Baja Wilderness Trail 400 ATV
 

Hi I must say I am very disgusted with my Baja 400. I am wondering does anyone know concretely if it is a Yamaha clone? I have heard makes several as well as honda on posts elsewhere :huh:. I don't want to buy parts from Baja as they ruded me out & don't stand behind products or listen well. I bought this bike from Canadian Tire thinking it was serviced by them. I never used it so it went off warranty. I have only used it ten times. It nearly burnt my house down as main fuse never blew & regulator shorted smoldering away on it's own in my garage with a full tank of gas. Baja told me this is impossible, right. I then bought a new regulator 1 trip & luckily it failed near truck. I want to get it from a reputable dealer if possible as theirs are faulty. Anyone? Tossdart

it looks like a honda clone with some yamaha features, to me....but a lot of the electrical parts will interchange with other chinese "brands". you'll just have to compare part to part. even chinese part to japanese part. Ex. count wires, quick connects, wire color scheme, see if parts will mate up. things like that. a very large portion of the electrical system is "universal". some items are brand specific.
did you call BAJA about the recall that's currently underway? i couldn't see what the recall is about because i don't have a VIN. call them and see what the recall is about. it may be your lucky day:)

I don't have a wire diagram of the wilderness 400, but many quads (including the baja 250cc) have the regulator hooked up to battery all the time - even with the ignition switch turned off. They rely on the rectifier diodes to keep current from flowing out of the battery back into the stator charge windings when the engine is stopped.

This is a really, really dumb design, because if a fault occurs in the regulator you could dissipate a lot of power in the regulator without blowing the fuse and while the quad is completely unattended. Let's say your fuse is 10 amps... At 12 volts you could dissipate 120 watts continuously for a long time without blowing the fuse, and 120 watts in little regulator module can make a *lot* of heat (and smoke).

If Baja told you this is impossible (and their 400 is wired up like their 250cc) they are flat ass wrong.

But a failure that causes these exact symptoms is not very common. The rectifier diodes most commonly fail shorted, in which case the rectifier dissipates no power at all and the stator itself dissipates all the power until the battery is dead. The stator is physically big, and has good thermal paths to a large block of aluminum (the engine), and so it generally doesn't get damaged before the battery gives out.

So what happened to your second regulator? Did it fail the same way? I.E. smoke? Or were the symptoms this time different? How many wires on the regulator?

Where can i see pics of this thing? seems to me this it the exact copy of a Yamaha Bear Tracker... but I need pics to be sure...

this is all i could find as far as pics go MWQ....


Baja Motor Sports | Wilderness Trail 400

@LynnEdwards Sorry it took me so long to reply with my busy schedule. There are five wires, (three whites, plus a red and a black). The black one in the plugin is the one that smoked on the first regulator. I never replaced the plug relay just the regulator the first time. The quad ran great for one hunting trip which can also be seen at my youtube account. (Tossdart). This is the second regulator which I was asking Baja to warranty. No, this regulator has not smoked, the main fuse blew. Upon replacing regulator, the fuse will again blow. With the regulator removed the main fuse on postitive side of relay from battery (Im not sure what that little block is called), does not blow all lights come on and I just ran quad for only a few seconds without regulator installed. As soon as the regulator is put in, it blows fuse. It is a 30 amp fuse, the original did not blow when first regulator burnt. Also I can install the regulator with the fuse in so long as the three wired plug at the little main relay block: red /blue & white/ blue & black is not installed. Pictures of this quad can be seen at Canadian Tire online store or google images. However, I went to Yamaha and they are unfamilliar with this quad. The wiring is in a conduit which requires removal of entire body to access. My video can viewed on Youtube under the username Tossdart. Look in my hunting/fishing/camping videos. Any help is very appreciated, I hope you are right about the stator. Do you know what components the regulator is servicing? I have a base diagram pdf downloadable at Baja. Thanks for your help, Tossdart.

Tossdart,

Nice videos :).

Did you at any time remove the pins in the regulator connector and then wire them back? I'm trying to determine is there is any possibility that the regulator is miswired. One way to keep blowing the fuse is if the regulator connector is miswired. If you have not unplugged pins then we can completely discount this, and you have yet another bad regulator. The regulator does not draw current from the battery - it sources current *to* the battery when it needs charging, and if the stator is putting out enough power to be able to do this. If current flows out of the battery and into the regulator (and it is wired up correctly) is it bad - no if, ands, or buts about it. [But if there is any possibility that the wiring might have been altered then we need to look into that ;)].

It is very clear from your video that your quad is wired up such that the regulator can fail and burn up even with the ignition switch off and the quad completely unattended. This is because you were drawing current through the fuse whenever the regulator was plugged in, whether or not the ignition switch was on or off. Depending on the failure mode inside the regulator it can draw any amount of current. If it is below 30 amps the fuse won't blow, and the regulator can sit there dissipating up to 360 watts (12 volts times 30 amps). That's more than enough power in such a small device to start a fire.

It looks like you still have a rather burnt up connector shell. That is OK unless the wire connections inside aren't clean and tight enough. If you have bad connections there you could get localized heating and more smoke if the engine is running, so make sure the connector mating pins are gripping each tightly. Also, on a lot of regulators. if the ground wire (black wire) becomes open the regulator will go full tilt, way overcharge the battery, and destroy it in short order. So down the road when you get a good regulator installed, be sure to measure the battery voltge while the engine is running and the regulator is charging the battery. Run the engine at medium speed (lights off) and measure the battery voltage with a meter. It should be 13.5 volts to 14.5 volts DC.

Note that the items described in the last paragraph have *nothing* to do with your immediate problem (the fuse blowing).

You mentioned a base diagram in PDF format from Baja. Do you have a link to it? I couldn't find it.

You said in your video that the battery was fried by the first regulator failure. That doesn't sound right. The only thing your regulator could have done was discharge your battery. As long as is was charged back up promptly it should not have been damaged by the regulator. I don't know about Alberta, but $135 sounds really steep for a battery even when converting from Canadian dollars to US dollars. I usually go to Walmart and buy the biggest cheapest battery that will mechanically fit.

I found the reply button that is a start. Thanks for your prompt reply. Yamaha convinced me to look elsewhere for a short. The problem is all wires are in a conduit. My quad is now laying with most of shell removed & all along I told my wife & kids maybe sit down wait for reply, probably gibbled regulator again. No I never changed anything to do with the wiring. Just plugged in new one. By fried I meant caput, I think it was cooking in garage for sometime & discharged baja battery in -45 C. It never retook charge. I got a Canadian Tire battery they have been good to me. Maybe Baja doesn't have link anymore or I never got it there & forgot. Here is a link for what it is worth. I'm no expert at things but have some basic skills. My Voltage meter skills suck lol. I knew enough to tell Baja Serge needed a good surge ehe. Tossdart Baja Wilderness Trail 400 (WD400-U) ATV Parts at Monster Scooter Parts

My responses embedded in Blue...

No it wasn't my lucky recall day. That ended when I bought it.