Voltage regulator ?

[80_liquifire]

Have a 1978 Arctic cat Eltigre 6000. Took it for a spin last night ,everything working great .Then the low beam light went out , so I switched to High beam . minute later this also blew .

Brake and running light and tach work. Today I checked for volts at the headlight connector , reading 1-2 volts .

So I went to check the ground on the voltage regulator and noticed a small hole burned through the black epoxy material . Obviously it's gone , just wondering if there is anything that could have caused it , or is this normal when a regulator goes ? Looks to be the original .

Thnx

[JDT]

Strange that the rear lights still work when the headlight socket read 1-2 volts.

Do you have the meter on AC or DC when reading the 1-2 volts? My bet is you have it on DC.

If you have not unbolted the regulator from the chaincase yet check OHMS from the metal case of the regulator to the engine case. What do you get? Should be Zero.
If it is not "0" or close to it you have lost the engine to chassis ground. Check the ground wires and connections.

The only other thing I can think of is you have lost the common wire in the headlight harness. So check that wire to ground. I think it is the black wire.

Yes the Regulator is shot. Aftermarket ones plug right in and cost about $25.

But varify grounds before you start the engine with the new reg installed.

[80_liquifire]

Thanks , you are correct .
I did have the multimeter set wrong. Voltage is reading 9 volts when running . It does not go higher when rpm's increase .

The ohms from the regualtor metal box to engine casing is reading .003 . Should the ohms still be reading close to 0 when engine is running ?

I checked all the grounds , they seem to be good . Think it is possible , the regulator shorted out on its own or would have something had have caused it to melt a hole. ?

Do I have to worry about burning the CDI out also , with this blown regulator .Not going to ride the sled . Just wondering if it would harm it from idleing it ?

Ordered a new regulator , it should be here this week.

[JDT]

The ignition system and the lighting system are seperate on the machine so chances of one affecting the other are small.
One senario that where this could happen is if there was melted insulation on wires in the harness and then the connected at that point.
Another would be on sleds with electric start when the key switch contacts broke internally and shorted to the kill contact on the switch sending 12 VDC to the CDI box. I have only see this one time but it took a while to figure it out so I though it worthy of being mentioned.

Testing grounds with the engine running will give erradic results. You have very high voltage that can be induced into other wires in the system and make meters jump.
Only test grounds when the engine is off.

Yes, Regulators can fail for no apparent reason. but is is a good idea to always check things over first just incase. I have found bad grounds to be the biggest cause when a cause could be found.

I see Greg is now selling regulators too. The one for your machine is $22.95. Good price...

[80_liquifire]

"The ignition system and the lighting system are seperate on the machine so chances of one affecting the other are small"

Thanks ,
have a brand new CDI I put in , just dont want o burn it out . Waiting on the new regulator to see what goes.

Possibly , I think know what happened . I replaced the charging coil and lighting coil a few weeks back . When I replaced the lighting coil I did not see I had one of the wires located to close to the flywheel tube and it rubbed the wire , thus shorting out . I went in and fixed that and never noticed the volt regulator blew .

Then when I took the sled out ,that is when the bulb blew . I'll see when I get the new one in , everything else looks good.