I am going to pull the starter first thing in the morning and take a look. I will probably take it up to Autozone or something and have them test it on their starter machine.

Yes there is gas in it. It never hurts to ask obvious questions. In this case, the engine is not turning over enough for that to be an issue.

I tried connecting a jumper cable directly to the starter with the same results so it is not the solenoid.

I think you may be right on with the brushes or possibly the bearings. I am thinking it may be full of mud too. Every other thing I have taken apart on it has been caked in mud so it would not be surprising. After they test it, I will take it apart and see what is going on inside there and go from there.

Thanks for all the help. I will post back with what is going on.

 

use a volt meter and check the stater draw... this will comfirm if the starter is bad or not....you will need 2 people to it

 

Ok, I got the starter off. I put it in a vise and applied power to it. It seems to spin great. I checked the resistance on it and it says .2. Should I take it up to my local auto parts store and have them test it or is that a waste of time. Should I go ahead and tear it down and clean it out? How do I test the Stater draw that you are talking about Gumby?

Thank for the help.

 

Never mind about taking it to the local auto parts store. They said they could not test it because they have to put in a vehicle number.

 

part store is full of s#$t you can test them without vehicle input.... ive done it they are lazy or dont know how to use the tester.....but starter draw is done when the starter is in the machine.... when you hold the volt meter on it and someone pushes the start button it will tell you how many volts it pulling from the battery under load.... on the bench it will throw the bendex out and spin no problem becauzed there is no load applied....but since you have it out check the brushes anyway...

 

I hope you did not ever do that method.

My Manual told me to get special tools and remove primary and secondary clutches to remove back belt housing plate just to make room to remove one remaining bottom starter mounting bolt!

Instead this is what I did. I took out the air box and removed the top easy starter mounting bolt. With the bottom stubborn mounting bolt you just back in off until it hits the backplate of belt housing,it will not come out but will disconnect.
Than I used large channel locks and turned the start clockwise until the bolt was at the 12 O'Clock position and slipped the bolt and the starter right out no problem.

I can,t believe my " Clymer" manual wanted me to tear down half the bike to remove one bolt also!

BTW it turned out one of my starter bushes was sticking so I cleaned it up and it works great now. 90% its you problem to,and there is no money involved.

 

I did not take anything apart to get the starter motor out. I simply took out the lower bolt and the one that the ground wire connects to, also unhooked the positive connection. Then the starter pulled out with a little persuasion. I read the manual where it told me to remove the clutch as well as the front fender plastics, but I just got through putting all that back on and wasn't about to take it off without at least trying first.

I just spoke with a local Polaris shop (One I actually trust. They will work on individual parts instead of making me bring the whole bike in as well as give me good advice besides just "bring it in so they can look at it"). He said it sounds like it could be hydro locked. I am gonna check for that tonight when I get home. He said all they do to test the starter usually is put power to it and see if it jumps out of your hand (mine certainly did that). Since the starter is out, I am gonna go ahead and open it up to make sure it is not full of mud. I will prolly clean it out with some brake parts cleaner or something.

I will update later with results.

 

can you turn motor over with pull start if so its not hydro locked.

 

The engine would not start with the pull starter because something broke in it. I did resolve the issue however. I found three issues and any one of them could have been the cause or all three could have been contributing. The first two were possibly my fault.

1. There was to much fluid (oil + ?) in the crank case. This could have been from me carelessly overfilling it, or it could be extra water or fuel. I will monitor it closely over the next couple weeks to see.

2. The recoil starter cover bolts were loose. I just cleaned the bendix a few weeks ago and did not put threadlocker on the bolts when I reassembled it. I was out at the time and had intended to go back and do it before I put any serious miles on it. I guess two or three trips around the block were to much. When the cover was loose, it allowed the bendix to bind up on the flywheel.

3. The last one was not neccessarily my fault, but still an issue that you guys helped me resolve. The positive brush on the starter motor had a stuck spring and was not making good contact. I cleaned out the starter and it works like a champ now.
edit: I did check the tolerances on the brushes and they were both well within limits.

As far as the pull starter breaking, I just tightened down the friction wheel and put a dab of rtv around the pull starter handle. I may go back and fix it later, but I am not real concerned with it now as I always ride in groups of 3 or more quads.

Thanks for all your help.

 

I wish I had all the starter people replaced and threw out just because the old starter had a sticking brush.LOL