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Rebuilding a mid 90s sportsman 400 and learned a lesson! If anyone out there is still riding an old wheeler like this maybe I can save you some money...
Don't run it without the battery!
Technically I had a battery in mine but it was bad (not just dead it actually tested bad) and since I was still a long ways from putting tires on I was just jumping it with a car battery. With the motor running the jumper cables vibrated loose...next thing I know the lights are way way brighter than they should be and then...
POP POP POP
the bulbs started blowing out - no glass explosions but loud pops for sure. By the time my brain processed what was going on and I shut it down all the lights were toast - headlights, speedo, dash, taillight...
I put a meter on the battery cable with the engine running - over 20 volts! :eek: No wonder the lights were uber bright with a tragicly short life span :mad:
So I go scrounging and come across a nice warning in the shop manual that I wish I had read sooner...don't run it without the battery or serious damage to lights can occur! After more research it turns out the voltage regulator cannot handle the stator output without a battery to soak up excess voltage. Hopefully a simple dead battery doesn't cause this, but a bad battery certainly does (mine was hooked up).
Not sure what happens if you're out in the sticks and have a rollover or something damage a battery, but it wouldn't be pretty.
Don't run it without the battery!
Technically I had a battery in mine but it was bad (not just dead it actually tested bad) and since I was still a long ways from putting tires on I was just jumping it with a car battery. With the motor running the jumper cables vibrated loose...next thing I know the lights are way way brighter than they should be and then...
POP POP POP
the bulbs started blowing out - no glass explosions but loud pops for sure. By the time my brain processed what was going on and I shut it down all the lights were toast - headlights, speedo, dash, taillight...
I put a meter on the battery cable with the engine running - over 20 volts! :eek: No wonder the lights were uber bright with a tragicly short life span :mad:
So I go scrounging and come across a nice warning in the shop manual that I wish I had read sooner...don't run it without the battery or serious damage to lights can occur! After more research it turns out the voltage regulator cannot handle the stator output without a battery to soak up excess voltage. Hopefully a simple dead battery doesn't cause this, but a bad battery certainly does (mine was hooked up).
Not sure what happens if you're out in the sticks and have a rollover or something damage a battery, but it wouldn't be pretty.
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