OPT: A little different "No 4X4" problem
 

Machine is a 2000 Xpedition

The wires for the hub on the left side broke. Owner soldered the wires back together and had 4x4 for a short time until the electrical tape (he didn't listen to my advice about using shrink wrap) slipped and the wires started touching and shorted each other. When the wires touched the dash lights started flickering and then the 4x4 quit working.

These are the particulars:
Speedo works
Speedo lights work
I'm not sure if the odo/trip meter is working didn't pay attention to that, just watched the speedo.

I have 23.4 ohms in the left hub coil and 23.5 ohms in the right hub coi
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Switching the AWD switch to on does not light the AWD bulb, but I have (IIRC) 11.25 volts at the connectors on the harness side of the hub coil connections.

Is it possible that the AWD bulb burned out when the wires shorted? It's really hard to tell if the filaments are connected. I do have the ability to unsolder the bulb to test it if neccessary.

Thanks in advance for your input!
Have A Great Day!
Scooter

Awd light doesn't affect the function if you have voltage to the grey hub wires. Grounds could be a problem as some Sportsman owners have posted making a common ground on the small hub wires to regain awd. If this doesn't help,could be a mechanical problem such as seal sleeve and strut casting wear not allowing the armature plate to pull to the coil properly. Seal sleeve item #12.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda, Arctic Cat & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse
I'd try a reground as the video shows and see if this helps. If it doesn't you may have to tear into the hubs and check things out.

I'll try the reground first in the vid first since he had awd until the wires shorted. It would be odd for a mechanical problem to show up from wires shorting out wouldn't it?

I guess I have seen some pretty weird stuff happen.........

I tried the reground as posted in the video above. Although instead of cutting wires I jumpered the ground wires at the plug and connected to vehicle ground........annnnndd the ground wire from the harness for the left side hubs started smoking. So I did a voltage check of the brown wire at the harness with the key on and AWD switch in the "on" position. The result is I have voltage in the ground wire along with voltage in the gray wire. I do have continuity in the brown ground wires to vehicle ground, so until I find the source of the voltage in the ground wire, I am going to assume that the ground for this part of the harness is good.

My guess is that when the wires to the hub shorted out they melted something in the harness and I have wires touching. I am also going to double check and make sure the previous owner soldered the wires back together correctly.

Update soon.......

Recheck ohms resistance in the left hub wires that was smoking. Could be the hub coil itself may have shorted out if it doesn't show around 25-30 ohms resistance. If it checks out ok,then like you say probably short up in the harness powering up the ground. Sounds like PO left you a mess..

Double checked the hub coil and it's good, I'm also going to strip the shrink wrap from the OP's second solder job and make sure he matched the wires up properly.

I traced back thru the wire harness and could find no rub thrus or melted/burned wires, so it looks like the switch could be the culprit since there is no voltage in the ground wires unless the AWD switch is in the "on" position. I have a neighbor with the same throttle/switch assembly so I'm going to borrow that to verify if the switch is bad.

Thanks for all the help OPT!

Just wanted to update this problem. Got a little sidetracked with other stuff while waiting for the switch.:

The neighbors AWD switch was from a newer model 6X6 and had different wiring so I didn't try swapping the switches because I didn't want to chance ruining the borrowed switch, so I bought one off of ebay and installed it to no avail: Still no AWD. :(

Sooooo....I hooked the hub wires directly to the battery and the hubs work (in retrospect I probably should have done this earlier to verify hub function, live and learn I guess)

So all I can think is that something in the speedo fried when the wires shorted out.

Now my question is: Is there a way I can wire the switch to work the hubs and eliminate the speedo from the switch circuit? I know I can wire in a simple toggle switch or similar, but it would be nice to be able to use the original switch.

Thanks again for all the help!

Pull the speedo connector,jump the brown/white wire to the brown or a good ground and then see if the awd works properly. This should bypass the speedo,but can't say all the functions of the speedo will work as it did. A whole lot of people have done this.Problems when Polaris started running the awd connections through the speedo when they really didn't need to..

Do I plug the speedo connector back in after I jumper the wire or do I leave it unplugged?

Plug it back in. Again some functions may or may not work,but you said in an earlier post something wasn't working in the speedo if I remember correctly.You're just jumping the brown/white awd wire bypassing the speedo.