Im having problems with the front wheels not engaging. There is no awd light. I dont know how the power flows thru the system(i.e. if it goes to the switch or the speedo first). I have read about clipping the brown/white wire and grounding it. Has anyone done this? Does anyone have other suggestions?

 

Check the bulb in the AWD light.You have to have this light on to complete the 4x4 circut.

 

I did check it and it did look like it may be burned out. Are you telling me that the whole circuit goes thru the bulb, and if the filiment is burned then power stops there? I assume I can get a bulb at the dealership?

 

Yup, the bulb acts as a resistor, and completes the circuit. If you by-pass the bulb, your wiring may get quite hot.

 

THERE IS A PURPLE WIRE THAT COMES FROM THE R LIGHT ON THE POD. I CONNECTED IT TO THE RED POWER WIRE AND ALTHOUGH THE LIGHT STAYS ON ALL THE TIME AND I HAVE TO HOLD IN THE OVER RIDE SWITCH, THE FRONT WHEELS KICK IN GREAT. I SET IT UP WITH A BREAKER IN BETWEEN THE RED AND PURPLE WIRES. AGAIN, WHILE HOLDING IN THE OVERRIDE SWITCH THE WHEELS WORK IN BOTH FORWARD AN REVERSE. BAD IDEA?

THE AWD LIGHT STILL DOESNT COME ON. I ACTUALLY LIKE THIS SET UP BETTER BECAUSE I CONTROL WHEN THE FRONT WHEELS KICK IN. INTRESTINGLY, I DO HAVE TO MOVE THE THROTLE SWITCH INTO THE AWD POSITION IN ORDER FOR THIS SET UP TO WORK. IF IT ISNT IN THE AWD POSITION AND I HOLD THE OVERRIDE BUTTON, IT DOES NOTHING.

I THOUGHT THE BREAKER WOULD KEEP IT FROM GETTING TO HOT.

 

Ldiddy:
I think your problem may be in the gear sensor. The Polaris system has a safety switch that will only engage the 4wd while in low or high range, unless you hold the override button. I am willing to bet that the gear position sensor switch is not telling it to engage, which is why when you hook it to the reverse wire & hold the override, it works. On the older Polaris machines, it was in the shifter box under the shift handle, and the newer ones the switches came out of the tranny housing. I don't have a service manual for the 2000 machines, so I am not sure which you would have.

My best guess without seeing the machine is that you bypassed the gear position switch.

Farmr

 

I disagree with the bulb being in series with the hub coils. I thought that sounded wrong and got out my Clymer book. The bulb is tapped onto the sourse of voltage for the coils, not passed thru. I could be wrong but the book shows it this way on all Sportsmans from 1996 to 2000. If i'm wrong, forgive me.

 

NascarFan, you are right. Thanks for looking that up. I edited my post so as not to be giving out wrong info. The light is in paralell just as you say, not in series. When you looked it up, I had to see if I was wrong. A buddy had borrowed my service manual so I was just going from memory. Wiring never was my strongest suit (neither was going from memory).
Thanks for straightening that up.

At least this way I had an excuse to get my book back, otherwise I don't know when I would have ever gotten it. The guy who had it is a nice guy, but kind of slow unless prodded.

Anyway, here is the AWD testing as per my 1999 manual:

Turn on ignition, select a forward gear, & turn on 4wd switch.

Check for battery voltage on gray terminal at harness connector.

If there is no voltage, you have a bad AWD switch or bad transmission switch.
If there is voltage on the gray/white, but not the gray, either the awd switch is bad, or a wire is bad.

If voltage is present, test the gray wire to ground on strut casting. It should be an open circuit (no voltage, no resistance) Anything else indicates a short somewhere.

The tests above are for the 1999 model year Sportsmans.


Hope this helps, and next time, I'll get my book back before I make too many guesses.

Farmr

 

Thanks guys. I joined a diffrent forum before I joined this one, but the help available here is far superior. I agree with your diagnosis. It is probably the tranny switch. May be you can tell me a couple more things.

The purple wire that come from the reverse light, is supposed to be connected to what?

Personal opinion please:
If i leave it like this, How much will it damage? I like this better than relying on the switch to decide when to turn on. When I come up on some tough stuff, I'll stop switch it over into awd and then turn it off when I'm done. I do need to have the override button pressed in the entire time I ride, whether or not I am in awd.

 

H, the purple wire goes to the over-ride switch. I am going to post a couple of pictures of the wiring diagram I took with my camera (no scanner). You my be able to see what you want on them. Just go to my pictures and save the pic and then you can zoon in on what you need to see.