Hi,
Just picked up an 02 Kodiak 400 4x4 Special Edition. Looks and condition slold us right away. Bike was originally owned by Royal Distributing in Guelph. Anyway, bike ran great for the first 2 days then wouldn't start as if dead battery. So took the battery out threw it on the charger at 2A for couple hours. Started right away...once. Then the same thing. Looked a little further. Voltmeter shows 12.7V with key off. As soon as you turn the key on volts drop to 3.2-3.8V. Start the bike voltage stays the same around 3.5. Turn the lights on, voltage goes to about 7V. Hmmm, ok. Hit the winch, stalls the bike. I have done some of the tests that are listed in the service manual for the 450 on the charging side of it. Any ideas what could cause this? Bike starts and runs great by recoil. Checked the ground and it appears to be a solid connection. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

****Ok, have checked the stator resistance. says I should be around .6 and I am reading a consistent 1.1 from 1-2 and 1-3. Both read identical so I would assume that is fine. No continuity to ground. And there is continuity for the 3 wires. Ready to pull the last 6 hairs I have out!

 

Just wanted to post that all is fixed. I had read somewhere that the charging system needed to see 10VDC in order to work correctly. How or why not sure, but I ended up replacing the battery with a new one and all is good. I did charge the other battery as I mentioned but for whatever reason it did not work. Charged the new battery for a day on 2A threw it in then checked with voltmeter. Everything checked out. Increased RPM and voltage increased on battery as it should.

 

Glad it was somthing simple. After reading your post, that 1st batt was bad. A good batt should never go past 9.6 volts when heavy cranking. If it goes past that it has a shorted cell and needs to be replaced.