febigblockford
New member
I wanted to share this story about troubleshooting in case it might help anyone else. My 1998 XTC 700 with reverse had been running poorly last year (and the year before that) ... it has in excess of 8900 miles. Late in the season last year it died on the trail and it got towed back to home. I found that there was no spark when I was troubleshooting it last year. The only checks I made were to swap plugs from another sled.... plugs were good because the other sled would run fine with mine, and mine wouldn't run with plugs from the other sled. I got back to troubleshooting it a week ago and found that there was still no spark. I had read a lot of posts about no spark, so I suspected stator. I checked the pulse coil which was 100K ohms (indicates failed) but intermittently was 200 ohms. When it was 200ohms it would briefly make a spark. Since I didn't want to shell out $150 for a new stator I clipped the pulse coil off of a 1985 Yamaha 225DR three wheeler spare stator I had in the shop. The three wheeler part measured 200 ohms. I cut my pulse coil out of the stator harness and spliced in the three wheeler part figuring I didn't have much to lose. I made good connections and insulated them well, but kept them short so they would not get caught in the flywheel. The mounting hole spacing was the same. Physically they look almost identical. When I checked for spark after the repair it was hot and blue. I got it out of the shop and it fired right up and ran great. I only have about 5 miles on it, so long term reliability is still questionable.
I noticed that there are tons of Yamaha replacement pulse coils available on flea-bay for short money, and that seems to be the issue with many stator failures, so I wanted to share this with anyone else who might be interested. I also have found that the pulse coil on Yamaha four wheelers is functionally the same (1998 YFM600 grizz comes to mind as I helped my dad splice a new one onto his four wheeler several years ago.) These old VMAX sleds are getting old and lots are having these types of no spark / stator issues, so I hope someone finds this information useful. Ride On!!
I noticed that there are tons of Yamaha replacement pulse coils available on flea-bay for short money, and that seems to be the issue with many stator failures, so I wanted to share this with anyone else who might be interested. I also have found that the pulse coil on Yamaha four wheelers is functionally the same (1998 YFM600 grizz comes to mind as I helped my dad splice a new one onto his four wheeler several years ago.) These old VMAX sleds are getting old and lots are having these types of no spark / stator issues, so I hope someone finds this information useful. Ride On!!