electrical issue need help!

[bthompson]

I've already searched this issue and i haven't found an answer that has helped me so i just got a motor and put it in and i got it to turn over and run for a little bit then it died so i hit the start button again and it made a dead battery click and my neutral light went off. So i checked my fuse and wire on the left side of the case both of which seem to be good. Now i hooked up my headlights and they won't come on either. The only thing ive been able to do is hook the battery charger up to my ground on the battery and on the positive cable i can hook it to the battery side of my "switch assembly" and my neutral light will come on and the headlight will come on. Not sure if that's useful info or not but any information on where i need to start or if i just need to keep messing with connections to fix it?

[CJM]

First make sure your neutral wire is connected at the case, always a good starting point.

Then verify all the connections on the harness to rule that out.

Does the solenoid by the battery click?

Is the starter working or is it doing nada? Click, no click?

Before you do much else check the battery, does it have 12 volts-if not charge the battery up and see if it starts. No luck, try bump starting.

[bthompson]

neutral wire is connected good at the case

i cant get the solenoid to do anything unless i hook the positive wire of the battery charger up to the side that has the power wire coming from the battery and then i only get one click but the neutral light stays on

i can get the starter to turn enough to know its working

im going to check the battery now, but when ive been doing all of this ive had the battery charger hooked up to it. When i have it chargering i leave it on 12v 10amp and when i try to start it i turn it to 12v 30amp but the gauge on my charger doesn't seem to move even after charging for a little bit.

[CJM]

Probably a bad solenoid. But your lights not working points also to that fuse possibly being blown and or a bad battery b/c the lights should work regardless if the batterys good.

Most common electrical reason one of these things doesnt start is the solenoids bad. If your daring you could try jump the contacts on the solenoid and see if it turns over.

[bthompson]

battery is at 12v and i checked the fuse again and its still good

i have jumped across that solenoid with the battery charger on accident and it tried to turn over but i pulled it off quick cause i wasn't tryin to put it on that post

[CJM]

If it turned over if you jumped them then the solenoids bad. Leave it on there with the key on and in neutral and see if it fires up.

[bthompson]

it didn't fire it just made the click noise that i could feel in the solenoid and then a whining noise like it didn't have enough juice to turn over

[bthompson]

i tried it a couple of times to see if it would do anything different and it never did. i must have heard it wrong the first time it happened.

i checked power and with the key on i get 12v at the battery fine and both posts on the solenoid, then with the key off i just get it at the starter side of the solenoid

[bthompson]

what confuses me the most is when i turn my key on i don't have any lights but the battery has 12v, then i can hook the battery charger up to the battery and it jumps up to 17v or something and i still have no lights, but when i hook my positive cable up to the battery side of the solenoid i get all my lights and i can hit the start button but it just acts like its got a dead battery

[DnB_racing]

Originally posted by bthompson
i tried it a couple of times to see if it would do anything different and it never did. i must have heard it wrong the first time it happened.

i checked power and with the key on i get 12v at the battery fine and both posts on the solenoid, then with the key off i just get it at the starter side of the solenoid im not sure what your using for a tester, but 12 volts is very weak for a battery, it should have 13 to 13.8 for a charged battery

but are you saying that with no charger hooked up, with the key off, you dont have 12 volts on the battery side of the solenoid? but you do have 12 volts on the starter side of the solenoid?


are you sure you dont have something wired wrong,it sounds like you have your battery leads reversed

make sure your ground is good and the positive isn't going to ground,

you shouldn't have power to the starter side of the solenoid without the key on and solenoid closed

[bthompson]

sorry i just checked it again

With no battery charger and key off i have 12v on the battery side of the solenoid and nothing on the starter side

With no battery charger and key on i still have the 12v on the battery side and nothing on the starter side

power and ground wires are run correctly and i have a good connection on my ground

[DnB_racing]

Originally posted by bthompson
sorry i just checked it again

With no battery charger and key off i have 12v on the battery side of the solenoid and nothing on the starter side

With no battery charger and key on i still have the 12v on the battery side and nothing on the starter side

power and ground wires are run correctly and i have a good connection on my ground that makes more sense,

now put your meter on the starter side, and push your starter button you now should have the voltage across the solenoid

[bthompson]

I still don't have any volts when doing that, but is the solenoid making it to were i don't even have a neutral light or any lights for that matter? Now i am only getting 10 volts to the battery side of the solenoid but then when i hook my battery charger up to that post i get all my lights and i can hit the start button but it still won't turn over enough to fire. Do you want me to check it like that and see what volts im getting on the starter side?

[DnB_racing]

you have a bad battery, and possibly a bad solenoid, but I would get a good battery first and then check the solenoid with a fully charged battery, the battery might just not have enough power to close the solinoid...

[bthompson]

wouldn't having the charger on it rule out the bad battery?

[bthompson]

and i still don't understand how i don't have any lights wouldn't they be atleast a little dim if the battery had 12v instead of not having anything?

[DnB_racing]

Originally posted by bthompson
wouldn't having the charger on it rule out the bad battery? no
but if you think its still good try diconnecting the battery and charging overnight, a nights charge should give you a full charged battery with over 13 volts, if any less then 13 its definitky junk

[bthompson]

alright thanks

[DnB_racing]

you can hook up a car battery with a set of jumpers without any problems, and try starting, that will answer your question sooner

[bthompson]

i hooked the jumper cables up to the battery and i still have no neutral light and it won't even try to start, then i hooked the positive jumper cable up to the battery side of the solenoid and i got all my lights like usual and it still did the same single click and thats it

[DnB_racing]

Originally posted by bthompson
i hooked the jumper cables up to the battery and i still have no neutral light and it won't even try to start, then i hooked the positive jumper cable up to the battery side of the solenoid and i got all my lights like usual and it still did the same single click and thats it if you clamped the positive jumper on your battery and had no lights .then moved that clamp to the battery side of the solenoid and got lights, then you have a bad connection someplace either your battery or the solenoid,,,

think about it ... its the same wire just a different location

[bthompson]

I know and i've checked all my connections which i will be doing again but how do i have 12v at the battery and 12v at the battery side solenoid but it does things different with the charger hooked up?

I have already re-done my wire going from the battery to the solenoid and that didn't make any difference

[DnB_racing]

Originally posted by bthompson
I know and i've checked all my connections which i will be doing again but how do i have 12v at the battery and 12v at the battery side solenoid but it does things different with the charger hooked up?

I have already re-done my wire going from the battery to the solenoid and that didn't make any difference maybe a bad ground, and when you have the charger hooked up it completes the curcuit,

or a bad cell in the battery not allowing a complete path for the curcuit

[bthompson]

alright i'll check everything thanks for the help

[quad2xtreme]

sounds crazy but pull the key switch wires where they connect at the front of the frame. Make sure all the pins are in the male end of the plug. Sometimes the largest lead wire breaks off and you get the exact symptoms you are talking about. I just went through this myself a month ago.

[quad2xtreme]

If I turned my key on, I could coast start it. Neutral light, headlights, and starter would not work just as you describe. It was the power feed from the keyswitch not making a full circuit.

[BlasterEaten250]

I'd have to guess it's most likely the relay (solenoid).

[caseywoods5]

you said you had the engine off? did you paint your frame? if so, did you get the paint off around where your grounds go?

[camaromitch]

We checked that last night and he is getting 12v between another spot on the frame without paint and the positive side of the battery.

[quad2xtreme]

can you coast start it?

[bthompson]

haven't tried to coast start it yet but tomorrow

i checked some more stuff after work today and found out im getting 12v to the battery side of the solenoid when the small wire with the fuse coming out of that is disconnected but when i connect it i drop down to almost nothing

not sure if that helps any but its just another thing ive figured out, and right now i have all my wires exposed all the way to the front and there isn't any worn down spots that it could ground out on and ive messed with every connection a couple times

[bthompson]

i'll try to coast start it tomorrow

[quad2xtreme]

cool. wish your quad was here. this is the type of thing I like to track down.

[ride red 14]

i had similar problem a few years ago when i did a complete 400 rebuild. powdercoated frame and subframe and put it all back together and it ran good for a month or so. then one day got nothing. ended up grinding the powder off the subframe to frame mounts. solved the issue. your battery grounds to your subframe, this ground is carried to your frame when you bolt the 2 of them together. if your frame is not grounded you will not get any power to anything. hope this helps.

[bthompson]

Originally posted by quad2xtreme
cool. wish your quad was here. this is the type of thing I like to track down.

same here man, right now i've stripped all the tape off my wiring and just going through everything right now

i've put a lot of time and VERY little money into this build since ive done most the work myself, so im real happy with it and i'll have a build thread as soon as i get it finished

[bthompson]

not tryin to get off topic or anything but i can't add pictures to this thread from photobucket

i've done this before and all i had to do was copy the img code and paste it in the message box, any ideas why this isn't working?

[CJM]

Not sure. Id just post the links.

[bthompson]

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the help but i just found out i didn't have a good connection where the wire goes into the connector at the battery

so next time i'll make sure i check all the simple stuff a lot closer next time instead of stripping all the tape off my harness to find the problem at the battery lol

thanks again for all the information

[CJM]

Aw that truly sucks, all of that work and its a stupid connection..man you deserve an award for trying so damn hard to find the issue elsewhere (Im being serious) cause it sounds like you about pulled out your hair in the process.

Very happy you figured it out!

[bthompson]

well i came pretty close lol but the good thing about this is i know a little more about my quad now that ive torn pretty much everything off it

and thanks again to everyone trying to help, this forum is a great thing and its just nice to have people on here that know so much about all these atvs