I purchased a pretty used 2002 sportsman 500 and it ran decently for the past few weeks. Today I was riding it when it cut off and backfired pretty loudly and wouldnt crank back up. I tried jumping the battery and it still cranked slowly, took the sparkplug out and it spun freely but not very strong. I dont believe its my battery because I tried jumping it with my car. The wire also got pretty hot connecting the starter to the solenoid and looked like to have a bad connection so I replaced that but still no luck. When the starter did run it had like a clanking noise inside of the pull starter case and ive heard maybe its the bendix?

 

Your going to have to remove that recoil cover and see what has broke inside there. Could be the bendix, could be the pull rope pulley, hard to say. I bet it will be evident when you get the cover off. IF by chance you have to remove the flywheel, dont use the prybar and hammer procedure like lawn mower guys do! You can do damage to the flywheel, crank, etc.


No negativity towards "lawn mower guys" prybars and a hammer actually work pretty well on some from what I've seen, it just isnt a good practice on these machines!