Indy has a problem with his Indy

indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
FInally got my 99 indy 500 back together-again. i got the new driveshaft bearing on and before i tore it apart to put the bearing on, i had some bogging issues. with around 6500 miles i put on new spark plug boots. then at around 8000, it was running boggy and on 1. so i looked and the boots were eating the spark plug tips, the spark plug tips would get all wore out. so i replaced the boots again. o ya, and i had to put a new bolt on my cdi since one of them fell off. so after these new boots and new plugs, i can get it to run. i can get it up to speed and it feels like it's running on both but when i let off the gas, it gets boggy again but still is running on both cylinders. then all of a sudden when i let it idle, it runs on 1 and the rpm's decrease and then the sled shuts off.

any help would be appreciated. the carbs were cleaned and synchronized this fall. and both plugs are cocoa brown. i've put quite a few sets of plugs in it to see if it makes a difference.


could i have bad carb boots? they were all cracking. i took of the airbox to change the driveshaft bearing and jackshaft bearing so could i have tugged on the boots too much and put a good rip in them and that could be causing this? it kind of feels like bad intake.
 
Last edited:
D

dab102999

New member
If u are suspecting carb boots get it running and even if you gotta have some help keep it running at a constant slow speed and spray those boots with WD-40. Motor should change speed if they are leakin. Could try some either too but be carefull with that stuff and only spray a little bit, if they leak motor will rev big time and fast. I would think that if it was boots they plugs would be showing it though. Post a pic of those plugs if u can just to see. Did u check your plug wires?? Again though I don't think it is that.

As far as the carbs, well I got a buddy with an 98 V MAX 700 tripple. It ain't never run good, it was a freinds that got left at his house so was always a spair. He had it at a shop 3 different times over 3 different years and still would never run good. Always fould out the center plug. This year I offered to help him look it over to get it running so his boy could ride it and all I did was clean the carbs and it runs like a champ now, so point is still may be carb problems. Check that fuel filter also. look down in that tank real good with a flashlight also.
 
J

jimfsr

New member
Another thing to check. The fuel pump pulse line feeds off the mag side case. If the diaphram has a hole or tear, it can feed fuel into that side case (and cyl). At high speeds it will hande the extra fuel, but at idle, it's way too much. If that plug seems wet or that cyl drops consistently, that could be a potential problem. I would doubt a cracked boot, as that would lean it out with the added air, but its worth a check.
You have a real good grip on the mechanics of your sled for a person of your age, I hope you continue to learn and experiment, there will be a real shortage of techs in the next few years. They just don't push tech skills in schools anymore, its all academics and not much skills training. There is real potential for your future, maybe not a lot of money to be made, but the satisfaction of a job well done and doing something you love is a lot more rewarding than just money.
 
O

obob

Member
Unplug the Temp Sender and jumper the plug, Try it.
Normally on Polaris a bad temp sender will cause a low end bog. your situation sounds a bit more complex, but worth a try.
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
obob said:
Unplug the Temp Sender and jumper the plug, Try it.
Normally on Polaris a bad temp sender will cause a low end bog. your situation sounds a bit more complex, but worth a try.
Click to expand...
temp sender and jumper the plug? i'm confused.
 
T

tyeeman

New member
As said before, check your carb boots. After that, I wonder if you don't have a crank seal going out. A couple times that I've had crank seals go on older sleds the sled would fire up and run like a champ, then it would just bog out and die. Sometimes it would idle but that's about it. I could restart it and run it with the choke partially on and then finally it just quit all together. Those were older cats but a 2 stroke is a 2 stroke.

When your sled bogs and runs on one cylinder what happens when you give it a little choke? Run better? Run worse? If the one cylinder comes back and starts firing I'd bet on a crank seal.

The other thing I've had happen is that the coil pack got hot and the plastic melted just enough for it to ark to the block and short out. Started great when cold, then a few minutes later the coil would heat up and I lost the cylinder. Replaced the coil, fixed the problem. I looked and looked and looked and finally the light was just right and I could see the spark. Again, that was a Cat but any coil could act up that way.
 
T

tyeeman

New member
99.9% sure you don't have a temp sender. Even if you had a temp gage the temp sender would have no bearing on weather a cylinder fired or not.
I wouldn't worry about that one.
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
tyeeman said:
As said before, check your carb boots. After that, I wonder if you don't have a crank seal going out. A couple times that I've had crank seals go on older sleds the sled would fire up and run like a champ, then it would just bog out and die. Sometimes it would idle but that's about it. I could restart it and run it with the choke partially on and then finally it just quit all together. Those were older cats but a 2 stroke is a 2 stroke.

When your sled bogs and runs on one cylinder what happens when you give it a little choke? Run better? Run worse? If the one cylinder comes back and starts firing I'd bet on a crank seal.

The other thing I've had happen is that the coil pack got hot and the plastic melted just enough for it to ark to the block and short out. Started great when cold, then a few minutes later the coil would heat up and I lost the cylinder. Replaced the coil, fixed the problem. I looked and looked and looked and finally the light was just right and I could see the spark. Again, that was a Cat but any coil could act up that way.
Click to expand...
if i remember right yesterday, it ran better when i gave it choke? i'm not positive on that though. i was thinking carb boots since i was tugging on them getting the air box on and off. and they alreadly have little cracks all over them. but the plugs i checked were fine but i threw another set in it and it did the same thing and i never checked those. the sled has been doing this since it was tipped on it's side for a very long time, i had to put a new mounting plate on the inside of the tunnel for the bolt hole and i had it on it's side for a while and ever since it hasn't run right. carb problem from being tipped? i did turn the gas off before i tipped it. i smelt a ton of gas when i tipped it over but i didn't see any gas leaking anywhere
 
T

tyeeman

New member
I wouldn't think haveing the sled on it's side would affect the carbs. Question: when the sled drops a cylinder and dies, when you restart it does it run on two cylinders? If not pull the plugs right away and with a small squirt bottle drop a little gas down the spark plug hole, replace the plugs and wires and giver her a rip. See if it starts on two cylinders. If it does you might be looking at some carb work. As dab102999 said, get the sled running, spray some carb cleaner around the boots, maybe even wiggle the carb while spraying carb cleaner so if there is a sepparation in the boot you will open it up by moving the carb side to side, up and down etc. If the idle is not affected AT ALL by spraying the boots, then spray the crank seal down by the clutch, if it is sucking air you will see a change in idle speed. Unfortunately you can't check the mag side crank seal for the obviouse reason that the flywheel/fan is there.
If you don't get any results spraying the boots and crank seal, I would dive back into the carbs again. Find some really small wire like .010"-.020" diameter it works really well to run through the small ports in carbs to get the junk out. With the bowl off hold the carb vertically like it sits on the sled and move the float up and down, make sure that the needle is in fact openning with the float.
Make sure your carbs are adjusted identically, needle setting, air bleed and barrel slide, everything, and synchronized.
Alot of times if the fuel pump is at fault the sled will idle but you wont have any top end or maybe not even any midrange, it'll die out right off of idle.
 
X

xcr440

Well-known member
Not that tipping it would have affected anything, unless there were some little chunks in the bottom of the bowl that you may have dislodged and they got sucked up into the jet, clogging it just enough to get what you experience. OR most likely, there was some crap in the water hoses at the bottom of the carb, that when leaned over, became free and went up into the bowl again. Just a possibility.

Try that choke again while its running, and if it runs better, its getting more fuel, and I would then look at cleaning those jets.

.02
 
D

dab102999

New member
Ohhhhh, now the story thickens. Since it was on it's side, even thought the gas was off gravity does strange things and you may have got some fuel leaking by and getting in the case. You might just have to much fuel in the case. I would say be worried about it but since you have had it running already there must not be enought to hydraulic the piston so check those carb boots and crank seal and if that don't seem to be the problem do what you need to do (choke it, run it a little higher on the idle on a stand or whatever) to keep it running and get that motor burned out incase there in some fuel in the case and then see if it comes around for ya. If it ran good before it still should run good for ya. Make sure nothing came unplugged on ya also.
 
X

xcr440

Well-known member
I would think if it fired up, that it would clean itself out, the case that is. At least on the ones I've had fill up, it will fire once, and that's it! Flooded.

I guess at this point, pull those drain plugs on the front of the block to be sure (pull it over a few times), pull the carb water hoses off the bottom, let it ALL drain out, and start fresh. If once you get it running again, its still doing it, then you probably have something in the jets. Clean them then.
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
polarisrider1 said:
By the way Indy, Did you ever recieve the stickers I sent? I am starting you a new pile.
Click to expand...

yup, did you look at the pics? i thought you would've saw them, if not go to off topic ramblings and go to "stickers for indy 500" there's like 10 of them
 
indy_500

indy_500

Well-known member
well i took it to Ray's cycle, they didn't tear it apart yet but they thought it was the crank seal. i tore apart the carbs this morning and cleaned them and that didn't help. it had perfect spark and the plugs looked to be fine.


and oh yeah, i witnessed a sled with over 51,000 miles on it. did i tell you it was a polaris? hehe
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top