Just finished replacing the head gasket on my 97 Sportsman 500, fired it up, ran for 10 seconds then it died. No spark, did my tests and found bad readings coming from the stator. Pulled it apart and a magnet broke off the flywheel and tore up the stator and pick up coil. Now I need to replace these 3 items.

I see this is a common problem after searching the forum, I am being told that my 97’s flywheel is not interchangeable with 98 and up. It says FF95 on it and has the exposed magnets. A new one is $389 and has enclosed magnets. Does anyone know if its true that I can only use a flywheel off a 96 or 97 500?

Just finished replacing the head gasket on my 97 Sportsman 500, fired it up, ran for 10 seconds then it died. No spark, did my tests and found bad readings coming from the stator. Pulled it apart and a magnet broke off the flywheel and tore up the stator and pick up coil. Now I need to replace these 3 items.

I see this is a common problem after searching the forum, I am being told that my 97’s flywheel is not interchangeable with 98 and up. It says FF95 on it and has the exposed magnets. A new one is $389 and has enclosed magnets. Does anyone know if its true that I can only use a flywheel off a 96 or 97 500?