Well now I am really confused, lol.

I went ahead and did the voltage tests on the cdi and didn't get anything in the area that was mentioned. Here is what I got,

cdi stator wires unhooked,
blk/red to brn/white- maxed around 10.0 DCV

cdi stator wire plugged back in and cdi coil primary unhooked,

black meter lead to engine ground and red meter lead to cdi coil primary wire- maxed to -90.0 DCV

This is with a fully charged battery, plug installed and using electric start.

is this pointing toward the stator as an issue? When I read the black/red wire to the brown/white for ohms, I had 115.7 for ohms which is close tithe right specs. When I bought this machine, it ran but needed to be pulled over a lot to be started and I figured it was crank seals, which I was right because the stator side seal was missing some of its rubber when I inspected it. The flywheel and stator were clean and free of rust and looked ok, but maybe I am over looking something.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Is it possible the exciter coil is bad? I guess when I did the seals I didn't look that over, I just looked for rust or broken wires.

Mike

 

Most accurate way is with the peak voltage adapter,but it's 27 bucks.https://www.ebay.com/itm/DVA-DIRECT-...4AAOSwr~lYqImO A new exciter coil is 39 bucks.PICKUP PULSER COILS POLARIS - I'm kinda like you on this one. Most times a resistance test is fairly accurate. With out the pva the manual says reading should be "around" 20 volts with a meter alone. I kinda hate to tell you one way or another. But my two cents,39 bucks wouldn't break the bank versus a peak voltage adapter that you may not ever need again??

 

Thanks OPT,

Since I'm not even getting close to 20 volts on my fluke meter I guess it would point to a fault in the stator somewhere and probably be the exciter coil. This thing ran when I got it a couple weeks ago and after I did the crank seals i got it to back fire so it had spark for some time until I had everything buttoned up. Guess I will pull the flywheel again and look over the stator again, maybe I have a bad wire I'm overlooking or worst case, I have to change out the exciter coil.

Thanks,
Mike

 

I honestly believe in Gremlins.... They're hiding everywhere especially in electronics..

 

So I was looking this thing over today as I wait for some parts to show up and I am wondering why it's such a pain to get to the spark plug. On all the other 250's I work on I can put my hand up in there and zip the plug out but this one is a pain because there is a fan in the way. Got to thinking, I don't recall ever seeing a fan on these old 250's. So I go to the parts schematic for the 89 model year and they don't list a fan for that year. This one looks like a factory installed unit. I read somewhere that the dealer could install one as an option. It's not like the fan on the 300 either, it has brackets that have the fan placed directly in front of the motor, about an inch from the exhaust pipe. Plastic fins but does look oem, even the sensor looks like and mounts like the 300's.

Weird but I guess I have seen other odd stuff on some machines and who knows what was in the accessory catalog at the polaris dealer back in 1989....i remember working at a dodge dealer back in 89 and one of the mopar accessory catalogs had a plow that you could mount to your brand new dodge omni...never saw one, but they would sell it if you wanted, lol.

Mike

 

Strange that someone ordered a fan for a 250. Must have been planning on doing some slow work and worried that the engine would over heat.I didn't have a chance to look at every option available in the Polaris catalogs,but the books kept getting larger every year.

 

Well thanks for your help OPT,

Got this little machine all up and running good finally. Replaced the exciter coil and got spark so it would start and run but still had an issue where it would cut out while riding, almost like a rev limiter was on even tho I had the wire pulled on the limiter. Put one of the eBay cheap CDI boxes on and she runs like a champ. Cleaned it all up and it is now sitting till the snow starts to fall so it can be used to plow snow.

Thanks again!

Mike

 

Good one for all the old guys that swore either a cdi was good or bad based on spark alone.I used to think the same thing.A cdi doesn't just take the place of the old points/condenser to control spark, but also electronically takes the place of the old mechanical ignition spark advance also.Glad you got it running.

 

[I HAVE A 1997 POLARIS TRAIL BOSS 250. I RECENTLY PURCHASED THIS. I HAD THE TOP END REBUILT, THE GUY I PURCHASED THIS FROM SAID THAT IT NEEDED A NEW STATOR, AND TOP AND REBUILD. I REPLACED STATOR, CDI, IGNITION COIL, PLUG, PLUG CAP. I CLEANED ALL GROUNDS. I GET NO SPARK WITH ELECTRIC PUSH BUTTON. I DO GET SPARK WITH RECOIL. I HAVE UNPLUGGED BLACK WIRES FROM CDI AND REVERSE LIMIT.
Help (opt). New battery. I do get a spark every once in awhile with the electric start, like one spark every 50 cranks.







Q



UOTE=old polaris tech;3378745]Unless you have



a coil checker like I had at the shop,resistance tests are what you're limited to. Most coils are basically the same on the older models. Coil tab to coil ground 0.3 ohms.Coil tab to wire(cap removed) 3.6K ohms. Resistor plug cap reading on the older ones, 3.7-6k ohms. Exciter coil Black/Red to Brown/White 120 ohms.Plus always unplug the black wire from the reverse limiter as they can cause problems. To isolate the cdi you can pull the black kill wire from it and see if you have spark. If you do then the ignition switch or left control switch or their wiring can be at fault.[/QUOTE]