i ahve an 06 sportsman 500 ho and i am having problems with it not runnng right. The problems started a couple of weeks ago when i took it thru some water that was up over the tires and she started havig some hesitation and spit and sputtered. as soon as i come out it started running fine. Then just this week it started running like that all the time except when it is idling. I have very little experience working on these and need some help My question is what could be the possible problems and where should i start looking ?

 

Turn the gas off and drain the bowl on the carb. It's a small screw towards the bottom of the carb right above the drain hose. Once all the gas stops coming out tighten the screw back down and turn the gas back on. Unplug your spark plug wire from the spark plug and fill the spark plug boot up with dye electric grease and plug it back in. That should fix your problem.

 

One more possibility, check the electrical connections to the CDI and ECM to make sure they haven't gotten wet and corroded a bit causing the problem...these are another good place for a little dielectric grease
Actually, if you have the time and patience, it is never a bad idea to treat all the electrical connections on the bike with dielectric grease.