2009 M8 Engine Problems

Last weekend my 2009 M8 died on me. We were snowmobiling in 2-4 feet of powder. After a couple hours, the engine began having issues. When hitting the throttle from idle, the engine died. A few minutes later I was let off the throttle from full to about 1/3 and it the engine dropped down to idle and almost died. This happened again another time. The sled ran fine on full throttle for a while. About 10 minutes later I stopped on the flat and the sled was idling for about 2 minutes while I was talking to someone. When I went back to ride and squeezed the throttle, the engine died completely. It wouldn't start. It has half a tank of gas and 1/2 a tank of oil. I pulled the starter rope at least 50 times, even trying with my friend holding the throttle 1/4 and 1/2 open; nothing worked. I let the sled sit for 10 minutes and tried again. It started up on the first pull, and ran for about 2 seconds before dying. The electronics were receiving power-- I could see the speedometer light up and the odometer needle moved up during the 2 seconds it would run. After dying it would not start up again. However, if I would let the sled sit for 10 minutes it would always start up for a second or two. This happened a couple times. Nighttime was quickly approaching and we were far away from the highway so we had to leave the sled without doing any field repairs. One of my neighbors has a snowcat and agreed to tow it out. I'm planning to meet him up there soon. Before he does tow the sled out, are there any simple field fixes I could try? Thanks

I did try messing around with the throttle safety switch but that didn’t seem to help. Could it be something with the kill switch? Is there a way to disconnect it? On my ~20 year old ZR you could easily disconnect the cable right on the handlebars to bypass the kill, but I didn’t see any easy way to do so with the m8.

Possibly, but it didn’t seem likely since during the 1-2 seconds the engine would run after sitting for a few minutes it would run normally. Before it died completely it was running fine, even after the first time it initially died. When I’ve had plugs go bad previously the engine would run awfully and/or only one cylinder would run. Is this not always the case?

jim said:

Bypass throttle safety switch and then kill button. Trace wire runs and look for grounding out. It does sound like a stator though if no grounding wires are found. I had a similar issue on m1000 before. Also check plig wires and caps.

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I did briefly try and trace the cable but it went behind a panel that required torx screws to remove, which I didn't have on me. If possible, I'd like to avoid as much field disassembly as possible. Does anyone know exactly where the disconnect is?

Skywest said:

If you remove the Torx screws you can take that plate off and then you will see a good sized connector with a locking clip. You should be able to follow the wires connnected to the connector back up to the handle bars if you are not sure. Unplug the connector and that will take care of your throttle switch and kill switch. It will also disconnect whatever else is hooked up to it(thumb warmers, headlight etc..) It sounds like a stator issue because of the sitting for 10mins. It could be a charge coil, injector coil or fuel pump coil on the stator that could be heating up and not working. It would probably be worth pulling the plugs cause then you could confirm if its fuel related or not. There is also a ground underneath coolant bottle, check to see if that’s broken.

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Ok great thanks. If it is the stator, is this something that can be replaced (or at least temporarily fixed) out on the trail or would I need to tow the sled out and take it to a shop?