2003 mule 610 4x4
Problem started when I was backing up a steep hill. Was running fine then all of sudden lost power almost like the fuel was being shutoff. Came back to life, drove aways then went to back up another hill and it did again. This time I had to work the gas to get it back to the house. I had just put some gas in it and the gas had been in the can for several weeks. Figured the gas was bad so I siphoned the tank dry, blew the fuel out of the filter, checked the fuel pump per manual instructions and drained the carb bowl. When I loosen the little screw with the spring on it on the bottom of the bowl only little drips of fuel would come out very slowly. I took the screw completely out with the same result. Don’t know if this normal. I put new gas in and fired it up. It ran rough for about 10 minutes and then I got it to start idling on its own and seemed good. I drove it around for about 10 minutes running great and then shut it off. I restarted it and it runs rough again. Battery is new and I checked to make sure the air filter looked good. Thinking about running some seafoam or carb cleaner through it and replacing the fuel filter. I also removed the plug and it looked good. Any other ideas……..

 

Almost sounds like you have a fuel logged float.
ie a pin hole or crack in the float allowing fuel to flood the float.
Welcome to KF

 

More of a truck mechanic than cycle. Should you get a stream of fuel when you drain the bowl? I am definitely not getting that. Almost have 400 hrs on it with little trouble.

 

In case you are wondering why I was backing up the hills. I live in western North Carolina and haul firewood and rock with the mule. It feels a little squirrelly up steep hills with no weight on the front end..don't want to test the roll bar!

 

Carburetor Float Problems | eHow.com

this was kinda along what I was thinking anyways.

How does the plugs look? All wet and fouled?

 

Plug looked dry and in good shape. Very little build-up of any foreign matter such as carbon, etc. The mice have made a mess out of my ignition switch wiring so I have had to splice wires back together. Maybe I should check to see if everything has a good connection. I wrapped them all in electrical tape and then put a layer of tape sticky side out and coated it with pepper to keep the little beasties from doing more damage. I have lots of copperheads and rattlers where I live but they don't seem to be thining out the mouse population enough

 

Ah hell, thanks for the shivery wake up call this morning.....

You may be on to something with the issue then.

 

So some poor connections could make it run rough instead of not at all. Guess I will take a look but I sure hate to mess up my great pepper job. The copperheads around my house are pretty docile. I have sat next to them and put my hand very close to them. They are masters at camoflage but hardly bite here unless you step on one or try to pick it up. Doc told me 80% of the bites here that come to the ER are dry bites, no venom. They hunt alot at night so a flashlite is required when you go out to your car, I have had them on the front steps even. Now the rattlers are a different story. They are always pissed off looking for a fight but they live in colonies and I don't have one right around the house. I just live on what the old timers call a copperhead trail