Wire Harness problem?

X

XRX1

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Joined
Nov 16, 2004
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31
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S.E. MINN.
I think I have a wire harness short., the headlight is dim, apply brakes and dash blanks out etc. I pulled out the cable and I can't see any obvious marks or rub spots on it, do I need to unwrap all the electrical tape to see a problem, or should it be more obvious if this is really where my short is? By the way the sled currently isn't shorted out, so I can't check anything else out. '03 Viper.
 

I remeber an old thread on here about the harness rubbing through under the motor right where it goes by the front of the tunnel. I don't specifically remeber if it was just the 02's or if other vipers were affected also. I know that my 02 only had electrical tape under the motor and no loom so i fixed that quick.

Might also be a broken wire that is flexing?
 
another spot to check is the taillight. My buddy's viper had a short between the taillight sockets and that drained almost all power from the sled, headlights were barely on when it was running. Took a long time to find that short.
 
Wire harness is perfect, can't see any other wires that have rubbed the frame going to handlebars, etc. looked at taillight wire under the seat but not the bulb socket...I'll give it a look.
 
I was riding my Viper S this past weekend on a long ride and I had the same thing happen, the hand warmers worked but not well, the headlight dimmed big time when I was braking and the dash cluster would shut off at idle. When I shut the sled off and restarted it a couple minutes latter everything worked fine for about 2 minutes and then back to low voltage. I never got to find the problem. I was crossing a railroad track at about 3 MPH and the rail caught my carbide and ripped the handlebars out of my hands. Well this bent the left trailing arm a little but it also fixed my electrical issue. I'm not saying to hit a rail track to fix your sled but if you find the problem post it because i'm sure this issue is going to come back on my sled.
 
XRX1, I had the same symptoms you are having on my 04 ViperS and it was the stator, it had a leg going out of it, never really quit on me, but like you said, the light went very dim and also exactly like you are saying if I hit the brake the speedo would blank out and the tach would go all the way around and back! Let me know if you come up with something, but I would definatly take a look at the stator!!!
 
Stealth800, I had the same thing, short happened all afternoon, snapped out of it and has been fine for over 300 miles. Wouldn't the stator effect the engine power?
 
The stator has 2 parts, one is for engine spark the other is for the alternator. If the alternator winding fails the engine may run fine but you have no electrical power for the headlight etc.
 
i also lost a stator on an 03 mtn viper. It would run fine 99% of the time, but would start to sputter on a long pull at high rpm. The headlight was dim at idle and the guages would turn off. The hand warmers would only work about half the time. I put the new (updated) stator in and noticed that the original had a break in one of the wires. It had been arcing across this break. Put the new stator in and it is fine now. I think there have been alot of early vipers with stator issues.
 
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