Thanks for all the help. I hope to have time today or tomorrow to take a look at everything, and will get back in touch. I'll try to include pictures if I can. And we are in fact talking about a SM 335. Thanks for everything....

 

O.K., I've finally managed to squeeze a little time together to check the bike out again. I tested the battery, and it is o.k. I visited the local auto parts store and purchased a new plug wire, and installed it. I flipped the choke, hit the run switch and the key. On the third press of the start button, the machine fired right up. The kids were estatic! Had the wife putt around the yard riding the kids for about 10 minutes and everything seemed great! We managed to get off a little early today and were hoping to ride again. Once again the machine fired right up. After letting the machine warm up for a few minutes, we backed the bike out of the building and off we go. We made it a whopping 200 yards, then according to my daughter, daddy's 4wheeler got the hiccups and stopped. Freedom 500, I haven't been able to local the voltage regulator to see what wires I have coming out of the unit. I'm searching for a repair manual for this bike, but haven't been able to local one as of yet. I can say that when I finally pushed the bike back home today, I checked the battery again - it tested fine. I pulled the spark plug to see if any fire is being passed, and it isn't. I can't understand why it ran and then stopped again. Squeege, where can I find the stator on a 99 Sportsman 335? As always, any help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

The stator is behind the flywheel, which is inside the pull start cover. The wiring harness that leaves the engine just behind the pull start is from the stator. Follow this harness, it should to three places.

1) Yellow wires lead to the voltage regulator. Test these yellows to ground; should be no continuity. Test for continuity between yellows; should have continuity between them but I am unsure of the ohms on a 335.

2) Brown wire should be grounded to the chassis. Clean this ground.

3) Remaining wires go to the CDI. Check the wires to ground; should be no continuity. Again I don't know the 335 wiring and therfore cannot say what the ohms should for each coil but there are two coils and therefore you be able to find conitunity in two places by measuring between the wires.

The ignition coil can also be checked with an ohm meter. Ask your dealer for the ohm specs for the ignition coil and stator.

Intermittent problems like your having are are seldom the CDI. Check the wiring, grounds, ignition switch, engine kill switch, and the neutral switch. Next check the ignition coil and spark plug cap. Next change the spark plug (even new plugs can fail). Next check the stator. If all this checks out ok, then you need a CDI.

Due to the lack of use this machine has had, I would clean every ground and connection you can find.

Hope this helps

 

slonez, like Garry said follow the wire harness from the stator. Check every inch and look for wire insulation chafe. I had a problem with wire insulation chafe on my 500 and it drove me nuts for a few weeks.

If the wire harness from the stator is OK, unhook the kill wire from the CDI box. The kill wire on a 2002 Sportsman is Black. If the engine runs good use the choke to stop it. This would indicate a problem on the kill switch, the key switch, or kill switch wiring.

Another possibility could be a plugged fuel tank vent. The next time it hiccups, loosen the gas cap.

 

First, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your replies, guidance and help. Sorry it has taken so long to reply, but I finally found the time to work on the bike. After tearing most everything apart, testing wire after wire, adding the additional battery ground, checking every ground wire I could fine, almost going crazy, and buying a friends 97 Sportsman 500 just so we could ride (but of course that's another story), I was finally able to run the problem down. The blue and white wire going to the ignition coil was broken. I honestly have no idea how in the world I found this. For some reason I started checking the spark. Sometime the machine would get a spark and other times it wouldn't. So, long story short, we've managed to get in a couple hours of riding time, and I've intentionally let the bike sit for about 6 days, then put the key in, flipped the switch, and on the 2nd time of pushing the start button, the machine fired right up. Thanks once again for all the help, and I hope to be able to repay the help!!!!!!

 

glad you got it figured out. electrical is the worst of all problems to run down and time consuming.