Hey guys and gals haven't been here for awhile, need some help before I call on the dealer. Got a 450 sportsman hardly used and driven by an elderly man. he was plowing with it on the weekend. he noticed his coolant level way down he shut it off to check it and now the thing won't start. It cranks over but won't kick. Then she will let a real loud back fire. I'm going to check somethings tonight ,spark , fuel and what not anything else commonly go on these ?

 

wouldnt hurt to check to see if its had the updated ecm put in it as most of the 06'450's had them. did it overheat, is that the reason the coolant level is real low? make sure to put at a 50/50 mix of antifreeze in s it comes w/ a 60/40 premix. check the plug to see how it looks and let us know.

 

Remember to CHOKE the engine if starting cold.........You did say he was plowing with it.....................................Caper...... .............

 

Thanks for the replies, I remembered a hard lesson last night! We started trouble shooting the bike ,we checked fuel made sure it was getting it. pulled the wire and checked for fire, then we pulled the plug and it appeared to be getting lots of fire also. We suspected a bad batch of gas (water) so we were getting ready to drain the tank and we thought first we would try putting a little down the plug hole. tried this and it still wouldn't fire . So even though the plug was firing well when checked, we decided to put a new plug in, and guess what she fired up and sat there and idled. Lesson learned ckeck and replace the simple stuff first. As far as the coolant goes it wasn't as bad as he had told me. The rad was full and the overflow tank was down below add,I just topped it up . my 500 needs a little from time to time also. So he is on his way again thanks

 

spark plugs are finicky sometimes. they can show a good spark when out of the cylinder but when under compression they short out and wont spark

glad you found the problem!