Hello, I was trying to find some answers going through all the threads about electrical problems for my model bike but have had no luck. Maybe someone has had a similar issue as me and can offer some advice..

I just acquired a 2002 polaris sportsman 500 from a friend at work that he got from a different guy as a project bike. It looks rough.. someone neglected this bike big time and Ive spent about a week after work going through all the connections cleaning and putting dielectric grease on all connections.. ignition has been cleaned.. new solenoid.. battery good and charged.. new spark plug... all the connections are good and tight. There are a few places that I have noticed someone made some crappy splicing but ive fixed all I have seen. My problem is that I have NO power whatsoever. I cant crank with recoil or key.. and no power to winch.. lights.. or anything when I turn the key on... unless I jump a wire from the positive battery terminal to a white/red stripe wire were there was a splice going to the key ignition connector. Once I do that everything lights up.. speedo, instrument panel, lights and winch. I have traced the wire back and no breaks or anything in it.. solenoid is new.. thermal breakers have been ohm'd out and everything is ok.. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Ive also pulled the flywheel housing and found the starter drive needs replacing.. I have gotten that ordered and on the way.

 

Welcome to the forum! May not be what you want to hear,but harness #2460944 is 225 bucks at Cycle Parts Warehouse. I've had to do this several times on machines that came into the shop that I tried tracing wiring problems on that had either been tampered with,burnt wires,etc. Unless you just have a lot of time on your hands and like tracing shorts. OPT

 

Thanks for the quick reply OPT, 225 bucks is alot but with the time it would take to trace it out its probably worth it. Im sure that will fix the problem. Thanks for the info on the wiring harness, I will definately check it out!

 

Update..

I purchased a new wiring harness and starter solenoid.. still nothing.. turn the key and nothing.. Im starting to wonder about a ground missing from the ignition or something.. could someone please shed some light if you have had this problem.

 

I had an 02 sportsman that had a bad breaker/fuse. it was in a black pouch under the hood. It would go completely dead but I could still start it with the pull rope. Almost broke my hand so I fixed the fuse.

 

The new main wiring harness came with 2 of the 3 breakers in the black pouches.. I have the 3rd still in place and there is no power getting to it.. nothing even if I bypass it. Can anyone tell me about the key ignition switch, like if I turn it to the "on" position and not cranked, should the lights come on? I really would like the winch, lights and radiator fan to work when i pull start since i cannot get it to crank with key.

 

On the ignition switch harness connector you should have a white/red, red/white, red/black, red, black and brown wire. One wire should be hot on the harness at all times. Either the red or red/black. Red/black wire routes to a circuit breaker and terminates with the red/white wire on the left control switch emergency power on and off. If you don't have a hot wire on the ignition switch harness then it could be problems in the left control switch shorting out(I've had to replace these before) Just a thought. When you turn the ignition switch on the first position,the gauge should light up and should have power to lights,etc. OPT

 

Im thinking it might be the left control switch bc I have checked voltage to all the wires in the ignition harnes connector.. and nothing.. no voltage on any wires. If I can get the control switch off I will check and see if I need a new one.. Thanks for the info

 

Im not sure what I did but I took the left control switch apart and cleaned all the contacts.. two springs and a bearing went flying across the room but luckily I found them and put it all back together and VROOM! Bike is running.. I would say good but the idle is poor and the radiator fan wont turn on so after it warmed up I just shut it down.. time to buy more parts i guess, does anyone know how to check the fan to see if its still salvageable??

 

Glad you found the problem. Test the fan motor by just putting 12 volts to it. If the fan is ok,then most of the time the fan won't turn on the older models is because of a shorted out radiator sensor at the bottom of the radiator. Plus if you change out the sensor make sure you leave the radiator cap off while it's running to purge all air from the system until the fan cycles on and off. OPT