96 Polaris Sportsman 500

Yeah... I bought it knowing that the lights didn't work. All three lights, and the three "dash lights" don't work. Are there fuses somewhere that I should look at? It seems weird that they'd have gone out all at the same time.

 

no there are no fuses to look for. there is a circuit breker that is in main harness back next to battery, but that runs everything else. make sure the bulbs aren't just blown. if not check connections, grounds, etc. good luck.

 

Is there a voltage regulator that may have stopped regulating... that might explain all the bulbs blowing at the same time...

I'll check to see if the bulbs are bad. I just assumed that they couldn't all go at the same time.

 

your regulator is under the front hood right in front of the radiator. little black box with a few wires. make sure they are all connected and correctly. also, a bad battery (shorted) will cause blown bulbs. the charge has no where to go and ends up over powering the light system.

 

oh yeah, if everything is hooked up right wiring wise, then check voltage output, this can be done at the battery. put bike in neutral and start it, give it throttle and as rpms climb so should volts. up to about 13.5 - 14.5 volts. if higher then you may have regulator problem.
one thing, make sure that the battery is good or use one you know is good. otherwise reading may not be right on output.

 

I'm assuming that this is a 12v system, and just look for 12 volts on the regulator's output. I kinda doubt that it's a battery. The quad starts right up no problems with electric start.

 

ive had a couple of bike with shorted battery that would still start. yea its a 12 volt system. reading will be higher when running above idle, say 1/8 - 1/4 throttle. oh yeah read your other post about brakes, the rear doesn't work at all?

 

I had a little time to mess with it tonight. Here's what I know...
Voltage directly at the battery is 14.5 volts w/o the engine even running.

I couldn't start it because it's too late, but with the key in the on position I got no voltage anywhere as far as I could tell in the front access compartment. I don't know if that's supposed to be that way until the engine is running or not.

I don't get any lights anywhere to turn on. The AWD seems to engauge and disenguage okay though. I didn't check the tail light...forgot to.

Hope that gets us one step closer. I'll start it up tomorrow and see how far I can trace voltage.

Thanks again for your help. Electrical problems are fun hey

 

OK, I’m thinking ignition switch. It would help if you had a schematic to follow but with a test light you should be able to trace power from the battery to the switch, and when the switch is on you should be able to check for power leaving the switch. (actually, if you have power leaving the switch there’s no reason to follow it from the battery to the switch) I think all red w/white stripe wires go hot with the switch, but can’t remember for sure. If you have power leaving the ignition switch then trace it to the handlebar switch by unplugging the connection to expose the contacts. Once again, it would be helpful to have a schematic to identify which colored wires go where, but you can get a general idea by checking the color of the wire that feeds the pod light and the one the powers the low beams. By this point you should have some idea of what’s happening.

It doesn’t hurt to check for grounds, although the number of lights that aren’t working leads me away from that conclusion. Don’t ignore them as a possibility though. Once my AWD quit and I wasted a lot of time chasing every hot lead I could think of. When I finally checked the ground there was none. Never figured out why, just soldered in a new ground and it’s worked ever since.

If you don’t have power to the ignition switch I’d suspect the circuit breaker, as previously mentioned.

 

I had a buddy who started his 94 400 with no battery in it using the pull rope, and it blew all the bulbs after a few seconds. The kids took the battery out to start the sled. We changed all the bulbs and every thing was fine. Maybe the guy that had the bike before you did this before he sold it to you?? It maybe that simple..