I just purchased my first Polaris, a 2004 Sportsman 500 HO. I found it on CL, it wasn’t running, the owner thought it needed a starter. During inspection he told me that he got it from a guy in Miss. and it had been floaing upside down in his basement for a couple days. The motor turned when I pulled it, so $700 later it was in my shop. I drained and changed all the fluids, cleaned the carb up, and replaced the battery. Still no power, I found a broken wire to the run/off switch, still nothing. Replaced the solenoid, and finally got it running. Smoked a lil at first, then cleared up, and no knocks or rattles. I rode it for a day with no problems, then yesterday it started flashing Hot Engine. No boiling over, or steaming, rattling, or loss of power. The fan is coming on in 2 second bursts, mostly when I cut it off. I said all that to say this, can i Straight wire the fan to run all the time, or will that cause a charging problem? Or, can I wire the fan trough a toggle switch, and install a manual temp guage so I can manually turn the fan on when needed, or will that cause some sort of issue with the ECU not reading the temp? If I can install a manual guage what temp should this machine run at? Or, could it be that there is an electrical problem from water damage with the ECU, and how would I diagnose that? All the other instraments seem to work fine. Sorry for the long post on my first question, just trying to give all the info. This is my first liquid colled electronic quad. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

I just purchased my first Polaris, a 2004 Sportsman 500 HO. I found it on CL, it wasn’t running, the owner thought it needed a starter. During inspection he told me that he got it from a guy in Miss. and it had been floaing upside down in his basement for a couple days. The motor turned when I pulled it, so $700 later it was in my shop. I drained and changed all the fluids, cleaned the carb up, and replaced the battery. Still no power, I found a broken wire to the run/off switch, still nothing. Replaced the solenoid, and finally got it running. Smoked a lil at first, then cleared up, and no knocks or rattles. I rode it for a day with no problems, then yesterday it started flashing Hot Engine. No boiling over, or steaming, rattling, or loss of power. The fan is coming on in 2 second bursts, mostly when I cut it off. I said all that to say this, can i Straight wire the fan to run all the time, or will that cause a charging problem? Or, can I wire the fan trough a toggle switch, and install a manual temp guage so I can manually turn the fan on when needed, or will that cause some sort of issue with the ECU not reading the temp? If I can install a manual guage what temp should this machine run at? Or, could it be that there is an electrical problem from water damage with the ECU, and how would I diagnose that? All the other instraments seem to work fine. Sorry for the long post on my first question, just trying to give all the info. This is my first liquid colled electronic quad. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks