04 sportsman issue

[fowldreams]

Just picked up a 04 sportsman 500 ho. Ran great after unloading once I got home. A mile later goes into like a limp mode. Give it gas and it just spits and sputters. Will start and idle fine. In neutral it will Rev to 5200 rpms. Put in high or low and go to take off and just spits and won't go over 15 mph. Any help is much appreciated.  Thanks

[Macgyver55]

 Have you tried pushing the reverse override button when it happens to see if it is somehow  related to that?

[huntercj]

If the carb is clean and its  got good fuel I would bet camshaft is bad. I have had camshaft go bad on my last sportsman 500 in 800 miles acted the same way as your 500. I also have changed a few camshafts for friends.  Not a hard job

[fowldreams]

When I put it in reverse and hit the over ride. It does work fine. Its when in low or high to go forward that it acts up immediately.  

[rundrave]

is this a carb or efi model 500?

if you hold the override button while going fwd does anything change?

[fowldreams]

It is a carb model. What would the over ride button being pressed going forward do? Thanks for the input guys. I have a few things I can check into tonight.

Edited February 29, 2016 by fowldreams

[rundrave]

the other thing I just thought of is I think there was a recall for that year on the ECM or something. I dont recall but you could try giving your vin to polaris dealer and check that to see if it has been done

sometimes its a faulty switch with the override button. you could try disconnecting it and clean the connections and see if that help otherwise sometimes the button gets sticky etc. and it can act up.

otherwise since you say it only does it under load then its harder to narrow it down. it could be as simple as bad/contaminated gas. since you just bought it was it sitting unused for a while or no stabilizer in the gas?

the other things I would check is the following:

- air filter does it have an outer wear or need to be cleaned? try running it with out it or even with the air box lid off

- did you ride it with any big temp changes or get from someone at a different elevation did they change main jet or anything else in the carb? something could be causing to to run rich on the top end? what color is the spark plug?

.

 

 

[Dave S]

I know he said this is a carbed model and not sure that this would apply on this machine but....

my brother in law has a 550 EFI Sportsman that was acting the same. I believe his was a throttle position/speed sensor that caused the issue. I'm not sure that a carbed model would do this. Just thought I would add to the list. Macgyver or rundrave would know more about this possibility.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Dave S

[rundrave]

What Dave is referring to you can check by adjusting the throttle cable, you can also take off the cover on the throttle assembly on the handle bars. there is a ETC (electronic throttle control) that has 2 metal contacts, when they touch it causes the machine to die, these are adjusted buy adjusting the throttle cable just past the throttle housing.

[fowldreams]

Thanks for all the input guys. I brought it back to the guy I bought it from and he looked it over for a couple days. Come to find out he found that there is a foam pad under the gas tank and between air intake tube to the air box. He said when he was cleaning it up before I picked it up that when he put the seat back on it must have pushed that foam pad further forward than normal blocking the air intake. So it was starving itself out when I was trying to go. I really hope it was something stupid like this and nothing major. Seems to be working fine now. Time will tell. Thanks again

[CigarGuy]

Over the winter, I had my 05 Sportsmans oil tank blow up.  I was warming it up in the garage and was outside shoveling getting ready to plow with it and hear KaBoom!.  Oil and plastic scattered all over my garage floor.  Best I could figure out is that the intake tube got plugged somehow with ice.  I disconnected the hose from the air box and when I start it now, I lift the seat and check to make sure of air flow. I researched it and found out it's not all that uncommon.    

[rundrave]

with those carbs you have to maintain a certain amount of vacuum for it to operate right.Thus making it necessary to run an airbox lid as It takes resistance on the filter side of the carb to pull the slide up, not sure EXACTLY how it works but from what I can gather it has to do with velocity through the carb that pulls the vacuum to operate the slide.

These carbs are very sensative to airbox changes even just a small crack in the carb boot or not having the lid on or dirty outer wear can make them run rough

glad to hear you got it figure out and it was something simple