Some of you may recognize me from posting here recently , basically I have a 98 Polaris sportsman 500 that the stator went out in about a month or so ago. Replaced the stator and went through the entire fourwheeler basically.

Here is one of the issues I'm having though… The black wire from the CDI has to be unplugged or the motor will bog down. It idles fine but as soon as I press the gas it will bog down. Unplug the black CDI wire, problem goes away.

To give a little background though my ignition switch is aftermarket and I can't quite remember where the colors go. It has red, brown, black, and black and white. Could me having it hooked up incorrectly cause the problem I'm having?

I adjusted the electronic throttle-control although I must admit I'm not too familiar with it. The other thing is my selenoid is bad and I'm having to jump the solenoid every time to start it and I'm wondering is that causing the CDI problem. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Look close on the terminal board,the groups of terminals are color coded. Just plug the colored ignition switch wires in the correct group along with the other wires that are there.Unplug the black wire from the reverse limiter(located under the terminal board),then plug the black wire back from the cdi back in. Limiters can fail and cause problems like this. If it won't crank,but runs with the black kill wire from the cdi unplugged,then it's either a faulty ignition switch or left control switch.You can spray some electrical cleaner in the left switch and work the on/off switch back and forth and see if that helps.If it doesn't then it may be causing the problem.Not a common problem but even the kill wire from the cdi can be shorted internally and it can be the problem,not the switches.Cdi replacement would be needed. You can try to eliminate the switches one at a time by leaving their black wires unplugged and cdi plugged in and see if it runs. Etc adjustment on these older models is about 1/16" free play at the thumb lever.

 

We'll see the problem is the ignition switch is aftermarket (don't even know for sure it's for a Polaris) and does not have the correct colored wires. Red plugged into the red terminal board and brown into the red/white would allow it to crank with the key on (I remember that from when I had an actual working selenoid).

Another thing that worries me, is it rough on my stator with me having to jump the selenoid? I feel like it'd be almost the same as running without a battery...I did test the battery and it goes from 12.4 to 14.4 when running so I do think theyre correlating like they should, just wanted your opinion.

 

Also I do feel the off/run switch is functioning correctly because I'm able to shut it off to when I replug in the black CDI wire. So basically I've been starting it up from jumping or pull starting, unplugging the black CDI wire to ride/actually go and then plugging it back in to shut her off. Would that mean it's probably more so an issue with my etc? When I press the gas with it off I can see and hear it "unclick". Should it be pushing in the little "clickers" or not pushing them in with my thumb off the throttle?

 

Okay I did as you said and started unpluggingl other black wires with the cdi plugged and found the culprit. It's the black wire coming from the little board right below the big terminal board. I can't remember what it was called in the manual off the top of my head.

 

The module directly below the circuit board is the reverse limiter module that always fails.That's why I said pull the black wire as when they fail they can cause a no starting condition by grounding the kill circuit from the cdi,cause dying problem when placed in reverse or they can even limit in forward range.Now you can also have full power in reverse without pushing the over ride button. item#32.