Motorcycle Repair: 1999 Yamaha Wolverine, jumper wire, emergency brake

Question
Hello Mark, hopefully you can help me. I have a 99' Wolverine, and the last time I went riding after warming up the quad I rode about 100 yards from my truck when it lost power. It acts like the emergency brake is on. It starts fine, but when you give it some gas, the motor sounds like it has a rev limiter that will not let the engine rev up just like when you have the emergency brake is on. I checked to make sure the emergency brake was off, and it is. So I found the electrical plug that goes to the emergency brake switch on the handle bar, and unplugged it. It still does the some thing. Any ideas?
Harry

Answer
Hi Harry,

Here are a couple of common fixes for that complaint:

Ground out the Reverse Switch. Run a jumper wire from the wire that comes out the back side of the switch to the Negative terminal. The reverse switch corrodes inside and sometimes can activate the reverse rev limiter while you are riding which could also produce this same condition.



When the emergency brake is pulled in, the electrical wire coming from the brake handle engages the rev limiter so the bike won't run while the with the emergency brake is on.  

When the emergency brake is disengaged sometimes the rev limiter is still on because of a short in the wire at the brake handle. Start the bike and wiggle the wire coming out of the brake handle (clutch) and see if the motor clears up.

Respectfully,
Mark Shively