2012 Arctic Cat 450i fuel pump voltage issue

[roguepra]

I replaced the fuel pump about a year ago on my wifes 450i.  Ran great, then it blew the fuse..replaced it and ran great but now im not hearing the fuel pump at all.  The voltage is only 8.2 volts to the pump.  Any Ideas where to start looking?  Turns over great and the battery is good???

[Mech]

Well it's probably a bad connection somewhere..  Do you know how to search for a voltage drop.. You put your voltage gauge across connections and/or wires, and look for a voltage being shown where there shouldn't be any because the power's meant to be flowing freely through the wire or connector. So if you put your gauge from the battery positive to the pump, there should be no voltage shown if all the wires and connectors are good. If there is a voltage shown then you have a bad connection somewhere and so some of the power's going through the gauge. You measure across one length of wire, or across one connector or relay at a time till you find the bad connection.

All that said, I think you will find if you check the wiring diagram, that the power possibly  comes from the computer, so you need to check from where it comes out of there, to the pump. It's also possible the power comes from a fuse or relay to the pump, then gets earthed by the computer.. You need the wiring diagram and check for voltage drop all along the power's flow path till you find the place the voltage is dropping. It's a good idea if the power is coming out of the computer, to check it is at full voltage there before you start looking for the drop of voltage along the wires etc.

Understand the basic concept of voltage drop, and then go looking for where that is happening..

[Mech]

Actually.. A quicker test might be to disconnect the pump, and put jumpers to it and to earth and see if it goes at all.. 8 volts should make it make some sound..  Perhaps it's seized.

[roguepra]

thanks for the response Mech.  The voltage at the fuse and relay is good, I was going to jump the pump but got side tracked on something else... I read that the tilt sensor controls the pumps voltage and was going to track that down next. I think as you suggested, I will jump the pump. I replaced it last year with an aftermarket, and the fuse did blow first which makes me think it locked up, then ran a bit more when the fuse was replaced and finally crapped out. I'll try to get on it today, but its 18 degrees here this am and its hard getting motivated.......LOL   I'll post the results...Thanks again   

[Mech]

I've read a bit about those things before. The tilt switch has a variable voltage, but I don't think it changes the voltage o the pump. It's either on or off as far as I know.

It sounds like you are on to it.

One slightly counter-intuative thing to watch for is that a bad connection, which in theory would lower the current, can blow fuses..

 

[roguepra]

well I was hoping for a simple fix but I guess im chasing wires.... probably be the end of the week when I can get to it...I'll post what I find...thanks