Hey guys. I'm looking into sometime in the hopefully near future to move back into the 4x4 market and will be doing so with the usual minimal budget. Looking as far under $2500 as I can get. I recently rode my uncle's '01 SP 335 and was quite impressed. Its no speed demon, but I have my DVX for speed; I want grunt.

So with regards to the older body style Sportsman ATVs, which years are ideal and which are the ones to stay away from? I want this body style or newer:



I believe thats a 96 and up? Currently there's a nice, clean looking '98 500 HO for just over $2K. Anything to know on the '98s?

Thanks in advance.

 

i would buy an 02' sp 500 whic is good a good year. the 335 is a great bike(i had an 99') but it is lacking big power for the weight of the bike. i think around 98-99'(not 100% sure) is when the 500's had bad cams. hope that helps a little.

 

The one in the picture is at lease an 03, looks like my old 03 -700, they did;nt start the HO model till 2001, as said some of the older ones had cam lobe problems but I think that was more because of lack of oil changes than anything else.

 

Is it as simple as swapping out the cam for an updated one? Was it a problem with the cam failing, or just not running good?

I'm not sure what year the one in the pic was, but I'd be looking for that body style or newer.

What made the HOs, HOs?

 

H.Os Sportsman came out in 2001,they used the Scrambler's larger 40mm carb from the 34mm carb and high duration cam.

Stay with a 98 or up, the 96 and 97 had weaker u joints axles not CV joint axles. I perfer my 2001 over the newer 500 H.O, it has some feartures I like better. like no ECM brain Box,much larger 5.25 gas tank vs the 4.1 gal tank now and the twin locking hub AWD set up is much stronger then the single front locking diff with the plastic roller cage AWD. I also like the vented alloy oil tank over the new cheap plastic one they used now and EBS was standard not a option back then.

The cam problem was due to people not using Full synthetic 0w-40 oil in the earlier days and running what ever oil they had around the house or found on sale. We have a 97 SP500 with almost 8000 miles and my 2001 has 3700 miles.

You have no choice on that, the sportsman 500 did not come out untill 1996 and had that body style, it look the same until 03 or 2004 I think.

Here is what the first 96 Sportsman looked like. Below is a 2003. Not much has changed.

 

So with the locking hubs, flipping into 4x4 will simply go into a limited slip until you physically lock the hubs, or do the hubs lock w/ AWD engagement?

 

There both AWD , Polaris has no limited slip 3wd mode. The older models locked both wheels at the front two hubs the new set up locks both wheels at the front diff instead.

Both automatically engage if the rear wheels slip a 1/8th of a turn ,than automatically disengage once rear traction returns. It so fast and instant that you do not feel it happening while riding. The ATV is in 2wd even if the awd switch is turned ON if the rear wheels are not slipping. The Off 2wd mode just makes the machine 2wd 100% of the time.

Is more like the ATV going in and out of diff lock on its own,and it happens in milliseconds.

 

Good to know. Thanks.

Is there anyway to physically check for the cam problem upon inspection, or any other things to check on when inspecting one of them?

I know when I picked up a POS '91 350L, the clutch rubbed on the cover and was likely due to a broken motor mount at some point or another. Anything like that to look out for?

Again, I appreciate the help.

 

Ahh... I'll let it slide...


I believe it's actually 1/5th of a full turn since the front wheels are geared 20% lower than the rears. In good traction conditions, the front wheels will always turn faster than the front drive shaft does, when the front wheels start turning the same speed as the front drive shaft (caused by rear wheel spin) the front wheel drive engages.

Yes I'm bored at work today...

 

I think you would have to take the cam cover off to see if the exhaust cam lobe has wear. A sure sign is loss of mid to top end power and back firing through the carb. If the guy always used 0w-40 it should be good.