So up here in Minnesota it gets real cold. The other day it was almost 30 below! I went to go ride my arctic cat 4x4 500 quad in the snow and it ran fine the whole day. When I brought it home and drove it in the shed (not heated) I left the ignition switch open which kept the neutral light on. A few days later in below freezing conditions, I went to ride my quad. The battery was frozen solid when I checked it and I tried to pull start the quad but it would only start for half of a second and then shut off. I put the battery charger on my battery terminals and put it to the start position. What i didn't know was that your not supposed to chatge a dead frozen battery! My headlights blew out immidiatly. I bought a new battery for 70 dollars and installed it in my quad the next day. It would start fine but backfire at half throttle. It used to do this when the headlights were off but I got around that problem by turning on my high beams during the whole ride and it would run just fine after that. I did not purchase new headlights yet but what do you guys think the problem is? Also when its in neutral it only goes half throttle till backfiring unless i hold the start button, ingaging the starter. That causes the quad to run just fine again. Please answer, I need this thing fixed by wednesday for ice fishing. Thanks!

 

engaging the start button overrides the revlimiter. those quads with reverse and the rev limiter are not very well made. the rev limiter is for reverse and your quad must think it is in reverse in neutral.

 

I mentioned that it does not backfire when high beams are on. When it backfires, it pops like a gun shot. I feel like the battery is outputting too much power. Maybe thats why when the starter is engaged, its drawing amperage from the battery, same as the lights drawing high amperage from battery. What im trying to figure out is whats causing the over-voltage. I dont think its the voltage regulator because it worked fine when the headlights were at max output.

 

The rev limiter works in revers as well as neutral thats the way they are designed. Not sure if teh switch over rides the neutral part of the rev limiter never tried.
I would almost say your voltage regulator is fryed. With the headlights on it was probably burning off the extra voltage or it would make the voltage regulator send the proper amount of voltage to the system henc the backfiring with the lights off.
also if it was working it should have never blew out the headlights with the charger on. The voltage regulator and related fuses are their to protect against that

 

I bought new headlights and the problem is gone. Also my high beam headlights fuse was blown. Replaced that too.