Hi newbie hear with a question. I just purchased a 2001 Polaris Sportsman 500 H.O. I cannot get the AWD to work. I do not see a light when i turn it on either. The guy i bought the bike from used it to cut grass and for some reason he told me he took a couple of pieces out of the reverse override switch to keep it from working. Dont ask me why. LOL. The manual says this....The override switch also allows activation of Demand 4 drive (AWD) in reverse, if demand 4 drive switch is on. Do i need to get these pieces and replace them for it to work? I can see where this may help it in reverse but why no AWD in forward gear? According to him the night before he sold it to me the light came on for the AWD as he was making sure everything was in good working order. Any help would be appreciated.

 

did he take off the trany switch? what was the pieces he otok out? the override needs to used in rev for awd but not in forward. you might have to see if theres any power getting to the switch and light bulb is working. just a start.

 

He said he took out to little copper pieces from the switch you push on the handlebar. Are you saying if the light bulb is blown it could cause the AWD to not work or just that i may not think it is working? Thanks for the response.

 

i mean on some of the older bikes(not sure on what years)the bulb is needed to complete the circuit. does the neutral light still work? you will need the override button for reverse unless he has by passed it for the awd in reverse.

 

The neutral light does not work. Please explain the override button to me. I was under the assumption this button has to be pushed when you want to go faster in reverse. With the AWD button in the on position doesnt the AWD work whether this button is held or not? Where do i start to check this bulb for the AWD? Bear with me as i am just getting into 4 wheeling and i just got this bike yesterday. I have been doing hours of searching to try and figure this out. Thanks again for any help.

 

I called the guy and he said he took out 2 brass looking contacts from the override switch to bypass it. Could this be causing my problems?

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>you will need the override button for reverse unless he has by passed it for the awd in reverse. </end quote></div>
like i said you need this button to be useable for the awd to work in reverse. guessing if the neutral light isnt working then it mayb ethat the tranny switch isnt working telling the bike what gear its in. all these things ned to be working or by passed to have the awd work correctly. if you look at where your linage goes in to the tranmission there should be like a black piece w/ wires going into it. this is the tranny switch and maybe its broke or has bad connections. maybe someone esle knows how to by pass these but i dont w/out testing on it. my guess is that you have to make sure that at least the trans switch is reading correctly so that the netural light is working then the override will have to be bypassed to make it work the awd work in reverse. someone else jump in with some differnt idears to whats going on.

 

Hey stendori i must apologize to you. I made a mistake in saying the AWD light was not coming on. After cupping my hands around it i found out it was actually on. My AWD is working in forward gears but not reverse. The guy is sending me the pieces to put back in the reverse override. Sorry for the confusion. I was wondering however if instead of putting these pieces back in if i just connect the 2 wires together inside the switch if this would let me bypass the rev limiter and also let me keep my AWD in reverse without having to push the switch. Thanks for the help so far.

 

something i copied from another post for ya-

TRACE WIRES FROM THE OVERRIDE BUTTON(GRAY/WHITE AND GRAY/ORANGE) CUT THE GRAY/ORANGE AND TAPE UP BOTH ENDS. CUT THE GRAY/WHITE AND TAPE UP END WHICH GOES TO THE OVERIDE BUTTON. CONNECT THE OTHER END OF THE GRAY/WHITE TO THE RED/WHITE (IGNITION SUPPLIED 12V) YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO TRACE THE PURPLE WIRE WHICH COMES FROM THE HANDLEBARS AND SIMPLY CUT AND TAPE BOTH ENDS. DONE DEAL.......