Honda Fourtrax 300 Electrical Problems

[ianj454]

I was looking to hook up a light on my buddies 92 300 fourtrax. The wiring is hacked up by the previous owner, and the only thing that works is the kill switch and the ignition circuit (minus the keyed ignition). The battery also has been removed.I was going to use the charging circuit on the battery leads to power the new light. When the bike is at low idle there is 11-12 vdc, but when the throttle is pushed the voltage will drop down to below 4vdc. Is this normal or is there something wrong with the bike, would a battery fix this problem?

[barnett468]

Hello

Sorry to hear your having problems, remove the positive cable from the battery while it is running if it dies it is a charging circuit/wiring problem. If it keeps running then check the voltage at idle and at around 2000 rpm, if the voltage goes up your charging circuit/wiring is good and your battery is bad. Easy enough! Hopefully this is correct for an alternator system anyway, not sure what the old hondas use, someone else will know though.

[ianj454]

thanks for the tip, but there is no battery currently in the bike.

Is 3-4vcd a normal charge voltage? I always thought it was around 13vdc

[barnett468]

No it should be 6 or 12 plus on alternater systems

[trike savior]

with the battery being deleted the only thing powering the ignition system is the stator. the stator on bikes that are meant for not having a battery are different than those that are. think of the battery as a capacitor, storing the electrical energy. when you take that away the stator is doing everything it can just to power the ignition and will not be able to power much else. the higher the rpm, more sparks per second, bigger drain on stator and without the storage device, it cant keep up. if the bike was meant to not have a battery the stator would have alot more output for ignition and lights.

so simple answer is yes a battery should cure this problem. get a wiring diagram and make a new harness. if you dont wire battery back in properly you can start blowing things. if you need help keep posting ill help. bit of a wiring guru, wired everything from atc's to cars to heavy equipment

[barnett468]

Hello

There's a more detailed description for you and probably more accurate for your applicatiion than mine. I am not a great electrical guy. I did forget to mention that you need a battery in it. Can't believe I missed that, moron, sorry.

Hey at least I did determine a 45 year old mini bike magneto problem so I'm not totally useless, lol.

[ianj454]

Thanks for the help guys, my buddie is going to try to track down a battery for it. As for making a new harness it is going to be a bit out of the question for now, the bike is left out side in the snow, and with no heated garage to defrost and work on it, wiring will have to wait till this summer.