All-

Thought I'd give you guys a heads up on a problem that my buddy had on his 00' SP500. He was complaining that his machine would not stay running without his finger on the throttle. He had adjusted the idle up several times, but it still would not run without his finger on the gas. At speed, if he let go of the throttle, it would backfire. First thing I thought of was the Polaris ETC (electronic throttle control. I was right, though I'm not sure of the root cause of the problem -- I'll explain.

Polaris uses an ETC system on all of the sportsman models. I'm not sure if it comes on other models or not. Basically, there is an electrical contact (or switch) inside of the "throttle pod" on your handlebars. When the throttle is at 0, the contacts are closed. When you activate the throttle with your thumb, it opens the contacts, breaking the connection. It is intended as a redundancy system for stuck throttle. It works like this: IF your throttle cable froze, the thumb lever would still return to 0. So, if the machine had a stuck cable, and the thumb lever is at 0, it will kill the machine (theoretically). My buddy's SP500 wouldn't run without his thumb on the gas. Anytime throttle was at 0, the machine was getting no spark. I disconnected the "switch" inside of the pod without cutting any wires, and this fixed the problem. The machine, for some reason was in "fault" mode with no stuck throttle. If any of you guys have this happen on your sportsman, check out the ETC.

If anyone knows more about the ETC control module, let me know. I'm also in the process of researching this. My guess is it works just like a kill switch, and cuts off the ignition coil.


Kevlar1

02 SP700

 

Yeah, about 8 to 10 inches down the cable from the throttle assembly, you will find an adjust. Thread it out a little bit and that should solve your problem. If you adjust it out to far, it will actually raise your idle. You don't want to thread it out that far. Just enough to keep it running.
I would in no way eliminate this feature. I've had my cable stick on me at about 3/4 throttle. Without the ETC, me and my machine could have been hurt rather badly.

 

Guys,

Thanks for the info. I'll let my buddy know where to adjust the cable. Fortunately he can re-connect the ETC very easily. I agree this is a great safety feature.


Kevlar1

 

My dad had this problem on his 00 sportsman. I kept adjusting the idle screw to no avail. He finally took it in and they fixed it. They didn't tell him what was wrong.