Sorry...I know there are a million postings for electrical problems. I looked at many of them, and haven't really seen anything that answers my question, so here goes...

2001 Sportsman 500. I've replaced the battery several times in this thing, most noteably last august. it worked fine when it first came back, then it was left in a covered shed for about 3 weeks before it was used again. At that time, there was no electric start, but everything else worked fine. The electric start continued to be of no use, but everthing else worked fine for the next several months. In march, i noticed that the winch wasn't working. And I took a long ride on a trail recently (low gear) and everything electric seemed to malfunction. No electric start, inconsistant head lights, no winch, and worst of all an inconsistant cooling fan. It caused overheating to the point of coolant loss. The overheating thing is new, but the slow loss of electrical performance (or somethimes very fast) seems to be a common theme during the past 4 years.

am i doing something wrong? is there some underlying electrical problem that's causing my battery to either be drained or not charge? any help is greatly appreciated.

 

You have a short in your wiring someplace. It could be in the magneto and/or stator.

Finding a short is not easy. Look for worn wires. Start to ohm out all your circuits. It could come from a bare wire that moves around and shorts sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. So a visual inspection off all your wires may be necessary. Check all your fuses.

Get a shop manual and learn how to test the magneto, stator, regulator etc....

 

i was thinking something in the charging sytem bad stator or regulator or as buckaroo50 said a short somewhere i dont think theres a magneto the sp 500 has cdi ignition

 

Thanks for the help guys.

If anyone else has any thoughts, please let me know! I don't know a whole lot about this stuff, but I'm sick of paying other people to do a **** poor job, so I'm going to start learning (or at least try!)

 

start w/ something simple first as testing the batery voltage out put to see if its at least 13.5 volts while its running. if not then its most likely the recifier or stator gone bad. to see if its a short i usually take off the neg. termial w/ the battery charged and key off and when putting it back on thier shouldnt be any sparks/arcking. if so then you must have a dead short. just a couple of idears to think about.

 

I had simalir problem same year and size it was a bad wire back by the starter selinoid. it was almost broke off.try that