1997 xp only half power

[ssmith414]

I just bought it a couple of weeks ago for our vacation at the coast. It wouldn't run for more than a few seconds at a time. It would start then die, over and over again. We rebuilt the fuel pump and then it had plenty of power, but it would start and die the same as before. We put a different dess post on it and that solved our problem. It then ran but only at 25 mph max. We put some different plugs to see if that would fix it, but it would only go 25mph. The front plug was brown while the back one was black and oily. I would appreciate any help. Thank you

 

[LouDoo]

Did you check the compression?

 

[my787]

Lou is right ^

compression test first. if that checks out, then clean/service the carbs, change out all the old gray fuel lines, replace the fuel selector valve/petcock, and report back.

 

[ssmith414]

It has plenty of compression. I put my finger top of the cylinder and started it up it blew my finger right off.