Frozen Wheeler

[Dahitman44]

I did it again. A few years ago I brought the wheeler to the spray car wash and got all the hunting mud off of it. I remember spraying the engine area and I went to start it a couple of weeks later and it would not turn over. I did some significant damage and it was in the shop for a week.

Now I sprayed it off again and took SPECIAL CARE not to hit the engine area directly. I left it in the garage and I went to start it and it turned over fine a few times but did not start. I tried again and it does not turn over now at all.

Did I lock it up?

I am going to turn the heat up to 78 in the garage and \leave it all day and all night.

Did I mess it up again badly?

It is a 2004 Sportsman 400 with only 900 miles.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Hitman

[CAMAN]

Did you check the battery?

Quick tip, when washing ANY machine with an engine, run it for 5-10 minutes afterward to dry it out if any water did find its way in.

[Dahitman44]

Ya it is not the battery. I ran it the six blocks home but I guess it was not far or long enough.

[Dahitman44]

Do you guys think it could be messed up pretty bad?

[Tom7227]

Pull a spark plug. hook the wire back up to it and using an insulated pliers hold the plug up against the engine. Have someone try to start it and see if you get a spark across the plug. No spark = screwed up ignition system.

[pulsar_nx]

Pressure washer + ATV = bad time

Use a garden hose w/ spray nossel and a little elbow grease.

It's not just the engine that you should be worried about. All the electrical connections need special care to avoid also.

[minneman]

Yup, its shot, time for a side by side!

[CaptainMusky]

Major bummer. My dad seems to continually do this to his ATV, Tractor etc. The the price of being meticulous I guess.

You shouldnt have done any internal engine damange just by washing it. You most likely got some electrical connections wet and that is where you need to start. The handlebar area is loaded with connections/switches. You could try using a hair dryer to hopefully dry out areas that may have gotten wet.

If it turns over that rules out battery connection, provided you are getting proper voltage. Even if it turns over doesnt mean that the battery is good, if the voltage/amp draw is too low then it wont start either.

Does it have a pull start? Try that if you do.

Otherwise just concentrate on the keyswitch area and the kill switch area. Those are the likely culprits following that would be the ingition module, which I am not too sure where that would be on your machine, possibly under the seat.

[Dahitman44]

Very funny Teddy -- you just want a ride in a side-by-side

[Dahitman44]

UPDATE -- I kept it in the garage for 16 hours at 75 degrees.

I was able to start it this morning -- It sounded a little sluggish and didn't want to rev up with the choke on but finally did - -I ran it for 10 minutes. Should I start it and let it run again?

[efgh]

I would crank it up and take it for a half hour ride, close to home or just around the yard.

[Dahitman44]

I checked the battery and it was 11.86 volts so I guess I need a new battery first ...

[kerryd15]

Or you could charge it and see if it holds a charge. If something was wet, it could have drained the battery slowly. It would show lower if you have been trying to crank it over a few times.

[spearchucker]

You may have gotten water into the rewind and had it freeze up. You have not done significant damage if it runs.

[Dahitman44]

Yup -- doing a load test on the battery ...