark plug to see if it's a spark issue I am having... Does that seem logical? (Really starting to get frustrated with this thing)

[Thorpe]

Thankyou guys for all your help... Diagnostics are great, but if one of you would have said the mechanic was a dip$hit, you woulda been spot on! Bill, you were the inspiration to fixing my stupidity. Valve adjustment looked good, fresh plug, starts great, warm it up, starts like crap! Well, let's go back and try that ether trick again, but this time lets get that dirty air filter out the way... But first for grins, let's try firing it without that dirty filter... Pops off every time! Simplest thing, was overlooked... Gonna go kick myself in the nuts now...

[atc007]

Lol,,I have a 2 year old John Deere story i could tell here,,But suffice to say. It was a relay all along. After I missed 1 out of 6 with the same part #. AND TWO John Deere dealers coming here to "fix it" One wanting $3000 for new valve bodies on the tranny .. Other gets here and starts dropping F bombs,in front of my 8 YO Foster Son Because it was storing zero codes,,which i TOLD them and they would not believe me . SO unprofessional.. Anyhow,, It was a $4 relay after ALL this crap . Sometimes it's the simplest thing. I must admit,the 1st thing to troubleshooting is take nothing for granted,and I Did ASSume you had a clean filter . Glad you're running. You will LOVE that bike.

[Thorpe]

Well, I may have caused half this issue too... When I first got the machine, I blew the filter out with compressed air, from the inside out, then proceeded to oil it, and go... But it's a disposable style filter, so I think I might have over engineered something that was already too easy. And basically plugged that filter even worse... Of course I hadn't ridden it since winter with my ankle surgery, and would imagine it liked the restriction when it was cold. Not going to lie, but I didn't think you could get a filter dirty enough to keep an engine from running, but I have been educated...

[Thorpe]

It may have been a tish more then just my stupidity too, today the starter froze up solid. Pulled it apart and swept the needle bearing up into a dust pan. New bearing, new seal, cleaned, greased and inspected, sounds like a brand new starter! (which also sounds like it turns over at a higher rpm now) Hope this is the last of the bad juju with it for awhile now!

[Thorpe]

This machine has been starting better, but still never great... Last long ride my buddy and I were out in the woods, pulled off to have a bottle of water, and I am standing over by his machine and my wheeler makes this super strange whistle/gulp noise... 30 seconds later, same noise. Not sure what it was. Go riding awhile longer, pull over for another h2o break, same thing. Cracked the gas cap, and it sucks a batch of air in. Hmm. Try and start it, fires right up. Each time I shut it down, crack the gas cap and it was under vacuum. Each time it started perfect after. Long story long, my tank vent is plugged. So when the machine was hot, the tank was under vacuum, let it sit long enough and it would equalize and start fine, or when cold... What a long and irritating intermittent starting issue, or should I say issues!

[atc007]

Also,,,on the 400's. You said your 4X4 wasn't working at one point. I have a customer who never did get his working. A Lot of crap is intertwined on these electrically. Like the old Polaris' that lost spark because of a blown tail light bulb. He ended up paying $200+ for new tach/speedo per the dealer saying it was his cause of problems. Solved nothing. I haven't personally had to work too deep on these,I rebuilt a 800,and LOVED the quality of the internal engine parts. But I do have a 800 now running on one cylinder. I have a hunch I'm about to become wiser.

[Thorpe]

4x4 was the little slide collar under the servo... Cast pos, now replaced with a machined steel piece.