I have an 08 polaris touring and it keeps over heating. i blew out the rad and it's looking good, i tested the fan with a spare battery and it works fine but yet i never see it on when it's over heating. I'm want to put in a gauge to see the temp but have no money right now. What I want to do is unplug the thermostat and put a lighter to it to see if that will turn the fan on or make the hot light come on. I am just not sure where the thermo stat is on this bike does anyone know???

 

Unplug sensor on drivers side of motor and fan should come on along with hot light. Sensor just below themostat housing where hose goes back to radiator. If fan comes on,but doesnt come on when hot,may have radiator sensor bad or radiator stopped up,usually at back by fan motor! Themostats usually not a problem,but you can test by removing the 2 housing bolts,remove thermostat,drop in cup of hot water and see if opens up,remove carefully with needle nose pliers and as cools,should slowly close!

 

I think I found the sensor, it's just under a large tube that goes back to the top of the rad. i unpluged it and nothing happened, even tried unpluging it when the machine was fully running and no fan no hot light coming on. If I undue the two bolts holding the tube on above it will rad fluid come out of it or not just wondering ahead of time before undoing the hose to look for the thermostat> anyone else have any ideas how I can make test to see why my fan wont go on??

 

all you need to do as he mentioned is just unhook tyhe sensor and the fan willl kick on. if i remember right when i read in the manual that if the sensor goes bad, that the bike will automaticly turn the fan on to act to preserve the engine.

 

i unplugged the sensor and after about a minute i get the check engine light but no hot light and no fan turining on. I can still manual put the fan on by unplugging it and directly connecting it to a battery, and other suggestions as to why i can't get it on by unplugging the sensor?

 

I went over and looked at my friends 08 sportsman 500 HO and in the same area just under a tube that goes to the rad there is a wiring connection with two wires but its a totally different looking connection but still goes into the engine just like mine. I unpluged it and it turned the fan on and put the hot light on. Now if i'm unpluging the connection on my bike thats in the same area and it doesn't make the fan go on then what do I do. Anybody out there have a 08 touring 500 and can try unpluging that connection and see what it does??

 

i tested the thermostat and it did open up so there's not problem with that

 

it should be the same as your friends as they are the same engine. did you check the fan relay to see if its working? as like you saw w/ your buddys bike it should turn both the fan and hot light on when you unhook it. if it had a bad sensor its suppose to default to the setting of turning on the fan and warning light.

 

I have an 03 Sportsman and for mine, you have to unplug the sensor and then put a jumper wire in where the sensor plugs in. Now when you turn the key on the fan will run.
Maybe a newer model is different but I just went thru this 2 weeks ago and my thermal sensor was bad and this is what I did to check it....

 

I tried jumping the sensor and I just heard a noise coming from the top part of my bike the same spot that clicks when i turn the key on and off but I couldn't find that part on any of the online parts diagrams. And yes my sensor connection looks different and is slightly in a different place then the sportsman H.O.