[SLM1Evo]

I've been chasing electrical problems on my 2018, 450 Sportsman almost since day one. The flickering instrument panel. Fuel injector cutting in and out. Just one after another. Well 4or so weeks ago I got blessed by the smell of sulfur coming out of the battery. I released the throttle so the instrument panel would come one and the voltage was 18.7 volts. I towed the bike back 19 miles through the Arizona Desert. By the time I got home temps outside were above 110 degrees. In total dismay I just pulled in the gate and there she sat for a week or so. When I could stomach going out to mess with it I bought a new battery, charged it over night. put it in and nothing. Just a rapid buzzing noise then everything went dead. I trouble shot that and found the Chassis ground relay was bad. No problem I got a bunch of those. Switch that out and noticed a hole burnt in the side of the old one. OKAY? I stuck the key in and turn off the kill switch, 9 volts! Cussing like the true Navy Sailor that I am, I grabbed my meter and checked it out yup 9 volts. Fast forward a bit. I got the bike started by using a portable power pack and it ran horrible. I gave it a little throttle and she smoothed out but I looked down and the flickering instrument panel and in full on anger let off the throttle, said a string a curse words which would make anyone blush and the engine died. Another string of expletive's followed. I started it again and as long as the power pack remained on and providing power to the buss the engine would run fine but it was between normal 14.6 and as high as 18.7. If I disconnected the power pack the engine wouldn't even try to stay alive.

Because of the high voltage output, I bought a new regulator. While removing the old one I notice the positive and negative leads went straight to the bus bar and not to the battery where I thought it should go. To make sure I looked up the installation of the regulator in the service manual schematics, The + and Negative Leads are supposed to go directly to the battery Not to the Bus!

Yet if you look at the cartoons in the manual for the harness installation it does show the regulator black and red wires going to the Buss. WHY? You don't want a regulator powering the buss. You want the battery powering the Buss. It will give the regulator wrong readings as the electrical load changes. The battery will absorb some of those rapid changes.

The dealers Shop followed the cartoons and wired the regulator in series with the battery and starter NOT parallel like it is should be. Why I do not know, but guess what is last in this circuit? The fuse block where the instrument panel gets it's juice from. In a parallel circuit Voltage is the constant not amperage. In a series circuit Amperage is the constant not voltage. The regulator does voltage not amperage.

The ground side of the regulator is ran exactly the same way. NO FLIPPEN WONDER nothing works . This is probably why my 2020 570 sportsman battery blew up! Yes blew up. It was just out of warranty when it occurred.. It also explains why it wouldn't run without the power pack connected to the buss.

 

[Scrappy507]

I've been chasing electrical problems on my 2018, 450 Sportsman almost since day one. The flickering instrument panel. Fuel injector cutting in and out. Just one after another. Well 4or so weeks ago I got blessed by the smell of sulfur coming out of the battery. I released the throttle so the instrument panel would come one and the voltage was 18.7 volts. I towed the bike back 19 miles through the Arizona Desert. By the time I got home temps outside were above 110 degrees. In total dismay I just pulled in the gate and there she sat for a week or so. When I could stomach going out to mess with it I bought a new battery, charged it over night. put it in and nothing. Just a rapid buzzing noise then everything went dead. I trouble shot that and found the Chassis ground relay was bad. No problem I got a bunch of those. Switch that out and noticed a hole burnt in the side of the old one. OKAY? I stuck the key in and turn off the kill switch, 9 volts! Cussing like the true Navy Sailor that I am, I grabbed my meter and checked it out yup 9 volts. Fast forward a bit. I got the bike started by using a portable power pack and it ran horrible. I gave it a little throttle and she smoothed out but I looked down and the flickering instrument panel and in full on anger let off the throttle, said a string a curse words which would make anyone blush and the engine died. Another string of expletive's followed. I started it again and as long as the power pack remained on and providing power to the buss the engine would run fine but it was between normal 14.6 and as high as 18.7. If I disconnected the power pack the engine wouldn't even try to stay alive.

Because of the high voltage output, I bought a new regulator. While removing the old one I notice the positive and negative leads went straight to the bus bar and not to the battery where I thought it should go. To make sure I looked up the installation of the regulator in the service manual diagrams. The + and Negative Leads are supposed to go directly to the battery Not to the Bus!

The manual shows a separate positive lead going from the battery to the Starter solenoid, then to the bus bar. So the starter takes its power directly from the battery, the a spliced in section is supposed to go to the buss bar.

The Shop wired the regulator in series with the battery and starter NOT parallel like it is supposed to be. Why I do not know, but guess what is last in this circuit? The fuse block where the instrument panel gets it's juice from.

The ground side of the regulator was ran exactly the same way. NO FLIPPEN WONDER nothing worked . The regulator needs to go to the battery to measure the battery voltage and keep it at the proper level. The way they wired it sure it works at low RPM with no load on anything but since everything is wired at the stinking bus it's reading system voltage not battery voltage.

I put my tools down, and quietly walked into the house and said BREATH! Hopefully finishing up wiring this beast the correct way will be quick tomorrow. and if the stator isn't burnt out I'll let you all know what happens.

Should I go chomp on the dealers butt? How could they miss this? Where is any resemblance of quality control? Since my 2020 570 was put together by them as well, I'm going to check it out as well. It flat out blew a battery up when it was only 6 months old. What a nightmare cleaning that up. Electrical components don't like acid!

Your dealer should absolutely know about that. You shouldn’t have had to touch that machine that early let alone do all that for a problem caused directly by the dealer. Hopefully it’s still under warranty but I doubt it.

 

[SLM1Evo]

Your dealer should absolutely know about that. You shouldn’t have had to touch that machine that early let alone do all that for a problem caused directly by the dealer. Hopefully it’s still under warranty but I doubt it.

Nope the warranty ran out about 2 years ago... At first they blamed the light bar, Horn, and turn signals I put on it. Their Tech couldn't figure out how to put it all back together when the machine quit running because the fuel injector wire connector was assembled wrong at the factory . It allowed water into the plug and it corroded out. So he just cut the wires and denied it. Electrical work isn't that difficult and I've been working on and doing electrical wiring aircraft for over 30 years. After I wired a private owners 727's entertainment system, then owners complained about a squeal. I learned all about a feedback loop. Who would of thought it required a single point ground. OH that's what the braided shielding is for!! They are real finicky on how things are put together.. Point is learn from your mistakes, don't push it off and teach others not to do the same thing. However, That was the last straw and I will not take it back to them ever! Plus they want a ton of money to do things wrong. I think they have like one good tech and the rest are all shade tree mechanics at best. If I find the same thing on the 570, I may have to take a vacation to cool my jets, because I will be very very upset. 😡🤬