have a 1999 sportsman 500, will start by pull rope all day, but hardly ever by electric starter...will turn over,has fire, but will not start. its turning over plenty fast enought to start, has fire, fuel, everything, wont start, then pull rope, it fires right up, any help out there?

 

not sure if this is true or not but i heard sometimes the starter will drain power from the spark plug not giving it enough spark to ignite, thats why when the pull starter turns it over it has full spark.

 

Mine did that,key would not start it but one pull did. I took off the recoil cover and it had dirt moisture in there . Turned out the pulse coil contact face was filthy and it,s flywheel contact point was rusty also, I cleaned up both and its been starting with the key ever since.

I guess because a pull from the pull start makes a faster rotation of the motor it can get a signal between the pulse coil and flywheel even if rusty or dirty,But the electric start turns the motor over two slow to get a big enough charge to get through the dirt and rust. That's my theory anyways.LOL

If the gap between the pulse coil and flywheel may be to wide for the slow turning electric start,but the fast turning pull start can get things going. Clean up the contact faces of the coil and flywheel and close the gap up abit if needed.

 

good info.. my 500 scrambler always does that and i just broke the pull starter.. gonna clean and check the gap and will report if it works.

 

update.. found the problem.. talked to some guys at the polaris dealer and were extreemly willing to help.. not a bunch of ##### that you usually deal with.. its a pretty common problem where some of the 500's have the pulsar coil mounted on the outside of the flywheel and is un protected and takes some abuse.. my pulsar coil that is supposed to be about .4 mm away from the pickup on the outside of the flywheel was about 5mm away.. there is no adjustment so i just bent it back to where it was supposed to but and Vroooommmm.. started up with electric start just fine.. hope this helps other peeps with this problem..

 

Just wanted to chime in that you could probably set it using a brass feeler gauge from an auto parts store. My dad used to set the coil gap on a Briggs and Stratton mower engine using matchbook covers. Worked every time.

 

Thats what I though.

Strange how it does not affect the pull start though.