04 Sportsman 500. Turn the key and you can hear the starter spin but it doesn't engage. My son had it out last week and then after a while the starter worked. (had to pull start it then) Today the starter sounds the same and now the pull start just pulls with no resistance. It's cold here so i'm thinking things are frozen would that be a correct thought? Also how do you remove the starter and keep water out of the pull start? (the pull handle is always seated on the cover) Thanks.

 

I don`t know what your son did to it but to me it sounds like there is water in the recoil and made its way into the area of the stator and bendix. and once the water froze its not allowing the bendix to expand and hit the flywheel, and the dogs on the recoil to grab the starting pulley. if it was me I`d take it all apart to see exactly whats going on in there. you will need a puller to get the flywheel off so you can take the bendix out throughly clean it with brake cleaner and re-lube it with some white luthium grease. On the recoil once its dry I like to use Dry Graphite for a lubricant. Taking it all apart is easy less than 1 hour and when putting it all back together make sure all mating surfaces and clean of grease and reseal them.
I like to put some silicone under the T handle of the recoil to make sure no water can seep into the housing and a good thing about the silicone is when you need to use the recoil its still function-able just a tiny pull and its free.

 

Water is what I was thinking. I removed the top bolt on the starter and I had the lower one backed all the way out but it hits the back of the clutch cover and I don't have enough room to get the starter out. So I guess the only way to remove the starter is to remove the clutch and housing? How hard is it to pull the right side cover? Thanks............Steve

 

I redone my starter on my 99 sportsman 500 and I didn`t have to remove the clutch covers I took out the bolt on top and backed out the bottom bolt as far as I could, the bottom bolt will not come all the way out but it will undo enough to clear the threads allowing you to remove the starter.
You don`t need remover the started, What you should do is pull the recoil start and the flywheel housing off then pull the flywheel that will allow you to remove the bendix (be careful not to lose the thin washer behind the bendix). if you only remove the starter any water in the housing will still be in there and eventually cause more problems. My guess is it could use a good cleaning.

 

If your starter is working but the bendix drive is not ingageing then there is no reason to take the starter off. I never had to remove the flywheel to get at my bendix on my 01 or 04 500HO out. Just take the recoil cover off and clean up the bendix drive and your recoil on your pull start. Do not use a heavy oil when lubing your bendix drive or you will ruin it. Use a minimal amout of light oil on the bendix. I siliconed my recoil cover before I put it back on. I also siliconed the rubber pull cord handle like was suggested earlier. If you do end up taking your starter out which can be done with out removing your clutch cover like suggested earlier than I would also put a small amount of silicone on the oring of the starter before reseating it.
When I was done doing all of the above I have never gotten water in again. Two years now and no water infultration. Knock on wood.

 

just did the same thing same on my 06 SPMN 500. if the starters turning, it working. no need to remove it. just remove the 9 or 10 bolts holding the recoil case on and take it off. nothing bad will happen. you will be able to take the bendix out without removing the flywheel. clean it out as Steeves suggests, also a good time to clean as much debri out of the entire flywheel housing. when putting the recoil case back on, lay a bead of rtv neatly around the entire inside edge of the recoil case to waterproff it. most cases dont have a gasket.

EK in CT

 

Thanks for the replies I will pull the cover and see whats going on. I just need to get the time.