Polaris Sportsman 500 HO won't start.

Grouse,
Any chance you heard a backfire while plowing or going through a lot of snow? possible water went through with your fuel???

Sorry for not seeing this until now Grouse…I would have almost immediately pointed you in the direction of the flywheel/timing or tight/stuck valve after hearing the word “backfire” with clean gas and a new plug…

Hope they get you the key soon. I have a handful of Kawie keys at home, wish they could help!

Randy Wieland wrote:

Grouse,
Any chance you heard a backfire while plowing or going through a lot of snow? possible water went through with your fuel???

It did backfire while I was trying to start it, but I’m not sure if this was the cause or a symptom of the broken crank key?

It has never backfired in normal operation. The last time I had it out of the shed was in January and it fired up and ran just great. I don’t have a plow, I was running around checking my fencelines and trail cams. I brought it back to the shed and shut it off, then came back in mid-Feb and it wouldn’t start.

Gas is non-ox and I filled it back in December sometime. I dipped a sample from the atv tank and there is no water present as far down as I can sample in the tank. I’ve been running my tractor (Deere gasser form the 1960s), chainsaw, and a generator off the same batch of gas (I filled 3 x 5 gallon cans all at the same pump) and everything else runs fine and has done all winter.

So no idea what happened here, but just glad my local mechanic could figure it out.

Merican, I appreciate your help as always. Turns out that even knowing what the issue was would not have changed things much, she still needed to get hauled in to the shop.

Grouse