Polaris tech help on 500 ho

[Predator]

I have an 03 Polaris 500 HO.  Noticed the starter turning slow and now wont turn at all plus it drained the battery.  I start checking electrical harness and it looks good.  Battery is only 8 months old.  I pull the starter rope to start it and notice oil on the rope....DOH!!!

The rope was coated pretty good with oil...so I take brake lever off and plastic foot rest....take the bolts out of the housing and I take it off and about 4 tablespoons of oil drain out...recoil is all coated with oil....and it looks like up top the starter is all coated also...everything has a nice nasty sheen.  Obviously there is a seal out letting oil through to this housing that should be dry.  Mid Amer says its about $250 labor plus seal cost..maybe 10 or 15 bucks.  I figure I have 1/4 the labor already done having taken it almost apart...Highsparks and I are going to try this one ourselves but I was wondering if anyone has some info on timing?  At some point in putting it back together setting the timing will become an issue...just wondering if anyone knows the settings?..or knows of a resource to find the setting?  Thanks in advance!
Jeff

[stumper]

Not sure, is the seal under the flywheel? If it is then timing should stay the same when you reasemble it. There will be a timing key to keep it in place. At least thats how it is on my Brute.

[rundrave]

are you sure its oil? if you dont have the handle of the pull start seated correctly it wont seal all the way and water, dirt etc get in there and make it look milky like oil.

[Predator]

definately oil.....I resealed the cover and will run it a 20 or 30 miles or so and recheck it to see if there is more in it...

[cletus600twin]

If you do have to remove the flywheel to replace the cranckshaft seal I would recommend putting in an advanced timming key.  I put one in my 04 600 and it made the throttle response and low end alot better.  If you want on I can maybe find the guy I got mine from and see if he has anymore.  It was only like $15.   

[racingvillagekid]

I am curious why your starter slowed down and drained the battery, which was the original problem. I guess the oil could have messed with the starter. Where I am heading with this is, why did the seal go out and what does the starter have in common with it. A lot of times heat is what takes a seal out. Is it possible you have a bigger issue? Maybe something in the crank bearings causing the problems? Just something to check out before you fix one part when there might be more to it.