Hard Starting Polaris

I understand I may be a bit out of line but all I wanted was some good tips on where to start wich he gave me and I appreciate that as I have already said a few times. and let me ask you something if I wanted to learn how to do this stuff WHY?...would I take it to a dealer?.... I work on all my own stuff I may not be the best at knowing where to start with the sleds all the time but I have never not been able to figure it out and just GAVE up! experience is valuable the same way he learned is the same way I wanna learn I just needed someone to point me in the right direction (clutch or carbs?) wiich he has done. if any of you knew me I can pretty much figure anything mechanically out. and when he sits there and tells me If I dont have enough money to fix it,SELL IT! -that was out of line. Im young and I have done a pretty good job figuring things out in my life since I was 16, I own my own house a new car a newer truck I have 3 sleds 2 racecars(other hobby) a wife and 2 kids and Im 21, so I dont need someone giving me a lecture but the help was great! end of conversation on this crap I dont get on here to argue Im on here to see and read about other people's rides and give advice where I can. Hope everyone has a great season of riding!
 

6mile

Member
I have a friend that that had a 97 XLT SP and it was the same way. After the first season he had that machine, we discovered what XLT SP really means. Xtra Large Toilet Start Pulling.

You have to do yearly maintenance on the carbs to get them to start easy and this also includes a proper Sync. After setting up the carbs properly it was no harder to start than any other carbed sled. The only problem is that it has to be done every year.

He finally switched to an EFI sled after a three seasons and has never looked back, I am glad, as I do not have to help him start that POS any more.
 

snoeatr

Member
well, I was just out in the barn and it seems like an 1/8th" drill bit fits pretty good I found one of the three the bit was a little looser on, I adjusted it down it started right up, and idled fine, so I took it around the yard, and its REALLY doggy on bottom end, doesent take off till probably 15 mph and its just barely running until then?!!.... any I dea's on what this might be?...I think Im gonna buy some new needles and seats anyway, I took the three bolts out in the bottom of the case and there was a little bit that came out so those OBVIOUSLY are NOT sealing. time for some more money!

With that said it sounds like a one or more of the chokes is hanging up. There could be crud in the bore where the plungers move up and down or a cable hanging up. This happens a lot. Sounds like the needle and seats also need replacing as some of the previous posts recommend. If the sled fires right up when cold, but then starts to run bad as it warms up, then I would bet a choke issue. I had a triple that had this problem all the time and just had it happen last season to my wife's 500.
 
Hello:
I think you are a bit out of line talking to him like that. He was only trying to help, but you seem to be quite angry with your lack of success in fixing the problem and he's frustrated reading it. The advice he gives is quite good. Personally, I think you are nuts with no experience trying to set and sync these triple carbs and chokes. Take the darn thing to a dealer if you care about the sled and have it done right. Get to know a dealer so you can trust the work they do. If you can't afford to have the dealer do it, let the sled sit until you can, and don't bother with it.

Fusion,

Thanks for backing me up. Glad I'm not the only one on here that gets a little aggravated by the continuous flow of "bellyaching" from guys that are too immature to accept a little constructive criticism along with a ton of invaluable "free" technical advice.

My prior responses were not geared to be solely for him alone, but meant to be information geared towards everyone on here that expects other people to "solve" all of their sled's issues via the internet.
I think perhaps what I was saying was taken a little too personally by Polariscatgrabber11. I realize that I can be a little harsh with words, but that's just the way I am. For that, I apologize.

I guess what I was implying was that there are many folks out there that expect other people should "solve" all their probems for free. They're unwilling to pay for the knowledge, skills, and wisdom that others (such as a dealership/repair shop, etc) can provide them.
Look, that's called "freeloading", and nobody likes to deal with freeloaders.

Unfortunately, nothing's "free" in this world, that's life. We all have bills to pay.

About Polariscatgrabber11's comments about having a wife & kids, owning cars, trucks, a house, etc... blah, blah, blah. Yeah, so what? I also own a LOT of vehicles, I too have a job, I too have a lot of other responsibilities and then some.
What does that have to do with anything that we were discussing?
Absolutley nothing.

Perhaps, he was just trying to impress us? What he doesn't realize is that he's only impressing himself, in an attempt to make up for the fact that he has no idea how to fix his sled.
After all, he started this thread in the first place, searching for free advice and information, looking for other people to do all the "thinking and diagnosing" for him, since he is unable to do it himself.
That's fine I guess, because there are lots of guys out there (like myself) that enjoy helping out others when they can. But as the saying goes... "Hey, don't bite the hand that feeds ya!"

I guess one of the final points that I was trying to make in my earlier response was that for a small sum of money, I was willing to go the extra mile to help this kid out.
I was willing to copy a whole bunch of very pertinent MODEL SPECIFIC INFORMATION (that he really, really needs to fix his sled correctly) out of my OEM Service Manual and send it to him.
Oh well, guess it's his loss.

Anyhow, perhaps the information that I posted will be useful to other people that read it, and they will not be so ungrateful nor nasty with their responses.
 
I have a friend that that had a 97 XLT SP and it was the same way. After the first season he had that machine, we discovered what XLT SP really means. Xtra Large Toilet Start Pulling.

You have to do yearly maintenance on the carbs to get them to start easy and this also includes a proper Sync. After setting up the carbs properly it was no harder to start than any other carbed sled. The only problem is that it has to be done every year.

He finally switched to an EFI sled after a three seasons and has never looked back, I am glad, as I do not have to help him start that POS any more.


6mile,

LOL - that's funny. My family and I have collectively all owned a dozen (or more) Polaris triples over the years. We currently still have (3) XLT's and (1) XCR left in our "fleet" of toys. All of them start within 3 to 4 pulls when cold, and 1 or 2 pulls at the most when warm. Heck, I have the XCR dialed in so good that it starts with 1/2 of a pull when warm!

All you have to do is set the carbs up PROPERLY once, and you won't have any problems year after year. Sounds to me like you boys never got 'em working quite right in the first place.

Furthermore, putting some fuel stabilizer in your sled before putting it away for the summer months is perfectly adequate for summer storage. Flip the choke up and start up your sled a handful of times over the summer for good measure. Come winter time, the sled will fire right up, just as good as any other sled. There's absolutely no need to be tearing into the carbs every year, unless something has been done incorrectly.

For starters, did you ever make sure the chokes were working properly and adjusted correctly on his sled? Did you ever replace all 3 of the needles and seats in the carbs with the updated "viton" tipped needles, that were needed to make those sleds start and run correctly?

Slam on the triples all you want, they were and still are, great sleds.

BTW, I know plenty of people that have had a heckuva lot more problems with EFI sleds than the carbureted ones. And with EFI comes a lot higher repair bills too!
 

6mile

Member
STD, (I like that acronym) LOL

The last year or two this guy had it I was able to get it to start pretty easy. 3 Pulls max, if one was paying attention to the machine. My buddy that owned the sled some times would go brain dead and do thing like leave the choke on for to many pulls, etc. finally he got frustrated with it and traded it in on a 800ZR EFI.

I am not saying that it was a bad sled, just not the right sled for this guy. I would rather not go into what the dealer did to this machine the first time it was brought in for carb adjustment/repair. Let's just say that there are not supposed to be extra parts when you put carbs back together.
 

snow_monkey

New member
I had the same sled and this was a common problem. There were claims such as the needle and seat, others told me many people with these units turn off the fuel seems to help.
 
I had the same sled and this was a common problem. There were claims such as the needle and seat, others told me many people with these units turn off the fuel seems to help.

snow_monkey...
Go read this thread from the beginning. I did my best to explain the issue pretty good.

Bottom line is this... turning off the gas was a "patch-fix" for not replacing the needles and seats. The problem was that Polaris (Mikuni, actually) had a run of defective needles and seats in MANY of the Polaris triples, and were apparently particularly a problem in 1996 -1997 year models, however the problem really was more widespread than just those years alone.

The needles would let the fuel "bleed" into the cylinders, thereby flooding the cylinder and causing hard starting problems. On sleds that sat a long time, with the "gas left on", it was not uncommon for the fuel tank to slowly empty itself into the engine's crankcase, thereby causing even more problems.

I have acutally seen first hand some sleds that acutally "hydro-locked" with too much raw liquid fuel pooling up in the cylinders. I've also watched guys literally "blow" the crankcase seals right out of their sleds from cranking and cranking until the fuel in the crankcase accidentally ignited from a backfire. Yeah crazy, but true.

At any rate, replacing the needles and seats with the "viton" rubber tipped needles entirely cured the problem. Many guys out of habit still shut their gas off anyhow. With the theory, "you can never be too careful". Can't say I blame them. I don't bother, I'm confident in the repairs that I made years ago in all of our triples (still have 4 of them), and our sleds have all been fine since.

;-)
 
STD, (I like that acronym) LOL

The last year or two this guy had it I was able to get it to start pretty easy. 3 Pulls max, if one was paying attention to the machine. My buddy that owned the sled some times would go brain dead and do thing like leave the choke on for to many pulls, etc. finally he got frustrated with it and traded it in on a 800ZR EFI.

I am not saying that it was a bad sled, just not the right sled for this guy. I would rather not go into what the dealer did to this machine the first time it was brought in for carb adjustment/repair. Let's just say that there are not supposed to be extra parts when you put carbs back together.


LOL, yeah the acronym was a "side-bonus". I actually didn't even realize it until well after I started using that screen name regularly. LOL

It's funny how we forget to start our sleds sometimes after a few drinks of "liquid-courage". Been there. LOL

I found that if my sled didn't start by the 4th pull, I probably had it flooded. Sometimes you could get away with just shutting the choke off, and holding the throttle wide open, and pulling your arm off.

But most of the time, once flooded, the tedious task of pulling the plugs out, pulling the sled over with the throttle wide open to dry her back out was a necessity. Then, sticking the plugs back in and starting the "correct" starting procedure over always seemed to do the trick. (On more rare occassions, I had to actually put in a new plug or 2.)

The key was to always start the sled like it was warm, FIRST. No choke.

If it didn't start after 3 or 4 pulls, then you gave it full choke, NO throttle.

Pull a few times, and she'd fire right off.

Leave the choke on for 3 to 15 seconds. Still, NOT touching the throttle.

Then, hit the throttle down to 1/2 choke and then continue to let her idle. Sometimes a little blip of the throttle, sometimes not.

Triples took a little time to build heat and fire well. Too many people are impatient and liked to just get on 'em and hammer on them. Caused many a "cold-siezure" or blown piston from pushing it too hard, too soon.

I think a lot of the starting problems that occur with sleds happen due to the fact that we are all so "brain-dead" from starting our fuel-injected automobiles on a daily basis, we forget how carburation works.

Oh well, live and learn I guess!
 

snow_monkey

New member
I hear ya. The previous owner on my triple had the needle and seats changed a number of times and finally gave up. He told me when I purchased it they were working on a fix for the problem and thats right on it was a 97.
 
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