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Polaris predator 50 starting problems

23K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  aknawful 
#1 ·
Hi,

Recently bought a 2006 predator second hand. Started fine the first few times but then was struggling to wind the engine over. Thought it was just a bad battery because it would jump start fine off my car battery.
I put the battery in our other Polaris 90 and it worked fine which was a bit weird, so I put the 90's battery in the 50 and had the same problem.
I have seen on the forums that some people have had exactly the same problem but I have not seen a solution. The battery seems to work perfect in another quad. The starter motor does turn over if it is removed from the quad. I tested the starter with it connected to the solenoid so I believe the solenoid and starter are both working. Sometimes the engine will turn over but sometimes you just hear the clicking noise from the solenoid and it won't turn over.
If you hook it up to a car battery, that battery has enough grunt to wind the motor over fine, but I can't put a car battery in a predator 50.
The engine is not ceased as I have removed the plug and it turns over just fine manually. I have removed the gear case cove to expose the starter clutch and gears but cannot see any obvious problems. I am a bit wary about trying to remove the starter clutch as I believe I would need a clutch puller that I don't have, nor any expertise with clutches.
Could the problem be the starter motor, whilst seeming to run ok on the bench, being a bit dodgy under load and unable to turn over the engine? Is there anything within the starter gears that may be sticking?
Again, I have tried 2 different batteries, which both start a 90 with no problems.
Thanks for any suggestions
Chris
 
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#3 ·
Classic corroded battery cables. No one ever looks at these or replace them. They get fouled up and don't allow the proper voltage to flow to the starter. When you hook up the car battery it has more cranking amps,so it'll start like nothing is wrong. Wanna bet on it??? LOL!!!
 
#4 ·
I have a polaris 90 04 & 06 and both of them were doing the same thing. They both run great but were having trouble starting with the switch, They both started right up with the kick start, so this is what I did to one and then was abble to fix the 2nd one. I installed a new batery, starter and checked the silinoid and all was fiine but the bike still wouldn't start with he switch. It just clicked and turned the engine real slow. I had found another website that said the problem was in the crank case, so I removed the kick start and the black plastic cover on the left side of the bike opened up the crank case to see the starter pully and the clutch assembly. They say you need to use a pully wrench to remove the bolt on the starter wheel but I just used an oil filter wrench and was able to hold the pully and remove the bolt. It fit perfect, The problem was all the dust build up and the dust from the starter belt had stuck to the gears and between the pullies causing the started to not turn the engine over. I removed all the pullies and gears and a few small barrings cleaned off all the gunk. I turned on the electric started with all the gears removed and the starter spun freely, so I new the battery,starter and the silinoid were good. I put eveything back together but left the cover off and tryed to start it again, it turned more freely but was still slow. I jumped it with a battery charger and the pully twords the back was dirty also, but with the tention spring I didn't want to remove it and not be able to re install it. I sprayed carb cleaner on the spring and between the pullies. blew compressed air in there and sprayed WD-40 to loosen up the pullies. After that the bike started right up with out any issues.
 
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