I have a 2002 Polaris Sportsman 700 that I bought used a few months ago with 300 miles on it.  The other day I was riding it out of the woods, not beating on it, mudding, fording deep streams, etc. just cruisin', and it backfired LOUDLY then died.  I have NOTHING at the switch.  I just ordered the factory manual but was wondering if anyone has had/heard of similar problems and could give me a starting point for diagnosing/repair.  I'm pretty mechanically inclined so I'm looking for more than "take it to the dealer".  Any help is appreciated. Thanks.  

well all of the polaris i have ever owned have had ignition problems, that or tranny problems. or even problems with the head warping if you get the engine wet while riding. (2 eggshaped the cylinder) i gave up on Polaris.
but you could check the cdi box, also check the magneto, it should be under the right side cover.
seriously, get the polaris running and sell it.  HOnda's are good if you want an atv that you can give to your grandchildren, but they aren't too great on horsepower. Suzuki is alright, plenty of horsepower but they have rear axle problems, as well as the bearings tend to go out on them, especially the lt400.
kawasaki is alright but the cdi boxes go out fairly regularly, Yamaha,  oh geeze!!! talk about raw horsepower!!!
and so far no problems yet. have a 93,and a 98 blaster that haven't gotten much rest since i bought them new.

and the 200cc blaster blew the polaris trail blazer 250 i had out of the water.

I used to be a big honda fan, (had the new 450ex)but Yamaha has won me over!!!  

Wolf1,

Thanks for your repair advise as well as your unsolicited opinion on my choice of ride.  I’m happy (and embarrassed) to report that, although I have NO IDEA how it happened, the problem was that the “run-off-run” switch on the handlebars as slightly in the “off” position and once I realized, and corrected it, it fired right up. I didn’t realize that switch cut power to EVERYTHING.  I just assumed it cut power to the coil or CDI (or both??). Oh well, it gave me an excuse to purchase the factory manual which, if you’re correct, I’ll be needing in the future.  As far as selling it and buying a metric, when I move to Japan, I’ll buy *** stuff.  Until then, it’s GM, Ford, John-Deere, Polaris, and Harley Davidson for me.

Happy Trails….  

believe me i'd love to be able to buy american and trust it.
I have owned Polaris, as well i work on them regularly
at my shop. (sons college fund came in large part from working on polaris at my shop)
all of the polaris i've owned eventually got to the point i had to spend a couple hours working on them before i could go ride, and then it got to where i had to carry a tool kit and a tow rope to help get them out of the woods.
(not to mention the many numerous Factory defects you run into that Polaris won't admit to in fear of losing their butts in warranty work.)

I have also owned harley davidson or as most like to call them "hardly ableson"
I work on bikes and atv 's for a living and to be honest if i have to work on it constantly i don't want it.

yeah i ride the japanese stuff but I don't have to spend a butt load of time working on them before i can enjoy them.
they are pretty much change the oil when it needs and get on a have fun. and you just can't beat the technology and horsepower of the *** stuff.

especially when you consider the polaris pvt transmission design,  (basic junk that wont get you faster than 45 miles an hour.)

and i think you would be so very surprized at how many of the parts that go into making your "american" polaris are actually made in taiwan and china.
especially when most fo the time the parts that are going out on the polaris are the american made parts.

the predator 90cc is a taiwanese made e-ton. it's not even made by polaris.
seriously look at all the parts on your atv, you have to lift the polaris sticker on most of them to read that they are made either in china or taiwan.
especially when you learn that Polaris is co-owned by *fuji* heavy industries company.

you'll probably find this interesting "Polaris cofounder David Johnson later joked, "We made 400 machines and got 500 back."

(kinda funny if you ask me, i see polaris machines on a regular basis, I make a small fortune repairing them for my customers. )

and if you look at their stock charts today they have died in sales and returned to where their standings were when the company first started.
peaking for a few years but losing sales over the last 5 years to return to where they started at when they first began,  below 50% of their overall sales rating.  

Amen wolf1. I was a mechanic also untill I figured out nobody want to pay me. I couldn't agree more w your Polaris outlook. I can't believe how many sportsman model atv's I used to repair as compared to the *** stuff. Don't look too close Polaris owners, you may see FUJI staring back at you. They are all junk once they hit the dirt.  

Honestly i hope Polaris doesn't go out of business,  i make waay too much money repairing their defects for their customers.
although i have lowered my labor rates for polaris machines to $25.00 an hour instead of $60.00 and hour in an effort to help the customers out.
(the going rate at the dealer is $80.00 an hour)

afterall it's not the customers fault that they bought a machine that falls apart.
and to be clear I am not dogging anyone for purchasing a polaris, ride it and have a blast, but be careful.

POlaris has serious quality issues that if you do a search on "Polaris recalls" you'll see what iam talking about.
look at the recalls and count how many machines they had to recall,  just to point out a few they recalled 12,000 for tranny problems they then recalled 45,000 for faulty wiring that caused a fire and injury to the rider. 9,400 for faulty cdi boxes that caused fire and injury.
they also recall another 56,000 and there are even more.  to the point that you start to believe they had to recall every machine they made.

they had to settle in court on one machine various recalls to the tune of over 3 million.
and people were losing body parts in crashes.