I just bought an 03 viper that needs some work. Starts up and runs fine but when you hit the brake lever which activates brake light, gauge goes blank. Same thing when you change from high beam - low beam.
I pulled the seat and tank off looking for a possible short but nothing. I inspected all wiring harnesses and connections and all look good. Took a volt meter and everything is at 13.2 Volts until I hit the brake and it drops to 5-7 volts which is causing the gauge to go blank
Stator? Voltage regulator?
I did an ohm reading on the 3 wires on the stator. Between 2 of the wires I am getting .5, all other combinations are open.
I pulled the seat and tank off looking for a possible short but nothing. I inspected all wiring harnesses and connections and all look good. Took a volt meter and everything is at 13.2 Volts until I hit the brake and it drops to 5-7 volts which is causing the gauge to go blank
Stator? Voltage regulator?
I did an ohm reading on the 3 wires on the stator. Between 2 of the wires I am getting .5, all other combinations are open.
well it will be 1 or the other, either the harness that runs under the engine is rubbed thru over behind the engine or the stator is whipped.
Checking the harness is free so start there. easiest to remove airbox, then unplug stator wires, unplug up at hood hinge area.
bend over/open the little harness straps as many as you can reach under front of engine. The tie a string onto the hood end end of the harness so you can pull it back thru after you repair it.
go over by recoil and pullback on wire harness to get it out from under engine, they are famouse for rubbing thru under the engine.
if rubbed thru, repair each wire sprately, tape up and then place the whole harness under the motor in plastic convolute tubing, reinstall via your string. This needs to be done ob all the pro action sleds so its not a wasted effort, because if its not bad now, it will be in the future, very very common issue.
Checking the harness is free so start there. easiest to remove airbox, then unplug stator wires, unplug up at hood hinge area.
bend over/open the little harness straps as many as you can reach under front of engine. The tie a string onto the hood end end of the harness so you can pull it back thru after you repair it.
go over by recoil and pullback on wire harness to get it out from under engine, they are famouse for rubbing thru under the engine.
if rubbed thru, repair each wire sprately, tape up and then place the whole harness under the motor in plastic convolute tubing, reinstall via your string. This needs to be done ob all the pro action sleds so its not a wasted effort, because if its not bad now, it will be in the future, very very common issue.
Great write up! I pulled out the wiring and everything looked great. I am going to do as suggested and tape it back up and put the protector around it. Picked up another Viper today that is blown so I'll pull the stator on that and try that. Thanks again
New stator did the trick. Thanks again!
good, glad to hear its up and running again. 
Backwoods M Max
New member
If the stator wasn't bad, I would recommend checking the battery. If your like me, you might have electric start but not use it most of the time. If you had a sulfated battery it might give you voltage at idle, but then the extra load of the brake light will drop the voltage because of the battery putting a huge paracidic load on the relatively small charging system.