After another Winter without much snow to play in I'm diversifying into four wheelers (on the cheap for now, maybe spending some real $$ later if I enjoy this as much as think I will).

I'm now the proud new owner of a very clean '87 machine that has a non-functioning electrical system.

At a very low Idle speed the neutral light will flicker a little bit, but that goes away as soon as it's reved up.

Before I invest time in hunting this down I was wondering in these things have a history of stator or regulator failures??

It runs like a top otherwise and am anxious to get it functioning a 100%.


On another issue, I see that a lot of people have trouble with loose drive chains jumping and damaging the engine case. The owners manual says that it should has 1.8 - 2" of slack in it. Is this correct? What works in the real world?

Thanks for your help!!

 

I have an '85 and a'86, have had no electrical problems with them, but one does not have a tailight or headlight. ATV's had very low output stators from that era, so that MIGHT account for the light. Mine don't have the indicator light for neutral so i can't say much more than that. The stators are much lower output than sleds since they were only designed to run a 5 watt tailight and a 45 watt headlight.

I run my chains fairly loose, about what the book says, otherwise they get pretty tight when the suspension collapses. Check the swingarm bearings, they are almost always bad on an old quad unless someone has fixed them recently. Bad bearings allow the swingarm to move side to side and pop the chain off. I would definately get a chainguard no matter how tight you run the chain and how good the swingarm bearings are, it is just the nature of the model of quad. when I bought my '85 2 of the bolt holes and part of the left side of the crankcase were broken because of the chain. for $20 at vinces cycle (on the web) it is very cheap insurance for expensive parts. Don't know what you paid for it, but i still say they are possibly the most fun per dollar quad out there.

 

I put a Goki starter kit with battery on my '86 and all the "dimming" and flickering lights went away. The instructions with the kit said to run the headlight as little as possible to keep the battery charged up good. Never had any problems at all. Rewinding the stator for more output would be a good idea. I ran the snot out of my old LT230S keeping up with newer and bigger quads and it performed remarkably well for its age!

 

Thanks for the tip on the case guard, I checked out the vinces cycle site and will order one of those soon.

Unless it needs a charged battery to "excite" the system, I think something is fried. I'll ohm out the stator to see if open or grounded. I'm hoping it's the regulator... Does anyone have any idea what the parts are worth?

 

After digging around in it tonight, I'm convinced the regulator is shot.

Does this have to come from the dealer, or are there any aftermarket ones that work?


Thanks for your help.

 

ok my 1986 suzuki quad runner did the same thing its nothing wrong with it it just needs a proerly charged battery in it. the voltage regulator is suposed to work like that

 

Thanks for the reply,
That might be the deal where the regulator is clamping the voltage down because there's no load on it. The neutral light flickers when it's idling really slowly but goes out when it revs up.
I'll try hooking a good battery to it and see if it charges it. I'll fix the burned out headlight bulb is, so I put a load on it.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, I have a honda trx250s, and it did the exact same thing, the neutral light flickered and the headlight was dimm untill the rpm's were up, I put a good battery in it and all was good.

 

I'm having this problem as well.. i have a 1987 quadrunner LT230e and when its idling, the light is bright and flickers, when you get on the gas, it gets dim.. if i put a new battery in it fully charged, would it fix this problem?

 

If atv isnt charging then new battery wouldnt last long, But needs an new or good fully charged batt to test charging system thou.