07 500 electrical confusion (Speedo)
 

So first of all the speedo started jumping around but quad was running fine. Was told to clean the Hall Effect Sensor from some fine fellas on here. Went to fire her up and the battery was dead. Jumped it off the Swisher mower and noticed all I had to do was hook the grounds together and she had juice. So I decided to clean and tighten the ground terminal of the battery. She started right up. Turned it off and tried again and nothing. Then the fuel pump would kick on and just keep running. The headlights, and backup lights will all turn on. During all of this when I had it running I noticed the pod went dark. Not reading anything. This is all new since the speedo started jumping around a couple weeks ago. I ended up taking the Hall Sensor off and cleaning it real well. There was a little bit of a film of mud inside the cap so I cleaned it all up and put it back together, but don't know if that was the problem or not being the pod wont light now. Prior to this I havent had any problems with the pod going out. I just put this battery in this spring so I dont think it is bad especially since the lights and everything work with the key on. I dont know what to check now. Gonna put the battery on the charger in the morning and see if that helps but don't think it is the problem. I did check the voltage the other day when I noticed the speedo needle jumping around and it was putting out 14 volts. I am half tempted to take it to the dealer but don't have that kind of cash to pay those guys their rediculous hourly charges.

Charge the battery like you said,check under pod for any ground wire shorts,plus around harness that comes up into pod area,check that the frame ground is tight.If your negative cable was loose on the battery could be source of some weird problems,plus probably wasn't receiving current properly back into the battery(current has to go somewhere!!) could be cause of intermittent electrical problems. Plus I would remove the positive cable also when charging,when cables are replaced hopefully the electrical system will "reset" since it will be completely disconnected from any power source while the battery is charging Ater replacing cables,then check charging again and hopefully everything will be back to normal.. OPT

Ok got the battery charged up and battery and frame ground clean but the display is still out. Will. Check other ground this weekend. Are there any fuses that could affect this? If so where r they at?

Here's one way to tell if the speedo is out.Pull the large connector at the speedo and with a test light there should be power to one RED wire at all times,key on or off.This wire is mainly for memory I believe,but if the wire has voltage I believe the display should light up.Don't really know if jumping the battery off the Swisher could have caused any damage or not? it's not like jumping off of a truck battery which could cause problems.Plus I would check the wiring closely in the pod area as mentioned earlier as this is a problem area on shorts and ground problems. Plus just to eliminate it as possibly the problem,I would have the battery load tested. Efi machines can do some funky things if batttery is not up to snuff! OPT

Charged battery and connected back up noticed tail lights were working without key in ignition. Pulled ignition and pod off 500 and put on 800 and everything functioned normally. So speedo should be good also ignition should be good. Guess I have a short somewhere being I have power to headlights and accessories without key. OPT where do I go next?

Sounds like you need to tear into the main harness where the ignition switch ties into,remove the protective sheathing and follow down from the lower pod area,also where the left control switch wires ties in and you may have to go down to where the main harness makes the curve and splits on the left side(drivers side).This is what I'm kinda down to since the switch and speedo are good as you say when hooked up on the 800. This is a problem area since there is a lot of twisting and prone to shorts. Since tail lights are on without ignition on,its got to be a direct short somewhere.Plus we have found shorts in the speedo connector harness also where it ties in also since there is always direct power to it, key on or off(mainly for memory on the speedo). NOT a fun job. OPT