My buddy has a 96 xlt 600 I beleive and only has spark to one of the three plugs. Could this be a bad stator? Maybe a coil? Next time I go to the cabin I am going to take an ohm meter to it but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas before I got started. I'm hoping its not the stator because I am unfamiliar with that part of the the sled and I know replacement is not for the beginner. Does each cylinder have it's own coil? Anyway to test the stator? My friend said he lost his headlight a couple times just before it started causing him problems. Thanks...

There are three separate coils and they all fire at the same time on all Polaris XLTs. They are all wired together on the low tension side via plug in connectors, check to see that they are. Remove the plugs from the head. Take off all the spark plug caps (they just screw off) and see if you get spark directly from the plug wires to ground. I doubt the stator is bad. The lighting system has nothing at all to do with the ignition system, two different parts of the stator.

Does the Sled pop and crackle when you have it on full choke to start it? if so you may have bad crank seals. they are not that hard to change but you have to remove the engine take the plugs out and set the engine on its top take the flywheel and stator off as well as the clutch. then take all the bolts out, pick up slightly on the crank just enough to slide the old seals off and the new ones on. you will have to get some high heat silicone to re-seal the crank. i have seen this problem on 5 xlt's so far mine being the 5th. i had to do a complete rebuild because of it. the ohm meter is a good start also check your plug wires and coil wires to make sure the have not rubbed on anything to maybe have grounded out. also if the seals happend to be bad i would recommend replacing or rebuilding the crank. more than likely the cause of the seals going would have been lack of oil or a bearing gone bad and slopping out the seal. start here and reply back to let me know what is going on.
Thanks
Dwayne

i dont think the first place to diagnos a spark problem is with the crank seals. i think id worry about them last, if you dont have spark youre not running anyhow. try switching the coils around take one not getting spark and put it in place f the one getting, spark, this will help find out if its a bad coil. dont really think its the stator, if ones firing they all should on the xlts.