So I just got my first polaris 4 wheeler,its an 01 500 sportsman ho.Its in really good shape other than the speedo not working.It will take off like a rocket in reverse but in forward gears it stumbles and falls on its face when you give it gas.I searched and found threads on the speedo delete trick and tried it,this fixed the 4x4 light that I didnt even know wasnt working but did nothing for the issue.While messing around with the speedo I found this splice ...

Does anyone know why this was done?
PO told me the carb was recently rebuilt but I dont understand why reverse would be so strong and forward not work...any help you guys can give would be appreciated!Thanx

 

Looks like he's jumped a red main power wire down to ? The speed limiter on the 2001 model is built into the speedo,could be an attempt at bypassing it. Here what a lot of people are doing on awd if they lose it,but don't know if this will help on what PO has done.

 

If your speedometer is broken then your AWD will not work. You can do 2 things

1. Replace the Speedometer
2. Remove the 6 pin plug from your speedometer
On the plug, short the brown/Brown White wires together and
tape it up good.
Do not reconnect the plug.
You will lose the function of the speedometer but your AWD will work.

Cool vid OPT. I,m adding that to my favourites

 

Did that,4wd works fine,it runs like its hitting a damn rev limiter but in FORWARD gears,not reverse.

 

Looking at the wiring schematic on the late 2001 model, I think that's why he jumped the red wire to the red/white wire as it also leads to the transmission gear position indicator along with a gray/white wire. Could be the gear position switch on the transmission is faulty,if not then the problem is in the speedo head itself as to the limiting. As mentioned it not only has the awd going through it, but the speed limiter also.If the speedo doesn't register the correct gear position(if it's blank),Or even if it does, down load this 1996-2003 pdf and you can see what I mean. You may be able to jump past this as the limiter does seem to be kicking in.(Both the 2001 pdf manuals listed are just parts manuals) Index of /ORV Manuals/Polaris/Sportsman/1996 - 2001

 

uggghhh if I had known the speedo was such a big deal on these things i never would have bought it,yes the speedo is dead,it was full of water.If anyone has found a wau to bypass this limiter please post,Im at a dead end here.Thanx guys

 

Last thing I can think of is to jump the gray/red OR the gray/orange wire (hard to tell on the schematic wiring diagram) coming out of the speedo harness to a brown (ground) wire and see if it bypasses the limiter.If this doesn't work,then save up your nickels and dimes for a new $300 speedo from Cycle Parts Warehouse,then all your problems will be over. I wouldn't trust a used one from E bay or anywhere else.

 

Thanx for the advice,Ill give it a try,if all else fails Ill get a new speedo down the road.Ill check out your source,F ebay.

 

Keep us updated. If you find out what wires can do away with the limiter post em for the other members.I never had a chance to experiment much at the shop,I just replaced speedos when the awd failed or it started limiting in forward on the 2001+ models that didn't have the separate limiter modules..

 

SOLVED!tore it apart today,new plug,air filter,fuel filter,inspected belt,plug wire ect and nothing changed.Decided to look at the carb since the PO was bragging about "just rebuilt the carb myself" well the genius put the front "hose clamp" that holds the carb in place to the motor on askew and it was sucking air around the front of the carb....Ill bet the PO thought he was pawning off some big money issue on me when the dumbshit could have fixed it with the turn of a screwdriver!Thnx for the input guys Im sure ill be around begging for more help down the road!