I believe on the 01 there is no drain in the belt cover. That came around 04 I think. You have to either take the cover off or use the nuetral rev method.

 

My cover had a crack in it I have no idea how this got there

 

That has the, "belt got fried and whipped up against the belt housing cover and wore a hole in it", look.

 

Good eyes. Nice find. This should save you some greef.

 

i would change your oil, did you check your airbox? snorkel it and get it over with,, if you like playing in the mud/water dont be that guy thats stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a pint of mud in his lower end.

if its running at its top performance consider yourself lucky.. but if its not running quite rite you need to drain your carbs and change your oil.. may need to do it more than once to get everything out...

good luck

 

That crack explains your belt slipping but not the stalling .

 

I stand corrected on the starting fluid. I have been doing some reading and it is definitely not recommended. If absolutely necessary you can use just a little

 

My 700 just went through the same thing a few weeks ago. I had the front end straight up out of the water, having a good ole time in the swamp behind my house. I thought it was only 3ft deep, only to get out in the middle and find that it was more like 5+. Thats when the back tires lost contact with the bottom. I tried to shift weight and steer towards the side, but it kept leaning over and rolled. Thankfully I am 6'2" and that it floats, otherwise, it might still be down there. I'm also thankful for my winch...very, very thankful.

The most important thing is to pull the plugs and get the water out of the motor immediately. Check the airbox, if there's water, clean it and get a new filter. Pull the carb and clean it thoroughly, soak if necessary. Pull the belt cover, let it dry and clean any dust and dirt left behind before putting the cover back on. Check all of the fluids for water, drain the oil and filter. Add new fluid and filter. Put the plugs in, make sure there's spark and run it for about 5-10 minutes. Keep replacing the oil and running it until there is no trace of water. I cycled through about 4 oil changes before I was satisfied that the water was gone before putting Polaris oil back in with a new filter.

My Sportsman runs just as good as it did before the incident. I can still rip wheelies, fly down trails and crawl through mud exactly like before. It's not the end of the world when it happens. The only thing that sucks worse than dunking your quad is getting towed back to your house by a guy on a Honda Rancher 420. It's pretty embarrassing, but totally worth it in the end

Good luck with getting it running right again!