Ruling out the multifunction meter on xl800

[leanngreen]

Good Morning all, haven't been too active on here lately and apologize. I had a question about the meter / gages on the 2001 xl800. Mine was running great, started right up no problem as always when I needed to run it even in between use. After the hurricane which is weird, for some reason the battery was dead. It took me some time to figure that out because it showed no signs earlier at all that it was on its way out.I replaced the battery and still nothing unless I jump it at the regulator. Then it cranks over. Further investigation I realized the meter will not power up. It is totally dead. I had read somewhere that you could bypass these in order to start the ski and verify for sure that was the cause. Some red and white connectors but I do not see that option. There are red and white but they do not interconnect. I did pull the meter but when I wired it direct to a battery it does power up, warning light on / off when you disconnect the blue wire. What it does not do though is go into code mode. It runs through the cycles saying waverunner, etc etc but never gets to where you can input the code to try and start it. Even when you hold down the mode button along with 2 others per manual. I am pretty sure this means that it is ng but just wanted to ask if any tests I am missing? I do have a spare meter but the face is so bad now that no way can you see anything anymore even after cleaning and scrubbing. I was about to order a new meter seeing how this one is getting hard to see anymore anyhow but they are on backorder until?? I'd also like to be sure at the asking price of them. Hope I didn't miss a post already. I have googled , searched on here and unable to find anything pertaining to this. Thanks in advance . Hope everyone is well and summer is coming again !

[Myself]

Your ski should have a white-ish connector with a brown wire....and a red connector also with a brown wire. The way that works is the signal to start goes up to the gauges THEN back out into the wiring harness. You'll need to connect the red to white connector ON THE HARNESS SIDE to bypass the gauge lockout of the starter. Also check your fuse under the round cap of the electrical box.

[leanngreen]

Thank you . I will check again. I did check the fuse first even put a meter to it . For ha ha's I changed it out just in case but same result. Until the battery went dead it was fine so I think its the meter finally quit and now I am unable to reset it because it will not power up or go into code mode.

[leanngreen]

So , here is what I have in the front compartment. No red and they are all female connectors so connecting a couple together is impossible. This is with the meter removed and another switch installed known good.

[Myself]

Ooohhhh.....you've got a late xl800 before they changed to the XLT but wiring is like the XLT. Let me see what I can find in my notes.

Have you ohms tested the natural connector with red and brown wires going to the start switch? with lanyard installed, it should have continuity when start is pressed.

[leanngreen]

Yes I did . I also recently purchased a brand new one just because of the age and not wanting to get out and stuck one day for a backup.

[Myself]

OK, if the start button is good.......have you checked for an actual 12 volts on the red or brown wires?

[Myself]

OK, if the start button is good.......have you checked for an actual 12 volts on the red or brown wires?

[leanngreen]

Ok I was unable to get on here for a bit but see we are back. I did what you advised and with battery connected put meter on the red and brown and got nothing. The fuse is good and it does crank off the regulator. The ecu I replaced last year when I got some funny readings off the original. Not that means anything. I know parts go bad unfortunately. Thanks for the help so far.

[Myself]

Sorry, need to check red or brown to ground. I can't remember offhand which is supply but I think it's red. Then when you push starter button the 12v returns on brown. So, check that out.

[leanngreen]

Ok this is strange. Suddenly appears there is nothing there at all. I tried with switch plugged in and not and trying to push start and nothing so now I guess its back to tracing the wires back. As I said it was fine and no issues hurricane came through and since then ? Very strange. I wonder if something shorted out..... I will keep investigating..... the battery which also was ok prior just stopped without warning as well and usually they will let you know when they are on their way out a little bit ahead of time. The last time I got anything back to the solenoid was a weird sound like it was trying to send voltage through but couldn't . Thats when I checked the battery and found it was ng. New battery and nothing at all now anywhere except if I jump the solenoid terminals it will turn over

[Myself]

OK, start with the solenoid. Should have 12v on red from battery. Should also be a small red wire on that same side.....trace that one to the problem.

[leanngreen]

Ok I have not been able to get back to this lately but just did for a while and weird thing is there is 0 power out of that fuse. Grounds are all good and seem good , I checked and rechecked all the connectors in that box and everything appears to be connected ok. I swapped the solenoid for another known good solenoid and same. I can jump the terminals at the solenoid and it cranks over as it should but after that its like it loses power going to anything forward from there. No power on the other side of the solenoid with switch depressed , I reconnected the meter ( multifunction ) and disconnected the blue connector to see if the warning light would come on and nothing at all. I am considering that rectifier. The system is not that complex and yet power goes in and won't come back out. I dont have a schematic but visually tracing the wires looks as though that is inline and could possibly be a part of the power problem.

[Myself]

If you have 12v IN to the main fuse but no power out.....either the fuse is bad OR there is an internal break in the wire that you can't see.

[leanngreen]

Thats where I started thinking the rectifier. One side of the fuse is to ground and other side from the rectifier. There is no power whatsoever. Remove fuse and test the power side and its dead. Thats is where the loss is unless I am wrong to me it looks like the rectifier for whatever reason took a retirement. Far as the multimeter not working I think that is another issue. When I connect it to the battery is does not go through the cycles and get to code at all. I think there are possibly 2 problems. The power from the rear and the meter also. First getting power to the front is whats needed. Meter is secondary.