Okay, Hi everyone I am new here and I have a few questions. First off I have a 2006 Sportman 500 HO EFI. I have a Uni filter on it if that makes a difference. My brother has the exact same bike, but his is a lot snappier than mine and seems to be faster on the top end of things. He has a K&N filter is the only difference. What could be causing this? My next question is this. When we go riding, I am always the one who like to go and hit water puddles and mud pits. Nothing really deep, just about where the water covers the tires and the mud is about half way up the wheels. When I go into once of these "pits" I always kneel onthe seat and put my feet on the back racks to help keep the rear digging. When I do this the engine always bogs down almost to the point of dying. And on one or two occasions it has died on me and I couldn't get it started again. Would the water being around the exhaust have anything to do with it? Next when we go riding, my fan seems to run ALL the time. Is there a kit where I can put a water temperature gauge on this bike so I can keep my eye on the water temp? That should be all for now. Sorry for it being so long and having noob questions.

 

Here's a temp guage kit for ya....Also seeing you do alot of mud riding and if your fan is running constantly there's possibly mud clogging the radiator fins which is causing your machine to run hotter....Quadovator also has a fan-on light which seems to be a nice compliment to the temp guage kit..

John


http://www.quadovator.com/902058.html


http://www.quadovator.com/1618702.html

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: dustin8201

Okay, Hi everyone I am new here and I have a few questions. First off I have a 2006 Sportman 500 HO EFI. I have a Uni filter on it if that makes a difference. My brother has the exact same bike, but his is a lot snappier than mine and seems to be faster on the top end of things. He has a K&N filter is the only difference. What could be causing this? My next question is this. When we go riding, I am always the one who like to go and hit water puddles and mud pits. Nothing really deep, just about where the water covers the tires and the mud is about half way up the wheels. When I go into once of these "pits" I always kneel onthe seat and put my feet on the back racks to help keep the rear digging. When I do this the engine always bogs down almost to the point of dying. And on one or two occasions it has died on me and I couldn't get it started again. Would the water being around the exhaust have anything to do with it? Next when we go riding, my fan seems to run ALL the time. Is there a kit where I can put a water temperature gauge on this bike so I can keep my eye on the water temp? That should be all for now. Sorry for it being so long and having noob questions.</end quote></div>

 

My 03 600 twin fan used to run almost all the time until I took my radiator out and inspected it. It was completely clogged between the fins until I soaked and scrubbed and cleaned for 4 hours to get all the crud out. The bogging down could be a wet belt issue but it shouldn't die&gt; you do need to make sure when you are in deep water and the exhaust go under that the machine stays running so water does not get in.

 

Is there a way I can make the belt compartment more water tight? The part of the bike bogging down would have anything to do with the steam coming off the exhaust pipe and getting sucked into the intake would it?

 

It is pretty water tight I think I have only had mine slip once and I see a lot of water. I don't know if yours is the same but there is a drain tube on the bottom of the cover.

 

I have only had the belt slip twice. I drained the water out of it as soon as I got out of the water too.

 

We still haven't figured out the bogging down part. It could be you have too much of a load on the engine. Have you tried being in low to help bring the RPM's up? Even if it did die I'm still not sure why it wouldn't start. Obviously it eventually starts do you need to wait or do you jump it, what happens in that case??

 

Well I run it in low when I do go thru one of the pits to keep the RPMs up. If it dies, I get pulled out and let it sit about 1-2 min. After I drain the water from the exhaust and belt case if there is any in there. Once it starts, it runs like normal, but I am at a loss for why it dies? The steam is the only thing I can think of. I always go into the pit slow and in low.

 

Have you tried any dielectric grease on the plug wires?