97 425 Magnum...
Does there have to be a battery installed for this machine to start/run? Can starting it without a battery harm the bike? Ive attempted to pull start it without a battery (with no luck) and was told it was harmful. Does anyone know if that is true?

 

yes it is harmful. it confuses the voltage regulator into thinking the battery needs everything it can get. well instead of all the extra voltage going to the batter, it goes through the rest of the electrical components. cdi coil lightbulbs, switchs. you get the idea. dont run without a battery. better to run with a bad battery than a dead one.

 

Yes, it is true. Do not run the machine without a battery.

 

Its OK to run it with a dead as a door nail battery but not without a battery in the circuit period. I ran my ATV for over a month with a dead trashed battery.

In 04 or 05 with the intro of the ECM ,I think it will not run without a healthy battery. Not sure if you can even pull start them without a healthy battery,which defeats the purpose of a pull start.

 

Of course, it would seem that Polaris would come up with a solution to that. Most people would assume that if the bike will crank it is good to go... as has been proven time and time again... only to find out that they have fried half of their electrical system.

I'm no electrical genious, but couldn't a simple regulator of some sort solve this problem? If nothing else, why not just have a switch in the battery holder so that it won't crank without a battery (or something like that)? Nobody in their right mind would crank it without a battery if they KNEW it was going to cause expensive problems... right?