Hello Everyone, I have a '99 Sportsman 335 that's having trouble engaging the 4WD and I was hoping you guys could help me out. I know these 4WD questions are everywhere on the forum but I still haven't found what I need. Also we're looking at possible snow Monday and I really can't have this fail me when plowing.

The speedometer is analog and I already bypassed the shifter so I figure I can rule those out. When I jack it up off the ground either both hubs fail to engage or both work. So it can't be an issue with the hubs right?

After running it a while and pushing the 4WD button a bunch of times it usually works. Oddly, after it engages the first time it has not problem being switched on and off.

Is there a way to bypass the 4WD switch to test it?

 

May be a simple as having an erratic ground to the hub coils. A lot of people had that problem on the 500s also. You've bypassed the shift box which is good as the shifter switch and shifter did have problems.Now you have power from the awd switch to the hubs but many still had problems. Should be two small connectors under the front panel with one pair(gray(power wire) and brown(ground) going to each side. Tie the small telephone cable size ground wires together to a larger wire and ground it to the coil mount with the other ground wires or to good spot on the frame. See if that helps. Couple videos on the same thing.

 

Awesome thank you. I will try this.

 

This seems to have worked. Thank you so much!!

Mine looked a little different but I followed the wires up from the hubs to where they mounted on the board under the hood. I pulled the two ground wires off the board and attached them to two empty ground connections on the side of the board. I instantly had 4WD.

Thanks again.

 

Okay.. You just made a better connection on the main ground section of the terminal board. Some boards look good,some look as bad or worse than this one. Cleaning the terminals might have helped,but I'd just leave as is as you're grouping the hub ground wires with a lot of other grounds.

 

Yeah it looks at least that bad. After cleaning and testing voltage I can never get 12v using anything in the section of terminals the hubs were originally grounded to.

Are you saying I shouldn't have these connected to the main ground section?

 

No it's fine the way you have it,jumping to the main ground terminals,but I'd clean those nasty terminals up before something else stops working.. Something like this or even Walmart's own brand of cleaner is fine, with a small wire brush if needed. Disconnect the battery before you do. Plus a little dab of electrical grease can keep terminals from corroding.

 

I had that same exact contact cleaner and it was kind of expensive. I was tempted to use something cheaper like starting fluid or choke cleaner, but contact cleaner doesn't leave any oil or other residue. It's the right tool for the job.