08/16/2026
‼️this was a crazy one‼️
This customer brought in his canam outlander after he accidentally sunk it. He tried the flush the mud out after but ultimately the engine locked up and needed to be replaced. We sold him a CW Motorsports remanufactured engine with their standard 6 month warranty, installed it and also fixed several small issues like a broken motor mount and missing driveshaft retaining bolts while we were in there.
The strange part is that the atv ran fine up until it locked up. Upon installing the engine we found that the atv only had spark on the rear cylinder momentarily when letting off of the start button, preventing it from starting. At this point we checked the usual; rpm signal, keyed power to the ignition coil, ohmed the coil trigger wires between the ecm and coil, tried the coil on another atv to confirm it works etc. NO ISSUES WERE FOUND. We then checked for trouble codes, checked pid data, and checked DESS function using the canam BUDS system, and found no issues there either. We tried programming another key and a used ecm we had on hand and found the issue still remained.
Then we broke out the real tools. we checked the flywheel for magnetic field abnormalities using magnetic imaging film, we bench tested the crank sensor, and even tried the crank sensor off of my personal atv. Then we checked the crank sensor signal output using an oscilloscope. Zoomed in each AC wave pulse looked uniform and even, but zoomed out we could see that every compression pulse changed the shape and intensity of the crank shaft signal ‼️this is when it gets GOOD‼️
The bosch ME 17.8.5 ecm as well as other ecm models on canams monitors crank sensor patterns at a basic level by counting the speed of the crank sensor pulses to determine the engine is cranking, and to give an RPM read out on the cluster, and this basic check was working fine. After completing the basic check the ecm looks at the full crank signal pattern and compares it to a pattern it expects to see before it enables fuel and spark to allow starting......if the engine cranks too slow, too fast, or has an unexpected pattern from a compression or cam timing issue it will not allow spark and fuel, but will not register a fault.
We checked camshaft timing and confirmed its ok, but then we checked the camshaft part number and found that during assembly the engine manufacturer has installed a rear part number camshaft in the front cylinder and a front part number camshaft in the rear cylinder, which caused an irregular crank sensor pattern, preventing the ecm from allowing spark and fuel. After swapping the front and rear camshaft to the correct position and retiming, we confirmed that spark had returned. We then reassembled the engine and confirmed the atv started and ran exactly as it should. We then reassembled and test drive the atv WITH NO ADDITIONAL DIAGNOSIS CHARGE despite spending several days chasing the issue because the issue was on the engine manufacturers end.
After a quick break in and test drive we returned it to the customer ready to hit the mud!
And as always, from our family to yours, thank you for your business and continued support!
