Headlights dim, MFD resetting?

[Jthogan]

Just got beack from a 3 day trip and overall everything was great. BUT...I was riding down a pretty choppy trail one night and all of the sudden the lights went dim and the MFD starting cutting out and resetting. Did that a couple times and then I shut it off a took a little break. Started it back up and has yet to do it again after putting another 100 miles on.
Where should I start looking?

 

[Z-Man]

Check wires and wire connections going to your hood. Especially around your pipe. Look over all wires to make sure nothing is pinched or worn through anywhere on the sled.
I highly recommend pulling the tank if at all possible and making sure the wires from your regulator are not pinched under the tank and installing wire cover on them.

 

[94fordguy]

Gonna agree... check the wiring first off... I had a very similar experience last year and the stator wires had rubbed and were grounding out causing the dim lights and mfd.

 

[Jthogan]

Check wires and wire connections going to your hood. Especially around your pipe. Look over all wires to make sure nothing is pinched or worn through anywhere on the sled.
I highly recommend pulling the tank if at all possible and making sure the wires from your regulator are not pinched under the tank and installing wire cover on them.

Thanks for the heads up!! I pulled the tank and I will say its hard to understand exactly why Polaris would jam the seat up tight on those wires! I wouldn't have believed it till I saw it! Luckily my wires hadn't worn thru yet as seen in picture but it was only a matter of time. I actually re-drilled a new mounting location for regulator farther forward to allow space between seat and wires.
THOSE WHO HAVEN'T DONE THIS DO IT NOW!!!!

Now that wasn't the problem but what I did find is that the hood wiring harness down by hood hinge did have alot of corrosion in it and at some point the ground wire got HOT in the connector, could see that it was discolored. So cleaned up the ground point behind secondary clutch and traced wires as best I could and found no shorts between the ground point and connector. Maybe it just got moisture in it and arched across connectors? I am gonna put dielectric grease on all connections there and maybe try to waterproof the connection some how.

Does anyone else know what would have caused the connection to get that hot?

[/IMG]

 

[Z-Man]

Bad grounding, high resistance connection with the corrosion. Aluminum is a terrible conductor when it oxidizes unlike copper that still keeps a connection. The navy installed aluminum wire in a bunch of there houses and have to rewire them when after a few years the houses started catching fire because of the wiring.

Wouldn't hurt to add a ground wire from the bolt on the footwell to the side of the engine. EFI does not like bad grounds, tends to burn up your ECU and other things.

 

[High Velocity]

Jt, I had the exact same electrical issue as you last season. Just for chits and giggles, try unplugging your handwarmers on the handlebars. I found the left element was shorted to ground through the bars. Good luck.

 

[MARV1]

Check the wires for the selenoid that controls the exhaust valves as well.

 

[ampt66]

simular problem

Hey mine started doing the same thing. Only difference is the battery level shows low and hand warmers dont work. everything works great at hight rpm but fades away at low and indle. gona go throught the wiring this week. Just wondering if it may be more hardware failure then wiring and if there are any ideas of what??
cheers

 

[BIGGDAWG]

Hey mine started doing the same thing. Only difference is the battery level shows low and hand warmers dont work. everything works great at hight rpm but fades away at low and indle. gona go throught the wiring this week. Just wondering if it may be more hardware failure then wiring and if there are any ideas of what??
cheers

check for short/ broken wires for hand warmers also you may have a weak capacitor, low battery reading usually is bad capacitor.

 

[ampt66]

thanks

sounds good gona go over it tommorow morning! is there a way of testing the capacitor or do i just have to replace it and hope for the best???

 

[danduvall]

Thanks for the heads up!! I pulled the tank and I will say its hard to understand exactly why Polaris would jam the seat up tight on those wires! I wouldn't have believed it till I saw it! Luckily my wires hadn't worn thru yet as seen in picture but it was only a matter of time. I actually re-drilled a new mounting location for regulator farther forward to allow space between seat and wires.
THOSE WHO HAVEN'T DONE THIS DO IT NOW!!!!

Now that wasn't the problem but what I did find is that the hood wiring harness down by hood hinge did have alot of corrosion in it and at some point the ground wire got HOT in the connector, could see that it was discolored. So cleaned up the ground point behind secondary clutch and traced wires as best I could and found no shorts between the ground point and connector. Maybe it just got moisture in it and arched across connectors? I am gonna put dielectric grease on all connections there and maybe try to waterproof the connection some how.

Does anyone else know what would have caused the connection to get that hot?

[/IMG]

i found the same thing on my 900 2 days ago, i re-mounted some stuff aswell, and covered the entire front of my tank with adhesive backed foam, i also added some new and extra foam under the tank on top of the tunnel, my tank was really starting to rub into the tunnel!