I have a great 1996 sportsman 400. Origional starter now grinds. How do I get to it. I think the only way is to flip the ATV on its tail and take the skid plate off.
can I do that?????? (two stroke machine)
Thanks for any help or advice in changing it.

BB

 

The way I do it involves a little more disassembly, but it gives easy access to the starter. Remove both the clutches and the inner clutch cover, then the starter is easily accessible from the clutch side. You still have to remove the recoil start cover to access two bolts from that side. With the proper tools, I removed, cleaned, and reassembled my 400's starter in about 1.5 hours.

If you flip the machine on its end and remove the skidplate, the starter bracket behind the clutches is difficult to reach. A 10mm gear wrench is about the only way to remove the two bolts on the bracket.

I've done the job from under the machine and by pulling the clutches, and I much prefer the 2nd method.