Ok, i just got my quad back, in for service (oil change, lube, etc) anyways, decided to go for a trail ride yesterday. Got going about an hour into it the bike started to sputter and die out. weird, so i turned everything off, left it for about 30sec, turned the key on and it came too..so that was fine, made it to the local pit did some jumps, blah blah, worked great for about 2hrs. On the way back home through the woods i turned my headlights on, about a minute after that the quad died again! Turned off the headlights waited a minute and the power came back.

So bascially if i turn my headlights on within a minute i loose all power to the quad. I mean the fan wont run, it wont turn over, nothing! But once i turn the lights off, it slowly comes back, you can watch the fan start to turn, slowly at first, then quicker until bang it comes right on. takes about 30sec or so to power back up.

So whats up? I gonna bring it in to the dealer to have it looked at, but where its an hour 1/2 away, i'd rather fix it myself..anyone suggest anything? Where to look? thanks!

 

I'd probably check the battery first. Feel the outside of it's case...internally shorted will mean a very warm/hot battery, check the connections. Pop a volt meter across the terminals and check for around 12.5 volts with nothing on. Maybe drop the front and side plastics to look around for a pinched wire, and to double check gang grounds. I normally spray things down with CRC 2-26 an electrical contact cleaner that leaves a protective film behind. I know there's a muli-ground up front on the fuel pump mount, and one on the LH rear by the coil.

 

Cool..i'll look that over. I checked the battery connections, everything looks fine though.

One thing, when the bike was in for service they cleaned it, looks like they took a pressure washer to it, im thinking maybe water shorted somthing out.

 

Scotts88, same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago. It just cut out on me as I was ripping in 4th gear. I knew it was electrical, and looked over everything, turned off the headlights, checked the battery connection. Everything was fine. Power was back on a minute later, the fan started going again. It was a one time occurrence, and I've ridden it about 6 hours since, and it has been fine. My hunch tells me it was related to the headlights also.

 

It sounds like a dead short in a switch or the harness somewhere. The ignition system is a DC ignititon type meaning that it requires battery voltage to run. If you had a dead short in your headlight system somewhere, it could cause you to loose spark. check wiring from the switch to the lights etc. and you will probably find your problem. hope this helps

 

Well i think it might have been the switch as stated above. I got a new switch from the dealer today, swaped it over and ran the bike for 5min or so. Seemed to work ok, didnt die on me with the lights on.

Hopefully that was my problem! I'll keep everyone posted!