the second day i had my 400ex running and drivable, i decided to go onsome ice in the mud pit, it was pretty thin but it didnt really matter seeing as how most of the water was only 4 inches deep but then i guess i went too slow and the ice gave way, this wouldnt have been a problem if i was in shallow water but jst my luck~it was right above a hole filled with about a foot of water, after spinning my tires and so on for about 7 minutes until i finally got unstuck, i pulled over, shut the quad off and rested fr a few minutes, went to start the quad- nothing- no power anywhere, fortunately i was able to find a piece of bttery cable to hot wire the quad with and it started but the lights and kill sitch wuldnt work, i got back to the garage, replaced the fuse coming off the battery, started it up and it ran fine, (kill switch still didnt work) turned the lights on to low beam and they woked fine, flipped them to high beam and they went out~blew the fuse. so i replaced the fuse with a piece of wire, i kno you'renot supposed to do this but it worked, only thing is the lights wont work on high beam and the kil switch does nothing to stop the engine but everything else works fine. does anyon have any idea what the problem is?????? ANY feedback would be greatly appreciated, sorry for such a long post but i just wanted to give as much detail on the problem as i could so it could be properly diognosed

thank you for your time

 

It sounds like your original problem was the headlight high beam wire shorting to ground. Because you bypassed your fuse, you may now have burnt wires to fix as well.

 

no i checked all the wires and they're fine~as long as i dont switch the lights to high beam

 

If your fuse blows only when you flick on high beam, it's gotta be a short on the high beam wire, between the hi\low beam switch, and the headlight (It's either blue or white and I'm thinkin' it's blue). It's possible, I suppose, that the headlight bulb or socket has a short itself. unplug the bulb and see if it still blows the fuse. If it still does, you will have to check the entire distance of wire between switch and bulb. Start wherever the harness is close to the chassis, epecially where there is movement, ie. where the harness bundle rests against steering stem. Also remove and check the switch housing, look for wires with bare spots that are contacting your handlebars. Its also possible that two wires have the insulation wore or burnt off, or simply broke, and they are contacting each other. You may have to carefully cut open the black tube that holds your wire bundle to find it. If your description is correct, one of those wires has to be the high beam wire. It's possible your kill switch problem is related, and when you fix your high beam, you will stumble across the answer to that too.

 

Have had the same problem. Sometimes the frame will rub up against the light wiring on the back side of the light, and wear off the insulation. I found my short, and then wrapped everything with tape so it wouldn't happen again.

 

thanks, i have to adjust my valves on tuesday so i'll check allthe wiring while im at it