This one just has me scratching my head[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img] As I was tracing out wires to install the 3 headlight set up in my 700EFI I found that the supposed "ground" wire to both the hi and lo beams has a constant 8.5 volts when the key is on and lights turned off. The power wires (yellow hi beam and green lo beam) are the way I figure they should be. 0 volts untill the switch is thrown and then 12volts. I find it somewhat odd that the lights even come on at all. I pulled the plug and jumped a ground wire off one pin on the light and ran the other to the switched wire and the bulb burned about twice as bright.....so know I am wondering if I have some kind of short or something. Is there something here that I am missing? I appreciate the help.

Gordy[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Yes you have a bad ground connection somewhere. try and follow the wire to where it grounds look around on the frame for a bolt holding a bunch of ground wires maybe the paint on the frame is keeping it from grounding properly. I saw one quad that the coil and headlight ground were on the same bolt on the frame. this was a older quad and some rust had caused the connection between the frame and wires to become weak. however the connection between the two ground wires (headlight and coil )remained good so the voltage from the coil that would normally have been grounded on the frame contuined up the headlight wire in search of a ground. It could be somthing like this that is causing the 8.5 volts you getting on your headlight ground.

Jeff

 

Here's the latest. I traced all the ground wires for all the lights, including brake and they all came to a junction plug with a bunch of other wires. the only other ground wire coming out of the plug went to some epoxy filled black box. It wasn't the ECU but right below it. As this is the only wire not running directly to a light it stands to reason that there is a short or a misconection inside that box. I will be bringing the faulty unit back to the dealer along with my test equipment to try out some of the other EFIs on the lot. Since I just got the thing today I really shouldn't have been the one to trace all this out but who knows how long it would take for the dealer to figure it out. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

 

Its not a bad ground! It is the results of more electronics on the bike, it is a logic ground (let me know if you want more info but this could get deep fast). I done the same mod to mine the other day, heres what I did. Lookin at the frnt, with the cowl off on the left side open wire loom. Trace yellow and brn wire from the pod light and the lower lights, cut and seal off (I used RTV) Supply a new ground to both circuits (I used the chassis ground to the lower r/side of the ECU) Your relay, Power from the constant hot wire (orange & white w/connector) on the lower right side, ground=chassis, control source is the pod light power wire (yellow), and output from the relay is the dark green (only one splice needed on dark green for lower lights they are in a parreal circuit. If you need more info on this let me know, or if you wanna know how to bypass the R overide button let me know (its real simple)

 

Thanks Kuntry!
I started digging around a bit more and found that the lights are on a "load shedding circuit" Theres about a page worth of technical mumbo-jumbo regarding how and why it works which made me a bit nervous disconecting it. I was going to do the same thing you did but decided to go with a diode between the yellow Hi beam and green Lo beam wires. much easier and works great.

 

At least you did take the time to do it 100% correct. I probably should have waited for a trip to radio shack, but I figured there was already enough electronics on it so I went with the straight ground.

Update on the reverse override, cut and sealed off one wire and its like (the override requirement) was never there. Black wire on the back side of the speedo, it goes to the CDi and the AWD circuit.

Now to figure out a smart way to get rid of the foot brake requirement for high and park.

 

Sorry for the worng info I did not know that the lighting electronics for a quad had came this far. I see it in cars every day but did not expect to see it on a quad for a while yet . Well it sounds interesting I will be reading up on it just so I will no better next time.

Jeff