Hi All,
I see some of you do some work on ATVs. This question may be applicable to any 12 volt charging system.
My 2008 Polaris 800 seems to not be charging. The battery light in the dash started flashing on an 18 month old battery, and by the time I got home from my ride, the battery did not have enough juice to crank the engine.
I put in a new battery, and the light went away, uh, for about an hour.
That new battery had 13.0 volts before the install.
Once hooked up, at idle, 13.0 volts.
revving the engine: 13.0 volts.
The manual shows 3 yellow wires coming off the stator. With engine off, resistance from y1 to y2, y1 to y3, and y2 to y3 should all be .19 ohm. They are. There should be an open circuit between each leg and ground, there is.
The next stator test is to measure AC volts between y1 to y2, y1 to y3, and y2 to y3. At 1300 rpm there should be 18 Vac for each of the 3 combinations. There is.
At 3000 rpm, 42 Vac, and at 5000 rpm 64 Vac. All good. So I am thinking the stator is OK.
Next I throw my ancient analog volt meter on the regulator output. Of course there are 3 yellow inputs from the stator. Then there are 2 black output and 2 red output. The diagram in the manual shows the 2 black wires going to ground. The two red wires going to the starter solenoid. The Battery is connected to the same terminal on the solenoid.
Here is my question, How can I tell If the regulator is shot? At the battery, remember, 13 volts even when revving engine. Not a good sign, but could be a pinched wire or something.
If I disconnect the voltage regulator, engine running, I get about 1 or 2 volts out of each red output wire. I think disconnected is not a valid test.
So I re-connect the regulator and stick the probes into the connector. Now each red wire give me 4 volts at idle, and 10 volts revving the engine. Is this a valid test telling me the voltage regulator is only give up 10 volts to charge the battery? I think I should be getting between 13 and 14.3 out of the regulator.
Thanks
Dale