Project Fire Duck: 2011 Sportsman 500 Rebuild

[bezerk1]

I've always wanted to document a project on a forum. Here is my chance, this is my story. I've been riding quads and bikes for a better part of my life, nearly a quarter century. First bike: Hodaka Dirt Squirt 80. I've spent time on a multitude of quads including Banshee's and Warriors. Next I moved on to bikes including RM's, CR,s, and the downfall of my racing career, a KTM. I've raced hare scrambles for about 8 years. In that time, I've knocked out a few first places, a few trips to the hospital, and a few championships. About 5 years ago an 87 Polaris Cyclone was given to me. I was told in hasn't been started in at least 10 years. It looked more like 20. I fixed (restored)it, and rode it for nearly 6 years. It was by far the most horrible quad I had ever ridden in my life. I was told by a Polaris dealer that it shouldn't be ridden, it should be in a museum. After I sold it, I felt like I needed another quad. That's when I purchased The Fire Duck. Fire Duck came from Geico Insurance at a very reasonable price. I want to document my rebuild. I will be asking many questions, as I expect you to ask many questions. If you have some advice to give, don't be afraid to let me know. Here are the pictures when I received the Fire Duck.

[bezerk1]

As you can see, the body damage is quite extensive. Everything is covered in mud and melted plastic. I do not believe there is one salvageable plastic part on the machine except for the rear compartment. The slide in the carburetor is melted. Every hose and wire needs to be replaced. Despite the damage, the frame, tires, winch, engine, transmission, radiator, and suspension have no damage whatsoever. I wish I knew how the fire started, and what caused it. If I had to take a guess, I would say it was a leaking fuel line. I spend at least an hour cutting the tank apart to get the sending unit out. The right rear tire is flat due to a missing valve stem.

[antoniodef]

Holy sheit! You are going to be building that sucker from the ground up! Hopefully you got one hell of a deal!

When you are done, you will defintely be the master of the current generation Polaris 500!

[jordaman17]

ditto to the above post

[bezerk1]

Here you can see the engine after about an hour of wire brushing. Note in the second picture the burnt wires coming off the pickup. The engine cleaned up real nice for how burnt it was. All seals are intact with no melting. The intake valves had a little surface rust on them as did the plug. I filled the cylinder and intake with ATF and slowly rolled the crank by hand to coat everything. The crank felt smooth through several rotations with no binding or roughness. This is a big win on my part. A new wiring harness and carb are on their way. Polaris makes two different harnesses for the Sportsman 500. Anybody know the difference between them?

[bezerk1]

Here you can see the chassis stripped down. I cut the wiring off the winch. The fan wires were melted, I re soldered new leads onto the fan. The handlebar controls seemed to take the brunt of the damage. My next mission is load the chassis up on a trailer and take it to the car wash for a good cleaning. I don't want all that crap in my driveway. I also have to put a new stem in the right rear tire so I can easily roll the Fire Duck around the barn. There is hardly any heat scarring on the frame rails. this is a good sign. The bars are burnt to a crisp. This machine seen a lot of mud before it burned up. This is going to take a while...

[bezerk1]

Carb for sale. Only 250 miles on it. Slide sticks a little bit. The slide must be made out of some kind of polymer. Nothing is deformed except for the slide. The floats are completely missing, only the needle valve, and its actuator remain. The float bowl drain is gone too.

[Russ C]

what year is it, Id guess from the damage on front of machine that it was one that the ecm malfunctioned , that was what the recall was about, the fan would come on by itself, wiring would get hot and start fire

[bgirard420]

It's a 2011 according to the title of the post. To the OP, good luck with the rebuild it looks like a ton of fun.

[SMP63]

Originally Posted by bezerk1

Polaris makes two different harnesses for the Sportsman 500. Anybody know the difference between them?

One is for the carb models & the other is for the 500 EFI Forest Tractor Intl..
You have one heck of a project bike!!!!!!