Two weeks ago I had my dealer replace the starter, solenoid, and bendix. The next week, I had to have a new jet put in the carb.

This evening I was out riding with my son, and parked it to go eat, and then came back out to ride with my daughter. When I turned the key on, it would not even try to turn over the starter. The pod worked, I had bright lights, high and low beam. When I flipped the run stop switch on the handle bar to the off position, it turned off everything, including the pod.

The only thing not working is the starter, it is not even clicking. I can pull start it, and it runs just fine.

It was getting too dark to do much, so I thought I might ask what is the best place to start. See if I have power going to the starter? Is there a circuit breaker anywhere that might have tripped? What usually breaks, that will stop just the starter from working?

Thanks

 

Jump the solenoid and see if starter works. If it does,then check with a test light or ohm meter that when the ignition switch is on the small wire to the solenoid shows 12 volts from the ignition switch. If doesn't power up could be an ignition switch problem,if does have power then could be a solenoid terminal connection problem or a bad solenoid. The emergency kill switch is supposed to kill all power when switched to off!
PLUS this is the year that had the most problems with the ecm module! Its still under recall if you haven't had it replaced and even some replacements can go out! If you have a BLACK finned module under the front panel,then have it replaced at NO cost! (dealer should have caught this if it hasn't been done!)
OPT

 

Thanks for the trouble shooting process. I had them replace the ECM a week after I bought it. First thing I will try is to jump the solenoid.

Sad thing is, I found that something in the carb jet has been wrong ever since I bought it. It never had raise the front end off the ground kind of power, and when I got in it, it would just slowly spool up. It also had what I thought was a small exhaust leak. When I got it back and the jet was going bad, it got worse. When they fixed that, it was totally gone, and the throttle response was so so much better. I almost threw myself over the handle bars doing the reverse spin for the 4 wheel decent trick. Thanks again, I will report back after some testing. I almost hope the starter or solenoid is bad, at least that should be under warranty since it was only installed 2 weeks ago.

 

maybe if your lucky it's just a loose connection.

 

Hello
I had the same problem with my 03 sportsman 500 it started with pull starter,lights all worked, battery good. I took starter apart and found the carbon brushes were stuck. got a new set- about $60 bucks now it works fine.

 

God is good. I got out this morning in the daylight and found one of the brown wires that snap on the small studs on the solenoid had just popped off. I stuck it on, and it fired right up. I might need to squeeze the end of the wire a little tighter, to make it hold in place. But its working good. Thanks for the reply's.

Time for a little football, and hit the trails before the big game tonight.

 

Have fun! Glad it was an easy fix! OPT

 

easy and cheap is always good. thats why always start w/ the basics meaning the connections.

 

Those little plug caps on that wire, one of them keeps coming off after a while. Is it safe to give it a small squeeze to tighten it up on the stud?

 

yes.