Farmr123, I am a new owner of a 98 400 Xplorer and my AWD does not work. Does an Xplorer have the AWD light also and if so where is it located? As for the tests you outlined, does the gray and gray/wire come out of the AWD switch? I am having trouble diagnosing this thing since the AWD has did not work when I purchased it, so I have nothing to compare to.

 

The AWD switch is on the throttle on mine. It basically tells the machine to engage the AWD. When you move it to the side there is an AWD light behind it that is supposed to light up. I believe it was the trans switch which is located on the tranny on mine, but it may be near the bottom of your shifter. The book recomends testing those wires.

You may want to try what I did. You can see it above. I bypassed all those electronics and now I know where I lose power. The shift switch is my problem. I have had 3 agressive rides since then and it performs great.

Most dealerships will help you if you go in with tech info. They will probably be happy to copy any pages you need from the service books as well. I bought one $50.

 

Kingman, first thing to do is follow the wires that come out of the strut up to the junction. There should be 2 little wires bundled together to each hub. Where these wires plug in, you should have ground on one terminal, and battery voltage to the other. This is with the switch on, the 4wd switch on, and the tranny in low or high range. The tranny switch is a safety feature so you don't have it in 4wd unless you are in a forward gear or are pressing the override button.

I am not exactly sure where all the connections are on every model year, but on most of the older 3 chain machines, if you remove the front rack & the plastic piece under it, there is a terminal board right there.

Again, I am not sure if the wiring is all the same color as in my 99 manual, but I would think it should be.

 

So if I don't have power going to the magnets and all connections and wires are good, the only things left are the AWD switch and the Gear Indicator switch?

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]Hi read your piece on awd problem this was very intesting to me as I am On my fourth awd switch this switch is located on top of the trany and is the rear most one there
the indcator lights on this last switch showed , with awd on, that I was in neutral when in fact I was in awdh high and no awd light on it was still working in awd low and rev. after several miles I didn't any awd at all this is how all four switches have gone more or less when i put a new switch in everything works ok for a while then goes also something else I noticed this last time my headlight flickered several times and then later I noticed there wasn't any awd in high I am wondering if there could be a short somewhere causing this problem before I forget this is a
2000 sportsman 500 with only 1600 miles on it
I had it to a dealer and mechanic said it was inside the tranny and if the switch went again to get rid of the atv I am sent a letter to Polaris and am still waiting to hear from them Text

 

I will be intrested in hearing the response from Polaris. In the meantime my machine has about 1400 miles on it. I didnt replace the switch. You my want to try what I did. Seems to work great. I installed a breaker to be sure nothing overheats but it has been triggered. I went on a 60+ mile hard ride with mud, brooks, rocks, etc... No problems. I may not even replace the switch. Make sure you post the response or email it to me.

Thanks

 

Thanks for your responce will let you know as soon as I hear from Polaris, if I do . I am not a mechanic nor do I pretend to be one but it seems to me that this is an electrical problem like a short somewhere thats blowing these switches I don't know if you have ever looked at one of these switches theres not much to them and when they don't work there is really not much difference to them except they don't have that definite click to them.
what I have done to have awd while waiting to hear from Polaris,and I got this solution from a reputable atv mechanic was to take a piece of small solid wire like heavier bell wire make a horse shoe shape I used about 3 inches bare 1/2 inch on both ends,disconect the rear most switch on top of the trany and push one end of the wire into the connector with the red /white wire and the other end into the grey/white slot this will give you full time awd at least this will get you out of the bush and thats where I live so IT helped me I have found one draw back by doing this and thats the bike doesn't release front wheels when you reverse and it starts to pull to one side (crab} and you need to shift from forward to reverse sometimes, several times before it will release. Hope this will help someone some time I ALWAYS kept a spare piece of this wire in my bike. All things said, till I had this problem and this just started in the spring of 03 I really liked my bike it did all I wanted and rode better than a lot of other machines and best of all blows the wheels of my neighbors ugly trackster.