Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com.
Today we're going to be looking at the charging system on our 2015 Polaris RZR900S.
Nothing is more frustrating than to be out there on the trail and then you lose all power
to the system.
There are a few simple things we can look at to figure out what's going on.
So, let me go grab a couple of tools and we'll start to dig into it.
Alright guys, this is going to be a skill level one, and don't go into convulsions just
because you see a volt-ohm meter.
Alright, the tools that you're going to need to do this.
Well, like I just pointed out, a volt-ohm meter.
Just make sure it has the ability to test diodes.
Other than that, a 3/8th ratchet and then a 10mm on an extension.
That's all the tools you're going to need to pull this off.
Alright, as far as the parts go, well, that's to be determined.
But if you would reference our parts diagrams.
That'll show you the things we're going to look at today, and that's going to be the
voltage regulator rectifier as well as the stator.
So, once you have your tools and potentially your parts together, I can go over there and
show you how to diagnose it, so let's go.
Alright guys, when you're trying to tackle diagnosing a charging system issue, you want
to start simple.
So the first thing we want to do is lift out the seat, take a look at the battery, test
it, and make sure it's in good shape.
Then we can go on to the next part of the system.
So, let's get the seat out of the way.
Let's take a look at our static voltage.
That'll give us at least an indicator of if the battery is in good shape or not.
So, we're looking for anything over about 12-12 and a half volts.
Alright, so we're at 12.48 volts.
Now what we want to do next-- make sure we're in park-- is start it up and see if there
is a variation from that.
We should see 13 and a half, 14 volts roughly at idle.
So let's see what she does.
Alright, see we're down to about right at 12 volts.
Doesn't move.
It should be coming up.
So yes, this unit is having an issue, so where do we go next?
Well, I'm relatively confident that there's nothing wrong with the battery, otherwise
it would no have started.
It's only going to run for a limited amount of time before it depletes what charge the
battery does have.
So, let's go take a look at our regulator rectifier and see if we've got any voltage
coming from the stator itself.
Alright guys, here's what we're going to be testing first.
This is the stator and it's actually inside the engine on the other side.
And what this is is basically a device that creates AC voltage by virtue of magnets going
around these coils.
And it actually plugs into the regulator rectifier down here.
In the manual, they actually say, alright, they want to do a resistance check.
Well, the only resistance check I do is from each one of these phases if you will reference
to ground.
If there's a direct-- if you see resistance there-- this thing is shorted out to ground.
They also say that you can measure resistance going to phase to phase and that's supposed
to be in between .07 and .13 ohms.
I don't know about you by I don't know many voltmeters that can measure that accurately.
So what we're going to do is just measure it to ground to make sure this isn't grounded
out and then we're going to switch it over to AC voltage and do a voltage measurement.
On the AC side, at idle we should be somewhere around 20 volts.
As you increase the RPM up to about 4 or 5 thousand, we'll get anywhere up to 70 or 75
volts and that'll signify a healthy stator.
So, let's check the resistance just going to ground.
If that checks out, then we'll go ahead and measure the AC voltage.
Alright, I went ahead and unplugged the entire unit to where we can actually access it.
Alright, let's change our meter over to resistance, which is that little symbol right there, measured
in ohms.
Now we're measuring to ground so we need to find a ground on the unit somewhere, and we're
probably close enough to go up to the battery, so I'm just going to head up here and attach
it to the ground side.
Now, I wanna take my positive lead off the volt ohm meter and we're just going to go
to each phase.
We pretty much want the meter to stay just like it is.
We just want to see an open circuit, because that's what OL stands for.
Alright, going to the first phase, open, open, and open.
So, that's a good thing.
That's what we really want.
Now, let's get our lead back.
We're going to change our meter over to AC volts, and that's that symbol right there.
the V with the sidewave over the top of it.
Alright, V, AC.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna measure phase to phase.
So if you want to think of these as 1, 2, 3, we'll go one to two, one to three, and
then two to three.
So, I'm going to start it up, you probably won't be able to hear me, we're just gonna
do it at idle so we should see around 20 volts and we're going to go through it and ya'll
just keep watching right there.
Now going one to three.
And we're gonna go two to three.
Alright.
Alright, so that right there is telling me that I have an operational stator, so the
next thing we need to do is take a look inside-- so to speak-- the regulator rectifier.
The regulator rectifier's job is to turn that AC voltage into DC.
How does it do that?
Well, it has a series of, or a network of diodes that actually cut off the tops and
the bottoms and then creates a DC signal by inverting the sidewive and with a couple of
capacitors.
Don't want to go into it too deep, all we really want to know is are those diodes operating
properly.
So, let me go grab the meter, reset it to that little symbol right there.
The diode checker is actually right there.
so we're going to toggle that over and to do this, you want to make sure that the battery
connection is actually hooked up.
Because what you want to do is reference back to ground.
We're actually going to forward bias the diode, and when we do that it'll show the voltage
that it takes to push it forward, which is .5 volts.
So, that being said you take the positive side of your meter and that needs to go to
the negative on the chassis or I'm actually going to go to the battery.
So, when we go through on each phase-- let me put this back up here-- what you're going
to see hopefully is .5 volts for each one, and all three of them need to be that reading.
So, first one, .522.
That's what we're looking for.
Number two looks good, .521.
And lookie there.
Number three?
there's nothing there.
So that tells me that the number three diode is actually opened up.
so guess what?
This thing is not charging properly, and that's the reason why so this is where we need to
replace that voltage regulator rectifier.
So, let me go grab one, let's pop it in place, and remeasure it.
I'll bet you that's going to fix our problem.
So we've got it unplugged and it's only held in place by a couple of 10mm bolts, so let's
go ahead and get her out of there.
Alright, so we've got the old one out, we've got the new one to go in.
Make sure you've got that little shield on the bottom of it.
Now let's get her bolted back up.
Alright guys, hopefully you've got really long arms because there's actually a bolt
on the other side of that plastic that's loose so to speak.
So you have to reach around and actually hold it to get this mounted back up.
Let's tighten them back down.
Alright, just for kicks let's do our test in reverse now.
Hook up vehicle ground and the power as well to the battery.
Grounding our positive lead.
We're still in the diode check.
Let's see what we've got.
.51. .51.
.51.
So, there we go.
Plug our stator back into the rectifier.
Make sure you hear that click.
Now, let's reset this back to DC volts, connect this back up to the battery location, move
the positive over where it's supposed to be, ground it, 12.43.
Now, let's start it up and see what it does.
Now we've got something.
Well alright guys, that pretty much wraps this one up.
Well listen, if you need any of the parts that are bad on your machine, why don't you
come see us at Partzilla.com and we can get you taken care of.
If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the section below and I'll do my best
to answer them.
And until next time, we just want to say thanks for watching.