Viper Wire Rub-through

yamaholic22

yamaholic22

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Joined
Oct 23, 2003
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Iowa
We have an '02 Viper and the wires under the engine rubbed through on the motor mount and shorted out. When this happened, all electrical power was lost, including the headlights, gauges, tail light, everything. The sled also would idle perfectly, but would not rev up past idle. If you hit the gas it would die (not the TORS either). We thought that maybe the short fried the CDI, but we tried the CDI in another viper and it ran perfectly. Anyone have any ideas what else could have been damaged from the short?
 

Maybe one of those wires that you guys taped up under the motor has a strand or 2 touching another wire....?? Just a thought.
 
Last Winter On My Last Ride I Had The Guage Pod Flickering And Loosing Power.so I Took It In To Dealer In March Before The Warranty Ran Out And They Could Not Verify Concern. So Last Week I Pulled The Engine Harness From Under The Motor And Found My Problem.same Thing, Yellow And White Wire Chaffed. So Repaired Wires And Cut A 3 Foot Chunk Of Convolute And Wrapped Harness And Rerouted Harness. Fixed Problem.
 
we individually wrapped every wire in the area where it rubbed through, and then wrapped the whole glob of them back together, so none of them are touching each other or the frame anymore, but the problem is still there. It had to have blown something else when it shorted out by overloading something, just don't know what.
 
Still dying when givin it gas? still idols good? I friken hate electrical problems, I would pull the harness out and double check it all .
 
got a picture

Post apicture of where it failed. I would like to check mine, but do not know the locaton oyu are talking about. Just says under motor.
 
The wire rubs through under the motor by rubbing on the mag-side rear motor mount, and shorts out. We pulled the motor again, unwrapped the whole wiring harness, individually wrapped EVERY wire, and then re-wrapped the whole thing again, but this didn't solve the problem. We thought maybe it was the CDI, so we tried another CDI on it, and that wasn't the problem. We thought maybe it blew the voltage regulators, but it wasn't those. We then thought it was the regulator/rectifier, so we unplugged it and tried it, and then it revved up and ran perfectly, but obviously none of the gauges or lights worked. We went and got a new rectifier, put it in, same thing, wouldn't rev up, idled perfectly, no electrical power. So by this time we have unplugged basically everything on the whole sled so that we could tell if it was shorting out or not, except for one thing: the tail light. So we unplugged the tail light, pulled the rope, and full life again. The seat was just recovered by the dealer a couple weeks ago, so they must have put a staple through the tail light wire. After all of this, at least the problem is now solved. Luckily we pulled the engine and found that wire short as well, or we would probably be having this problem again real soon. If you have a viper, or SRX for that matter, CHECK THE WIRES UNDER THE ENGINE!!!
 
Thoose fricken dealers do more harm then good ,, glad to see its going now gonna finally get some snow ;)!
 
Same thing happened to my 2000 SRX7 yesterday. Ran fine on Saturday for over 100mi, and strong on Sun. AM top end lake blasts... then, 10 miles of trail riding later, no tach, no lights, no grip heat, no tail light, and the fuel gage needle goes past full (tank below 1/4). Sled idles fine, but will not go over 40mph, and sounds real rough.

Going to check the wireing harness that runs under the engine tonite, and also the tail light wireing too, now that I read this thread. Hope it is a simple fix, as chasing electrical gremlins is NOT fun. I do have a 2001 SRX to part swap with for diagnosis purposes. The 2000 did have the "update" preformed by the dealer several years ago for the harness chafing problem. Oh well, they must have done a poor job.

Wrenching when you should be riding sucks.
 
This site is awsome... 30 min. of searching and I have all the info I needed to dive right in.

Well, 4 out of the 8 wires in the harness that runs under the engine were worn thru. I removed the pipes and muffler, then disconected the plugs that run up to the headlights, and gently pulled the wires back about a foot or so. Cleaned all the gunk off, individually taped each wire, then taped them all together. I took some pictures that I will post here if I get a chance.

After the tape job, the wire harness is thicker than it was before. I just fed it back thru, under the engine as far as it would reasonably go so as not to strip off the new tape insulation.

All back together, and she fired right up just like normal. It is worth mentioning that I rode the sled (had to) for 8-10 miles in this condition to get back to my truck, and no aparent damage to any electrical parts. Not to mention the 10-15 min of idling while trying to diagnosis it on the trail. Great sleds.

I actually thought of pulling the entire harness out from under the engine and rerouting it somewhere else. Has anyone tried this? I am pretty sure that they must lay the harness in the bellypan before installing the engine, as the plug ends will not slide under it. I would either have had to cut off the plugs and solider the wires back together (not a big deal as they probably would be too short in the new routed position), or try to remove all the individual connectors from the plugs.

Wonder how long before they rub thru again?
 
Yamaha is known for reliability and fit & finish. I too had wire chafing issues. It does surprise me the extent of this issue and how easy it would be to aleviate at the factory by placing ALL wires in a plastic shoud. Debugging a electrical wire short or open can be worse than fixing a burned piston. At least you know exactly what needs to be fixed and how to do it.
 
Here was the damage. Amazing that the sled worked at all while rubbing thru. Must have been just enough "gunk" on the bulkhead and engine mounts to insulate it from grounding out... then poof!
 
No pics of where they rub thru cause you would need a lighted borescope to see that area, or pull the entire engine. As Yamaholic22 stated, they seem to rub on the mag cylinder side rear motor mount. I did have some slight chafing from the front mount as well, although it did not wear thru the wire insulation, just the tape.

What I did on my SRX:
Disconnect the harness plugs (2) where they route up to the headlights, infront of the pri clutch. Tug gently on the harness as close to where it runs under the engine as you can get. The other end routes up between the brake and the closest carb. Just feel around for the bundle of wires that are moving. It was pretty easy to figure out which bundle it was, but you can peel back some of the tape and confirm wire colors if you wish. Once you find out which bundle of wires it is, gently pull it out about 10-12" to expose the rubbed area. I pulled the harness out by the recoil assy. All this is after I removed the pipes and "muffler" of course.
 
having electrical problems too.tach zeros when changing beams or apply brakes.i'm stumped.had wiring out from under motor,all good.checked wires at right and left sides all looks good.seems better with tail and brake lights unplugged.had seat off too,wires seem good. i'm thinking maybe low voltage from stator,gonna test that next.
 
could be the wires in the actual tail light, i have heard of this being a problem on two different vipers now. The wires that go to the two bulbs cross over each other and rub through, causing them to short out. it could also possibly be the relay as tom said
 
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