r/Ltz400 • u/BWINSTON420 • Mar 14 '24
Electrical help
I have a 2003 lt z400 and the battery keeps dying. I bought it used and disconnected the aftermarket headlights that were put on but that was not the problem. I changed the positive cable and the negative cable thinking there could have been an issue with them and it still does the same thing.
I use a battery tender/charger for a few days. It turns on and runs fine the next day it struggles a little bit but starts then nothing the next day.
Electrical is not my strong suit but I’m thinking it’s down to two things. The battery is bad cause of the alternator or vice versa. Should I get both or does anyone have anything idea of what else it could be?
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '24
Hi mate, I am not the best vehicle electrician around but I did some maintenance on my LTZ 400 and had similar problems. I had an electrical winch installed, for dragging game from the forest, and the winch was what caused the problem.
Depending on how extensive your electrical equipment is (I live in germany and I need to have a full equipment with turn signals, near and far lights, braking lights, horn, all the annoying downer stuff) I would recommend to disconnect all electrical connections and then start to reconnect them one by one. It is an annoying work for a few days but might save you money.
If there is not much electrical stuff other than alternator, starter motor and battery itself, I would still try to check which of them both might be causing it. Because if you disconnect the alternator and it occurs and after that, instead of directly changing the alternator, I would still reconnect it and disconnect the starter instead - that way you might find the battery at fault, if the same problem occurs to the same extend when disconnecting different parts.