2002 Polaris sportsman 700

[CatchPhotoFilet]

A buddy of my owns this machine and he has already replaced the starter once and it is now showing the same symptoms. The battery can be full charged but the atv will not turn over to start. Maybe it starts on the first and second turn of the key back to back but it slowly gets worse. After a few times of turning the key trying to get it to turn over the cable gets hot to the touch. Sometimes it will start but mostly it will not. Anyone know anything about issues maybe with the starters? or what may be causing the starter to fail. If he has already went through 2 starters including the original part I am thinking something else is causing the starter to go bad. The machine is not abused in any way it only has 300 miles on it and is highly maintained.

Something that might help-

Before it quit starting the atv would always make a high winding noise when the key was turned to start it. When this noise was being made the machine would run fine but just didnt sound quite right when idling.(maybe the timing was off)

[chasineyes]

Bad ground??

[Dave S]

Bad ground??

This would be the first thing I would check.

The majority of the original post was about the starter not working properly. The comment at the end of not sounding right at idle could be a bad ground connection.

[Hafnutz]

High winding noise it is making could be the starter switch sticking, leaving the starter engaged. This might explain the heat and the starters going out. Try wiggling the key after it starts and see if the noise goes away. If it has a solenoid for the starter, I'm sure it does somewhere, you might also try tapping on that to see if the noise quits. Also possible that the starter solenoid has a wire crossed up on it causing the starter to keep running. Don't be afraid to bring it to a dealer or repair shop as I'm sure the starter will go out again. This would probably be cheaper in the long run.