I have 2001 400 AC and its runs fine ,but the battery will not re-charge. I have replaced the battery with a new one that you fill yourself and charged it for the recommended time.Starts fine but after you ride for a while and turn it off it has a dead battery. Im thinking either a voltage regulator or the stator?tried the old battery the other day. i charged it for couple of hours but same problem. Any help or ideas would be great!

 

Check battery voltage with nothing on, start unit and check voltage, should increase upto around 14.5 volts max. If there is no increase then you need to check stator AC voltage, Should be 28 to 32 AC volts min. as a rule. You check across the stator wires. Chances are you have a bad regulator. Check your wiring connection at the reg and see if the back of reg shows signs of getting hot. Hope this helps.

 

Pulled the regulator off of the cat and the back of it is sealed still,but it looks real milky in the epoxy in places and has a few brown colored blotches in it. It looks like it should be an all black epoxy seal from the way the edges look ,so maybe it is fried. Is there any way the dealer can test this one while it is off of the machine?

 

Unles they have changed in the last year or two there is not a test for regulator off the unit. If the back looks fried and your connectors are OK then I would bet on the reg being bad. I have only replaced one stator on an Arctic Cat, does not seem to be a problem on these units.

 

ARCTICMUD, If you PM me your e-mail address, I will send you the test pages from the manual for the charging system.

 

ArcticMud,

Just a suggestion, but I have been having intermitent problems with my TRV blowing the 30amp starter relay fuse and having the battery dead. Since it was the original battery I thought the battery was bad and since it would not charge enough restart the machine I thought I might have a charging issue as well.

Like you I purchased a new battery and the problem continued. I finally discoverd that I had a short in the wiring harness under the instrument pod. Which was causing the fuse to blow but now the battery stays charged as well.

I put the old battery back in and have not had any further problems. So even though you are not blowing fuses. Try removing the fuel tank and check your wiring harness over real good for wires that might have rubbed through. Especially where they have them all crammed into that little channel at the base of the steering column.

Hope this helps and you get your problem fixed soon and back on the road or trail.

SJ

 

I am going to tear down the whole quad and chase wires before i replace the regulator.I found what must be a spare connector near the carb that was not capped off like the ones in the rear and the front. I cant find anything it plugs into and it was laying on the engine block with the metal prong touching the block.Dont know if it could have been grounding out or not but it should have been capped like the others.I taped the end real good with black tape.Also installed a fan cutoff switch a few years ago to kill the fan in creek crossings but have noticed its not working right anymore and needs replaced.I replaced the starter relay last year because it was corroded really bad.Hopefully i can find a bare wire that will at least show a cause to the problem. Are the regulators a common fault on these year models? 2001

 

The only time I am aware of a regulator or stator going out is when the machine had suffered a catasrophic accident. Rolled several times town a hill that sort of thing.

I do know that I have not had a 4 wheeler yet that did not develop a problem with a short due to wires rubbing through. Suzuki, Honda, Polaris, Arctic Cat to name a few. Sometimes it looks like they were assembled they just did not care where they ran the darn wires as long as they were installed.

I am going to take a section of hose large enough to cover the wiring harness and attach it around the harness where it rubs. Then the hose is rubbing and not the wires as much. I did this on my old 88 zuki 250 and it worked like a charm.

I believe there is a way to test the resistance on the regulator and the Magneto coils in the manual. It reguires the use of a volt meter and a good battery, (which you have).

Basically says after checking the chargin coils, check all connections and wires then retest. If it fails again replace the stator assembly.

If you do not have them PM me your email address and I can email them to you. My manual is for all 2003-2004 models but tests should still be the same.

SJ

 

swampyjunior, I have the 2001 manual and offered to send the test to him.