Rhino cutting off at 32-34 mph.

My Rhino is hitting the rev-limiter right at 32-34 mph. New iridium NGK plug, dynatek cdi and coil, fresh engine rebuild less than 2 months old. Clean and properly lubed K&N air filter with wrap. I checked for vacuum leaks, but didn't find any. I also grounded the green wire w/ white tracer that ran to the reverse sensor. I grounded the side that went back into the harness, not the switch side. Checked every connection in the engine compartment.
My reverse indicator light stays on, no matter what gear I am in, even after grounding the wire.
Sorry for the long post, just trying to be as thorough with the description a possible. I tried the search but most of the problems stem from the reverse sensor, and I've already bypassed with that no change.
Also, my speedometer on the dash doesn't work. I verified mph's using a GPS unit that I know is accurate.
Thanks in advance

Did you check the clutch and belt??? Wet clutch new as well?

Its got to be the reverse light somehow still trying to protect the motor. Mine did in the snow when I locked everything up and took off up a steep hill before it was fully locked up.

Your rev indicator light should b off if you've grounded the wire!
That's the prob, rev limiter is on!

banchee, i did check the clutch and belt. everything looks good. i cleanrd it all out and regreased everything. the rhino takes off great, very little stalling to engage. customized and honda, thats what i was thinking. i grounded the wire last night but the rev indicator light is still on. i will check my connection today. the motors well built with a cam swap also, so it pulls super hard than just hits the rev limiter. thanks for the replies yall. ill report back this afternoon with my findings.

rev light has to be off

is the only thing that triggers the rev light the sensor mounted on the trans. under the air intake box? just making sure that i grounded the correct wire. thanks for the replies fellas

Chief1979 wrote:

is the only thing that triggers the rev light the sensor mounted on the trans. under the air intake box? just making sure that i grounded the correct wire. thanks for the replies fellas

Yes, The green with white stripe wire only goes between the reverse sense switch and the CDI. It seems that you might have a break in the green/white wire somewhere? There is a quick connect bullet terminal splice in the wire part way up the harness bundle coming up from the belly pan on the passenger's side of the engine. This disconnect sometimes has a flakey connection or may even be undone. If you did your grounding at the far end of the wire, this may explain the original root cause of the failure of the switch itself to register with the CDI. It is uncommon, but still possible, that there is corrosion in the connector that plugs onto the CDI. With the power off, disconnect and reconnect the connectors on the CDI. This can help to scrape any corrosion off of the internal contacts of the connector. Another thing to check is the quality of the connection that you made to ground. Paint, corrosion and hooking up to an electrically isolated part of the frame are the bugaboos to avoid here.

Here is a picture that I made for another purpose, but shows the green/white wire's midstream disconnect. You can see a Green/yellow stripe wire that I anchored to the engine case battery grounding point. At the other end of that wire you can see a bullet terminal which is lying right alongside of that midstream disconnect. I have that wire lying like that permanently in the machine, just in case I have trouble with the reverse switch. I can just break the factory disconnect and connect in that wire instead, to get me home. For the purposes of this discussion, you can ignore the white wire and notations regarding it. These refer to an improved battery grounding scheme that you can find referred to in another thread on this forum.

So when I am out in the woods and my reverse light starts flashing because I screwed up I can just ground that wire to the frame and it will go away?

CustomizedRhino13 wrote:

So when I am out in the woods and my reverse light starts flashing because I screwed up I can just ground that wire to the frame and it will go away?

Yes, that will make the issue go away. Unless, of course, you find some other new way to screw up. JK

:lol!:Thanks!

steves, thanks buddy. i grounded the correct wire, but i dont believe its got a good ground. im going to ground it on the engine were there are some other grounds. i will also check the connections at the cdi, clean them out n put some dielectric grease in the connectors. i disconnected the bullet terminal, cut the terminal off, and added a ring terminal.

Alright. Keep us posted as to the results.

The problem was in the connection at the cdi. It wasn't fully seated, giving a false signal. I did clean out all the connectors and put dielectric grease on them. I also re-grounded the rev. sensor wire to the spot on the engine that has the thick ground wire on it. The light is now off. I couldn't get a good signal on my gps, but it definitely is running faster than before. My speedometer doesn't work on the rhino, so I have no other way to know my speed.
What should the top speed be on my rhino? Its got a fresh rebuild with a slightly bigger cam, K&N filter in an aluminum intake box, dynatek CDI and coil, stock exhaust, stock clutch and trans. components, and 25" dirt tamers. It does have a full windshield and a plastic roof if that matters.
Thanks for all the advice y'all.

Sounds good! I'm glad that it turned out to be something relatively simple. I'm afraid that I cannot really give you a speed number, as where I ride I do not have straight stretches more than a couple of hundred feet at a time. On top of that, I've never had a speedometer and I don't much care anyway. At any rate, the windshield will definitely be slowing you down a bit. Perhaps some of the speed experts will chime in on this.

Thanks for all the advice steve. I'm plenty happy with the speed of the rhino now, just making sure I'm getting all it has. LOL Most of the trails we run are tight and twisty, and we barely ever see anything about 15-20 mph.

Now I just need to figure out why my speedo is not reading.

Glad it worked out for ya!
Your speed should definitely be in the 40+mph .

Yeah, its definitely nice to have the speed available if I need it. I'm going to work on getting the speedometer working, and hopefully in the next couple months I'll be swapping in the sheave with springs and a new belt. It still has the o.e. belt and its got 267 hrs.