So I recently picked up a used 2005 Eton RXL-70 for my son, and am trying to clean it up and make it look as nice as possible for his upcoming b-day.

I'm in the process of putting everything back together, and the headlights and tail lights don't work. The brake lights do work.

So i went through this wiring diagram
http://www.anythingatv.com/Technical/images/WD_R70.gif

and noticed towards the top middle, there is a 2 wire connector (wire number 1 and 14) that says RESISTOR. I don't have anything plugged in there, and there was nothing on the ATV that looked like that.

Here is a picture of that part.


It looks like 2 ballast resistors that they used on ignition systems in older cars, but so far that's all i can find. I can't seem to find any specs on it or anything. Other than buying the one specifically listed for $30 I haven't found alot of info on this piece. Now my train of thought is that if i can simply figure out the specs needed on this part, I could probably go to a local parts store, radioshack, or internet and source the same item with same specs for cheaper and in a more commonly available package, rather than paying for this supposed "one of a kind" item. (they're front/rear light bulbs were the same. $50 for 4 light bulbs. ended up finding matching replacements for about $5 for 4 light bulbs.)

So here are my questions.

1) what is the purpose of the resistor in such a simple light circuit???
2) Is there a difference between a resistor/ballast resistor/load resistor??? (the way i hear these terms used are: resistor usually around circuit boards, ballast resistor on older cars, load resistor when replacing incandescent lights with LED lights such as on car/motorcycle turn signals)
3) Any way to figure out what size resistor I need???


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I don't know anything about eton's other than the published documents from places such as you linked to. But there are simularities between a lot of quads so perhaps I can comment "in general".

By far, the biggest electrical load on a typical chinese quad are the headlights. Let's say the headlights are 35 watts total That is roughly speaking 3 amps coming out of the charging system (stator / voltage regulator). It also could and will come out of the battery if the charging system is broken or can't keep up due to other loads or engine speed. That's another subject...

When you shut off the headlights the load drops to about 1/2 half amp (a six to one difference). The problem is whether the voltage regulator can regulate over the entire load and engine speed range with headlights both on and off.

Note from your wiring diagram link that the "resistor" is switched in whenever the headlights are switched off. This evens out the load a bit, and makes the requirements of the regulator less stringent. With todays technology this switched resistor bit is really old and stupid, but the chinese quad vendors aren't noted for setting new trends in innovation. They're just copying 3 decade old designs...

I don't know why you have two resistors. How many pins on the connector that feeds them? Two? Three?

I suspect you could easily get away with a range of values. These resistors look like roughly 10 watt resistors putting their resistance near 15 ohms or so. But I do need to know if you have two resistors on three pins, and two resistors on a two pin connector...

 

the connector is only a 2 pin connector.


for what it's worth, i discovered that the lights do work, but only AFTER the atv is actually running so the magneto/stator can actually produce electricity. i guess it doesn't get any power from the battery when not running.

still leaves me wondering what the resistor is for though.

 

Then the lights run on AC voltage coming out out the stator and before the regulator. A lot of quads do this, but I can't think of any good reason why. Quads that run the headlights on the DC regulated side of the voltage regulator work just fine, and have the added advantage that they can also be powered of the battery when the engine is not turning.