Can someone help a girl out? 96 Polaris Sportsman 500 4x4

[jmoran99]

Hi, gang! Newbie here I have a 1996 Polaris Sportsman 500 2x2 with 1500 miles on it. A good running quad. Went to ride it Friday night, started first shot (after sitting a few weeks) and ran fine. Came back, parked it, and the next morning it would NOT start!

Plug is getting spark, it's cranking, but not turning over... not even starting with a shot of ether..

Any suggestions? Ideas? Your help is appreciated. Thanks so much!

 

[Mare]

Welcome to S&M. :d

 

[ttpowersports]

Hi, gang! Newbie here I have a 1996 Polaris Sportsman 500 2x2 with 1500 miles on it. A good running quad. Went to ride it Friday night, started first shot (after sitting a few weeks) and ran fine. Came back, parked it, and the next morning it would NOT start!

Plug is getting spark, it's cranking, but not turning over... not even starting with a shot of ether..

Any suggestions? Ideas? Your help is appreciated. Thanks so much!

welcome aboard... and have fun.. T&T Power Sports and Crew
all S&M members get 15% off any accessories/parts sales.. and yes we ship

 

[moonbuggy]

Welcome! If you say it's cranking but not turning over than you have a starter that is turning but not contacting.

 

[spuds]

Hi, gang! Newbie here I have a 1996 Polaris Sportsman 500 2x2 with 1500 miles on it. A good running quad. Went to ride it Friday night, started first shot (after sitting a few weeks) and ran fine. Came back, parked it, and the next morning it would NOT start!

Plug is getting spark, it's cranking, but not turning over... not even starting with a shot of ether..

Any suggestions? Ideas? Your help is appreciated. Thanks so much!

did you pull the plug? was it wet? pull your air filter and see if your intake is wet if so shut the fuel off and let it sit for an hr or use other methods to dry it out then try restarting without the choke once it's running don't forget to turn on the fuel

 

[jmoran99]

Spuds, we pulled the plug and replaced it.. nothing was wet.. fuel is on.. it will crank all day, just won't turn over.. and like I said in my original post, not even a shot of ether is getting this thing started...

 

[fat tire]

Spuds, we pulled the plug and replaced it.. nothing was wet.. fuel is on.. it will crank all day, just won't turn over.. and like I said in my original post, not even a shot of ether is getting this thing started...

Yeah starter is not engaged........sorry it's a poo poo.

 

[spuds]

if the starter doesn't engage then it would just whine
if you pulled the plug how good was the spark?
recheck your kill switch and ignition switch

 

[imdoo'n]

Spuds, we pulled the plug and replaced it.. nothing was wet.. fuel is on.. it will crank all day, just won't turn over.. and like I said in my original post, not even a shot of ether is getting this thing started...

not quite understanding what your saying. what is the cranking your asking about, i'm not sure what you are talking about. does the motor turn over with the starter, it must if you have spark, do you mean it will not fire? what happened on your last ride, did you go through a lot of water, mud etc.


do you know what cranking and turn over is?

 

[mxz sledhead]

If you have fuel and you have spark next check for compression and for a quick
check just pull out spark plug put your finger over the plug hole and turn it over
you should feel a lot push on your finger if you don't then it get to be a lot more work but if you do that means possible fuel issuse .The four things you need fuel,spark,air,compression the cheap thing is fuel problems start with
fuel tank and work way down fuel line leakage, plug with dirt ,filter if you have one, stuck needle inside the carb.I really belive it a fuel issue{BUT PLEASE PUT AWAY THE EITHER CAN}bad bad .Its could any from fuel tank scale to simple dirt work its way in .How fresh is the fuel any water in the fuel?.Try these things and if itdoes not start please put another thread in
i'll monter the site or p.m me i have more thing to try .I own 03 sportman
500

 

[tmix]

welcome to the best site ever,cheeers!!!

 

[gladerunner]

wlcome and good luck

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Welcome to the site

 

[Philster]

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[jmoran99]

If you have fuel and you have spark next check for compression and for a quick
check just pull out spark plug put your finger over the plug hole and turn it over
you should feel a lot push on your finger if you don't then it get to be a lot more work but if you do that means possible fuel issuse .The four things you need fuel,spark,air,compression the cheap thing is fuel problems start with
fuel tank and work way down fuel line leakage, plug with dirt ,filter if you have one, stuck needle inside the carb.I really belive it a fuel issue{BUT PLEASE PUT AWAY THE EITHER CAN}bad bad .Its could any from fuel tank scale to simple dirt work its way in .How fresh is the fuel any water in the fuel?.Try these things and if itdoes not start please put another thread in
i'll monter the site or p.m me i have more thing to try .I own 03 sportman
500

MXZ Sledhead: Over the weekend we had a team of folks working on this quad... (note..I am just a girl.. lol.. so bare with me when explaining what's going on here.. I'm doing my best!)... I am going to go back to the beginning.. 2 weeks ago, got on the quad Friday night when we got to camp.. it fired up first try.. drove for about an hour (stopped/started a few times as I was making my rounds) came back to camp, parked it. Didn't go through any water/mud, it was dry as a bone!). Saturday am, wouldn't start. The first thing they checked was the plug.. they were getting spark.. took carb out, looked clean.. we had a spare plug, they put it in.. nothing. So we decided to get a BRAND NEW plug and try again this weekend. They put the brand new plug in.. still doing nothing (when we try to start it, it's turning over, but not 'catching'.) so they took the carb out and cleaned it all, looked at all of the obvious culprits.. nothing. This has been a fabulous running quad for us.. no problems up til now.. can't get it to start with ether, either?? Anything that we are overlooking?? I'm sure it's something simple!??

Thanks so much!!!!

 

[scramblerX]

Those motors are known for wearing down the cam lobes till they're gone. Not saying that is the problem, just a possibility.

 

[grnboyz]

Welcome to the site!!!
Put your feet up and stay awhile
Sorry to hear of your luck, sometimes it happens to the best of us, doesn't sound like anything major though.

 

[mxz sledhead]

I still don't think it a serious problem yet but when you checking for spark was it a strong blue spark or weak yellow ,was the plug wet with fuel or dry.
Did you check for compression its important to know.compression should be about 120 psi but due to the age of the quad it might be about 100-105 psi
What bugging me how one minute it start next it won't .I had to deal with one this past weekend 400 scrambler that won't start unfortunately well have to do a rebuild no compression the young lady drown it the creek.The more i think about it could something as simple as weak ignition coil which is a common problem the color of the spark is important there some easy test that can be done with simple meter.