Hi,
Just bought a 2004 Sportsman 500 HO, any info y'all can offer is much appreciated. It has a faint engine tapping the dealer attributed to the counterbalance, but aside from that it's in excellent condition. Hope I can be as much help too everyone down the line.

Thanks

 

My sons ATP with the 500 HO has the same noise and my dealer said the same thing. We have 1500 trouble free miles on it now. Welcome to the forums.

 

Thanks for the reassurance. I love really like the machine and hope to get on some real ATV trails this week to try it out.

 

Did you get the 2004 or the 2004.5 model? The 2004.5 will have the digital fuel gauge on the pod. Both good machines. I have a 2004.5 500 HO limited edition.

 

Ahhhh, so thats the difference between the 04 and the 04.5. Mine is the .5. It's odd, the owners manual I pulled up for this machine on the Polaris site says it has a solid axle but mine is 4 wheel independent suspension? The Mossy Oak has faded to a sort of purplish camo, "not that there's anythig wrong with that", but the plastic is great no cracks or even scratches!!! An old guy used it for running around a campground. Would you recommend a regular belt replacement interval, or just watch it for unusual wear?
Thanks for the reply and the help

 

Yep 4 wheel independent is correct, not sure why it would say solid axle? And purple color in the camo is what all the older camo's do when they sit in the sun a bit. The camo color is tough against scratches and such. How many miles/hrs on the machine? Would not hurt to change it out along with grease, oil changes(tranny, engine, front end), air filter, fuel filter.... Just so you know when the last time things were done. You can go 1000's of miles on an original belt if it is properly used. (using low range under 7 mph and high range above 7-10mph) or low when pulling. Glad you like it.

 

I change my belt ever 2000 miles if it needs it or not. On thing I learned that saved me grief is silicon the pull handle over the recoil cover's rope hole. The are exspensive parts down in there,Stator,flywheel,pull rope assy ,puse coil and bendix drive all of which do not want to get wet.

The pull handle is suppose to act as a plug but it does a bad job at it without help ,trust me on this.

BTW the tapping thing at idle is normal.

 

Thanks for the tip, makes a lot of sense

 

It has 2015 (315 hours) on it right now, been toolin around a bit this week. The dealer stated he serviced the rig before sale and after checkin things, he did. Everything is changed, coolant is clean and the brake fluid also and the drive belt even looks brand new. This dealer has a very good rep in the area. I think I got lucky for once and got a real true good deal. I'll be hitting some state trails this coming weekend, try to get a couple hundred on it and see how it acts.

 

2000 miles with 315 hr means the ATV was driven pretty slowly most of its life,so thats a good sign I would think. Have fun.

I have 2700 miles and 250 hr. I do a fair amount of logging road road cruising though.