I have an 05 Sportsman 400 that is having a couple different electrical issues.

first, the starter stopped working. the bendix would kick in but the starter motor wouldn't kick over. no problem I just started it by hand.

then the bendix wouldn't even kick and the solenoid that sits in front of the battery clicks when you turn the key over to try and start it.

took it out this morning and it over heated. the electric fan was dead. pretty sure we got it shut off in plenty of time as the motor didn't seem to have any problems after a good cooling off period. last time out no problems with the electric fan.

my question is; could it be that the solenoid in front of the battery has gone out causing a multitude of electrical issues, making the fan appear to be dead, making the starter motor appear to be dead.

I haven't done any trouble shooting, just thinking at this point.

thanks for any help.

doug

 

Could be a bad battery, loose connections,starter may be bad,or it could be you have another ecm problem if the fan wouldn't kick on properly. Start at the beginning. Have the battery checked out first. Also when running it should be charging 14 volts back to the battery. If not it's probably another ecm.It controls charging and the fan operation among other things.Huge ATV Recall by Polaris - Sportsman and Scrambler

 

battery checks out okie-dokie. is there any way to determine if the ecm is sending power to the fan? I'm just assuming that the two problems are related, starter and fan. they may not be. how do I test an ecm or can I? just order one and replace it?

thanks OPT.

 

Battery checks out ,then start it with the recoil. Should be charging 14 volts back to the battery. This part of the ecm could be good if its is.If it's not charging, the fan won't have enough power to kick in anyway! As far as checking to the fan,you can run power directly to the fan motor to eliminate it as a problem. If the fan motor works hooked up direct,then I'd say the fan circuit in the ecm is bad.

 

ok, next day off I'll play around some more.

 

Just in case its a separte problem.
I do not have a ecm but my starter would just make a click sound at the solenoid. hitting the starter with a bar got it to work sometimes then finnally it never helped.
Turned out moisture got into the starter and the one starter brush was sticking and dirty. I took the starter apart and cleaned and lubed the bush and got it moving freely again.
Its been good for 4 years now.

BTW the ecm recall is a goverment safety recall with no time limit,you may want to check if your ATV had it done. http://www.atv.info/article.cfm?id=632

 

well, I hooked the fan direct to the battery, the fan had a blue and black wire. hooked blue to pos and blk to neg. got a small connection spark when touching the pos wire but the fan did not run. reversed them and nothing it appears to me the fan motor is not working. Opinions?

as far as the starter, no news there. the pos connection is crusty and difficult to get off, it may just be a connection problem, but that wouldn't make a failed bendix sound, i'd guess anyway.

 

Check here for cheap starters.DB Electrical - Polaris
http://www.the-fan-man.com/shop/-c-33.html Check this place out as Spal supplies the fans for a lot of different atvs including Polaris,or you can go to the Spal website.