i have a 98' polaris explorer and i'm having trouble with my electric start. a summary of my machine is as followed. i have a battery that is 1 year old, i checked the water and made sure it was fully charged (didn't work) it will pull start though. also, when i have it running, the lights are really dim when ideling but as i accelerate the lights will get brighter. i've heard, bad starter, bad battery, loose wire connection, and also that there is a fuse that might be bad. i'm just trying to avoid a $200 shop bill when all it might be is a $1 fuse... i'm not a mechanic but i did manage to change my brakes on it last summer which i gave myself a little pat on the back for. so if you might have an idea on my problem can you please try and dumb it down or include pics or web sites. thanks much.

 

I had the same year wheeler and we did ride it in the water quite a few times. I had to replace my starter because it would only start by pulling. Did it just quit starting by the button 1 day or did it click a few times before it finally went out? I am guessing your starter needs to be replaced and it sounds like your battery maybe be going also. Was it left outside this winter in a shed or do you keep it in a garage. Careful because if I believe you can burn out all your lights if you keep starting it with the weak battery. Someone on here can explain it better then me as I am not a mechanic either. It happened to my brothers and buddy's Xplorer also.

 

answers to your questions jim... someone borrowed it once, without my permission, and left the key on all nite. battery was totally dead when i went to use it the next time, so i charged it for a day and a half on low charge.. after putting it back in and pushing the start button all i heard was one "click" every time i pushed it. as for storage, it's kept year round in my buddies pole shed that is not insulated but is tightly enclosed and has a cement floor. though i will admit i am not one for doing maintance to it when i put it away for the winter. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] thanks for the info, at least now i know i'm not the only one that's had this problem which means there's someone that will know how to fix it..

 

My guess is your battery is shot then and won't hold a charge. See if you can borrow someones battery just to try it out if you don't want to spend the money. I just priced a starter for my buddy's 97 and it is $291 for the starter and $146 for the bendix. Sometimes the starter can be rebuilt but I know from mine that his whole unit will need to be replaced because he goes through the same puddles I do.