I have a 97 sporty as well. I just put a new piston rings cylinder and had head surfaced with a fresh valve job... also put on a new coil and plug wire and new sparkplug boot. The bike starts and idles fine however it wont pull hardly at all... i did run it through a big piddle of water before i did all this work and adter the first big splash the bike came to life and ran.like it is supposed to. Then it dried out after a few min and back.to the same ole story..
Any ideas???

 

Check all your electrical connection,use dielectric grease to help protect from water. I'd also check out the clutches and belt for any problems.

 

i have a 97 or 98 sporty 500 as well... im having a great deal of problems getting it to run right as wel... i just replaced the whole top end and im still having the original problem of not building rps but idling fine... today i took the air cleaner tube off of the carb and looked in the back of the carb while it was running... i gave it full throttle and the slide never moved... i took a screw driver and pushed the slide up while giving it throttle and the bike came to life... i took the top of the carb off and pulled the diaphram and slide out and indpected it... i noticed that the diaphram would spin around the top of the slide.. im thinking this may be where the vacuume leak is that is keeping the slide from moving.... ill let yall know tomorrow if my little patch job worked...

 

Possible this could be your problem,but make sure it's not the spring binding up also. A new slide assy isn't cheap,about 90 bucks. Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse

 

I put a brand new carb on the sporty.... it runs great now... i think it may need a new plug to get it all the way back to normal.... bit im happy with it now
.

 

I'd run a little ethanol gas treatment in every tank to keep that new carb clean and running good.. Good luck!

 

Ive got a 01 polaris sportsman 500 ho RSE edition. Replaced cam, cause of bad lobe and now it wont start at all. Timing is good , spark is good, where do i start.

 

If it at least ran before the cam change then retrace your steps. If it didn't run,it's just a process of elimination. Must have spark,fuel,air and compression(55-90 psi on average because of the exhaust detent) to run along with correct cam timing. If it's been sitting could need a carb clean/carb kit. Try a little starting fluid to see if at least tries to start. If it wont crank up with starting fluid the cam timing,valve clearance,etc may not be correct.

 

the mixture screw is hidden under a brass cover on the rear bottom of a cv carb....drill out a small hole that is already in the brass cover large enough to get a sheet metal screw to grab it and pull the brass cap out and the mixture screw is under it.....be careful not to drill to far stop as soon as u get thru the brass cap. screw it all the way in and then back out 3 full turns for under 6000ft and 3.5 turns for over 6000ft......

 

the mixture screw is hidden under a brass cover on the rear bottom of a cv carb....drill out a small hole that is already in the brass cover large enough to get a sheet metal screw to grab it and pull the brass cap out and the mixture screw is under it.....be careful not to drill to far stop as soon as u get thru the brass cap.