i have a sportsman 500 ho and the battery was dry. so i replaced it with a new one. it will not get any power to the dash pod. no power to anything. i have power at the main fuse but non to the accessory fuse.

 

Carb or efi model?

 

efi

 

I'd pull the fuse block and check the wiring as many had corroded pins and wiring what would pull out over time. Bad place to have a fuse block. Wouldn't hurt to pull the fan relay,ecu relay and fuel pump relay also and use a little electrical grease. If the Delphi fuse block is the problem,plenty of them on ebay,amazon,etc. Or even some that have covers and a little more water resistant.

 

I replaced two 5 pin relays, these where the small ones and it didn't help. the large relay which is a 4 pin I was told by the poo dealer is for the rear diff. and shouldn't be a problem. these relays did have corrosion on the pins so I cleaned them and put a little d40 on the plug in. still no change. the relays have power to them. would it do any harm to put power to the acc. fuse to try and see if things will work ? also, do you think I might have a PDM/ECU problem? if I give up on trying do you think I will get hosed at the dealer?

 

The 500 efi Touring model had a solenoid for turf drive on the rear diff but switch controlled. The three relays I show are for the fan,ecu and fuel pump on the Sportsman 500 efi model that you listed. I wouldn't think an ecu problem but I had plenty of problems on the fuse blocks.That's what I'd still check out first. Replace it if corroded. The cheap manual goes into more detail on fault checking/trouble shooting than what I can here.2008 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI Service Manual PDF Download

 

Thank you very much, everyone I talk to has given me the same advise.

 

Unplug the left hand kill switch. Look inside the contacts for corrosion. Mine was pretty green in there, and wouldn't give me any power to the machine. I had already bought a new one, and that fixed my issue, but maybe you can clean it.
Do NOT open the switch up. Somebody I know did that, and ended up with tiny springs, ball bearings, etc. all over my, I mean his, garage floor.