Hi, i have an 87 YFM350ER that is getting intermittent spark...kinda. heres whats happening:
the quad hasnt had working electric start or a battery for probably 10 years at least. Its just an old farm chore 4 wheeler that was rode ridiculously hard by me throughout my childhood. the fact that it actually still runs and runs well is quite amazing. It has sat in the corner of the barn for about 3 years and not been started since we got a gator some time ago. a couple weeks ago i decided i would get it out and get it running again. I pulled the carb apart and the jets were all clogged and the float was stuck up. After cleaning it all out i put it back together, made sure it had oil, and gave the rope a pull. It fired right up. I changed the oil and filter, spark plug, bought a new air filter, replaced some broken brake cables and adjusted all the breaks. Its running and riding like a new 4wheeler (except for the no electric start, but thats no big deal). Today i went out to start it and it wouldnt start. I assumed the slow jet had got clogged (cause this happened to me about a week ago) so i pulled it out and I cleaned it, cleaned out the bowl, put it all back together and it still wouldnt start. I pulled the spark plug and it had no spark. I took the key switch out and played around with it...not really doing anything to it besides tugging on the wires, plugged it back in and i had spark. The thing fired right up. i turned it off. I tried to start it again and it did the same thing. I futzed with the switch again and got spark back. This time i vowed to not turn the key off (since i dont have to worry about the battery anyway) and just used the kill switch. Well stupid me, i turned it off again, and now i got no spark again. do the switches in these things go bad often? does it sould like it could be anything else, or is it definately just the switch going bad? Can i cut the wires from the back of the switch and hot wire it to see (since i will probably have to get a new switch anyway)?

please help, thanks

 

well i took the ignition back out and cleaned the connectors with some contact cleaner and tried spraying some down the key hole too. Put it back together and it had a very strong spark, so it seems to be working now. I havent turned the key back off yet though as i am not sure if i just got lucky that time, or if the contact cleaner did the trick. I guess i'll leave the key on until i forget and turn it off out of habit, then we will see if its fixed or not.