i have a 99 polaris magnum 500 that started giving trouble you can ride the bike for 2-30 minutes without any problems but then it starts bogging down and ultimately dies. i notice that sometimes the fuel filter will be bone dry other times completely full it may start back and then sometimes it wont start back until it has set for a while we have bought a used fuel pump that was promised to work. after i installed it i am still having the problem we have had the engine rebuilt before this problem occurred and the carb as well all the fuel lines have been replaced all the filters in the tank have been removed and cleaned the petcock has been cleaned and I DO NOT RUN ETHANOL GAS IN IT we use non-ethanol that we purchase at a gas station but it is non ethanol it even smells different than ethanol gas so anyway we have spent a lot of money on this bike just to get no service out of it. btw all the work was performed by the stealership (oops i meant dealership) also i noticed today that the radiator has hardly any coolant in it and it looks like its full of white foam so wtf is going on with this thing any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Start by turning the fuel valve off and removing the line from the fuel pump coming from the fuel valve. Turn the fuel valve to the on position,then to the reserve position to make sure you have good flow through the valve from the fuel tank. Fuel valves can be faulty. If flow is good here,hook the line back to the fuel pump,pull the fuel line from the carb and crank the engine over. If you have a steady stream of fuel the pump should be okay.If the stream is weak, check that the "P" marked vacuum line going to the other side of the carb is secure and not kinked.If it is I'd replace the fuel pump with a new one. Rebuild kits are only 10 bucks less than a complete pump.I never have like the words guaranteed and used together,especially on fuel pumps. On the radiator,jack the front end up and install coolant (checking for any leaks) while the engine is running. Let the fan cycle on and off and add coolant as the level goes down. May take several times for the fan to cycle on and off to remove all the air pockets. Top off the radiator,replace the cap and top off the reservoir bottle. When you said the engine was rebuilt,what all was done? New rings or complete new piston and cylinder bore? Was the cam bad and replaced? If you rule out fuel supply or a carb problem and a dealer performed the engine rebuild,I'd be thinking about giving him a call..

 

ok thanks for the information and i am like you i dont like those words in a sentence when talking about used parts the dealer told me that they put new rings in it and new gaskets and that they was going to check and make sure everything was still in a acceptable working range the bad thing is this work was done almost a year ago and they dont offer a warranty on the work that long so i may be screwed out of it on that deal. when i cleaned the petcock out i sprayed carb cleaner into it and the valve did its job by splitting the fuel like it was supposed to both ways but the problem that we had was the ethanol gas we used to use had set up and turned black it melted the fuel lines inside so we replaced all of the lines and i did an extensive cleaning on every hard part that had to be reused if it was replaceable i replaced it filter and fuel lines i dont know if i have the lines in the right place or not i have the vacuum line from the carb to the top of the fuel pump on the port marked by the "P" the fuel line coming from the tank is on the port closest to the radiator and the line going to the carb is on the port closest to the handle bars it runs how i have them routed so im thinking its right but who knows i will check the hings that i can w/out removing the carb because i dont know anything about those things to mess with them w/out tearing it up or getting something out of adjustment. oh and if it helps anything sometimes i can manually prime the fuel lines to the carb and it will run great until it runs the gas out of the lines. i also noticed today that the vent line holes in the airbox had one hole to the right of the air filter had a small amount of smoke coming from it while the bike was running and the one to the left of the air filter was putting out a lot of air if that makes any difference

 

i do know that the fuel has a lot of fuel coming from it but its not streaming past the opening of the hose it falls as soon as it comes out of the hose so its not making a stream and shooting past like a garden hose would do

 

Lines leading into the air box are vent lines. One is the engine crank case vent,the other from the oil tank vent. See if this helps on the fuel line routing.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse Top line comes from the fuel valve into the pump.

 

man you are awesome i think my problem with the fuel delivery as stupid as it is is that someone had the fuel petcock to the off position plus i had the fuel filter turned the wrong way giving those two things i believe was my problem haha dumbass me for ya but i still need to figure out why the radiator has that white foam in it because i know that i had that thing full not too long ago but i am going to do a flush and fill on it and flush the overflow jug and overflow line out and see if i have any more problems out of it heck it may have a hole in the overflow tank causing it to leak out but hopefully i can get another one and fix that problem. btw does it hurt to put regular antifreeze in the bike as long as it is 50/50 mixture or do i have to bend over and take in the tailpipe from the dealer for their 10.00 a quart antifreeze

 

50/50 is fine versus the 60/40 Polaris coolant. Almost all are brands are ok for aluminum radiators.I've seen this before when running low on coolant and a white film is present around the radiator neck.If the engine gets hot,oil seepage from around the head gasket can contaminate the coolant. Just flush,refill and bleed air from the system the system and see how it does.Check for any leaks at the radiator,hoses and around the water pump cover and the weep hole under the w/p cover area.If this area's wet you probably have a w/p seal leaking.If the oil film reappears you may need to replace the head gasket.Not a bad idea to keep a check on the oil also for any coolant contamination.

 

ok i will check that out thanks again for your help