Hope one of you experts can shed some light. I have a taotao or similar (I'm away from home, can check later). When I short the solenoid I get fire, but the start button does nothing. I disconnected the wire on the cdi to bypass the safety switches, but still nothing. I opened the start switch, and shorted it, and still nothing. The kill switch is working, it will disabled spark in the off position.

Hope you can help.

 

Turn on the ignition and apply the brakes. Look at your brake light. Is it on? If not your quad wont allow the starter to turn. This is safety interlock that keep you from starting up in gear and having the quad crash into something,

Look at the brake switches and see if they are adjustable.

It can also be other things, but the brake switch is the most likely. If you need to delve deeper then get a meter and we can go deeper.

 

My situation is a little different, but kind of the same. I have a 110cc Giovanni Mini Hummer.

My brake lights, key switch, tether kill switch all work as intended. I press the thumb starter switch and no start. When I momentarily jumper the terminals on the solenoid, it fires right up and runs as if I had used the thumb starter switch. I tried to short the thumb starter switch, and it doesn't start via that method.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

beastmachine

 

On mine I just ran a new starter button instead of the handel bar switch, I worked on ours for days and no luck, so I just bypassed it, Starter button only 10 buck from any auto parts store, Hope that helps

 

When you short the solenoid "momentarily" I assume you are using a screwdriver (or whatever) to connect the two big screwposts on the starter solenoid together. If so, what you are doing is directly connecting the battery across the starter motor and causing it to turn. If your ignition switch is on and the kill switches are in the run condition the quad will start up.

If you apply 12 volts across the two small wires going into the solenoid it will feed current into a coil of wire, which generates a magnetic field, which sucks down a steel plate, which shorts those two screw terminals together just like you did with your screwdriver.

Do you have 12 volts across the two small wires feeding the starter solenoid? Do you hear a "click" when you push the starter button with the ignition on?

 

No click when I press the starter and 0V across the two smaller wires going into the solenoid. (it used to click before this all started though)

 

According to a 110cc giovanni wiring diagram, one side of the solenoid actuating coil (small wires) is hooked to 12 volts when the ignition switch is on and the brake light is lit up (via the brake switch). You can verify this by measuring the small wires voltage with a meter to ground. Both sides should read 12 volts as long as the starter button is not pushed.

Then when you push the starter button the voltage on one side (and only one side) of the solenoid small wires should go to ground. This can be verified with a meter also.

If you do not get 12 volts to the solenoid actuating coil then you have a wiring problem between the output side of the brake switch to one side of the coil.

If you have 12 volts at the solenoid small wires but do not have one side grounded when you push the start button then the starter button switch is bad, or the wire to ground from the switch is open, or the wire from the switch to the solenoid is open. All these can be traces with a meter.

Here is the wiring diagram I have for a 110cc giovanni. Note that the starter button is incorrectly labled "ignition switch", and the ignition switch is labled just "switch":

 

Hi did u guys get your starting button to work I have the same trouble

 

So seems like I have the same issue happening. I have a 2011 Gio mini hummer, it won't start when I turn the key and hit the starter switch. But when I cross jump it with booster cables to the solenoid it starts. Also none of the lights are working headlight or rear lights. Any help will be great.

 

Most likely the main fuse gone but any of the main ignition wires from battery to fuse, to ignition switch, could be at fault.