Polaris Sportsman 500 Electrical Problems

[derekhonda]

Hey guys,
A good friend of mine whom i owe a lot of favors cause i always ride on his land called me up today to say his sportsman just drained its 3rd battery in about 6 months. The first battery was old, like the original battery so that doesn't surprise me, i think its a 2002 model. Anyways, he put a new one on in winter, it drained out after about 2 months. Put a new one on in March, it drained out 2 weeks ago.

Anyways, he said as the battery was going out in winter, both times while the quad was running, it didn't even have enough power to raise and lower his plow.

Also, as a third note, he has some sort of a power jack the a sprayer plugs into.

Anyways, I guess what I am asking, is how can i tell what is drawing a charge? That...or is there some sort of a recharging system on his quad that probably went out and that is why the battery just drains and wont charge back up? How would I go about testing this?

Thanks for reading, I've never had an electrical problem on my 400ex, so I am really not good with this stuff but I figured I'd give it a try to help him out. Thanks!

[wilkin250r]

It's very difficult to diagnose without a repair manual.

It might be the stator. It's the equivalent of the "alternator" on your car, it produces electricity to run the lights, accessories, and recharge the battery. But without the wiring diagram, I can't tell you which wires to test, or what the results should be.

And the only way you can tell what is drawing the charge, is to hook up a meter to it while it's running.



I'll be honest, electrical problems are very difficult to diagnose from far away. I might be able to help you, I might not. But the first step is a repair manual.

[derekhonda]

Hey Wilkin,
I found this online...sounds like a similar problem. Guy links an repair manual, but it looks like it is a magnum 500 and not a sportsman 500. Is there going to be any difference in the wiring diagram?

http://forums.atvrideronline.com/70/6622132/polaris-atv/my-2000-sportsman-500-will-only-pull-start/index.html

http://pi54.com/corp/manuals/Owners/9915473r03.pdf

[derekhonda]

Well, i just filled the battery (only 3/4 full) and charged it overnight, started right up. Time will tell if it was just a low battery or something else.

Oh yeah...for the something else...while i was washing it up for him, he has a cigarette lighter thing hooked up for a portable spotlight, and a switch hooked up to it that was in the on position. I'm hoping thats all it was, and I can't believe he didn't realize it...but who knows if thats the fix.

[Slick Willys]

If you have an multimeter you can do alot on a machine like that. The manual is good for givin you specs but alot of times its just knowing how the charging system works. You can hook the ampmeter In between the battery and the battery terminal with the machine off and that will tell you if you have a draw. If not The most common thing I see is the Regulator Rectifiers go bad, Dont jump to any conclusions just yet though. First thing first, Was this a properly preped battery or was it a autozoner battery they just filled and sent you on your way with. Battery Prep is extremely crucial. Make sure all your conections are good. Check to see if you have good battery juice to the reg/rect if so you need to make sure you have good stator output, which will be the two/three yellow wires going into the Reg/rect. You should have somthing like 35 A/C volts at each leg at around 3k RPM (confirm that with the manual) This should be a good start, Polaris manuals are very imformative on wiring procedures and probably better at wording it than myself but hopfully this helps.