I have a 02 500 sportsman that will not charge the battery when idling. If I give it gas it goes up to 14 volts. But at idle only 12. Is this a sign of a bad stator? I've heard that they can get dirty from water and what not getting down by the pull cord. Would cleaning it up in there maybe make any difference?

 

Some of these older machines didn't charge very well until they were off an idle. Not like the newer higher output stators that do. Possible regulator could be getting weak,but I'd load test the battery first to eliminate it as a problem,then check all connections to make sure they're tight. A lot of people overlook this. You can do a general stator test by checking resistance between each stator yellow wire leading to the regulator. Should be a small amount of resistance reading between each one and no yellow should short to ground.Regulators are cheap if you want to see if a new one charges better.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Voltage-Regu...9V3Vvg&vxp=mtr