rewiring snowmobile

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offroadzj

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Joined: June 03, 2005

Location: New York, United States

Posted: January 28, 2008 at 10:26 PM / IP Logged

I am trying to possibly upgrade the electrical system on my 2000 Formula Z 700. Basically in teh end I would like to add electric start (and then r/s just for ****s and giggles), but for now I mainly want to add a battery in order to ideally allow my headlights to stay bright instead of go bright and dim with the RPMs. I would like for the battery to charge itself if possible. I know that most sleds run on AC voltage, so I would need a rectifier I am assuming to change it to DC. Is there any special rectifier I would require, and how does it get wired in? Also, is there anything easy (no welding a gear to my drive belt and running it to a custom mounted alternator.. lol) to keep the battery charged? I will probably use a small battery from a motorcycle or something.

Thanks

kenny

Edit: I will be rewiring my headlights to a switch as well so I can manually turn them on/off.

Kenny

Owner / Technician

KKD Garage LLC

Albany, NY 12205

offroadzj

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Joined: June 03, 2005

Location: New York, United States

Posted: January 29, 2008 at 8:14 PM / IP Logged

damn... 21 views and no posts... Well jsut a quick update. I utilized my helmet defroster hookup to tag 12v DC off of to run 2 LED's under the cowl (hood). Yes, they are done correctly, and when closed, no LED bulbs can be seen, but the light glows from all 8 engine vents... and all pretty evenly. I also wired a cheap toggle switch to my A/C headlights to manually be able to turn them on/off and it works quite well (even though it states for D/C use).

Kenny

Owner / Technician

KKD Garage LLC

Albany, NY 12205

tedmond

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Joined: January 06, 2007

Location: Ontario, Canada

Posted: January 30, 2008 at 6:57 AM / IP Logged

{TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" UNABLE="on"}{T}{TR height="100%" UNABLE="on" width="100%"}{TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNABLE="off"}hey kenny, why add the extra battery? its more weight to your snowmobile. is he electrical system 12v? if so use a small sized cap. that should fill in the electrical gap from the engine reving and reduce the dimmin on the headlights. {/TD}{/TR}{TR UNABLE="on" hb_tag="1"}{TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNABLE="on"}{DIV id=hotbar_promo}{/DIV}{/TD}{/TR}{/T}{/TABLE}

offroadzj

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Location: New York, United States

Posted: January 31, 2008 at 1:37 PM / IP Logged

unfortunately most of the sled is run on A/c voltage, so I need to find a way to convert it all to DC. So far I found out that I need a Stator, which is basically a small alternator, which will connect to the battery and give me my DC. If I rewire my headlights that are already in there to DC, will it burn them out since they currently run on a/c? will they even work? I am not really familiar with how a/c works vs. d/c.

Kenny

Owner / Technician

KKD Garage LLC

Albany, NY 12205

KPierson

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This member consistently provides reliable information

Joined: April 14, 2005

Location: Ohio, United States

Posted: January 31, 2008 at 4:03 PM / IP Logged

When it comes to light bulbs the bulb doesn't care if you apply AC or DC to it, as long as the voltage is the same (12vac or 12vdc).

Where is the A/C voltage being generated from? I'm guessing there is a small alternator already present. Car alternators make A/C voltage and rectify it to DC, and then use the large car battery to help smooth the voltage out. You may be able to rectify the A/C coming from the snowmobile now with 4 diodes (full bridge rectifier) and run a small motorcycle battery that way. You may not get optimal voltage, but it should be close enough to 12vdc to make you happy.

How does the thing start now? Does it have electric start or pull start? I'm guessing it is pull start as it doesn't sound like you have any power storage on board.

Kevin Pierson

offroadzj

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Joined: June 03, 2005

Location: New York, United States

Posted: January 31, 2008 at 5:56 PM / IP Logged

correct, there is no power storage on board right now. It is a simple pull start. I honestly dont know how the sled works as far as getting its voltage. I had looked into a rectifier at radioshack, but wasnt sure which amperage I needed. Also, i dont really know what it would pull to keep the battery charged, so I wasnt sure where I would have to tap the rectifier into the AC. I am looking at getting an entire electrical system out of a similar sled that already has electric start, but it wont be cheap... so if I can do this easier, it would be much nicer. Even if it was enough to run the headlights, and some LED's for now, I would be happy.

Kenny

Owner / Technician

KKD Garage LLC

Albany, NY 12205

KPierson

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Joined: April 14, 2005

Location: Ohio, United States

Posted: January 31, 2008 at 6:49 PM / IP Logged

Well, you can figure out your current requirements based off of the size of the headlights. If you can find out what wattage they are. If you can't find that information meter them with an ohm meter. If you know the resistance of each bulb you can figure out how much power it will take to run them.

As long as you can feed the battery with more current then the system is using you should be set. I'm not sure how important it would be to have a 'stop charging' circuit (or regulator) in place since you will be dealing with such a small amount of power. Just keep in mind that if you overcharge the battery you could have major safety issues.

I would guess that the rectifiers at Radioshack won't be enough. I would shoot for at least a 10A rectifier.

Kevin Pierson

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rewiring snowmobile

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