Had a buddy of mine send his daughter's boyfriend over to me to look at his machine because it was draining the battery while he was driving it. He said he called around to a few shops and each one threw him a scary number in price and said the stator needed to be replaced. I know stators can go bad but I would be hesitant to tell someone that without actually doing a test on it or seeing what shape the battery was in. I have the shop manual for the machine and it says to test the resistance on the wires going to the stator but am a little confused. Do I test the wire for resistance to both yellow wires or where do I test the wires to, the ground? Also, how do i test the rectifier? I know I can run the machine and test voltage to the battery to see if I am getting around 14 volts but can I test the rectifier some how to see if that is the issue and not the stator? I plan on charging the battery and doing a load test to rule a bad battery out also.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Check first that the regulator wires are all plugged in. Some models had a habit of the red power wire disconnecting.Pull the yellow wires from the stator leading to the regulator.Just check with the meter leads between each yellow.Should have a small amount of resistance with no yellow shorting to ground. In other words have the + lead in a yellow and touch a good ground with the - lead.Meter reading can bounce around but not zero out indicating a short.There is an amperage test also.Here's one similar to the one in your manual.
"TEST 3: Measure AC Voltage Output of Each
Stator Leg at Charging RPM with a voltmeter set
to Volts AC.
1. Place the red lead on the tester in the 10A jack.
2. Turn the selector dial to the Volts AC position.
3. Pull start the engine and let it idle.
4. Separately test each ’leg’ of the stator by
connecting the meter leads to the wires leading
from the alternator (Y1 to Y2, Y1 to Y3, Y2 to Y3).
Alternator Current Output Reading should be no
less than 30--40V AC above 2000 RPM on each
’leg’.
NOTE: If one or more of the stator leg output AC
voltage varies significantly from the specified value,
the stator may need to be replaced."
Majority of the time it's a regulator problem if it's not charging.

 

Thanks OPT, that clears up a lot of the confusion.

I'm going to check the wires out tomorrow and if they all look good I will do some tests but I am assuming it is either a bad regulator or even a bad battery but I should have that narrowed down with the rest with a fluke meter.

The other thing the guy asked me about was the plastic oil tank seeping oil. Has anyone had any luck sealing these up? I know they are prone to crack unlike the older metal tanks. Not sure if there is a fix to it but I told him I would look at it.

Thanks,
Mike

 

The reason plastic tanks leak is that people crank down too much on the drain plug. A replacement washer may help but if it still leaks then the threaded inset that's molded to the tank has broken loose and seeping around it.When this happens the tank needs to be replaced. Some people have bought used metal tanks on ebay and used them in place of the plastic tanks.

 

I got time to test the system today, I also tested the battery which is also bad. I tested the yellow wires with my fluke meter. Both wires showed 3.875 when I put the black lead to a ground and the red wire was touching the yellow wire connection. Is that bad? With the system running, voltage bounces around but does not increase with engine tom and is very low.

Thanks,
Mike

 

If the red wire is fused to a yellow then that's not good. Could be the problem on charging plus sucking the life out of the battery.

 

Thanks OPT,

would these readings on the yellow wires mean the stator is bad? Or is it the voltage regulator causing the issue?

Thanks,
Mike

 

Sounds like the regulator is what took out the battery.Readings on the stator yellows sound ok especially since both have the same reading but stator ac voltage is taken in,changed to dc volts and managed by the regulator section. If it's not charging then I'd say the wire short blew out at least part of it along with draining down the battery.Not that expensive.Voltage Regulator Rectifier for ATV Quad Polaris Scrambler 500 4X4 2000-2003 | eBay

 

I got it all fixed up. I got a new battery and picked up a Ricks Motorsports rectifier. Checked all the connections before I hooked everything up. The guy had a LED light setup on it and he had it hard wired directly to the battery. The wire was really short so it pulled out and the end was grounding out on the frame so that must be what took the regulator out. Added some wire and it was good to go.

Mike

 

The LED lights should be hooked up to the key switch. I'm not sure but I think any red/white wire would do.