1995 EXT Powder Special - No Spark - Again!

[vtlbill]

Last winter, I had no spark so I replaced the plugs, coil, cdi box. I ran this sled last winter for a few hours and then parked it for the year. It fired up this year and ran fine. I went to use it a few weeks ago and no spark. I had another new coil in my toolbox. I put it on and it fired up. My son ran this sled for a small day trip and everything was fine. Yesterday I was going to load it up and again no spark. Everything electronic has been replaced ( coil twice now ) and I am getting tired of this sled not starting went I want to use it. Any thoughts?

Mint condition Powder Special 580 for sale.

 

[darkday]

My thoughts are it could be your stator plate. Or what happened to mine was the magnets in the carbs or the pickup for the magnet fails and the throttle safety engages and kills the engine. you can bypass easily by unplugging wire from carbs and connecting them together.

 

[vtlbill]

My carbs have the wires coming from them but they are not plugged into anything. I don't believe that they ever were.

After writting the first message, I went out to the shop and flipped the ignition switch back and forth. The machine fired up. I ordered a new ignition switch and loaded the sled in the trailer. I got out to the mountian and it started up again, ran fine up to the cabin. Afternoon, time to head back to the trucks, no spark again and nothing helped. Towed it back to the trailer.

When you pull the rope the headlight lights up, but no spark. Like I said, changed the coil, cdi, plugs. only thing left is the stator. Would the headlight light up if the stator was bad?

 

[ifix]

there are a couple things to check 1 the wires coming out of the stator 4 pin connector put a jumper wire between black and brown stator side and see if you have spark then let me know. if you dont then it is most likely your stator since you have already replaced your cdi and col

 

[darkday]

there are a couple things to check 1 the wires coming out of the stator 4 pin connector put a jumper wire between black and brown stator side and see if you have spark then let me know. if you dont then it is most likely your stator since you have already replaced your cdi and col

My carbs have the wires coming from them but they are not plugged into anything. I don't believe that they ever were.

After writting the first message, I went out to the shop and flipped the ignition switch back and forth. The machine fired up. I ordered a new ignition switch and loaded the sled in the trailer. I got out to the mountian and it started up again, ran fine up to the cabin. Afternoon, time to head back to the trucks, no spark again and nothing helped. Towed it back to the trailer.

When you pull the rope the headlight lights up, but no spark. Like I said, changed the coil, cdi, plugs. only thing left is the stator. Would the headlight light up if the stator was bad?

the throttle safety is probably already bypassed, you would hook together the wires from the wiring harness.
yes the headlight would/could work if there is no spark, two different sides of stator one for lighting one for ignition.
hooking wires together from stator is not a good idea, call your local cat dealer and get the test specs for stator, then get a good multimeter and diagnose the stator.
throwing parts at a problem is a expensive way to diagnose. you could have wires rubbing, bad ground etc. my old 580 had headlight blinking on and off from wires grouding on tunnel under gas tank. I would go through wiring as well.

 

[vtlbill]

Thanks, I went though my wire harness and unplugged everything and checked all connections. I plugged everything back in tightly and it fired right up. I wiggled the wire harness and it quit. I looked for a bad or rubbed wire, nothing found. I unplugged and plugged everything back in and it once again fired right up. I am thinking that it will be in the harness plugs somewhere, although everything seems tight and good clean connections. I will take it down to my cat dealer and let them have a run though on this sled also. It may be expensive to replace the parts in search of a cure, but it also has to be reliable or it can never leave the yard. I will also try di-electric grease on all the plug ins.

 

[Cowboyup083]

Check all the ground wires. Sounds like it could be a bad or lose ground wire