I thought I would post this in case anyone else has a similar problem. The AWD on my 2003 Sportsman 500 began to fail intermittently. I then noticed the AWD light on the handlebar would also be off during the failure. I took the headlight pod apart and followed the wires that come out of the AWD switch. They run through the pod and out the bottom. I expected to find a severed wire, but there was no fraying, and no indication the wires were damaged. I inspected each wire individually and finally noticed that two had severed internally, yet their external insulation was undamaged. It turns out that the constant left and right action of the handlebar had finally caused two of the wires to break, yet their rubber insulation was fine.

 

Good eye, most people would probably have missed that!!

 

The funny thing is 99% of atv owners would be stuck in a real spot with this type of problem especially if there was no warranty left on their machine. I say good Job. we all need to learn our machines a little and turn a wrench every now and then to save ourselfs some money. God knows we spent alot of money on these machines and problems can hurt us even more. Speaking of problems i have 5 things wrong with mine and it only has 100 hours and 400 miles this is a real shame...

 

The AWD failed when I was trying to plow my driveway. We have some really wet, heavy snow, and the county plow put the berm of death across my driveway. Even with chains, 2WD wouldn't push it. The snow was too wet. I shoveled for a few minutes, but got so pissed that I decided I was going to fix the quad no matter what. I threw the shovel down and walked back into the garage.

I first noticed I could make the AWD light turn off by turning the handlebars slightly. By manipulating the wires with my fingers, I could also make the light flicker. By doing that, I narrowed down where the likely break was.

I'm no mechanic, but have resigned myself to the fact that if I want to enjoy this hobby, I better get comfortable wrenching on the bike. Each time I diagnose or fix something, I have a sense of accomplishment because wrenching really isn't my forte. Between the service manual and the folks of this forum, I learned I could fix most stuff on the bike.

 

I'll give this a try, hopefully it helps. One question. Did the AWD light come on when you hit the override button on the left handle bar? Cause mine does, but only when I hit that button. And I noticed when it started to fail, it was intermittently, while I was plowing snow. Now it doesn't come on at all. Also, what colour were the wires??

Thanks!