Oil & Battery questions...

[Kris W]

Ok, working on my Magnum, first doing the basic tune up stuff, changing fluids, plugs etc. Found out Pa ran 5W30 year round.. Manual states straight 30W in summer, so thats what i used, however its soo thick in comparison to what i drained out, the oil was really thin..question is, is it going to flow & lubricate enough ? Also, the Motor sounds "noisier" than before...
Second: battery in new, 500cca, i know its an automotive battery. It was dead yesterday. My question is, without an alternator, How does the argo charge the battery? I ran it for 20 min at idle after boosting it but when i shut it down, it wouldnt re-start. Put it on the battery charger last night.
Thanks guys.

[dirtdobber]

I don't know specifically about the argo charging system, but generally a small engine like you see in these aatv's utilizes a stator charging system. It consists of a stationary coil under the flywheel and the motion of the magnet on the flywheel to create electricity. There can be different capabilities of the charging system depending on the engine's application, but usually you will find a wire or two coming from the flywheel area leading to an electronic box. This box is a rectifier (converting AC power to DC power) an a regulator to keep your battery charged. Typically, this charging system is not as robust as an automotive alternator so it can't handle lots of simultaneous electrical components (such as spot lights, cooling fans, music, winch, etc) and keep the battery charged. It has its limits. The faster the engine runs the more it charges, so the fact that you let it idle and it didn't charge your battery is no surprise.

Be sure you don't have a short draining the battery. You can also put a voltmeter on the battery posts. I'm not sure what it should read at WOT but I would think if its charging it should be giving you at least 13 volts.

I hope this is helpful to you. I don't know about argos but if you can understand the principle of the system you can more easily diagnose a problem.

[Kris W]

I don't know specifically about the argo charging system, but generally a small engine like you see in these aatv's utilizes a stator charging system. It consists of a stationary coil under the flywheel and the motion of the magnet on the flywheel to create electricity. There can be different capabilities of the charging system depending on the engine's application, but usually you will find a wire or two coming from the flywheel area leading to an electronic box. This box is a rectifier (converting AC power to DC power) an a regulator to keep your battery charged. Typically, this charging system is not as robust as an automotive alternator so it can't handle lots of simultaneous electrical components (such as spot lights, cooling fans, music, winch, etc) and keep the battery charged. It has its limits. The faster the engine runs the more it charges, so the fact that you let it idle and it didn't charge your battery is no surprise.

Be sure you don't have a short draining the battery. You can also put a voltmeter on the battery posts. I'm not sure what it should read at WOT but I would think if its charging it should be giving you at least 13 volts.

I hope this is helpful to you. I don't know about argos but if you can understand the principle of the system you can more easily diagnose a problem.

Wow, thank you verry much my friend ! That helps a bunch ! Anyone have thoughts towards the oil ?

[curtisbyrne]

i dont pay too much attention to what type of oil,only run mine in the spring and fall not winter.

[msafi65]

Oils are far better than when that engine was made. I run synthetic oil in these small engines. It takes the heat and lubes well at cold temp. The magnum engines usually didn't have an oil filter so change it often. The magi um is well known as having flywheel of stator issues in the charging system. Many times I find the Argo charging system is down from a bad fuse. The rectifier / voltage regulator is mounted on the sheet metal near the carburetor. It has three wires pluged onto it. In plug the wires and test the center wire for battery voltage. It must have batt voltage to operate. If it has voltage test the other two wires for AC voltage with engine running. It should have over 20 volts AC with engine at mid throttle. If it won't produce proper voltage the stator or flywheel has a problem. The maginum engine manual found online has proper test procedures.

[curtisbyrne]

if my regulator is gone would that blow a fuse becuase mine is still ot charging and the fuses never blown yet i cleaned up the ground bar and put all new wires that come from the stator that go to the regulator.what else could it be?

[Vance in AK]

Another possibility... and cheap & easy! You said you let it idle for 20 min after boosting... many of these engines won't charge at an idle. Bump the rpm up a ways and it may begin to charge fine.