well, my dad hasnt even used his 1997 Polaris Indy 500 snowmobile in 2 years ( its only got 1500 miles on it in 5/6 years )

so i bought it from him. $ 2,000 and i dont pay til august.
its been a good sled but it hasnt moved in 2 years like i said, the skis were locked up and barely turnable, i had the carbs cleaned.

i greased up the skis and they move freely now. beat up the yard quite a bit and let it run alot, NO PROBLEMS. immediate throttle response, never bogged down.

my luck, the first time i got to go riding, me and my buddies went out to a place nearby my house.

the sled ran great, at first. it would either not rev up at all, or stall, or it would rev up to 5,000 RPMS and not take off. so i thought the clutch was bad. well, it is supposed to take off at 3500-4000 RPMs.

so i pulled the plugs, not too bad, put them back in a went perfect. then the problem started again. put in different plugs, went just fine. THEN AGAIN. i gave up. babied the sled back to the truck, took it to a dealer. i think the carbs are overloading the motor, and fouling up the plugs. since im a good customer there, they are going to get the sled up and running, at only the cost of parts. anyone else experience this? i dont know much about snowmobiles, im a die hard 4wheeler lover.

 

Try out this site they were able to answer any questions I've had about sleds.

http://www.snowmobilefanatics.com/po...an/default.asp

 

What kind of snow were you in? Deep powder?
Make sure the hood to airbox foam seal is in place and dosent have any holes in it. Otherwise you could be sucking snow straight into the carbs.
Did you check to make sure both cylinders are firing? Plugs dry or wet?? wet plugs =ignition problems (rare) Dry plugs = fuel problems(not rare)
Another item to look at is the fuel . If the machine has been sitting, chanced are that the tank has water ir dirt in it and it and after you put a few miles on it sucked up into the filter or a main jet and is starving for fuel. Polaris machines love lots of isopropyl gas de-icer ,I have found. (don't buy it at the dealer, get 99% pure rubbing alcohol at the supermarket or drug store!)

 

Were you at much of an elevation difference between your house and your riding area? You may need to adjust the jets on your carbs for a higher elevation, sounds like you may be running too rich and overloading the carbs.

Longneck

 

Was the primary(drive) clutch engaging the belt? Did you smell the belt burning? It sounds to me like your problem is in the clutches/drivetrain. If the sled loads up and engages the belt but can't move, it'll definately cause the engine to foul plugs.

When it revved up to 5000 rpm, was the drive clutch engaging the belt? If not, that's a pretty good sign the problem is in the primary. Either the clutch weights or the spring.

Start with the basics. What shape is the belt in? Is it still flexible? Is it glazed? Any uneven wear? Cords showing?

Have you taken the clutches off and cleaned them? Best bet is just ot take them apart and blow them out with compressed air. DON'T USE SOLVENTS/SOAP, they'll leave a residue drastically affect clutch performance. While apart, check for binding in the primary. Are the weights all wearing evenly even and easy to move? Can you move them side to side? Check the spring, this could definately be your problem, for the $20 they're worth, get a new one. The secondary is more straight forward, just clean it, check for obvious binding and put it back together.

Check the brakes for proper operation and to see if the rotor may be warped. (Dare I say check to see if the emergency brake is on, I've seen it happen)

Check the chaincase, this should be done anyway. Drain the oil, pop the cover off and inspect the chain and gears for wear. Tension the chain properly, put it back together, and add fresh oil.

Only other source of binding would be the track itself. It wouldn't hurt to make sure its properly aligned and there are no signs of damage.

Short of this, you'll have to take the carbs off and go through them carefully to make sure everyting is clean and put together properly.

Get yourself a manual, they're cheap and available at a lot of parts stores or your local dealer.

Does a 97 Indy 500 have reed valves? A bad reed is the only other thing really jumping out at me?

Good luck, let me know if I can help anymore.

Waxy

 

i was with 5 other guys, we couldnt see any problems with the belt, the tension and condition of it was fine, when i was revving it up and it wasnt going anywhere ( keep in mind it took forever to rev up and was bogging the whole way ) the belt would start to turn but not as fast as it should have. i think its definantly a carb problem, or at least a Spark problem. everytime id pulled the plugs theyd have extra gas or oil all over them, id put in different plugs and the sled took off and ran perfect, for a few miles, then id have to do it all over again. its in the shop right now, they are going to clean/rebuild the carbs. the elevation of where i was riding was the same as home, it was sort of warm out, 32 degrees F , the snow was pretty heavy and wet. i was the only one having problems, i was the only one who hasnt rode yet this year.

 

OK, my fault, I thought from your first post that it would run fine and then bog down when you went to drive off.

Quote:

i think its definantly a carb problem, or at least a Spark problem. everytime id pulled the plugs theyd have extra gas or oil all over them, id put in different plugs and the sled took off and ran perfect, for a few miles, then id have to do it all over again.

Sounds like it might be a float out of adjusment or a sticking needle/seat that's causing a rich condition. Was it both cylinders or just one? If it was BOTH CYLINDERS, this isn't as likely, but the weather you described might have been.

Quote:

it was sort of warm out, 32 degrees F , the snow was pretty heavy and wet.

This in and of itself is could definately be the problem, the warm weather will cause the sled to run rich, rich enough to foul plugs if it was originally jetted for cold weather. Simply going to smaller main jets might have solved your problem, especially if it was running well earlier when temperatures were lower.

If the carbs don't solve it, and I think they should, another possibilty is a bad CDI or coil, they will work fine when cold but start to work intermittently or not at all once they warm up. I've seen this too.

I'm sure the shop will have you up and running before the weekend.

Good luck,

Waxy

 

I have two Polaris Indys that have 500's in them; one is a '87 SKS and the other is a '86 Short Track. I have had the '87 for over 10 years now, and I purchasesd the '86 about 2 years ago from my dad. One of the reasons why I purchaced the the '86 was so I could diagnose a taking-off problem I was plagued with on the '87 for several years. When taking off from as start, it would just and go "Blaaaaaaaaaa" for several seconds until it finall cleared itself and start moving; then it would run fine until I stopped again. Sometimes I had to get-off and push while milking the throttle just to get going. Trying to start the engine after sitting for a few minutes was also a problem. I swaped entire carbs and ignition parts (even the electronic parts behind the flywheel) from the '86 but nothing cured the problem. Finally it turned out to be a torn diaphram in the fuel pump. The tear was allowing raw fuel to be sucked directly into the engine through the pulse line causing an overly rich/flooding condition. Cheap fix--pump repar kit was about $10.

Last year after riding for about 10 minutes, my '87 gradually lost power until I could no longer move. It would idle fine, and sometimes get enough power to engage the clutch, but never get much further than about 50 feet. It seemed like the longer I let it sit and cool, the farther run I would get after I would start it, but still it never ran for much longer than a minute until the power again dropped-off to a boggy idle. I checked the spark, and it was weak and inconsistant. It was early in the day, I was less than 5 miles from the trailer, and I had a buddy who was riding my '86; so I figured I might as well start swapping parts to determine the cause while I had snow to test. Luckily, the problem just happened to be in the first (and easiest) part to swap--the CDI unit with plug wires.

Instead of re-installing the faulty CDI back to the '87, I installed it in the '86, and it acted exactly like the '87 had; thus proving once and for all it was a weak CDI. I did a little more experimenting that day and found that after closing the plug gap on the weak ignition to about .005- .010 in (less than half of normal), it would run much better. It seemed a little sluggish, and the plugs fouled about three times that day on it, but we still had a good rest of the day. Just something you might want to try in an emergency.

I purchased a new CDI, but not much snow this year, haven't gone riding to test it yet. It is an aftermarket unit that cost about $70. Not cheap, but still much less than what Polaris wants for an OEM CDI--something like $250. I was originally going to buy two new CDI units and keep the good used one as a spare, but I would go broke at that price.

 

LIKE M FORDS-- thanks for your post- in the first 10 lines of yours how you described what your sled was doing, was exactly what mine did on monday.

i am supposed to get it back wednesday or thursday so ill inform everyone what the problem was/is

thanks everyone

 

Besides spark plugs, I can't think of an easier & cheaper part to fix than the fuel pump. Who would have thought that a faulty fuel pump could deliver too much gas instead not enough like we would assume in other vehicles. I wish it was the first item I had checked instead of the last. I swear, the next step on my list was to tear the entire engine down if the pump repair did not help.

Keep us posted on what you find.

 

When my '94 XLT was new, I blew a piston the first time i opened it up on the lake.
It had problems cutting out on top end for . I was to the point where i was demanding my money back. they screwed with everything on that sled with no success. Finally they checked the fuel pump, and sure enough..it was faulty from day one.
I still have that machine and its been trouble -free ever since. That dealer has long since folded though..