You are so right , what a mess , a money and time pit , amazing that so many high dollar parts can go bad in so few hours on a bike , 121 hours should be just broken in and not broken down and falling apart ------ the prices of cdi , stator , trigger , speedometer and all the other electrical parts are astonishing on Polaris as compared to Honda , I can say that from experience as riding atv's is our family past time and I have rebuilt and maintain 8 Honda 300's from 1988-2000 in the last 6 years and I have not changed any cdi's , coils , stator on any of them and they all start up with one push of the starter button and get riden hard every weekend ---- another issue I have not mentioned was a mouse nest under the front fender , the mouse ate 6 wires , one wire was 6 inches short or making up and I had to solder in an extension , he really liked that yellow and red wire , from working on heavy equipment I have found that mice and rats must like red and yellow wires and wires that have voltage present as I see a lot of red and yellow wires ate up , so I can say I have been over about every inch of the wiring ------------- really thought about it hard last night and I am thinking of selling this bike as is or breaking it up into parts and selling it off on Craig's List , I have no faith in this bike and don't want to be an hour back in the woods with it and it leaves me stranded ------ I would trade it for a honda 300 4x4 between 1993 and 2000

 

You just happened to inherit someone's problem child that obvious didn't take care of it. Plus let it sit which usually makes things worse. Saw plenty of the same things on Polaris atvs along with some Hondas, Yamahas, and Suzukis over the years that people drug into the shop for me to repair.All depends on how it was taken care of regardless of brand model.Price some Honda and Yamaha parts and you'll see that they are right in line with Polaris .. High $$ on many parts.. As far as mice and rats had my share of them too being that we sold a lot to farmers and ranchers down here.Couldn't tell if they liked one color wire insulation better than another as they weren't particular and usually ate up a bunch when I got into checking things out. From a shops stand point cheaper to purchase a $200 dollar harness than to try to repair many of the wiring messes I found. You probably are smart in parting out something like this out if there is too much wrong with it,not because it was a bad machine. Quite the contrary, the Sportsman 500 is one of the best atvs around as long as it's take care of.Same as any brand it just needs regular maintenance. Plenty of the old 500s still out there with thousands of mile on them still going strong.Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

 

Finally got some numbers: 99 manual specs I got


Exciter coils =red and green 1.6 1.6

=black/red and green 446 302.9

Trigger coil =white and white/red 97 104.1

charge coil = yellow to yellow/red .013 0.0

=yellow to ground infinity 3.9

ignition coil primary .03 .1

secondary 6.3 11.8

spark plug cap don't know spec 5.4

 

Trigger coil and first exciter shows within range. Second exciter black/red to green way below 20% + or - allowance. I've had to change plenty of stators because of this one exciter resistance reading. If you want to invest another $150 they have them here about as cheap as anywhere and is also a reliable place.Plus it's for 98-2001 models. Ricky Stator

 

Thank you, good deal and it is on the way , $150 and I got free shipping , Polaris wanted $463 plus 9% tax , so that would have been $500 and it was back ordered till Aug 8 ------------ from what I seen I feel good about the stator , see damage on it , test bad , weak spark and you feel the same

 

Got the stator in the mail today from Ricky Stator and it looks good -------$150 instead of $500 makes it look even better ------------hope to get it in for this weekends' test ride ------ O.P.T. thanks for all the help

 

put the stator in the bike , which was a nightmare , 5 of the 8 bolts that hold the stator , trigger and wiring bracket and ground , broke off and had to be drill then tapped , get it all together and she cranked right up and ran perfect , better than it ever did for 1/2 mile , it died and won't start , pulled it home ----------- kinda figured this was going to happen , thinking the fresh stator blew something else out or something else thats bad blew out the new stator --------------- I have never had as bad a luck with any bike I ever had than this Polaris

 

Sorry to hear this as the stator was at least part of the problem sounds like.Might recheck the stator area.Plus pull the plug cap off and see if you have spark. If you don't have recheck the coil resistance.If it checks ok,could be a cdi or other electrical problem. Plus I'd do a compression check to see if it's an internal problem such as a piston seizure. Normal range with this exhaust detent cam is around 50-90 psi on average. That is if you still feel like messing with it.

 

I installed the Ricky Stator stator which made it crank right up , and it ran for about 15 minutes total time and maybe a mile or so , it ran great , then it shut down going 20 mph and burrrrrrrr'ed to a stop , doesn't have good fire , very , very light spark , not blue but white and will hit 3 or 4 revolutions in a row and then misses a couple times in a row ----really wish I would have ohm'ed the stator before using it , it doesn't ohm to the specs now ---------------------e-mailed Ricky Stator a week ago and still no response , I really think my problem , again , is in the stator , not sure if something else in the system caused it to burn up , as I said after installing the Ricky Stator stator if fire up with one push of the button and ran great , that tells me the stator was the problem and now it's another problem , that's the way this bike has been

 

While waiting on a reply I'd still check compression as it could be an internal problem along with an electrical problem.