Ski-doo electrical problem

[Steve]

Hi! I have a '99 Grand Touring 500. Haven't run it in a couple years
due to lack of snow. Put in a new battery and fired it up. Seems to
run fine but it seems to be losing signals to the engine temp and gas
tank level guages (they do show a level but not close to being
accurate) and the tach seems a little erratic. Also the tail light is
out but the brake light and head light still work. The handle bar and
thumb heaters seem to work but not real strong. The battery I just
put in was new and fully charged. It starts up great with the E
start. Any ideas on the guage issues? Thanks!
Steve

[Randall]

Sounds like either a short to ground, a bad voltage regulator or a bad or
shorted stator for the 12V. Check each wire from the stator for a short to
ground. Check the output of the stator by disconnecting the stator,
starting the sled and checking the AC voltage from it (use an analog gauge
as a digital will vary wildly). Another thing that comes to mind is
incorrectly wired hand warmers. Are they connected to ground on one wire
and 12V AC on the other? If so, this will bleed power to ground, the same
way the voltage regulator does. Or is it connected to the battery? It
should be connected to the AC only, typically the yellow and yellow with
black stripe. Maybe the hand warmers are shorted to ground on the
handlebars.

You mention the tail light being out. It is possible that it is shorting.
I have seen the broken filament short to the other one. The battery is only
used for running the starter. You could even run without one. The tach
merely measures the alternating current frequency (or Hz) from the stator,
which is why it is basically connected to the same wiring as the lights.
--
Randall
1992 Ski-Doo Safari 377 (His)
1992 Ski-Doo Safari 377 Electric (Hers)

Post by Steve
Hi! I have a '99 Grand Touring 500. Haven't run it in a couple years
due to lack of snow. Put in a new battery and fired it up. Seems to
run fine but it seems to be losing signals to the engine temp and gas
tank level guages (they do show a level but not close to being
accurate) and the tach seems a little erratic. Also the tail light is
out but the brake light and head light still work. The handle bar and
thumb heaters seem to work but not real strong. The battery I just
put in was new and fully charged. It starts up great with the E
start. Any ideas on the guage issues? Thanks!
Steve

[Steve]

Post by Randall
Sounds like either a short to ground, a bad voltage regulator or a bad or
shorted stator for the 12V.  Check each wire from the stator for a short to
ground.  Check the output of the stator by disconnecting the stator,
starting the sled and checking the AC voltage from it (use an analog gauge
as a digital will vary wildly).  Another thing that comes to mind is
incorrectly wired hand warmers.  Are they connected to ground on one wire
and 12V AC on the other?  If so, this will bleed power to ground, the same
way the voltage regulator does.  Or is it connected to the battery?  It
should be connected to the AC only, typically the yellow and yellow with
black stripe.  Maybe the hand warmers are shorted to ground on the
handlebars.
You mention the tail light being out.  It is possible that it is shorting.
I have seen the broken filament short to the other one.  The battery is only
used for running the starter.  You could even run without one.  The tach
merely measures the alternating current frequency (or Hz) from the stator,
which is why it is basically connected to the same wiring as the lights.
--
Randall

Thank you very much for the info to check out! I plan to put in a new
tail light bulb first and see what that does. As for the hand warmers,
not sure on their wiring but would it matter if they were on or off?
It didn't make a difference either way. Everything worked fine the
last time I ran it so just letting it sit (inside of a closed storage
container unit) for a couple years was not a good thing to do I know.
I was actually very lucky the gas didn't gel up in the carbs over that
period of time but I think I did put stabilizer in the tank when I put
it away. It really ran quite well and I didn't even have to change
plugs! Thanks again!
Steve
Happy Trails!

[Randall]

Post by Steve
Thank you very much for the info to check out! I plan to put in a new
tail light bulb first and see what that does. As for the hand warmers,
not sure on their wiring but would it matter if they were on or off?
It didn't make a difference either way. Everything worked fine the
last time I ran it so just letting it sit (inside of a closed storage
container unit) for a couple years was not a good thing to do I know.
I was actually very lucky the gas didn't gel up in the carbs over that
period of time but I think I did put stabilizer in the tank when I put
it away. It really ran quite well and I didn't even have to change
plugs! Thanks again!
Steve
Happy Trails!

It is possible that if the warmers (or one of them) are shorting to ground,
it wouldn't matter if they were on or not as you would have one half of the
AC current leaking to ground. It's also quite possible that some critter
chewed on some wires while in storage (I've had that happen to me once).

You were lucky with the gas, even with stabilizer. My machines hadn't been
used in 2 years and the carbs were gummed like hell.

Please let me know how things go.

Randall

[b***@gmail.com]

Post by Steve
Hi! I have a '99 Grand Touring 500. Haven't run it in a couple years
due to lack of snow. Put in a new battery and fired it up. Seems to
run fine but it seems to be losing signals to the engine temp and gas
tank level guages (they do show a level but not close to being
accurate) and the tach seems a little erratic. Also the tail light is
out but the brake light and head light still work. The handle bar and
thumb heaters seem to work but not real strong. The battery I just
put in was new and fully charged. It starts up great with the E
start. Any ideas on the guage issues? Thanks!
Steve

Hi Steve,

I have a 98 grand touring 700 and I have the exact same issue! If you get this please let me know what the issue was. It would be awesome to get it fixed.

Best,
Brian McGuire