Ask The Editors: Quad Won’t Start But Why?
When you know it’s electrical, but don’t know what.
1. New battery
2. New solenoid
3. New starter
4. New stator
Any tips? Please, I know it’s old but I just love this quad. Help a lady out?
It sounds to us like you’re been trying to replace any of the major culprits for this type of situation but, considering it’s still happening, what you need to do is grab a digital multimeter and start performing some tests to figure out exactly where your quad’s electrical system is going awry.
Since all of the components we would recommend investigating are new, that leaves the voltage regulator/ rectifier your testing starting point. And how does one diagnose this? Process of elimination.
Jump the machine to get it running and locate the black and red wires coming from voltage regulator unit. Attach your leads and check your meter. You should be reading around 14 volts of output here while the machine is on. If your reading varies more than two volts, your voltage regulator is the culprit.
If you are getting 14 volts output, keep the machine running but get your leads up the battery terminals. If you’re not getting that same 14 volts at the battery, you have a broken wire or a bad connection between the regulator and the battery.
To diagnose this, flip your meter to resistance (Ohms) and begin following each wire run by putting your leads at opposite ends of the wire in question. You want to read a zero – if the number jumps, you’ve found your bad circuit.
If all of these things check out, you have no choice but to go back through with your meter to start testing the components you recently replaced. Logic would suggest they should be fine but do keep in mind components occasionally leave the production line faulty and incorrect installation is always a possibility. Further, a short or bad wire can exist anywhere within the entire electrical system at any time. Grab that meter and start to test.
