Hey everyone, I am a new member to the site but not a stranger. I have used this site and others in the past for help and research when I was rebuilding my 97 Sport 400. Now I acquired an 04 sportsman 700 twin for REALLY cheap and I am having a hell of a time trying to get it to run. I will provide all the info I can on what I have found and done so far.



As the title says, I have no spark at all. This all started because I purchased this from my uncles neighbor who hadn't used it in 3 years. It sat on his farm out in the elements the whole time. Battery was dead and it would not fire up. He connected a jump box to it to show me it would not fire up and I still purchased it from him (smart move, right?). He still had the same fuel in it from 3 years ago. So I figured it just needed a battery, carb clean and new fuel.

• Replaced the battery with a brand new fully charged one.
• I cleaned the fuel tank and replaced all the lines, including the nozzle at the bottom of the tank, because there was debris at the bottom of the tank when I drained it.
• Replaced the fuel filter.
• Installed new spark plugs and gapped accordingly.
• Took apart the carburetor and cleaned it completely, set all the needles to specifications.
• The boot between the engine and carburetor was cracked and was leaking manifold vacuum so the fuel pump was not operating, I replaced it and I now have fuel flowing to the carb.
• Go to crank it and it doesn't fire up, but engine does turn over fine. I do it for a little while so the fuel can work it's way through the lines and through the carburetor, still nothing.
• Pull a spark plug out and ground it to the chassis/engine wire on the right side, crank it and I see no spark arcing. So now I am trying to figure out why there is no spark.
• I have the repair manual so I can check the specs and possibilities.
• I Ohm the stator and these are my findings;
• Battery charge coil
  • Y to Y/R spec says 0.31 ohms, I have 1.5
  • Y to Y/BRN spec says 0.29 ohms, I have 1.6
  • Y/R to Y/BRN spec says 0.29 ohms, I have 1.3
• Detection coil
  • OR to W spec says 0.10 ohms, I have 0.8
  • OR to GROUND spec says open, I have an open
• Trigger charge coil
  • BLU to GRN spec says 190 ohms, I have 192.5
  • BLU to GROUND spec says open, I have an open
• I could be wrong but this looks OK to me unless those findings look high for the stator.
• I Ohm the ignition coil and I get this
  • Primary W/BLK wires spec says 0.19 ohms, I have 0.9
  • Secondary (plug boot to plug boot) spec says 5k plus 5k for each cap total 15k, I had 39.7k so I take it apart and find one of the boots has too much resistance so I replace it and I am now down to 16k
• This looks OK to me now. But, Still no spark.
• Thinking I have a bad ground somewhere I clean all the ground cables and mounting points for the cables, nothing.
• I run a jumper cable from the ignition coil mounting bolt to a good ground to make sure it is grounded properly, because the no spark flow chart says possible bad ground at ignition coil.
• My ETC switch is fine, the contacts are not touching
• Trigger coil air gap is fine, spec says .4-1.0 mm, I am at .7mm
• All the wiring looks OK, nothing frayed or plugged in the wrong place/connector

This is where I am stumped.
I have been doing some reading and it looks like the ducati ignition system was a problem with these. But mine has the newer kokusan ignition on it. This ATV is the later 2004 model. My coil is separate from the CDI module. I don't have a way of testing the CDI module but I spoke to a tech at a motorsports dealer in town and he said "it is very rare that these CDI's go out so there must be something else going on." He could be wrong on that though and I am hoping he isn't because that thing runs around $250 and if I order it I am stuck with it since they do not take back electrical components. Any help would be appreciated on this. Sorry if I lost you I know it's a long post. Hoping maybe OPT gets a look at this one, he seems to be very good at this problem solving. Just want to get this thing running so I can enjoy the trails this summer.

 

According to the specs you give, the stator ignition section looks within range especially the trigger coil, only the Yellows which are for the charging shows to be slightly out.All resistance specs are + or- 20% which shows you have some wiggle room on the readings..I agree that if you if you can't find a bad ground(I'd check the main ground also on the stator plate) then its possible you could have a faulty cdi module.Kokusan ignitions are very reliable,but any ignition system can have problems.

 

Thanks OPT, I will check the main ground also. That is probably the only ground I didn't check. Since it is mounted to the engine I assumed it was already grounded.
Would the Voltage regulator cause any of this problem? I did have the front cover off a couple of days when it rained here and it got wet but the battery was disconnected. Everything was completely dry again when I got back to working on it and plugged it back in days later. I wouldn't think water should be an issue since ATV's are meant to go through water and mud. How would I test the voltage regulator if needed?

 

Having the front cover off wouldn't help matters any with water pouring in. Just blow out all connections to make sure,use electrical grease on connections if you have it.Check the stator ground and all other ground points on the frame. Old rule of thumb on checking regulators is that there should be resistance between each wire,no shorts. Just see if cleaning the electrical up helps and it you get it running make sure you're charging 14 volts back to the battery.

 

Thanks a ton. I will Get working on it later today and update you on what I find

 

I guess I never updated this...
It was a bad CDI module in the end.

 

Glad you found the problem. That's why the manual has specs for the stator,pick up coil and ignition coil among other electrical trouble shooting checks.You eliminate these as the cause and narrow it down to the cdi and the manual says to replace the cdi "with a known good one" No specific tests shown for it.

 

CHECK the throttle safety gap under the throttle cover. If the cable has to much play the connection could be grounding the ignition. Also the black wire under front cover by the coil but not attached to the coil try unplugging it and starting it. If it runs with it unplugged it could simply be a bad key switch. My wheeler just started this issue. It runs with the black wire unplugged but wont turn off even with key off. Then with it plugged in it will die even with key on.