electrical question

[goerge]

My sled worked fine, all the electrical, then the kill switch was intermittent, and the tach and headslight would come and go. Then the kill switch quit altogether, but the key switch would work. While riding, the hand and thumb warmers would get really hot, and it started to melt the hand grips. so we unplugged the grip heaters and I also unplugged the wiring to the hood, so not to burn up the tach, not sure that it didn't. The sled runs fine it is just the electrical acc. My question is-- could this be a bad voltage regulator, or has anyone run accross this before? Thanks John

 

[skis_n_skid]

The kill switch doesn't have anything to do with the regulator, probably just corroded contacts on that. Over heating hand/thumb warmers sounds like a bad regulator though. The intermittent tach and headlight could be from a bad regulator, or could also be a corroded connection.

 

[goerge]

Thanks, already checked the grounds. Can't figure out why the key will work, but the kill switch won't?

 

[skis_n_skid]

Sounds like a problem with the kill switch itself. Could be corroded contacts inside the switch. The ignition circuit is different from the lights/accessory circuit. When you kill the motor with the kill switch or the key it grounds the ignition circuit but the lights don't go off until the motor stops spinning.

I believe the kill switch issue is unrelated to the hand warmer/headlight/tach issue (unless it's a ground problem that affects both the kill switch and the regulator). Have you checked to make sure the regulator itself is well grounded? If the regulator isn't grounded well (corrosion on the ground wire), it will act the same as a bad regulator. If it's not a ground problem then it's probably a bad regulator, but that wouldn't affect the kill switch.

 

[goerge]

Thanks, I will start looking. We checked the kill switch with an ohm meter, and it seemed fine. (Doesn't mean that it is or isn't) The hand warmer and light problem seem to be tied to the kill switch problem. (the last two rides, when I hit the kill switch, the motor would diesel for awhile. Then it would do anything at all. This last ride it wouldn't work at all, then while riding, everything would work fine for a short while, then quit again. Which let me to belive it was a bad ground.)

 

[skis_n_skid]

You checked the continuity of the switch itself, or just that it's grounded properly? If the switch itself tests good, then there might be a break in the connection from the ignition circuit to the kill switch. You could try jumping it straight to ground and see if it kills the motor.

Your hand warmer circuit might be shorting out causing the entire circuit to get hot. That would affect your headlight, and anything else on the lighting/accessory circuit. You could have two separate problems stemming from one cause (maybe some wires got pinched causing a short in one circuit and a break in another circuit).

 

[goerge]

Yes, I believe that you are right with two problems. If I take the black wire to ground ( with the kill switch unhooked) it does kill the motor. I think that the hand warmers are shorted out. I will check into it further. We also got a slight amount of voltage at the kill switch wires on the harness side? We are not sure what that is from, we looked for pinched or worn wires, but did not find any. That is whats leading us to believe it is shorted hand warmers. Thanks for your help.