Many models of Ski-Doo snowmobiles are equipped with electric hand warmers embedded inside the handlebar grips. The hand warmers are metal plates with coils attached to wires that supply electrical current. The wires that supply current from the snowmobiles engine can short out, causing the hand warmers to stop functioning. Replacing Ski-Doo hand warmer wires requires removing the hand grips from the handlebars and disconnecting the wires from the heating coils.
Items you will need
New hand warmer wire set
Set of box-end wrenches
Flathead and Phillips screwdrivers
Needle nose pliers
String
Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery with a wrench.
Remove the accelerator cable from the right handlebar grip with a wrench. Remove the attachment screws on the handlebar grip with a screwdriver and gently rotate the grip back and forth while pulling towards the end of the handlebar. When the grip is free from the handlebar reach inside the grip with the needle nose pliers and pull out the metal hand warmer plate attached to the hand warmer wires.
Open the engine compartment and locate the hand warmer wires running up to the handlebars from the wiring harness. If in doubt gently pull on any wires that look as if they could lead to the handle bar grips while watching for the ends of the wire at the handlebars to move. When you are certain you have the correct wires trace them to the wiring harness connection point in the engine compartment and pull to unplug them from the wire harness.
Plug the new wire into the harness. Tie the free end of the new wire - the end with the metal terminals that attach to the hand warmer plate - flat against the plug end of the old wire with a piece of string.
Pull on the end of the old wire at the end of the handlebar until the new wire comes through the end of the handlebar. Disconnect the old wires from the metal hand warmer plate with a screwdriver and attach the terminals of the new wires to the heating plate. Work with one terminal at a time to avoid any confusion.
Insert the heating plate back into the hand grip. Push the hand grip back onto the handlebar and secure in place with the screws. Reattach the throttle cable with the wrench. Repeat the procedure for the left hand warmer wires; there will not be a throttle cable on the left handlebar grip.
Tips
- On some hand grips the plates and wires are integrated to the grip and cannot be removed. You will have to replace the hand grip with the wires.
References
- "Snowmobile Handbook"; Nichols Chilton Editors; 1999
Tips
- On some hand grips the plates and wires are integrated to the grip and cannot be removed. You will have to replace the hand grip with the wires.
