this sucks, im getting a craptor![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

mr meaner i think bigger's problem was a regulator.... i am going to run it like this and chaulk it up to procomm making another crappy product...my reg....i will keep my battery charged on tender and hopefully someone will find the culprit....

some one told me to follow all the electrical lines looking for a short with schematics but that is over my head..anyone know how to do electrical issues?

 

I just now got off the phone with a tech guy at the dealer. He told me that it sounds like the bike might be charging at idle but not when driving the bike. With a volt meter I can watch the volts increase when reving the bike up. Why should it be any different when dirving it? It makes no sense to me. I will probably check thigs out once aagin and then take the bike to the dealer for their opinion.
Dont worry if They find the problem I will let you guys know what it is.
Later, D

 

oh man..this is great...someone posted a few back on this thread to drive with the volt meter on the bike and check it..sounds like this is the same thing your tech dealer was saying.....

we might be on to something....

 

I don't know if you guys have checked but the fuses under the seat have given me fits causing misc electrical gremlins. The fuses would be okay but alittle oxidization on the contacts would mimic a low or dead battery. After that I would use electrical cleaning solvent on all connections and then use dielectric grease to waterproof and prevent corrosion.

 

This problem really sucks for those of you experiencing it - and dealers are all to often not trained well enough in electronics to find these kinds of issues. wish i was close, I might be of some help in person, but over the internet its much more difficult. but here's a few things I think about it all, maybe some of it might help...

There are two components that have not been mentioned so far in this post - the stator and the starter solenoid.

SO here's the rundown of components and what they do - the stator makes juice from magnet spinning in its coil. this juice is 3~phase AC and gets converted to DC by the rectifier/regulator. This rectified juice charges the battery and runs the CDI (capacitive discharge ignition) and lights and all that jazz. The starter button engages a solenoid to deliver juice to the starter motor. This solenoid is located under the battery, on the inside of the frame, out of sight and out of mind.


Batteries should not need to be kept on a charger unless they are gonna be left sitting for quite a while. I can leave my sit for 2 months, and it will still start right up no problem. same thing with my lawn tractor, it can sit all winter and start right up. if a bike own't start after sitting just a few days, or even a few weeks, then either the battery is junk, it wasn't charged when it was parked, or there is a short draining it while it sits.

If it wasn't charged when it was parked (or died) and you know its a new battery so that is ruled out, then the blame could be the rectifier, the stator, or wiring. Stators seldom die, it would be very surprising if the problem was the stator, but anything is possible. The shop manual gives specs and procedure for troubleshooting the stator with a multimeter - using both resistance tests and load testing.

One common wire to need looked at, but is often missed, is the main negative wire where it connects to the subframe. the place it bolts to should be looked at, sanded and cleaned, and everything resecured. intermitent chattering of this connection can possibly damage CDI's while riding.

But its also possible that the starter solenoid is to blame. a faulty solenoid with burnt contacts creates great resitance for the juice to travel across, and a fully charged battery trying to get thru faulty contacts will exhibit symptoms of being low or dead, barely turning the starter, and ultimately draining the battery. it is common for a faulty solenoid to work intermitently, and sometimes depending on its issue, may work better cold than hot, or vise versa.

I would check the ground wire and battery terminals again, trace over the entire wiring harness looking for damage/shorts, inpsect the stator wires coming out of the right side motor cover - behind a little guard right by the oil filter cover, and all their plugs and connectors, make sure they are plugged in all the way. and Solenoids are cheap, just a few bucks, and you don't need one from Bomb, a simple lawn and garden tractor solenoid will due, from any autoparts store for like $8, so I would get one and have on hand, and the next time it won't start and you know you just charged the battery then swap it and see if that does it.

 

Thanks for the info... that is a great start for us :-)

 

good stuff, i remember something else....

my lights always worked even when it couldnt start or battery was supposedly dead...motor would ..click..click when starting but lights hi/low were fine...dont know if thats normal or not....

can water cause this...last time i had this dead issue..i drove on trailer perfect and then it started raining/snowing real bad..and thats when i trailred it behind my truck, when arrived ......click.click...dead..1 hour good next dead!

 

if its having troubles starting after getting soaked, then I would guess that either an intermitent sort is being made by the water to drain the battery, or an intermitent short is not allowing full battery juice to get to the starter, one or the other.

I would definitely check and sand the main negative connection of the subframe, as well as all other cable connections, and the connections at the starter solenoid and starter motor.

if you have an ohm meter, you can inspect the solenoid. disconnect the main power cable from it, energize its coil by applying power to the spade terminals, and measure resistance across the two posts. it should be ZERO. any resistance at all, no matter how little, warrants replacement. then remove power from coil and check resistance across posts again. it should be INFINITE. any resistance smaller than INFINITE, no matter how large, warrants replacement. then measure resistance from each of the two posts to ground - anything other than INFINITE indicates an internal short and is a cause for battery draining and warrants replacement. finally, disconnect power wires from both spade terminals and measure resistance across them, I do not know what the resitance should be as all coils are different, but it should not be INFINITE, if it is INFINITE it is junk. then measure from each of the two spade terminals to ground, anything other than INFINITE indicates an internal short and its junk.

 

Well I took the Quad to the dealer today. It would not start for me yesterday or today. When I arrived at the dealer the mechanic took it off the trailer and tried to start it. It fired right up and he reved it a couple of times and it was fine. I said in my head you son of a B**ch. Then at that moment it died. He tried to start it up again and it wouldnt. I told the shop manager that a lot of you guys are having the same problem. I will I will post their findings after I get it back. I just cant wait to see this bill. Later,D

 

mrneg since it was intermitent - worked then didn't then did again with no charging or anything needing done - then its almost defientely not a stator or regulator issue, becasue the battery obviously had charge and did not lose it, and its most likely a wire or cable short in the starting system, or very likely the starter solenoid. if the tech is worth his wage, he should be able to determine this rather quickly an you should not have more than one hour of labor and maybe the cost of some cleaner, sand paper, and possibly a solenoid, which are cheap.

when you go back to get it, if he says he really could not find anything positive, then ask him specifically what he checked, and if he does not mention at least everything I have, if not more, then don't bother paying them any money becasue they didn't do anything.

definitely let us know what the end result is!