My brother's 85 Motor4 died tonight and won't start back up. Apparently someone who wasn't used to driving it tried to climb a steep hill in 5th gear and stalled it and it won't even attempt to start now. It's getting gas and fire. I even tried putting a bit of gas down the plug hole. I can't test the compression because I don't have the right adapter for my compression tester but it does feel a bit lower than normal when trying to pull start it.
We tried towing it but for some reason the piston isn't moving when we rock it back and forth in any gear. It does move when we pull it over on the pullstart though. It's odd since we've towed it to get it going many times since he's owned it.
Any ideas what might be going on? I'm stumped.

 

It takes gas, fire, compression, and fire at the right time. So if you have gas and fire, that leaves your timing to be checked and compression. I'm not sure why climbing a hill in a high gear would cause your engine to blow or your timing to jump, or a valve to burn. It may have just been it's time to happen. I would check your compression and timing.

And I'm not sure why your engine won't turn in gear unless your clutches got burned up when towing it home or something like that.

 

Apparently it did start up once when he went to bring it home but only ran a couple seconds and quit. He pushed it back to the house because it wasn't far away when it quit so I doubt the clutches got damaged that way. I don't understand why it won't jump start anymore. Hopefully I can check the timing and mess with it a bit more tomorrow.

 

Well, I got it going this morning. I put a new plug in it (even though the other one was fairly new and looked ok) and eventually it fired up. We drove it about 7 miles and it seems to be working fine. The motor still doesn't turn when I push it in gear though and it definitely did before.

 

is there any lights on the display or any click sound from under the seat when you turn on the kill switch or hit the start button??? i'd say look under the seat if check your fuse box black box under the back of the seat near the battery ...pop the top of that it's right next to the CDi box check your little fuse for the ignition usually a 10amp little red fuse it will say on the inside cover of the box which on is ignition , check the fuse ... also if your bike is anything like my kodiak 400 the starter relay solenoid under the seat has two green 30amp fuses on each side you can see them right away when ya lift the seat off and look by the battery ,, check them fuses .one fuse may of popped . start there and see what ya find . maybe your starter relay solenoid stuck open i had that happen display on dash lit up but no starting the bike . and when i tryed to pullstart it no go cause the relay is needed either way to close the circuit regardless of useing electric start or pull .. good luck

 

I had it out today for the first time in 2 months and I noticed the clutch doesn't feel quite right in first gear. When I tried to adjust it I could get the lock nut to turn but set screw won't turn inside the lock nut. I tried Liquid Wrench and even tried heating it but it won't move. Any ideas how I can get it to loosen up so I can adjust the clutch?

 

Have to hold the set screw with a screw driver then loosen the lock nut. Turn in set screw until you feel light pressure then back off 1/8 turn then tighten the lock nut while holding set screw in place.That is if you can break the lock nut loose.Same basic system that's on the Polaris Expedition.

 

Sometimes, if the clutch adjustment is way out, a lot of spring pressure goes onto the adjuster screw. Slacken the clutch housing bolts, this takes the pressure off and allows the screw to move. However you will loose oil from the joint and the gasket may split, so have a new one handy before trying this. Back the adjuster off a couple of turns before re-tightening the housing, then adjust the clutch “by the book.”

 

The screw moves with the locknut. I assume they're rusted together. I'll have to keep spraying it and hope it loosens up eventually. If all else fails, I'll carefully cut one edge of the nut off with a die grinder to get it off and get a new nut.

 

I cut the old locknut off and replaced it today and adjusted it as old polaris tech described but now the shifter seems very stiff. Am I missing something?