Wiring problems

[curtisbyrne]

Lately I removed the ground bar and grinder all the dirt off with a wire brush,installed that. Then removed all that yellow wire(charge wire) and put in some new wire trying to solve my not charging problem. I removes the wires off the solenoid and battery and cleaned up the terminals with a wire brush. I also put some lock washers spacing the terminals out on the solenoid ( put washer in between each terminal eye). Then I tried hooking up battery,connected positive wire followed by touching the neg wire on the battery and blue spark would appear.i done it again and the 30 AMP fuse blew coming from the regulator wire.i don't know what I done wrong? I'm half scared to pick at it again becuase I've already had experiences with getting shocked so I would like some help here and how not to get shocked. By the way I put in a new heavy duty wire that connects to the top of the engine and goes to the negative terminal on the battery if that help.please someone help here thanks

[red-bird-dog]

what year and engine is your machine?

[curtisbyrne]

92 magnum
Kohler m-18
This only started happening after I cleaned and took everything apart

[curtisbyrne]

Also the wire from the engine ground to the (-) on the battery is a #2 wire I think,it is a pretty big wire anyways.would that affect anything?

[ARGOJIM]

Something has power that should not, whether you have a ground to positive or hot to ground a short is a short.
The wire feeding the regulator must be on the center terminal. Disconnect it if you like before hooking the battery up.
Be sure you have not crossed something when reattaching something, be sure everything is off when connecting the battery terminals.

[curtisbyrne]

Ok to b sure there are two wires that go to the negative and one to the positive?
Also I have the wire that comes from the centre lead on the regulator spliced together to another wire that is on the solenoid that then goes to the fuse block. This was the same way it was before just wish new wire.its almost like Maybe the positive and negative wires are going to the same place. Wait the wire from the regulator is on the same lead on the solenoid and touching eachother if that changes anything.

[curtisbyrne]

Good news got the Argo fixed,the wire I was using was way to thick and just wouldn't work so I swapped it with a smaller one! Just went for a ten min ride in the bush and as I got home I heard a noise that a tranny makes when it slips out of gear.stopped the Argo looked around everything was good.nope the front axle bearing was not seated right and the set screws were loose( my fault because I knew they were loose) anyways walked back got the 4 wheeler and got the tools I needed and jacked her up took the tire off and tighned the set screw and she was good after that.at first I thought I broke and axle because the tire was twisted because it came off th inner bearing,so thanks god it was just a set screw! Anyways all together the old kohler ran like a trooper and everything was great. I feelt so good when I just got the tools and knew what to do and how I fix it! Thanks for getting me this far guys thanks a lot!

[JohnF]

... I feelt so good when I just got the tools and knew what to do and how I fix it! ...

BAM!

[dirtdobber]

Curtis, I don't want to rain on your parade, but replacing a thick wire with a thinner wire doesn't seem to make sense as far as a fix. Generally, thicker wires are more capable because there is less resistance associated with larger wire (that's why booster cables and welding leads, etc. are so much heavier). Hopefully, replacing the wire resolved a short somewhere. What I'm saying is I hope it really is fixed. Electrical problems can be intermittent and a headache!!

[curtisbyrne]

When I say changed the wire I mean I went from a #2 size wire which is huge to a normal sized (-) or (+) battery wire! But thanks for letting me know,hopefully the problem is not just gone for a bit but I think it's solved

[ARGOJIM]

If the wire on the solenoid was touching something it shouldn't was probably the problem.

[curtisbyrne]

Would bad or worn brake pads result in poor turning quality?