Yesterday I was driving my 02 500 ho sportsman and sunk it in a deep whole. Like up to the seat. Bike didn't die but sacked water into the air box. Cleaned it out ran great drove it the rest of the day no issues at all. Today how ever it has no fire. Recoil housing was dry. Has new pulse coil an voltage regulator. I'm wondering about the stator. I tried unhooking the battery and giving power directly to the starter with the head lights on to see if they would light up and they didnt. Sounds like a bad stator?

 

Pull the black wire from the cdi first to eliminate the kill circuit and see if you have spark. If you do have spark then can be a problem either in the left control switch or ignition switch or at times the cdi kill wire could have shorted out internally because of water.
Exciter coil (1999-0n)
Red to Green 3.2 ohms
Black/Red to green 446 ohms
Yellow to yellow/red 0.17 ohms
Yellow to ground Infinity
Ignition coil Primary resistance 0.3 ohms
Secondary resistance 6300 ohms
Spark plug cap resistance 5000 ohms
Plus you might have popped the bulbs even if they weren't on at the time,but turned them on later if water is still in the socket area.

 

No power with the ignition switched on is probably the master breaker.
Under the front hood there is a sealed pouch with a 20A self resetting circuit breaker.
Water could've gotten into the pouch and damaged it.

 

Good point on the circuit breaker possibly shorting. The one under the front panel is a 10 amp for the fan. The main 20 amp breaker is on the frame behind the left rear fender.2002 Polaris SPORTSMAN 500 ALL OPTIONS (A02CH50) Electrical/Taillight All Options | Cycle Parts Warehouse Even though sealed,they're not completely moisture proof. I've found them all corroded. You can get these cheap at any auto store.

 

Spray the replacement with WURTH HHS-Plus or Battery terminal protectant spray.
I would recommend not putting the replacement in a pouch. The pouch will hang onto water and keep it wet for longer than if it's in the open air. Water will bead up on the spray protectant and will dry fairly quickly.
I use a terminal boot for this type of circuit breaker to keep from accidentally shorting it by touching the open terminals. It keeps most of the dirt and crud away too. The picture in this listing shows what they look like. https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Dog-42084.../dp/B00KYYPDWW

 

I have power with the key on. Everything is normal except no fire. What I meant when I said the head lights didn't come on was I unhooked the battery and turned the lights on and used the pull start to see if the stator would give power to the lights and the lights didn't light up.

 

If it'd been able to crank with the recoil you'd probably have dim lights and possibly get brighter with rpm increase,but that's when you take a chance on popping bulbs. That's what the regulator and battery is for. This model still had the old magneto triggered ignition and could start with a dead battery. Battery was mainly for the starter,lights,fan,etc. I'd go through the resistance checks and see if the stator checks out or not. In the trouble shooting guide the first step is to pull the kill wire from the cdi and check for spark. If no spark,then go towards the stator checks next.Plus if you haven't cleaned and dried all electrical connections and used electrical grease of some sort,this could be the problem also. They don't like being swamped.

 

I pulled the stator today. And now I'm even more confused on this bike. My bike is a 2002 500. But from what I can see my stator is from a 97. I have a manual with wiring diagram and it's different. It has 3 yellow wires going to the regulator but the regulator only has 2 yellow. I'm guessing now that someone put a different motor in this bike or the stator was replaced before with the wrong one. Does anyone know if the bottom ends were the same through out the years? And also is a 400 and 500 the same motor other than the cylinder?. Cuz my manual shows the 400s have that stator. I don't know what to buy for a stator. If I buy the same one I'll have an extra yellow wires. But the one for a 2002 500 doesn't look like it would fit

 

This is the 2002 Sportsman 500 wiring diagram I have. It shows two wires to the charge coils. Two to the Ignition exciter coils and two to the ignition trigger coil.
Are you sure the correct 2002 Polaris Sportsman two wire stator will not fit?
The 2003 and later 400 & 500 used a three wire stator and no CDI starter coil.
I stitched pages 1&2 together. Please excuse the slight shift where the pages meet it's the best I could do.
2002 Sportsman 500 Color Wiring Diagram

 

That's the same diagram I have. My stator plate is different it has 3 notches in it. The one for a 2002 500 with 2 charge wires is a circle no notches. Which is why I'm thinking it may not be the proper motor. If everything is compatible I want to rebuild it as a 2002 500 ho. Another problem I had awhile ago was when I replaces the carb it wouldn't fit the intake boot. Just got me wondering if it's a 400. It was always kinda gutless for a 500