1995 Polaris Magnum 425 4x4 no spark

[lbdrummer3]

The short answer is that spring inside of the red on/off slide switch on the handle bar switch was rusted out and broken.  Below is the more detailed version.

My neighbor gave me this quad that has been sitting outside abandoned on her property for 5+ years.  We're in Casper so it's been getting rained and snowed on all of this time.  I pulled it apart and the plug was not sparking.  There is a great Youtube video that goes over how to test the exciter, stator, and pick up coil and I checked the continuity on all 3 and they were not grounded out.  The last thing he checked was the kill switch and I ended up having the same problem the guy had in the video but he didn't go into how to fix it.  This is how I fix mine.

I took the left handle bar switch off and removed the little plastic and metal covers inside that hold the red on/off button in place. There are 2 wires for that, a black one and a brown one.  I use a volt meter to verify that the wires were not severed between the contact points inside the handle bar switch and the end of wire and all were good.  Then I noticed that the little copper U shaped clip on the red button was sitting at an odd angle and not springy so I took that apart to clean it and see why.  I guess all of the years of sitting outside rusted out that spring and it broke in two.  That was preventing the copper U shaped piece from touching the contact points.  I reassembled and reinstalled the switch and we're sparking good now.  

Hope that may be of help to someone.

Edited April 27, 2023 by lbdrummer3