07 Arctic Cat 500 automatic - NO POWER

[Capt Rick]

Hello all! I have a 07 Arctic Cat 500 automatic, I went riding a couple weeks ago and it ran perfect. I parked it and it sat, I went to fire it up yesterday and I have no power. No lights, dash, nothing at all! The battery is fully charged and fuses are fine, it turns over when i jump the solenoid but wont start because no power. any ideas would be appreciated

[Admin]

@Capt Rick your other topic was a duplicate, so it was removed. 

[Ajmboy]

Sounds like you have a break somewhere. Check your battery connections first. So when you turn the key on, you have no lights or power, correct? I would start checking all the wiring to make sure there are no break/disconnects if fuses are good. Check the ignition switch first and work your way from there. This is of course if your battery is indeed fully charged. Is there a main fuse under the fender or seat?

[Capt Rick]

There is a main fuse under the seat, it’s good. battery cables are good and tight with no corrosion. Took off ground wire from frame and took wire brush to it and frame thinking it could be a bad ground.  Solid connection there too. 

[Capt Rick]

battery is only a month old

[Capt Rick]

any help would be appreciated! thanks

[davefrombc]

Check the  battery voltage . .  Even   a  month old  battery  can fail or be  dead  if there  was a drain  on it  while  sitting .

[mikeexplorer]

I would suspect a broken wire in the front harness , check around the steering column first.  07 cats are known for this and I had an 07 that had harness issues. Once repaired I was good. Use a meter and verify you have voltage at the ignition switch

Mike

 

[Capt Rick]

I ordered a new ignition for it. All connections were good, wiring looked good and I had voltage all the way up to the ignition but no juice once I turned key on. I’ll post an update once it comes in, thanks guys!!

[mikeexplorer]

Sounds like you got the problem

 

[Capt Rick]

Well...new ignition didn’t do the trick. I’m not sure where to go from here

[mikeexplorer]

Here is the diagram, if you turn the key to lights, does the lights come on?

Mike

 

[Capt Rick]

No sir. No juice

[mikeexplorer]

What you need to do is verify first that you do indeed have voltage at the ignition, the red wire. Next, turn ignition on and verify voltage at the red/black wire, next step is to check voltage at the 10 amp ignition fuse.

If this passes, check the ground connections, measure voltage from battery to frame.

2007 Cats were common for having wire breaks in the harness. I had a 2007 400 and had several harness issues.

There is a post on how to take this diagram and print it out on several sheets of paper to make one big diagram.

Mike

 

[Capt Rick]

Thanks Mike! I’ll dig into it this weekend and let you know

[Capt Rick]

Well I had voltage to the ignition the first time I checked it, after pullingon the harness to find a short I didn’t have voltage the second time I checked. There was indeed a short somewhere going to ignition. 

Instead of pulling everything thing apart I just tapped into the power for the ignition from the 12v accessory plug next to it. I just tied power into it and fired right up. 

[mikeexplorer]

Ok that is good for a test, but do not run the machine like that for long! What you did proves there is a wire break to the ignition. The break is in the red/black wire from the fuse block to the ignition. You need to take the harness apart and inspect it closely. Pay attention to where the harness crosses over the frame areas which are common areas for wires to rub through and break.

Once done, and the harness is taped up good, use some spiral wrap to add a layer of protection. These pictures is a 2010 366 which suddenly popped ignition fuses. I found a bare wire leading down to the 4WD actuator. While the plastics were off, I inspected the rest of the harness and found this area was starting to rub, but not yet causing a problem so I wrapped it to prevent any issues.