About a week ago my hunting partner put heated grips on his 97 Sportsman 400. He thought everything was good as they went on fairly easy and they heated up like they're supposed to. Now for the problem, his electric starter won't work nor will any of his lights including the headlights, neutral/reverse indicator lights, etc.. Even when using the pull starter to get the machine running the lights, ect.. won't work. Yesterday we spent about an hour going over the wiring directions that came with the grips and everything looked like it was hooked up correctly. We eventually undid the grips and restored the wiring to the way it was originally and still have the same problem. He tapped into a red wire with a white stripe that was key controlled for power and had a good ground to the frame. He told me today that when putting on the grips, he loosend the bolts that hold the light switch/kill switch, starter button housing in place.

Is there some kind of a ground for the light/kill switch cover that could be loose? Any other suggestions or ideas. By the way, we were supposed to be headed out for a hunting trip in the morning. I guess thats what he gets for trying to save himself a few bucks on professional insallation. Thanks for any ideas or information.

 

There is a 20 amp fuse in a red wire that goes to the key switch . I suspect it is blown . You may find it better to hook up the hotgrips through the accessory line as to not have a disabled quad if it fails again .

By the way , I like deer sausage , it will keep fine in transit to me via UPS .
Have a great hunting trip.

 

I took the hint from the ATVconnection article on the "perfect hunting quad", and hooked into the auxillary DC outlet. Worked great.

I installed the older version of the hotgrips. I had problems installing the grips themselves using the epoxy that hotgrips provided. The epoxy set up way to fast and I couldn't get the grip more than half way on (even using a deadblow hammer). I ended up having to cut the grip off. Anyone else experience this problem?

I recommend that you heat the grip up in an oven (not microwave) at about 175 degrees to make the grip more plyable. Then soap the grip and put it on with no epoxy. Once the grip is on, You can't move it, even when the grips are heated up.

The new grips may be easier to install with epoxy.

Other than the installation problem I experienced, these grips work and get a big thumbs up.

 

I believe that should be a 20 amp breaker that resets itself. You should hear it click if it blows than a minute later it resets. Its possible that the regulator didnt like the extra load and picked now to go. The system should easily handle the load with a functioning regulator. Do the grips work now or did they go too with the rest of the power. Check for ac power at the yellow wire going to the regulator when the engine is running, it should be 20 to 30 volts. There should also be 12 volts dc at the red wire coming from the regulator.
Moving the switch it self should have no effect on the power loss. good luck

 

My buddy took the 400 into the dealer tonight and they're going to look at it first thing in the morning. Come to find out, all of the light bulbs were fried. I have no idea what caused it but something definately shorted out somewhere. From what they told him and from what he told me, the dealer seems to think it has something to do with the system overloading an already bad regulator, as someone stated earlier. This really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, I see people with winches, heated grips, spotlights, ect.. that never have a system overload. The dealer is going to look at a regulator or something of the sort that is under the front of the handlebars. Anyone know what this might be? The dealer said that the same regulator controls the reverse override and a rev limiter that's linked to the transmission. Does this make sense to any of you?

I'm inclined to think that the whole problem is with my buddies electrician skills but the dealer seems to think it's just a coincidence that the regulator wen't bad when it did and he acted like it's a common occurrence for them to go bad. Thanks for the info and any further info or comments are appreciated.

By the way, the grips are the only electrical item working.

 

The earlier 400L had a problem with the bumper lights blowing. It never happened while riding, both people i know, said they blew starting them up. Figurd it may have been a surge between the regulator and starter backfeeding through the headlight ground (just a thery). Under the gas tank cover towards the front is the wiring board on the old style and under the (hood) or in front of the pod on the sp500's. Things can short circuit there too. I disconnected the reverse override wire on my sp500, for finding the button in certain conditions was like grasping for air (not recomended for beginers or if children ride!!!) but still have to use override to engage in 4x4 when backing. REMEMBER! A POLARIS WILL GO THE SAME SPEED BACKWARDS AS IT WILL FORWARD!!!!!

 

This may sound dumb, but how is the battery. A friend of mine had the battery short out after attatching a small electric sprayer. Somehow either the battery was bad and took out the regulator, or the regulator was bad & it took out the battery. To make a long story short, with the bad regulator, and not enough battery to absorb it, there were big enough power surges going through the system to blow every light bulb on his ATV.
Farmr

 

mtnfun,

I have a 2001 Xplorer 400. How do I disconnect the reverse override? I did have a sp500, and heard that I needed to cut the purple wire, which I did, and my bike wouldn't rev in reverse, and 4wd didn't work in reverse, with or without the button pressed in. Thanks for your help!!!

 

I used to own an express 300.
I was out riding one day stopped for lunch and when i went to re start - nothing ! The battery had dropped a cell. I used the pull start to start it and when i gave it a rev.... pop, every single globe blew, it seems with a dead cell in the battery there was no regulation. A new battery later and new globes all round solved the problem. Just a thought anyway.

Andrew
97 Sport 400

 

You guys were right, it turned out to be bad battery. Apparently the voltage regulator couldn't handle a surge and blew all of the bulbs. A new battery and light bulbs cured the problem but it seems odd that there wouldn't be something in place to prevent this from happening. I believe the average life of an ATV battery to be less than 3 years and if every time a battery goes bad, this is the result, it's not only annoying but expensive. The dealer hooked my buddy close to $200.00 for a battery, bulbs and labor. Granted this was a rush job because we were leaving town the next day for a hunting trip and had no idea what the problem was. Anyway, thanks for the information.