1996 600 Mountain Max electrical question - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

Bens2 · 10-29-2009, 06:28 PM

Just purchased 1996 600 V-Max with 1500 miles, nice clean sled but I have an electrical problem. Headlight and taillight were burned out, replaced bulbs, and all was well. I was suspecious that voltage regulator was bad and everything worked fine until now. When sled is running headlight and tailight bulbs are on, but very dim. When I look up voltage regulators for sled they show two regulators and one rectifier regulator. I assume one of the two voltage regulators are bad, but which one? I'm also assuming that the lighting coil is good as the lights were previously working fine. Anyone have a proven method for testing? Thanks for your help, great web site.

**RJ Gleason** · 10-29-2009, 06:45 PM

Check grounds.

Bens2 · 11-01-2009, 09:56 PM

Ok guys I still need your help. After checking grounds and cleaning them all., this is where I am at. When the headlight switch is on low beam the head light and tailight are still dim. When the headlight switch is on highbeam the lights are normal. When I check voltage it is right around 12 volts at idle. What am I missing? Is there something else I should be looking for? Is there a seperate ground for the dimmer switch? Thanks for your help.

Viperstein · 11-01-2009, 10:22 PM

Check the harness where it goes under the motor. They had alot of rub thru's there. Unplug it from the hood. Tie a string on the end and pull it out . open up the harness and check it. The rub may be ever so slight.Once repaired, protect the harness with wire loom and pull it back with the string or you could reroute the harness as well.
You may also want to test the stator as well
Good luck

**smallengineguy** · 11-02-2009, 06:20 AM

As said above, trace your lowbeam circuit back and check that wiring. If you wiggle the harness, will the lights flicker?

Viperstein · 11-02-2009, 08:46 AM

You could also check the tail light harness under the seat and under the handlebar pad.

Bens2 · 11-03-2009, 08:22 AM

Thanks Guys, I think I found it. Sounds kinda stupid but the the low beam filament had broken off and was resting on the reflector shield in the bulb. It would still light the filament but it was shorting it at the same time. As soon as I pulled the headlight harness off the headlight bulb, the tail light brightened back-up and worked fine. The only thing I can blame this on is that I replaced the bulb with an aftermarket bulb vs a Yamaha bulb. Anyone ever heard of an aftermarket bulb having issues like that? I'm hoping that the filament was just defective and that it wasn't a surge that broke it. I've checked the voltage and all seems normal. 11.9 volts at idle and it stays consistant as you rev it up. Thanks for the tips. I'll keep them in mind if this doesn't solve my problem.

Viperstein · 11-03-2009, 08:40 AM

I use PIAA bulbs. They've always been great. Lots of light with the same power consumption as a factory bulb. Get a led tail light so then with you hit the brake the headlight won't dim.

**RJ Gleason** · 11-03-2009, 11:53 AM

The main reason is that the low beam is used most often and is likely to burn out first.
Having the filament break in that manner is is not all that uncommon.