New here, just bought a 1999 Sportsman 500. I have a couple of questions...

The shifter works but you can spin / twist the handle. Is there a pin that could be sheered to let it spin?

Also, I had to put a starter & battery in it. I have the classic no odometer, low beam or AWD light working. Is it safe to bet the speedo head needs repair?

Thanks in advance for the help,
Chuck

 

Possible screw backed off in the handle grip? Item#2.
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Don't overlook the plastic sealed 20 amp circuit breaker up from the battery if you don't have power to the dash,lights,etc. Test for voltage on either side of the wires leading in and out,plus if in doubt you can slice the pouch open and check for corrosion on contacts. These are cheap at most auto stores. If you rule out the circuit breaker,I'd check the connections at the spedo and under the front panel especially around the high beam connector and main wiring harness that takes a lot of stress from twisting and turning.Also check the connectors going into the left control switch. Could be as simple as that they need cleaning,pins not making good contact.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll check those electrical items.

As far as the shifter twisting, the **** is tight, the entire shaft twist. looking at the picture, it looks like it might be the seat of #8 & #9.

Have you seen that before?

 

Forgot to mention, the main headlight works on high beam, if the 2 in the grill are the low beams, they don't come on. Does the circuit breaker control everything in the dash? The starter switch does work, the neutral & reverse lights come on too.

 

Possible the weld has broken at the pivot or the plastic bearing cup has cracked to where the shift shaft can turn. Hope it's the cup as the shifter is NLA from almost all places now. If indeed the weld has somehow broken,I do believe I'd try tack welding a spot or two. You just have to take it apart and find out. Replace the bowl fluid with 0w40 to where fluid barely covers the shift levers. While you're in there check for any worn parts and see if they're still available. Lot of parts on 15 year old machines are showing up NLA.
If you have power to the ignition switch and lights then the circuit breaker is okay.Lower lights are low beam and bad about blowing the bulbs out.Each one of the dash lights are sold separately if needed if you look at the break down. The 2nd year model digital speedos on these weren't the best and expensive to replace.If you have someone that can rebuild one reasonable then you might try that. You can also try regrounding the awd wires under the front panel and see if at least you can get the awd working.If successful the awd switch should light up. Here's one posters video on doing this. Plus some have jumped the brown/white wire in the speedo connector harness to a good ground(frame or coil ground) and this bypasses the speedo part that has the awd circuit running through it.

 

Thanks You for all the good advice!!!

I'll dig into it more and see what I find.

Thanks Again for the help!!!

 

Do you know if anyone on this site does the speedo repair?

 

Only one person that I know of has done their own and posted pics. This is from a later model. AWD and Speedometer don't work - Page 2 - ATVConnection.com ATV Enthusiast Community Plus you might google spedo repair sites. If it gets too expensive,then might be best to bite the bullet on a new one.

 

Thanks again for the help, gonna give it a try.

 

Ok, I changed the voltage regulators and the speedo didn't work. Going to do the bypass. My question is, once you do it, does the 4wd switch still turn it on & off or is it always on once you do the bypass.

Thanks