Electrical Problem, won't start!

[NacsMXer]

Today I went to start my quad. I had it in neutral and the green neutral light was on. The second I hit the starter button I heard a pop and the light went out.

Now I get nothing when I hit the starter button and no neutral light. No clicking from the solenoid, just nothing. Battery tested at 12.4 volts so it's good. Good ground to the battery. Checked all the electrical connectors and grounds to see if anything was loose or improperly connected.

I immediately checked the two 15A fuses by the battery and they weren't blown.

I haven't checked the neutral bulb itself yet. If the bulb simply burned out, would that break the circuit and cause it not to start?

Also what about the diode near the battery? I've heard that it can blow out and cause the symptoms I am having?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[rocky_mtn_honda]

mine did this same thing once, and i assume it was because i let my battery get too low...anyhow all i did to fix it was disconnect the battery for 25-30 seconds, then reconnected it, then jumped it with cables. rode it for 30 minutes or so, then hooked it up to the battery tender and i havent had a problem since. hope this helps.

[marineco]

The diode can be tested with a multimeter. Set it to test resistance. you should get very little resistance one way, then switch the leads and should get high or infinite resistance the other way.

[NacsMXer]

Thanks for the replies :)

What about the audible "pop" I heard though. Neutral light was on, I pushed the starter button and heard the pop, and then the light went out. If the bulb burned out, would it break the circuit?

[rocky_mtn_honda]

mine popped as well, and thats why i had to disconnect everything to get it to "reset". also if it didnt start when i hooked it up to the cables and it just popped like you say, then i had to disconnect the jumper cables momentarily, then reconnect them and my neutral light came back on.

[CJM]

Test the fuses with a light, they may look ok but not be.

[NacsMXer]

Originally posted by rocky_mtn_honda
mine popped as well, and thats why i had to disconnect everything to get it to "reset". also if it didnt start when i hooked it up to the cables and it just popped like you say, then i had to disconnect the jumper cables momentarily, then reconnect them and my neutral light came back on.

Did yours make a single "pop" or multiple ones like if the starter solenoid was just clicking from low battery voltage? My starter solenoid wasn't even trying, no clicks or anything. I just heard a single "pop" the second I touched the starter button and now I get nothing. Didn't even attempt to crank over. Like I said I tested the battery and it's definitely not low, I get well over 12 volts so i'm not sure on that one.

[NacsMXer]

Originally posted by CJM
Test the fuses with a light, they may look ok but not be.

Yep, that was another suspicion of mine so I replaced the fuse with a brand new one, but no difference :(

Tomorrow i'm going to check out the diode.

Another thing I just thought of is the two tabs on the frame that the coil mounts to. I recently had the frame powdercoated and I didn't grind off any of the pc on the coil mount tabs before I mounted the coil. I thought maybe the coil would get it's ground through the coil bolts, but maybe it's getting a weak ground if some powdercoat found its way into the threads? Sound like a viable option?

Here's a pic showing the coil mounts. The red arrows point to the two metal "blocks" on the coil where it mounts to the frame tabs. Think it's worth it to grind the pc down to bare metal behind those blocks to ensure i'm getting a good metal to metal ground?
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7564/coil.jpg (http://img502.imageshack.us/i/coil.jpg/) http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/coil.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img502/coil.jpg/1/)

[rocky_mtn_honda]

Originally posted by NacsMXer
Did yours make a single "pop" or multiple ones like if the starter solenoid was just clicking from low battery voltage? My starter solenoid wasn't even trying, no clicks or anything. I just heard a single "pop" the second I touched the starter button and now I get nothing. Didn't even attempt to crank over. Like I said I tested the battery and it's definitely not low, I get well over 12 volts so i'm not sure on that one.

yep...single pop, and seriously disconnect everything and then reconnect and connect to jumper cables. give it a few seconds to charge up and hit the starter button, if it starts then ride it around for a while and get it on the charger. if it pops again disconnect from jumper cables and wait a few then reconnect...your neutral light will reappear, then give it a couple minutes to charge up and try again...so on and so forth
and yeah...clean up and sand down your grounds.

[NacsMXer]

Originally posted by marineco
The diode can be tested with a multimeter. Set it to test resistance. you should get very little resistance one way, then switch the leads and should get high or infinite resistance the other way.

I checked the resistance between the light green neutral wire and the yellow/green stripe wire as indicated in the service manual today.

Infinite is indicated by a "1" on the multimeter correct? That's what the meter starts out as before I touch anything.

When I touched the leads to the connectors one way, I get a reading of 032. When I reversed the multimeter leads on the connectors to test the other way I get 032 again.

So does that mean the clutch diode is shot if it tests the same resistance both ways?

Thanks!

[NacsMXer]

Originally posted by rocky_mtn_honda
yep...single pop, and seriously disconnect everything and then reconnect and connect to jumper cables. give it a few seconds to charge up and hit the starter button, if it starts then ride it around for a while and get it on the charger. if it pops again disconnect from jumper cables and wait a few then reconnect...your neutral light will reappear, then give it a couple minutes to charge up and try again...so on and so forth
and yeah...clean up and sand down your grounds.

I sanded the coil mounts down to bare metal and it didn't make a difference. I also have accessory wires grounding to the coil bolts like my kill switch and spal fan.

Here's the strange thing. If I test the positive at the battery terminal to a ground on the subframe, I get a good 12.5 volts. I have one power wire straight off the positive on the battery running to the front of the quad for my fan. The fan grounds at the coil mount (which is now a definite good ground). When I touch the positive of my multimeter to the power wire off the battery, and neg to the ground at the coil, I only get like 5-6 volts. Again, I check back to the battery and it's 12.5 volts.

So I took off all the battery cables and cleaned them down to fresh metal with emory cloth (I did the same for the battery terminals). I hook it all back up and check my fan power wire at the front of the quad again. Now I get over 11 volts!

Then I figured I would put the batt on the charger real quick to make sure it's fully juiced. It charges for a couple minutes and then it's done. I recheck the batt voltage and its 12.6v. I go to check the fan power wire (touching nothing else mind you) and now it's at only 8 volts!

I checked all my battery cables, wiggled wires etc. and no change. Then I started wiggling the fuse in the holder (it's fully seated and I cleaned the holder interior) and my voltage goes down to 1.5 volts :mad: WTF!!

Like I said the diode ohm'd both ways so I will replace it with another one. I hope it's the bad diode that is giving me all these crazy voltages.

[NacsMXer]

Could use some help please if anybody is good with electrical :)

[brewster426]

check the wire that runs from the battery to the solenoid..mine did the same thing. i think thats where it went. i know it came from the battery to a cyliner looking thing with a couple of wires on it. hope this helps

[NacsMXer]

Yep I checked all the connections at the solenoid and they're good.

I think I got it! I ran a cable from the negative on the battery to a good ground on the main frame and all my lights are back again.

I had the battery grounded to the subframe all this time. What happened was the frame and subframe weren't getting a good ground because of the powdercoat.

Rather than take everything apart all over again and grind the powder (i'm getting really tired of doing this) i'm just going to run a new ground cable off the battery to the main frame.

Anybody know how thick the ground cable needs to be? Will 10 gauge cable be ok or should I go bigger?

Thanks!

[CJM]

I would do 8 gauge just to be sure, I always use 1 or 2 sizes bigger than stock just incase.

[NacsMXer]

Thanks CJM. What is stock size btw, 10 gauge?

And can you clarify if I am testing the diode correctly?

As per the service manual, I disconnect the light green and yellow/green stripe connectors back by the battery. I then set my multimeter to Ohms (reads "1" before I touch anything).

I then touch the leads of the multimeter to the 2 connectors on the harness side. I come up with a reading of "032" on the meter.

I then reverse the multimeter leads on the 2 connectors and I come up with a reading of "032" again.

Is the diode bad if I get these readings? Thanks again.

[Rscarpantonio]

youve helped me solve my problem also lol thanks everyone

[NacsMXer]

Well I got power to the front of the quad now. Good 12+ volts to everything. Neutral light, headlights, etc now work that I have a good ground off the battery.

But now when I hit the starter button I get a single click out of the starter relay and that's it. Doesn't attempt to turn over or anything.

I'm waiting on a new clutch diode to arrive, I hope I toasted it when I tried to start it with a bad ground. I really hope the new diode lets this thing finally fire.

Anybody have input on the diode? Am I testing it right as I described above?