1999 xlt special 600 (triple,purple heads) Bogging, Fouling , Oily Plugs

[pirate]

Sled only has 1800 miles , Went thru the whole sled this fall , cleaned carbs , cleaned airbox, removed and cleaned fuel tank, replaced dryed out vent lines to box(all 3) use Polaris oil , 91 0ctane fuel. here is the problem , the last 2 winters it will run good for a 100 or so miles , then the plugs keep getting oiled up (equally and black) change the plugs and it might go 20 miles or another 100 good , then Boom oily black plugs. I can not seem to locate a manual on line for this sled that is downloadable. Is there a oil pump adj , spec i can try , or something in the carbs I am missing to do . I know these triples are finicky and a pain to keep running smooth. Any ideas or suggestions ???
Sled is up north so going to try and look at this weekend when I am up ...
Thx

 

[tyeeman]

I had two XLT 600 tourrings and loved every minute I was on them, they started and ran perfect. There is an oil pump adjustment. You'll have to remove the air box to make the adjustment. As you look at the oil pump straight on you'll see the lever that the throttle cable connects to, just to the left of that lever is a "boss", a litt round circle that will have a horizontal line in it. The lever will also have a line in it. Pull the throttle lever (on the handle bars) to what would be wide open throttle, the line on the lever on the pump should match evenly with the line on the boss to the left of the lever. If it does not, make the adjustment using the cable adjusting nuts right at the oil pump.
Are you sure you have the correct jets in it for this altitude? When you pull the throttle from idle do all the carbs move at the same time, , and I mean at exactly the same time. Have you made the innitial carb slide adjustment? Are your carbs adjusted correctly so WOT (wide open throttle) IS WOT, i.e are the slides being pulle hight enough?
All these adjustments need to be spot on.
Oh, and make sure your enrichening valve (choke valve) is closing all the way otherwise it will run rich. Sometimes they will corode and not fully close when you take the choke off.
BTW - I ran Amsoil synthetic and my plugs were typically blackish, they were never the cardboard tan that you like to see. My sled was bone stock with all factory settings, typically Polaris anyway liked to run em a little rich. That said, it always started perfectly and ran perfectly. The only time it got mushy, but not wet plug mushy was when I would ride in 40 + degree weather.
Yeah good luck finding a manual for any Polaris on line. If you go to the Polaris web site you can find some general info for your sled like clutch weight for a particular altitude, possibly what carb jets to run at what eltitude, and some other adjustments.
What spark plugs are you running? I ran NGK BR8ES or BR9ES I forget which.
Also, make sure you have the correct needle and seat adjustment. If your needle isn't fully closing when it should then you will deffinitly dump too much fuel and you'll get wet plugs.

 

[polarismike]

Check Ebay for manual. They have manuals on disk for your computer. Then just print out the sections you need for the fuel system.

 

[ridehard]

I had 3 of them triples and still have my old 2000 Indy Triumph the best of the bunch with the flat slide carbs with rack throttle control and a solid link to the oiler pump there is only one cable to deal with. On my older models with the round slide carbs I would use drill bits for a gauge pins. I would use wire ties on the throttle to hold it slightly open. Then slide drill bits in under the slides and adjust the cable til they were at the same level. This makes sure your carb slides are opening and staying at the same level thru the throttle movement range. Then with the throttle held to the bar stick your finger in the carb to make sure the slides are all are raised up above the carb bore, if not adjust the cables. Make sure all your air screws are adjusted the same. These would also fail because of crank seals so it would not hurt to spray carb cleaner behind your clutch if your engine changes how it runs you have a bad crank seal.

 

[orthodo]

I had a very similar problem with the exact same sled.....after going through everything that was suggested above I lowered the needles to the last setting (highest cut on the needle for the "c" clip and after that the sled ran great....milage really improved also. Prior to lowering the needles the sled would run out of fuel around 90 to 95 miles while polaris 600 twin same model year would go 130 miles on same ride and speed. After lowering the needles we would put in almost identical amounts of gas at every stop and fouled plugs became thing of past. Need to check color after change.....but I didn't get nice cardboard colored plugs until lowered to lowest setting. Rode another 2500 miles before getting rid of that smooth triple when skid wore out.....miss the old girl.

 

[tgun]

I remember changing the needles and seats all the time in mine.

 

[mjkaliszak]

Sled only has 1800 miles , Went thru the whole sled this fall , cleaned carbs , cleaned airbox, removed and cleaned fuel tank, replaced dryed out vent lines to box(all 3) use Polaris oil , 91 0ctane fuel. here is the problem , the last 2 winters it will run good for a 100 or so miles , then the plugs keep getting oiled up (equally and black) change the plugs and it might go 20 miles or another 100 good , then Boom oily black plugs. I can not seem to locate a manual on line for this sled that is downloadable. Is there a oil pump adj , spec i can try , or something in the carbs I am missing to do . I know these triples are finicky and a pain to keep running smooth. Any ideas or suggestions ???
Sled is up north so going to try and look at this weekend when I am up ...
Thx

Very important to have the carbs snyc'ed correctly on a triple. Here is what I did to get my 94 T cat to finally idle after trips to 2 dealers and alot of hot words both ways...
Leaned out oil pump ( slightly )
Ran a #8 plug in it ( 1 step hotter )
Used a oil from Canada called Produmax ( mineral /light was cutting edge back in the day )
Sync'ed the carbs myself ( with my brother )
Ran 430 jets ( were 450's )

Some of there things may help, If my memory serves me correctly the OLD thunderchickens... had a crank case pressure issue. + they were way fat from the factory, they were an AC experiment on the consumer that the manu didn't want to disclose ( inother words .... they said lets sell them this way and hope the 3 banger don't grenade .... not so funny with my 8200 snowcheck back then ) Atleast I got a bounty hunter jacket that year.... ( LOL )

Just my .02

 

[mjkaliszak]

Oh yeah.... nothing beats the sound of the triples.... JIMO

 

[red_dog]

These had the 3 TM38 rack-style Mikuni Flatslide carbs, has anyone found needle\seat\float issues with these? It appears the needle, seat and float are sold as an assembly which makes changing these out (x3) a bit more costly than the older style carbs.