Vmax gauge flickers at full throttle

mdkuni

mdkuni

New member
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
250
Location
Houghton Lake, MI
Working on a 98 Vmax 600 and the gauge lights will flicker and just about go completely out when at full throttle. It does not do it below full throttle. I unplugged the head light and tested again with the same results. I have started to pull and unwrap the guage wires but have not found any problems yet. I also pulled the ground out and cleaned that up as it was getting corroded but this did not resolve the issue either. Sled seems to run fine.

Any ideas?
 
does it do the same thing if the headlight is switched to high beam, then low beam? tach flutter at all?
 
pull the wiring harness for the hood out and check it for broken/chafed wires. also check the harness that goes under the engine.
 
Switching to high and then low beam has no effect. I pulled the harness from under the engine and also pulled the seat and gas tank. I found no wires that were bad. I put everything back together and ran it on the stand.

When running hard on the stand I saw sparks coming out of the left side of the sled. I opened the hood and found when I got on the throttle hard the starter tried to engage. When I am giving it gas I can see the gear slowly creeping out and when I pin it wide open the gear moves just enough to try and engage.

I did move the motor this year as the center to center was pretty far off. There has also been an intermittent issue this year with the starter not meshing correctly when I turn the key.

Could this still be a short or is the starter going bad?
 
not sure how these starters work but I don't think its engaging electrically as much as the gear is vibrating into the ring gear. there must be some kind of return spring thats broken
 
staggs65 said:
not sure how these starters work but I don't think its engaging electrically as much as the gear is vibrating into the ring gear. there must be some kind of return spring thats broken
Click to expand...


When I bench tested the starter by hooking a battery to it, the gear on the starter went out but immediately came back in with power still hooked to it. Shouldn't that gear stay extended as long as there is power to it?
 
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Try running the sled without the starter in it. I bet the bendix in the starter is shot/broken or the spring.
 
Put the sled back together without the starter and she now runs wide open without the lights going out. Dropped the starter off at a shop to have it rebuilt.
 
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