1999 Venture Rear hand warmers

BoB101[H]

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Feb 6, 2006
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Seems that the rear hand warmers on my 1999 Venture do not work. The fronts work great, just nothing in the rear. I took off the switch for the rears to check for loose connections, so far everything looks great. Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this sled? I have ordered the service manual, but until that gets here I'd love some input.
 

has the seat ever been off?

it is easy to mix up the wiring, and you won't have any heat, like our 97 venture at first. the dealer had the seat off and incorrectly hooked up the wrong connections.

go to the FAQ's section, and look up your sled's manual online. You will see the wiring diagram
 
Thanks, I went there first but I didn't notice the wiring diagram on the last page of the owners manual. My bad :)
 
Check for power to and from the switch with a multi meter.

fwiw, SPI makes an entire kit for the fixing of the rear handwarmers on 2 up yami's.
I have that kit on my sled now, and it made both sides work, and now instead of on or off, it has a HI/LO/ off switch. the kit is ~$70, and comes with all wiring, the switch, and 2 handwarmer elements. I think for 98+ all but the FC ventures had the hi/lo switch.

the switch alone from yami was $50, and each handwarmer is like $38, so it is quite a deal in comparison
 
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I may have to check that out as I still can't figure out why they don't work. My 99 does have a hi lo off switch on it though. I'm guessing that they just aren't getting power, as the resistor checks out ok and there isn't any shorts in the warmers themselves.
 
The power wire that runs under the seat to the rear warmers have been known to wear through, and the switches have been known to corrode as well.
At least your warmers check out as far as no shorts, but even after our warmwers were wired right, the left warmer did not get that warm, esp compared to the right warmer. It still worked, but not that well, so we got that entire kit.
Good luck!
 
horkn said:
Check for power to and from the switch with a multi meter.

fwiw, SPI makes an entire kit for the fixing of the rear handwarmers on 2 up yami's.
I have that kit on my sled now, and it made both sides work, and now instead of on or off, it has a HI/LO/ off switch. the kit is ~$70, and comes with all wiring, the switch, and 2 handwarmer elements. I think for 98+ all but the FC ventures had the hi/lo switch.

the switch alone from yami was $50, and each handwarmer is like $38, so it is quite a deal in comparison


Thanks for the tip on the SPI warmers. My '98 Venture has the same issue of no heat for rear warmers. I've checked voltages all over, and they all seem to be within specs. In my case, each warmer is getting 5 volts across it in the high setting (my sled has hi/lo/off). Took me a while to figure that voltages are AC since this runs off one of the coils.

Do you happen to have a link for the warmer kit? Thanks!
 
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portsevernsledder said:
I ordered a set thanks Horkn :letitsnow

no problem!


If you are like me, having your SO's hands warm is a must if you don't want to hear about it for the next several weeks. The last Rev 2 up we rented last winter (hence why we bought this venture this year) had no handwarmers for the passenger. 150 dollars a day for a rental and you can't opt for the passenger handwarmers? what a crock.

We put on a nice 100 miles on the Venture this weekend, and not one word from her about cold hands. that is priceless.
 
How do you get at the resistor. The on/off switch in my 97 is mounted in the metal channel. If I cut the rubber off I could likely unscrew it but not remove it to test the connections. Since my 2nd rider is not coming up this winter I went back and focused on riding rather than fixing. But one weekend left now and it will likely start to warm and melt too much. I also think my grips are bad. I checked one (was open circuit although not visable damage) and no power coming but I was later told it won't get power until at least 3500RPM (relay somewhere is involved).
 
the switch is in the channel
You need to take the hold down nut off of the switch from the top, then you can pull the switch out of the back of the channel.

The SPI kit wired up very easily, and even had factorystyle connectors, so no cutting was necessary.

yeah, you need to have the sled at more than idle for any heat to get to the grips, you are probably correct in that unless it gets to 3500rpm, no power goes to the rear grips/ switch. the stator is probably not designed for that much load at idle.
 
Afraid of that.

I would have to cut the rub off the switch then. It won't pull off. Is the resistor in the channel as mentioned earlier?

I think I'll do some higher RPM tests with my meter first an see. Might even be AC and not DC powering them rear grips.
 
horkn said:
http://www.jrgraham.com/jrgc/hsrun....HTpage/CatalogItemInfo?ITNO=622315&RECTYPE=IS


this kit has a rheostat like the yamaha driver's switch.

it is a tad different than the kit I got, but still affordable. I appear to have gotten the old kit, with a hi/lo off switch instead of the rheostat, which is fine for me.

Finally found this item. The rheostat won't go where this rear off/on switch is (maybe the newer hi/low/off setup is different)? It's too big and not water proof. Where is it intended to be mounted? Also I thought the power to the rear was quite low in comparision to the front. Why would it be required a control then?
 
tripplec said:
Finally found this item. The rheostat won't go where this rear off/on switch is (maybe the newer hi/low/off setup is different)? It's too big and not water proof. Where is it intended to be mounted? Also I thought the power to the rear was quite low in comparision to the front. Why would it be required a control then?


I have no idea. Mine is the Hi/lo/ off type now. apparently I got an old SPI kit,a nd the new ones are rheostat controlled.

I don't think the rheostat for the driver's handwarmers is waterproof either.

If I would have gotten the newer type rheostat controls I would ahve found a way to amke it work. The instructions were pretty good for the hi/lo off switch upgrade from the on/ off kit that came factory. I would hope the new rheostat kit would have at least as detailed of instructions as my less complicated kit
 
So supposedly my handwarmers don't work as they should, even last winter i did hear about it from her.

I have not ridden on the back, so i dunno if she just has cold hands or what.

i will try a LED tail light, and then a set of the hand guards yamaha sells.
 
Rear warmers are both wired in series off an entirely different power circuit. I already been down that road last year. Unplug on or both hand warmers one at a time. You can check the warms resistance. It somewhere around 6 ohms (quite low) so use the lowest range on your meter. But you are looking for a response. If its open then neither will work. If you have resistance across both of the warmers then check for power coming into the circuit. I was told there was a resistor somewhere (maybe the ones with HI/LOW switch) I just have ON/OFF on the switch.

G.. Luck
 
I can say that adding a led tail light made my passenger grips warm very well.

I susect that my stator needs to be cleaned, but the simple led taillight fixed my dimming headlight upon braking, and made my fiance much happier. I still will be getting the yamaha mitts, but this bulb swap has helped a ton.

I will clean the stator this summer/ fall. My gauge lights and headlight are yellowy dim, telling me either the regulator might be going, or the stator needs to be cleaned up.
 


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