ECM relay

[Hacksaw830]

What does the ecm relay do? I have a quad that will run without it, whats up with that?

[jinx44]

QUOTE (Hacksaw830 @ Nov 4 2008, 06:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What does the ecm relay do? I have a quad that will run without it, whats up with that?

You mean the relay that sits just behind the ECM, centered in the air box tray? I pulled my plastic last weekend and found my relay laying in the airbox as well. It had came out somehow, and yet the bike still ran fine.

[thedeatons]

2 minute delay upon shutdown. Basically it keeps the ECU and fan on for 2 minutes after shutting the quad down.

Boomer told me before that the original factory testers used this 2 minutes to connect their IPaqs and download the map from the ECU after the testers had trimmed it (leaning and richening on the track). This is how some of the original maps were written.

Cold weather has shown those relays stop working correctly and causing the quad to stutter, and just run badly. I remove my relay in the snow. They run fine in the cold that way.

Scooter at Optimum told us not to run without the relay in warm weather. The reason is because the electrical system's power is diverted through the keyswitch, and the keyswitch is not rated for that high of a current load. In the extreme winter you can get away with it though.

The stutter and poor running I mentioned is because the relay loses connection and power is then diverted through the keyswitch (the alternate path). Everytime this happens the quad hiccups. We actually sat in the snow with the quad barely idling, pulled the relay, and the idle would smooth to normal. Reinstall the relay and the idle was terrible again. Multiple quads in below freezing weather.

[cannondale27]

Even the relay itself is prone to failure. I posted a few pics of the corrosion that goes on in some. Probably ones where solder wasnt cleaned well(acid?). Have also had the socket it fits into fail from wires corroding or breaking off. Ideally a sealed socket and a solid state relay would be used. Sealed sockets are available. Solid state relay will kill the battery since it never allows the ECU to go into hibernate mode because they leak a bit of voltage. I wonder how many are running without the thing? Seems to be alot of folks.

[wayneschofield]

I'm (slowly) replacing all our relays with solid state ones.

Here's a link to the company I get them from. It's actually the PDF of products and the one to look at is the next to last one.

Much better connectors the our 'lucar' type and unaffected by vibration.....

http://www.mmcompsys.com/download_zone/9_w...ing%20parts.pdf

[cannondale27]

Here is what I tried
[attachment=7441:Relay1.jpg]
[attachment=7442:relay2.jpg]
[attachment=7443:relay_003.jpg]
[attachment=7444:relay_5.jpg]

[wayneschofield]

On our Jake's Speed the terminals have worn thin due to the vibrations and started to give trouble.

With the solid state type there's no feeble windings in there to fail.

The windings are very thin copper wire and copper age hardens and work hardens. It's a wonder they last at all.

[cannondale27]

You may have missed it but I tried solid state and it didn't work because they leak enough voltage to prevent the ECU from going into hibernation mode.This means your battery will drain unless a switch is installed inline.

[xtremesj]

This is what is happening to my Blaze but it does not do it at idle. It will start and idle fine, I just can't give it throttle or it spits, sputters, backfires and pops. I orgionaly thought it was the electrical connections getting wet so I pulled and cleaned all connections and added dielectric grease. Seemed to solve the problem but reading this thread I realize that as the temp dropped below freezing the worse it got.
Do these sympton sound like what is hapening to all of you?

Thanks

[thedeatons]

Yep, below freezing remove the relay.