I purchased a 2001 Sportsman 500 H.O. about two weeks ago and love everything about it so far, however I did experience something this weekend that kind of troubled me. I was cleaning out our horse barn with it and was backing a 15 cu. ft. dump trailer into the barn over a slight step up and the sp 500 sputtered and coughed when it was under a load in reverse and I could smell gas like it was flooding out. It happened three times this weekend, all under the same circumstances. Also the front wheels did not spin when backing up in AWD and the rear wheels lost traction, and it pulls to the left when in AWD and backing up on solid ground. I have not had any problems going forward under load or with the AWD. Any advice?

 

Are you using the reverse override function? The 4wd will not work and it will sputter (limiting) unless you have the button pushed. As far as one wheel pulling hard when the button is not pushed and you are in 4wd it may hang a wheel up (hub is engaged on one side) and cause it to pull, nothing to worry about.

 

Kansas,

I normally have to switch it back into 2 wheel and back up with a little gas to unengage that front hub. I have also had problems with backfiring from time to time in reverse. Have mentioned this before in here and got no response; just you and I? ('00 SP500)

Good Luck,

John

 

uflg95,

Maybe I'm missing your point that the button must ALWAYS be pushed wether you need it or not? I'm barely on the throttle for a short distance when it backfires.
Thanks,
John

 

Keep the yellow override button pushed in when backing up. Expecialy if you want the 4 whel engaged and you don't want the engine to cut out. This is a rev limiter that polaris uses for safety reasons. Without it depressed when backing up you will have limited power and no 4 wheel drive.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I will remember that from now on. I knew it had the limiter, but did not realize that was how it worked.

kansas

 

Yes, push the little button. My Xplorer cuts out going backwards over about 4 or 5 MPH unless I hold in the button. The limiter is there so someone who's brother in law is a lawyer doesn't go backwards too fast and run over something he shouldn't. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

The SP will only go 6-7 mph in reverse without using the overide button. To get the front wheels to engage in revese the awd switch must be turned on and the overide button pushed in. I think that RPM's is actually the limiting factor not speed. This is an area of concern with the new Yamaha's. They do not have the overide button and will not give full power in reverse.