I have a 425 Xpedition that I know the AWD did not work correctly. I took nose cover off and found two broken wires (brown/white and grey). Very small 26 gauge or so, but I thought this would do the trick. I started plowing and the AWD works when and how it wants to. Sometimes it is 3wd, other times it's 2wd, and rarely did all 4 kick in. I know I have to check for 12 volts in the system, and perform a continuity check for the hub coils (25-30 olms) with the key on and AWD switch on. Speedometer works and I was able to get the AWD to kick in sometimes if I turned the handle bars back and forth while in reverse. Once the AWD was working it would disengage when I switched from forward to reverse, or vice versea. Does anyone know if there is a transmission control to the AWD? Anything else I should be checking?

 

Fluid change in the hubs if you haven't already done so.Gear position sender is located on the transmission,but try this first as the thin brown/white ground wire gives a lot of people problems on the awd.On a Sportsman 500,but the same system.

 

Hopefully this will be the solution. In the video he says four brown/white wires. Mine has two brown/white and two grey, are these the four wires I need to put together?

 

He's cutting the two brown/white wires making 4 wire ends. Then adding a larger wire to these 4 ends to a good ground such as the coil mounting bolt or a good frame ground. Grey power wire usually isn't the problem just the grounds.

 

Thanks old polaris tech, you always come through when needed to save money and time. I decided to disconnect the brown wire from the speedometer, just to avoid cutting and splicing. Do you see any problems with this? (Got the whole drive way plowed!)

 

Most people jumped the brown/white to a brown wire from the speedo harness itself if the speedo was already faulty and they didn't want to replace it just to have awd. Either way, at the speedo or at the awd connectors under the panel as long as you have awd is what matters. Did you jump the brown/white wire to another ground(brown) or just pull the whole harness connector out of the speedo? Just curious..

 

I tried grounding the brown wires as shown in video, bit this didn't work for me, in fact the splice joint got very hot very quickly so I'm pretty sure it was shorting out.

I've successfully tested that I have 12-13 volt at each of the grey wires and I've got 25ohm across the coil wires.

I also have 12-13v on the brown wires which doesn't seem correct to me, what else can I try?

Not sure if it's related but I also have no lights...

 

Voltage and ohm readings are good,but not voltage on the ground wires. Somewhere in the harness from the awd switch to the speedo?(you don't say what model you have) to the awd connectors leading to the hubs you have a brown/white that's powered up from a direct short sounds like. This is the bad part on electrical problems.You just have to trace wiring until you find the problem. Probably will find a couple wires fused together like I've found before.

 

Thanks,

I think you're right, looks like I'll have to try and trace it back, both headlamps and taillamp have also blown at the same time the AWD failed, is it possible that the AWD indicator lamp next to the switch could also have blown? and if so, would that stop the AWD engaging?

 

Only if it was a pre 96 model as the awd light was not directly tied into the awd after that.You've never said what machine you do have.