2008 honda 420 rancher es

Well, minimum ya gotta flush the junk out and change the filter... and wonder if any got inside the motor too...?

Welcome to the forums!

When you get it back together with a new filter in it check the fuel pressure with a gauge... if ya got one. The pump test is in the service manual... If the pump ate a lot of dirt it'll be in poor shape.

With all the down time you're facing now it may be a good time to catch up on all the other maintenance items.

Have fun with it,

If you don't have a pressure gauge you can adapt to the fuel supply line you'll probably have to pay someone else to test it. One thing you can do yourself... is disconnect the fuel line and feed the end into a small container and see if the fuel pump produces a steady flow of gas.

Careful about making fire...

Yep, thats why the pump test is the next step...

The fuel pump is dependent on a pressure regulator to function... so the pump could be fine while the regulator could be bad, or vice-versa. Fuel injector could be dirty too... but the motor runs weakly at this stage in the diagnosis... so the fuel injector is working.

If you skip the pressure test in favor of replacing the injector; you'll likely waste time and money on it and fix nothing, since the FI system requires almost 50 PSI to function. Evidence shows the presence of dirt in the pump housing and a hard starting, lean and poorly running motor.

I know its a bummer... if this was a carbureted motor you'd be back in action by now with very little money spent....but the next required step is a fuel pressure test. :-(

Thanks for following up to let us know how you fixed it!