Battery drain while sitting 03 Yamaha Kodiak 450

[Dimelol]

I have been working on my quad for a while trying to get it running right. It seems as if I run into a new issue as soon as I resolve the old one. Anyway, the other day I went to fire up my quad and the battery was completely dead. I knew it was on it's last leg, so I went ahead and swapped it out think it was the issue. After sitting for a couple of days without running the machine at all, the new battery was drained as well, not completely dead like the old one but weak enough not to turn the engine over. When I removed the new battery to put it on the charger I noticed a clicking sound when I was removing the negative connection. After fooling around with it for a bit I tracked down where the sound is coming from (see pic) it was also warm to the touch. I have no idea what this thing or or what purpose it serves but should it be clicking as soon as I connect the battery? Could this be the cause of my battery being drained? Thanks for the help, I'm not the most experienced when it comes to tracking down electrical issues.

[Frank Angerano]

Welcome to Quadcrazy, what that part is your showing is the starting relay. If you disconnect the battery wire and hear a click then something is staying on that should not be. 

So what I would do is take a test light and take the positive wire off of the battery. Take the test light and connect the clip on the test light and connect it to then battery terminal.  Then take the pointer part of the test light and touch the positive battery wire. With the key OFF you should not see the test light on. If you do then there is what’s called a draw on the battery. Could be a bad relay or an aftermarket part that was added to the atv. 

 

[MarkinAR]

That's a winch solenoid, if I see 2 in and 2 out correctly. Signal wire that goes to it must be on the hot wire when it should be on a switched ignition wire. 

Or the solenoid is just bad and stuck in the closed position. 

[Dimelol]

57 minutes ago, MarkinAR said:

That's a winch solenoid, if I see 2 in and 2 out correctly. Signal wire that goes to it must be on the hot wire when it should be on a switched ignition wire. 

Or the solenoid is just bad and stuck in the closed position. 

This unit used to have a wench but it was wrecked and the previous owner had it removed. They told me it had shorted out when the accident happened and fried the "computer", I suppose they meant the CDI box. That's the story I was told anyway. It just seems odd that this would happen out of nowhere. As soon as I try to connect the battery you can hear a very distinct click coming from from it. Sounds like a relay but louder. Should I look into removing it? I have no plans to put a winch back on it.

1 hour ago, Frank Angerano said:

Welcome to Quadcrazy, what that part is your showing is the starting relay. If you disconnect the battery wire and hear a click then something is staying on that should not be. 

So what I would do is take a test light and take the positive wire off of the battery. Take the test light and connect the clip on the test light and connect it to then battery terminal.  Then take the pointer part of the test light and touch the positive battery wire. With the key OFF you should not see the test light on. If you do then there is what’s called a draw on the battery. Could be a bad relay or an aftermarket part that was added to the atv. 

 

Thank you, i'll see about picking up a test light tomorrow.

[MarkinAR]

If that's a winch solenoid as I suspect, just take the leads for it loose at the battery and see if that fixes the battery drain. I assume there are normal positive and negative leads at the battery for the bike plus the two winch lead wires? 

[Dimelol]

7 minutes ago, MarkinAR said:

If that's a winch solenoid as I suspect, just take the leads for it loose at the battery and see if that fixes the battery drain. I assume there are normal positive and negative leads at the battery for the bike plus the two winch lead wires? 

I'll double check tomorrow, but I am faily certain that it is just the 2 normal leads plus 1 extra positive lead, and a tiny green wire that is connected to positive as well. 

[Frank Angerano]

Nice work @MarkinAR i didn’t even look outside the box on that one and think about a winch relay! 

Good stuff, hopefully this is the problem.   

[davefrombc]

If it is   the winch relay   just remove the  two activation  wires at the relay and see if there is still  the  loud click on connecting the battery..  Disconnecting the  power to the relay  doesn't stop the  relay solenoid from  firing since it is  connected to ignition switch power.

Edited September 26, 2019 by davefrombc